# Old arcade games with surprising depth **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 15, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412 "2016-06-15T12:04:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/61 "2016-06-21T12:44:23Z")
> [@Hoopy\_Frood](#): > > It was mentioned in post 15. Sorry, I meant “in response to **Gate** ’s post.” ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/62 "2016-06-21T12:46:06Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > While simple, I learned a lot about situational awareness and task management from **Tapper**. Being fast was good, but planning and adapting in real time was better. > > Not an arcade title, but I would nominate the Commodore 64 version of **Dino Eggs**. I still play it all the time on an emulator. What I find interesting is that the game isn’t very fast. Your character moves fairly slowly. Timing and planning ahead count for a lot. Tapper’s one of those games I still go back to. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/63 "2016-06-21T15:48:55Z")
> [@Mann\_Slaughter](#): > > Are you talking about "Miss World '96 Nude? > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjm5I8rgJ9k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjm5I8rgJ9k) > > Spoilered for blurred nekkid la-a-a-a-ady parts. > > I guess I considered it “deep” because even after having it on MAME in my classic gaming pc for years I still haven’t figured out how to keep the women’s pictures from changing to stomach-turning demons. :o > > -Slaughter look up hot b on a mame list… they made 4 or 5 variants of miss nude world under diff titles theres a ton of Asian arcade games that are like it too but the odd thing about hot b is it made/released one the rarest 8 bit Nintendo games …black bass and blue marlin you can sell those puppies for at least 100 … and then disappeared off the face of the earth ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/64 "2016-06-21T15:52:16Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Tapper’s one of those games I still go back to. having olayed tapper on the home systems and then arcade I was shocked that on the arcade version they kept track of how long you held the tap which controlled pour size the more you gave them the longer they drank but you didn’t want to hold the tap too long or they marched straight to ya … ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/65 "2016-06-25T13:00:59Z")
Space Wars was an arcade game from 1977, which predates the 80s only rule, but it did have some interesting features. First, it was two player (and two player only). Second, a complicated set of controls (two rotation buttons, a button for thrust, one for weapons, and one for hyperspace, itself a neat feature for the day). Third, unlike most arcade games of the day, players could pick options-- star in the center of the playing field or no, wrap around or no, and missile bounce. I only encountered it in one arcade in my life and never played it as it looked too complicated. It was based on the mainframe game Spacewar!, of course, which dated from 1962, and which eventually had many more features, such as the “Expensive Planetarium”, which provided an accurate star chart as a backdrop. One variant even had a first person view. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/66 "2016-06-25T14:29:09Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Space Wars was an arcade game from 1977, which predates the 80s only rule, but it did have some interesting features. First, it was two player (and two player only). I remember that game well. While it was set up optimally for two players, you _could_ play it single-player. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/67 "2016-06-25T15:42:48Z")
Wikipedia says that the arcade game was timer based, like 2 minutes for a quarter? Is that how you remember it? ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/68 "2016-06-25T20:10:54Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Wikipedia says that the arcade game was timer based, like 2 minutes for a quarter? Is that how you remember it? Oops! I was thinking of [Space Duel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Duel). Wrong game! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/69 "2016-06-26T19:50:51Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > Oops! I was thinking of [Space Duel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Duel). Wrong game! Oh, yeah. I loved “Space Duel” - I only saw it in a few arcades though. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/70 "2016-06-26T22:03:15Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Not different, but something about **Gatopescado** ’s post reminded me of one of my forgotten quarter burners, [Omega Race](https://www.google.com/search?q=omega+race&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS694US694&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP68yD_a_NAhUqxYMKHXO0AfsQiR4IgQE&biw=1366&bih=643). Vector graphics, you raced around trying to kill shit. I liked it as it was some pretty fast game play. I own a cocktail table model of Omega Race. Still works great, still a bitch to get past the first few levels. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/71 "2016-07-14T20:11:02Z")
