I was always a big fan of the vector-beam graphics games like Red Baron, Tail Gunner and later, Asteroids, BattleZone and the awesome Star Wars.
Some of the best driving games were Hard Drivin’ (and the sequel which I’ve only seen once, in Canada IIRC) and MonacoGP, which I saw in a Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow video the other day. Also the classic minimalist Night Driver
The best flight game of the early days was Mach 3, which was a laserdisc game.
Konami’s Track and Field was always good for a blister.
There was a really cool 2-player baseball game (VS. Baseball, maybe) with analog joysticks mounted sideways for pitching and hitting
Agreed on Gyruss and Tempest, both great games.
Star Castle was a great early game too, so early it was a black-and-white CRT with a color acetate overlay over the rings around the castle.
Don’t forget the games that started it all… Pong (I played the original Atari cabinet model waaaay back when), Sea Wolf and of course Space Invaders.
Ah, I forgot all about this game. My brother and I worked out a way of using a comb placed over the two buttons allowed for faster tapping for running. That game was really fun!
I liked a lot of those mentioned, particularly Robotron, Sinistar, Red Baron, and Choplifter. The only game I was really good at was Hogan’s Alley, which hasn’t got a mention. It wasn’t very popular-- you shot a light gun at cardboard cutouts of suspiciously Italian looking gentlemen, while avoiding shooting the old guy or the young lady. I had a knack for it and because it wasn’t popular I could play it even when most machines were in use and get a high score. Never played all day for a quarter or anything like that, though.
I guess my vote for greatest classic arcade game goes to Asteroids. I like vector graphics and always found it stressful as hell to play. I remember it having a pulsating beep for a soundtrack and loud explosions. Iconic.
At one time (I was about 17-19) I had functional Asteroids, Gravitar, and Battlezone machines in my bedroom. They were damned cheap and lasted about 2 years before I sold them.
Don’t mind if I do! I played that dang thing endlessly in college. Loved that game.
Rampage was another fave, especially as my friends and I would always try to devour each other if we ‘lost’ and turned back human.
My two additions are: Cyberball. The first one had a serious flaw in its offense QB AI, and my friend Nathan and I would destroy it, every single time.
and Robocop. Robocop gets props because it was the first game I could finish on a single quarter.
Also miscellaneous shout-out to Street Fighter (the original) as the first time I saw it, it was being test marketed with punch-pads instead of buttons. I can’t image the game would’ve done as well with the upkeep costs it would’ve needed that way.
Oh! Forgot to add: Cliff Hanger. During the hey-day of Laser Disc games, it was Lupin III Castle of Cagliostro done as a chopped-up laser-disc video game. Tough as heck, but my first introduction to anime!
Yep–that’s the one. And reading about it reminded me of another: Blaster Master. I seriously can’t believe I finished a game that required playing through in one sitting. It’s the only game that still occasionally pops up in my dreams: once every few years, I’m piloting a hovering tank through black space and fighting a massive boss creature, in some amalgam of the game’s two display settings and my own nightmarish brain.
Pacman was great and revolutionary; Ms. Pacman was the perfectly refined improvement. And Galaga is one of the first perfect shooter games. It’s no accident that, to this day, if a pizza parlor or laundromat has two games, one of them will be Ms. Pacman or Galaga.
They’re still fun, they’re still challenging. I don’t think anyone has truly mastered either. Both are fun for the n00b, both still are challenging for the jaded gamer.
One of my favorites was Crazy Climber. Trying to climb a building while dodging flower pots, closing windows, a bird trying to crap on you, and toward the top, a huge gorilla. In later stages, steel girders, ladders and a loose electrical wire added to the fun.
Galaga has an exploit where you can make the enemies not shoot. I had a game where I just walked away with 10 lives and 500,000+ points because I was bored.
Also, the driving game that gave us real steering feel, with steering controls that offered resistance and a wheel that had return-to-center action: Outrun
Ah, yes. Outrun is still my favorite arcade racing game. Pop in a quarter, select “Magical Sound Shower” and hopefully make it all the way to the end. I think I was only able to finish two of the routes, though, C & D.
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