🎮 Arcade perfect

Computer and video games
#1

Arcades? Remember them? Back in the days before everyone had super-powerful computation machines in their homes, the arcade game used to be cutting edge. The best you could get. When making their inevitable transitions from custom-built hardware to home-based machines, people would use the term “arcade perfect” in describing the fidelity of the port. They were almost always lying; may as well get some use out of the term now.

What are your favourite old school arcade games?

My starter for ten is Bubble Bobble. It’s the old story; brothers get turned into cutesy dinosaurs. girlfriends get kidnapped and you have to work your way through 100 levels of platforming perfection to effect a rescue. A tale as old as time, really :slight_smile:

Of particular note is the sheer amount of secret stuff shoehorned into the title.

That’s mine. What games did you find perfect in the arcades?

#2

800Ă—599 51 KB

#3

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#4

They’ve got one of those in an arcade bar in Peckham, GB. It’s the owner’s favourite game. The shooting mechanic takes some getting used to.

#5

850Ă—1128 235 KB

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#6

Loved Track N Field in the arcades. Great example of a game not porting as well to home systems, largely because the systems of the day mostly had one joystick button.

Joystick waggling. It really was a thing.

#7

Donkey Kong for me. I used to own that simian.

used to love astro wars too

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#8

For me, the golden age of arcade gaming is the “skill era”, not to be confused with the “continue” era. By the time that games like TMNT arrived in the arcades, it was all about feeding the machine with more coins.

Nevertheless, this machine deserves special mention. It had a fucking Uzi on the top, and I remember one of my left-wing middle class mates refusing to play the Amiga version because he was a pacifist. Not sure what blew my mind more at the time - the game or the statement!

Operation Wolf.

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#9

Originally posted by @CB-Saint

Donkey Kong for me. I used to own that simian.

used to love astro wars too

I remember Astro Wars, although it is technically inadmissable here. Belonged to an age that we’re unlikely to see much of again. The single game games machine. Purpose built for only one thing; to play one game.

Seems mental now, but one of the most attractive things about the original Gameboy was that it was portable, and played multiple games. To be fair, the Atari Lynx did that as well, but the battery life was piss poor. The Gameboy gave you confidence that you could play Tetris (and others) while having a shit without the power going off.

#10

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#11

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#12

probably my favourite:

#13

Outrun

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#14

Jeez, I remember playing Space Invaders in a cafe when the game first came out. I damn near shit myself with the tension it caused me. Knee wobbling piss-inducing panic as the little bastards came down that screen and threatened to end my existence on this planet. I know it’s really tame now, but when compared to the usual pastimes of 9 card brag or cricket on a dartboard at the time…It was mind altering stuff!!

Nevr could get the hang of Asteroids. Hyperspace? WTF!!!

Loved Mission Control though. Absolutely loved it! They had a table version in The Traveller’s Rest, Hythe for a while. I got quite good at it when between 3 and 4 pints.

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#15

I was all about Time Crisis and Time Crisis 2.

Also the carpet in Sega Park Southampton was something else. Here is some fan fiction about it! Bearsy would be proud.

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#16

Originally posted by @Goatboy

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#17

810Ă—1080 135 KB

Used to to play double dragon every day on the way home from school, top game.

Actually I used to have one go, and then I would watch my much better mate have one go which would last ten times as long and make me reconsider my life and arcade skillz.

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#18

Tron, R-Type, Outrun which I finished on *ALL* paths, Golden Axe.

Track and field was when I was at Uni and we used to hammer it in the Arcade…

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#19

It’s not real :smiley:

Oh, bump, btw :smiley:

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#20

Yie Ar Kung Foo

Superb game.