Favorite Arcade Video Game

I suppose I should also note that over the course of a two-month stint working out in Yellowstone, my buddy and I made our way through the Gauntlet: Legends machine they had at the employee pub. I dumped so much money into that freaking thing, but it was so fun, especially when we had all four characters in use.

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Until the lockdowns I actually owned a few (that I had bought in the pre-MAME days):

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Apart from the I dropped a ton of quarters into the usual suspects: Space Wars, “Gun Fight”, the-shockingly-bad-graphics-even-at-the-time of Starship1, the first really controversial encourages-violence-in-kids game Death Race, Space Invaders and its multitude of variants, Defender, Battle Zone…burned little-white-lines into my retinas with Asteroids.

Oh, no, I’ve turned into an Ernest Cline novel.

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Not enough random name drops unrelated to the topic at hand to be Cline. I think you’re good.

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I agree with that. This may sound odd but I feel the same way about Breakout. Back when it was a thing I had a dedicated Breakout home console, and even the Apple ][ came with paddle controllers, which nobody really does any more. But Breakout just doesn’t work without the paddles.

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Another Apple ][ game I dearly love, which was surprisingly complex for a game of its era was called Empire I: World Builders. You got to pick a planet based on its size, atmosphere, etc. as you traveled in space looking for somewhere to land. Then you got to be a miner, a homesteader or a missionary on the planet. Each one was basically a separate game with some similarities like the traders and monsters you would encounter. I have no idea how they fit it all on one floppy.

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I liked all the Broderbund “Galactic [Whatever]” games. If you go back, you realize how much imagination you were exercising. Heh.

I had a great one, also, called “Computer Ambush”, where you and another player commanded a small combat squad in WWII. You’d put in your moves. He’d put in his. Six hours later the computer would come back and tell you what happened. =P

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Not that anyone asked, but I definitely had a least favorite from the early days, if only I could remember the name of it. You basically fought … I don’t know, evil clouds or something similar? I remember the first few levels were absurdly easy, followed by a level I never knew anyone to beat. Must research.

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Most of the games I played have been named already: Robotron, Tempest, Spy Hunter, Rampage, Gauntlet. But I also spent a lot of money on Mach 3.

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Not to the same extent, but this was my feeling with Tempest emulations. The weighted wheel on the console was key—you had to be able to give it a hard spin and let it do its thing.

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Centipede.
Only Centipede.
Always Centipede.

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How, I ask, HOW did I forget the thumping bass of REACTOR?!

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This reminds me of the deluxe jet fighter game with the integrated cockpit seat – the whole thing would tilt, maybe vibrate too. Anyone remember what that was called?

Also, was anyone else intimidated by the big trackball controllers? Teenage me got pinched in those a few times; they kind of scared me off.

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The paddle, the wheel, the yoke, the periscope…hell, just being able to sit down and pull a yoke like Star Wars or—one of my favorites—Exidy’s Star Fire…gave everything a little bit of weight you just don’t get with button mashing.

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OMG! That game was awesome! I haven’t thought about it in YEARS! (And cost me so much $$ in order to get more Zeny coins for more armor!)

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It made games more than just games, it made them absorbing experiences. Before there was VR, this was a way to make games really immersive and I miss it.

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Black Tiger rocks. I’ll check later to see if there’s still a trace of a high score I have on it.

But favorite arcade game? That’s hard. Child of the 80s; basically lived in arcades. Lemme think about it for a while.

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I remembered it – After Burner!

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Talkin’ 'bout cockpit cabinets that moved… many, many years ago, at the Santa Cruz boardwalk arcade, there was a motion cockpit cabinet with W1P3’0UT" which was really crazy to see since W’0" is predominantly a Sony console thing. But there it was. Played it; was amazing fun.

And never saw it since then. Sorta wonder what the backstory to that cabinet is, and how many are out there.

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Of course I loved the big ones, like Pac-Man (Go figure), the Ninja Turtles games, X-Men, Street Fighter, etc. Some of the more obscure ones I loved though:

S.T.U.N. Runner - It was a sit-down cabinet where you’d pilot a sort of futuristic motorcycle and the course was a 3D halfpipe.
Road Blaster - More of a Pole-positiony kind of racing game where you were armed and able to power up your weapons as you went.
Alien Storm - A brawler with guns instead of brawling and awesome first-person sequences.

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When I was at Uni the local arcade had the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade machine and it was awesome.

I never played Tempest when it was originally out but I was fortunate enough to have a shot of an original machine with the dial a few years back. There was an exhibition on in the national museum in Edinburgh about the history of video games and they had all sorts of old arcade machines, computers and consoles set up. I went straight for it as I was really addicted to TxK on the Vita for a while which is literally Tempest in all but name.

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