Man Cave or Manspace: a male retreat or sanctuary in a home, such as a specially equipped spare room, media room, den or basement. The term “man cave” is a metaphor describing a room inside the house where “guys can do as they please” like a caveman, without fear of upsetting any female sensibility about…
Author: Tony
Owner/Author of arcadeblogger.com
Classic Arcade Games: Sex Sells But Who’s Buying?
In the 70s and 80s, the notion of “sex sells” had a lot of traction from what I can remember. It seemed that the lowest common denominator of advertising was to stick a scantily clad young lady in front of a product, photograph it, and it would fly off the shelf. Jeans, aftershave, cars, you…
The Development of Pac-Man
Much has been written about Pac-Man. This was a huge game for Namco back in the early eighties that would grow into a true 20th century icon. Everybody has at least heard of the game, because it was one of the first to enter the realms of popular culture. Indeed, merchandise and endorsements earned Namco…
Sega Dinosaur King Conversion 2 FINAL
So having got the Sega Dino King stripped and cleaned out in part one, we had a PC installed happily running GroovyMAME. A stable picture was showing on the monitor, and it was time to take a look at how the controls might work on this tiny cab. There wasn’t a great deal I could…
Missile Command: talkin’ loud, sayin’ nothin’
I posted a couple of weeks back a talk I gave about the development and some background of the classic arcade game Missile Command. I thought I’d also share an old interview I gave to Manchester’s now defunct Channel M, back in 2008. Thankfully, some old wag uploaded much of their output for posterity to…
Sega Dinosaur King Conversion 1
Released in 2005, Sega’s Dinosaur King was an attempt to appeal to the kids market, and to cash in on the growing popularity of turn based card games like Pokemon. The release was designed as a card battle game where players face off against each other using bar-code cards purchased from, and dispensed by, the…
Arcade Auctions: expect the unexpected
Finding classic arcade machines is getting harder and harder here in the UK. More difficult still, is finding potential bargains. The hobby has gone nuts over the last few years, with many cabs now attracting four figure prices, as collectors hang on to their machines, and what’s left of the undiscovered, becomes discovered. It’s a…
Let’s talk about Missile Command
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’ve clearly run out of things to say about other arcade games, so now I have to talk about myself. You knew it was coming. There’s a few videos out there of interviews I’ve given about Missile Command and arcade gaming, and I’d like to gradually…
Atari Arcade Concept Art: A glimpse of the future
Some interesting early concept artwork from Atari has surfaced in recent years. These brightly coloured, hand drawn sketches are really “of their time”. Atari’s arcade division employed several artists, who would create everything from Industrial cabinet designs, to the final artwork to adorn the various arcade cabinet designs. In the 70’s, Atari clearly had a…
Robotron: Enter the Time Machine
There’s nothing quite like a 35 year old restored arcade machine. Especially so when the restorer has sympathetically made the machine look brand new again. Many restorers have examples of cabs that are arguably better than new in terms of the parts, paints and artwork used. Let’s not forget, whilst today we look at these…
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