I spent many an hour in the video arcade in the early 80’s, and the game I played the most was Major Havoc. I truly think this game had more things going for it than most other games. The main movement mechanism was a cylinder, which was sort of like a trackball except you were mostly constrained to horizontal movement. Gravity was present, so you would always fall down to lower areas, but there was also a Jump button that you could press to jump up. You only had limited power for your jumping, though. IIRC, the main story was that you were Major Havoc, a great space hero who needed to blow up the reactors on various alien ships. His shipped docked on top of the alien ship and he had to descend into the bowels of the spacecraft to the engine room. It was a simple maze style of game, with various obstacles. You had to go down to the reactor, set the bomb or whatever, and then get back out to your ship to escape before the alien ship exploded (10-15 seconds, I think). I think even getting to the reactor was timed, possibly by your oxygen running out (I’ve slept a few times since then). There was other “mini-games” built in to the overall game, though. When the game first started, you were flying your spaceship through an asteroid field, moving left to right, with the asteroids coming toward you from the top of the screen. You could shoot the asteroids using the Jump button. Eventually, the alien fighters would appear, and you had to shoot them, similar to Space Invaders. Once you made it past the fighters, your ship docked on the alien mothership and you had to do your thing. However, the opening sequence played another important role: hyper-jumping to another level. Every time you completed the main objective, a 3-digit code was flashed on the screen. When you started the game and were shooting at the asteroids and alien ships, you weren’t shooting randomly. When you spun the cylinder left and right, there was a number on your ship’s console that changed value (going left = lower digits, going right = higher digits). When you fired, whatever number was displayed got locked into that position. Eventually, you discovered that your 3 shots were being used to enter a 3-digit code. If you entered the correct code for a completed level, you started at the next level from the one you had completed. (So, if you had completed the 4th level, entering the correct 3-digit code hyper-jumped you to level 5.) I think that when you were landing your spacecraft on the alien ship, there was even an element of Moonlander to it. I think that, similar to Asteroids, as long as you didn’t die 3 times, you could play for nearly forever! I was a poor college student, and my fiancee and I spent many hours in the video arcade, due to the opportunities for cheaper, more engaging recreation being somewhat few and far between, and particularly frowned-upon by the ultra-conservative administration of the Christian college we attended. This particular arcade gave 10 tokens for a dollar, and she and I would spend $2 for tokens and $5 for a couple slices of pizza and a soda. I would generally give her 7 or 8 of my tokens and I would spend my 2 or 3 on Major Havoc. I only saw it at one or two arcades in San Diego, and at a bowling alley in Fresno. I found it once on a MIME emulator, but it just didn’t feel the same. Using a mouse just wasn’t the same as the cylinder. I loved that game! Thank you for allowing an old man to reminisce. If I could only own one game, this would be it. Here’s the Wikipedia article on it: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major\_Havoc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Havoc). ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/72 "2016-07-14T21:01:50Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “Wizard Needs Food Badly” Or, in Gauntlet II, where each color can be any of the four, “Red wizard is about to die!” > [@BobArrgh](#): > > I spent many an hour in the video arcade in the early 80’s, and the game I played the most was Major Havoc. I truly think this game had more things going for it than most other games. > > The main movement mechanism was a cylinder, which was sort of like a trackball except you were mostly constrained to horizontal movement. Gravity was present, so you would always fall down to lower areas, but there was also a Jump button that you could press to jump up. You only had limited power for your jumping, though. > > IIRC, the main story was that you were Major Havoc, a great space hero who needed to blow up the reactors on various alien ships. His shipped docked on top of the alien ship and he had to descend into the bowels of the spacecraft to the engine room. It was a simple maze style of game, with various obstacles. You had to go down to the reactor, set the bomb or whatever, and then get back out to your ship to escape before the alien ship exploded (10-15 seconds, I think). I think even getting to the reactor was timed, possibly by your oxygen running out (I’ve slept a few times since then). > > There was other “mini-games” built in to the overall game, though. When the game first started, you were flying your spaceship through an asteroid field, moving left to right, with the asteroids coming toward you from the top of the