Tron: Made for the Arcade Most of people of a certain age (35 and over) will remember the Disney film, TRON, and the arcade game that it inevitably would have to spawn, given the film’s game-based storyline. One of the scenes involved a deadly game of Frisbee, where combatants battled to the death with electrically…
Atari had huge success in 1979 with the vector graphics based Asteroids, followed by 2 further classics in 1980, with Battlezone and the fantastic Tempest. Tempest was host to a number of “firsts” for an arcade game, including the first game to feature to feature a kind of “continue”, based on the player’s performance in…
It’s Burger Time! Few arcade games of the 1980s have achieved the timeless charm and quirky appeal of BurgerTime, a classic by Data East that first hit arcades in 1982. Combining fast-paced action, strategic gameplay, and a (then) unique premise, BurgerTime puts players in the shoes of Chef Peter Pepper as he assembles towering burgers while dodging relentless…
Although most people will remember the various home ports for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro, Hunchback was originally released by Century Electronics in 1983 as an arcade machine. The game itself was a relatively simple “pitfall” style platformer, with multiple left to right flip screens, each one featuring a number of challenges to…
Back in the day, and by “the day” I mean most of the 80’s, the arcade was the place to be. Arcade games development was at its peak with huge amounts of competition from the manufaturers, and there would be new cabinets or upgrades launched every week. Every Friday I would head into Southend (Essex born and…
Origin of Phoenix Any lover of retro arcade games will remember their first – the one that got them hooked. For me this is Phoenix from Centuri, a game I first came across in the early 80’s. I was 11, on holiday in Spain with my parents, and in the bar of the hotel were…
