Last year I wrote an article which looked at some of Atari’s early industrial design concept drawings. I was looking again at that piece last night, and one picture jumped out at me: It’s an intriguing idea and one that never really took off. This is what Atari called its ‘Theatre’ concept. Designed to maximise…
Tag: atari
Arcade Raid! Outdoor Halloween Nightmare
An extraordinary set of pictures landed on the desk of Arcade Blogger this week detailing an arcade raid which took place almost 20 years ago. I did some digging around and found out what I could about it so that I could document this raid here on the blog. As I’ve written before, as more…
Weekend Pickup! Arcade Parts Haul
One of the drawbacks of maintaining a blog is constantly wondering if you’re getting things right, so it’s always useful to receive comments from readers. I’ve had a variety of questions, opinions and feedback via my ‘contact’ page. The blog medium doesn’t lend itself to two way dialogue, so it is always reassuring to know…
A hole in the Atari Battlezone story
An interesting piece of arcade minutia to share this week. Atari’s upright Battlezone cabinet is an imposing beast. Standing at just over 6 feet tall, the machine towers over the player and most of its contemporaries. Although shared by Atari title Red Baron, the cabinet design is instantly recognizable by its sheer size and bright…
Atari Battlezone Restoration 2
Well it’s been a while since I wrote about this Battlezone cabaret restoration, so thought it time for an update. Part 1 saw us cleaning the cab out of its hardware, removing the horrible white mould that came with it, and getting the monitor up and running. A solid start. (Catch up on part 1…
Atari Tempest Spinner Upgrade Kit Installation
Pursuing a hobby that involves 30+ year old electronic and mechanical parts comes with its own set of challenges. Repairing old circuit boards is one thing; fixing and maintaining what were often bespoke made parts is another. Some things are pretty simple to replace where they are standard components – bolts, nuts, screws and washers,…
’83 TV Mini-Series: Video Game All-Stars
A video post this week. At the height of its popularity, the video arcade industry was everywhere. In the USA, it was simply impossible to ignore. Anyone of a certain age will tell you that arcade culture was very much a way of life for young people in every single state. The years 1979 through to 1983 or…
Atari Major Havoc Scratch Build
In arcade collecting circles, the “holy grail” is that one cab. The cab you are always chasing down. It might be the one you played as a kid, or just a very rare machine that always seems just out of reach either in terms of its scarcity, or cost (usually both in my case). There…
Atari Centipede Upright Restoration 5 FINAL
OK we’ve made it. The Atari Centipede is complete! If you’ve missed the previous installations, you can read them all here. So what follows, are the final pieces of the jigsaw being sorted out. First up, t-molding. This is the thing that really smartens up a cab, and gives it that finishing touch. I ordered 120 foot…
Bradley Trainer: Atari’s Top Secret Military Project
Atari’s Battlezone arcade game released in 1981 was an immediate classic. This first-person wire frame vector shoot-em-up, puts the player at the controls of a tank wandering the wilderness of a futuristic-looking battlefield, shooting down enemy tanks, UFOs and missiles. Around 15,000 machines were rolled out of Atari’s factory in both upright and cabaret form. Here,…
The Arcade Blogger 