screen. You could shoot the asteroids using the Jump button. Eventually, the alien fighters would appear, and you had to shoot them, similar to Space Invaders. > > Once you made it past the fighters, your ship docked on the alien mothership and you had to do your thing. > > I think that when you were landing your spacecraft on the alien ship, there was even an element of Moonlander to it. It took me a while to figure out what you meant by “the cylinder.” He is referring to the game’s paddle controller, which is just a knob. Also, you left out part of the game; between levels, you played a miniature game of Breakout, with (IIRC) 5 columns and 3 rows; each of the bricks in the back row that you hit resulted in one fewer alien ship attacking you in the next level. I liked that game as well, but never quite got the hang of it; I don’t think I got past level 3. Somebody once said that the only thing that kept the game from being a Joust-level “classic” was the fact that it was a vector graphics game for some unexplained reason. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/73 "2016-07-19T01:08:28Z")
the guy that ran the arcades we had here for his FIL (one family owned all 4 or 5 plus all the games in the movie theater he’d just leave a relative to manage them day to day ) told me once that all their arcade games were insured but the vector graphic ones because they programming was so unstable that they’d brick for no apparent reason and would be unfixable … tempest star wars the drivin games , and a few others from Atari were on this list they kept … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/74 "2016-07-19T16:08:12Z")
Huh, my uncle used to have an old vector-graphics game at home (I can’t remember what it was called, but it was first-person tanks driving around on a featureless plain), and I don’t think he ever had any trouble with it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/75 "2016-07-19T16:14:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Huh, my uncle used to have an old vector-graphics game at home (I can’t remember what it was called, but it was first-person tanks driving around on a featureless plain), and I don’t think he ever had any trouble with it. Battlezone! ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/76 "2016-07-19T17:21:00Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Battlezone! The game with its own Urban Legend - “I know somebody who managed to drive into the volcano…” (There is a volcano in the far background, but it was never possible to drive the tank to it as the volcano would never get closer.) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/77 "2016-07-20T06:46:41Z")
One of the cool things about being a kid before the internet was knowing all sorts of stuff that wasn’t true and could never be checked. I had friends that swore they knew someone who had the first three episodes of Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/78 "2016-07-20T08:49:31Z")
Not arcade, but Boulder Dash, came out in 1985 for various home consoles. Hundreds of levels, deep gameplay, level editor and many sequels were made. Also going to jump in this thread to ask. There was a choplifter style side ways scrolling game that was pretty much the first ever tower defense game. Not sure if I played it on Apple II or Amiga. You flew a chopper and the goal was to destroy the opponents base, which was protected by another chopper (CPU player) and guided missile outposts. To win you had to purchase various units, infantry, tanks and guided missile trucks that moved slowly to the opponents base, meanwhile the CPU player was also purchasing those and sending them towards you. Anyone played this and remember what it was? EDIT: found it, it was Rescue Raiders! off to try and find an emulated version: > **[Rescue Raiders (Game) - Giant Bomb](https://www.giantbomb.com/rescue-raiders/3030-8617/)** > > Terrorists are trying to change history by helping Germany to win the Battle of Normandy on D-Day. You have to keep them from changing history. You fly a helicopter and command troops advancing on the enemies base. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/79 "2016-07-20T09:44:07Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > EDIT: found it, it was Rescue Raiders! off to try and find an emulated version: > [http://www.giantbomb.com/rescue-raiders/3030-8617/](http://www.giantbomb.com/rescue-raiders/3030-8617/) > **[Rescue Raider : Bally Midway : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/arcade_rescraid)** ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412/80 "2016-07-20T11:32:52Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > [Rescue Raider : Bally Midway : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/arcade_rescraid) Thank’s but thats not it. Rescue Raiders was a side scrolling chopper game with RTS / Tower Defense elements, not a top down shooter. Here’s some youtube footage. Definitely meets the criteria of surprisingly deep. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/F8_XsRYTO-0/maxresdefault.jpg "Rescue Raiders for the Apple II") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_XsRYTO-0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-arcade-games-with-surprising-depth/757412.md?page=5)