Those of you with a keen eye for detail may have been wondering what the heck happened to the Atari Gravitar I picked up in the Autumn last year. Well, I can reveal right here, right now, that not very much has happened at all. We had Christmas, and before that my US trip occurred,…
Tag: atari
Asteroids ‘Braze’ Multigame Kit Installation
Great as it is owning an original dedicated classic arcade machine, there will come a time when you are rather jaded at playing the same game again and again. Consider your modern-day console – you might purchase the launch killer-app game to go with it, but chances are after six months, you are no longer…
Atari Star Wars: Arcade Cockpit Development
Ask any fan of Golden Age classic arcade machines what their fondest recollection of the era is, and it is likely that Atari’s seminal Star Wars game is going to be mentioned by most. Released in 1983, the game is indeed a true classic and is arguably one of the best uses of a licence…
Behind the scenes at Atari Coin-Op
I stumbled across a great series of videos this week that I hadn’t seen before. Into The Valley of the Space Invaders was a mini documentary produced by Field Communications back in 1982 – at the very height of the Golden Age of video games. It managed to go behind the scenes at Atari’s coin-op…
The Arcade Glow
I often get asked how many classic arcade machines I actually own. My collection is pretty modest compared to some collectors, and tends to be split into two parts – one indoors and one outdoors! My ‘indoor’ collection is my pride and joy – those cabinets that I think I will never part with. These…
The Atari Arcade Theatre Kiosk
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…
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…
The Arcade Blogger 