With a total roster of thirteen vector releases, Atari were undoubtedly the kings of wire-frame arcade games. It all began with Lunar Lander and then Asteroids. Released in 1979, these two games heralded the company’s innovative intent, and arguably began the Golden Age of videogames. Whereas traditional raster arcade monitors house an electron gun that…
Tag: arcade history
Nibbler: The Billion Point Arcade Game
Last week saw the release of the much anticipated arcade gaming documentary, Man vs Snake. Joining a roster of other similarly themed movies such as The King of Kong, Chasing Ghosts and the excellent High Score, the film tells the story of one man’s efforts to repeat a unique arcade world record achieved some 25…
Super Rare Atari Centipede Cocktail Surfaces!
Close examination of the original promotional flyer for Atari’s 1981 Centipede arcade cabinet shows three styles of cab; from left to right, a cabaret, upright and cocktail. Nothing particularly unusual there, as most releases around that time looked to house themselves in a similar portfolio of cabinet designs: But further inspection of the cocktail cabinet…
Arcade Raid Gone Wrong: Cinematronics Sundance
Let sleeping dogs lie: Avoid interfering in a situation that is currently causing no problems but may well do so as a result of such interference. So goes the proverb. There’s an argument in classic arcade collecting circles, that if you do let the proverbial dog lie, you will end up with a pretty mundane…
Sky Skipper: Nintendo’s Long Lost Arcade Game
A lot of extraordinary things go on in this hobby. One of the highlights for me is observing the dedication of some collectors. Some of these guys are really, really passionate, and are prepared to go above and beyond to preserve classic arcade games. I guess this is partly driven by a desire to take…
Tales from the Arcade Factory Floors
The rarity of an arcade cabinet is very subjective. Just because a game is old, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be regarded as rare. After 1984, when the video arcade market pretty much crashed, the production numbers went down from tens of thousands, to single digit thousand production runs. So in many cases, you are…
Arcade Raid: The Duke of Lancaster Ship
Regular readers of this blog will have seen me reference “Arcade Raids” in previous articles. This might create images in your head of hooded gangs of arcade collectors breaking into warehouses in the middle of the night to stealth-steal a stash of classic arcade cabs. As exciting as that would be, the reality is somewhat…
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…
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…
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