Classic games were great. If you've never done it you want to get hold of M.A.M.E. and get hold of all the greats. I know modern games are wonderful and immersive but not one modern game of the last 10 years is as difficult as most of the arcade games in the 80's. Most people's game of Donkey Kong doesn't last above 3 minutes. And Pac-Man; how many people can actually last over 10 minutes on that game? I certainly can't.
Also the score was key, today's games are a journey from A to B, there's no real score as such. But the 80's games were all about the score, getting your 3 letter initials on the illusive top 10 gave you immense bragging rights, especially if your local arcade was decent enough to save the scores when they turned the machines off.
Of course, growing up in Blackpool during the 80's had its perks as i was down at the arcades every friday night with my £1.20 pocket money. 10p a game, 12 games, and that would keep me there for at least 2 and a half hours. The secret was to only play the games you could last a while on or if you were good at something, you could play street fighter and winner stays on. Also i was damn good at Dragon's Lair II so 10p could easily last me half an hour. Completed that bugger eventually!
In case you're too young to know half the games here's a short list of the absolute pinnacle of classic games:
- Donkey Kong
- Pac-Man and all derivatives
- Crystal Castles
- Ghosts n Goblins
- Joust
- Marble Madness
- Commando
- 1942
- Gauntlet
- Combat School
Also if you think you're pretty good at a classic game try checking your score against the Twin Galaxies website that's the official place for classic game scores. These guys are the absolute best in the world at any classic game you care to mention.
3 comments:
I'll make a point of downloading that documentary, it sounds good.
Growing up in a rural area, I rarely spent any time in arcades in my youth, except maybe when on holiday at Weston-Super-Mare or somewhere. I had to make do with the MB Vectrex and handful of games I had in the mid-80's! :)
I did do stint on MAME a few years back, and remember most of the games I tried being pretty damn difficult. They don't make 'em as hard as they used to... thankfully
Vectrex eh? Your parents must have been rich.
Or maybe not, seeing as you holidayed in Weston-Super-Mare...
Had a Philips Videopac myself, boy did i back the wrong horse with the Atari around.
Just watched 'The King Of Kong', and it was suprisingly engrossing. I have to say that the Billy Mitchell guy didn't create a very good impression, more like he was just a chicken-shit smug git. And looking on Twin Galaxies, I see that he has recently beaten Steve Wiebe's high score by 900 points. :(
I got the Vectrex from my gran as a Christmas present around 1983, and was less than £50 from Woolies! Probably even less as it didn't have the original box. It did have some good clones of games like Asteroids, Pacman, Defender, etc. Almost makes me want to go retro, buy one off eBay, and bring back the memories. Almost.
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