The best trackball arcade game? In the early 80’s we were at the height of the nuclear arms race, and the Doomsday clock representing our proximity to a nuclear war between the west and the Soviet Union was at 11:57. Released at the start of the escalation in 1980, Missile Command was a game that…
Battlezone: The Game That Brought 3D to the Arcades When Atari released Battlezone in November 1980, it marked a watershed moment in arcade gaming. Here was a game that placed you inside a tank, navigating a three-dimensional battlefield filled with enemy vehicles and geometric obstacles. Developer Ed Rotberg and his team had created something genuinely…
Introduction to Gradius Few games have left as lasting an impact on the shoot ’em up (shmup) genre as Gradius. Released by Konami in 1985, this arcade classic redefined side-scrolling shooters with its innovative power-up system, intense difficulty, and unforgettable soundtrack. It spawned multiple sequels, and was released on multiple home consoles and computers, with…
The space themed Laserdisc sequel to Dragon’s Lair It was a wet summer holiday in 1984 and I was with my cousin in an arcade on Canvey Island in Essex. Frankie Goes to Hollywood was in the Top 10 with “Two Tribes”, and the famous fight scene between Reagan and Chernenko was blasting out of…
Bugaboo! Back in 1983 the choice of games was pretty limited, but one that stood out for me was this game – Bugaboo! Written by two (probably) Spanish zoologists (Paco & Paco) and it shows, with the game premise seeming somehow European… The objective of the game was incredibly simple. Your frog (it was actually…
The BBC micro has some passionate fans, but it never really managed to generate the sort of passion reserved for some of the more popular home computers of the early 80’s such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Maybe it was the association with the BBC, maybe the fact that it was used in schools, perhaps…
