Part II is the peak and decline of arcades, years 1982-1985. I was in high school those years. Weekends I'd get on my bike, and with a friend, head down to the mall to play arcade games. 1982 was the absolute peak with just a ton of new games. After that the decline began as home consoles began offering more elaborate experiences to challenge the two and half minutes per quarter the arcade machines were giving. Here are my favorites.
1982
It is impossible to pick one favorite for this peak year in arcade gaming. Some classics I played were: Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Jr., Pole Position, Time Pilot, Q*Bert, Joust, Robotron 2084 and BurgerTime. Three more are my favorites and tops in that list is Xevious.
Probably what hooked me on Xevious was the vertically scrolling environment below your ship and the sharply outlined objects. This wasn't the first vertically scrolling game but it was a very early one and it was probably the first one I came in contact with. Most games I played before this were fixed screen action. I also liked the sound effects and music in the game. Xevious is hard, though, so I never beat it, or even came close. Most games I played in the arcade I never beat or even played longer than five or ten minutes. Kind of weird to think about that now.
Second on my list of three is Front Line. This is another vertically scrolling game but you are a soldier fighting across a battlefield. I liked it because it was the first game I saw with this theme and it linked up nicely with my interest in the Squad Leader board games, which attempted to simulate battles down to the smallest unit, a squad. I also liked Front Line because you could get into a tank and throw grenades. Too cool!
Front Line had a rotary dial that you could rotate and push in to aim and fire. The white button was for grenades and getting in and out of tanks. In a way, this was a precursor to the dual analog sticks we all use today.
Third is the game Sinistar. I couldn't leave this off because of the voice synthesis used and the interesting spin on Asteroids. I think what lured me to this cabinet time and time again was the very fast action and the very precise control of your ship. This game had a unique 49-way joystick to do that. I also replayed the game for the terror it instilled in me through the voice synthesis. When Sinistar came together and attacked me, it roared like a lion and yelled "run, run, run" and "I hunger". It raised the tension of the game tenfold. Hopefully, I had gathered enough sinibombs by shooting rocks to destroy him, otherwise I would get eaten, one of the most feared terrors for children.
1983
The video game crash of '83 probably came as the result of so much output in '82. Too much can be a bad thing. But games were still coming out and some classics too. Star Wars, Crystal Castles, Gyruss and Congo Bongo were some of what I played, but my favorites were Dragon's Lair and Spy Hunter.
My friend Phil and I used to bike to the mall together and we had a friendly competition to see who could beat Dragon's Lair first. This was the first laser disc based video game using animation by Disney vet, Don Bluth. Gameplay was pretty simple, you just made the split second decisions of your hero, Dirk the Daring, with the joystick or button when a section of the scene flashed. The joystick was for moves and the button for sword strikes. Your goal was to get to the end of the story. Basically it came down to a memory game. I forget who won in our competition, but we both finished the game and it was really fun.
Then there was Spy Hunter. I played this game at a pizza shop in my home town (another bicycle destination). They only had this one machine but it was great. It was another in the series of vertically scrolling games I loved, just this time it was combat racing. You had an aircraft style steering controller with buttons on it, a stick shift, and a foot pedal. I played the upright version, shown below.
The Peter Gunn theme played and you had pretty good control of your speed and direction. The sense of speed is probably what got me; acceleration was super fast. You could bump cars off the road with precise moves, lay smoke screens or oil slicks to throw off pursuers, and shoot bullets and rockets. You could also change into a speed boat! This game was my jam for alot of that year.
1984
This year had some good ones like Punch-Out, Dragon Lair's sequel Space Ace and hockey one-on-one game Hat Trick, that my friend Mark and I played a lot. But I have to make Marble Madness my favorite because it was such a physical challenge and used a trackball. My friend Phil and I played a lot of this game. A trackball gives you very precise control which is why most arcade games that use it don't translate well in ports.
You move a marble across an E.C. Escher inspired play field in isometric view. Two players can compete against each other too. It was designed by the still very relevant Mark Cerny. I definitely liked it for its visceral quality. You really played it like a sport, putting your whole arm and body into the delicate movements.
1985
Things begin to thin out in terms of games I played this year. I was driving and in my last year of high school, so perhaps I was growing out of arcades. I remember playing Paperboy with its unique bicycle handlebar controller but I really remember four player Gauntlet. There were few sword & sorcery themed arcade video games at the time. I played Venture in '81, but this was much more detailed and inviting.
You had recognizable characters in sprite form and four players could drop in or drop out at any time. It had voice synthesis and I still recite its voice work to this day, "Wizard needs food badly." or "Someone shot the food!" (that one's really funny to me now), or "I've not seen such bravery!", or "Warrior is about to die.". Yea, it was possibly my first experience with an action RPG, can't beat it.
And that was about it for me and concerted arcade going. After this year, I graduated high school and went to college. For part III, though, I'll tell how there were still a few arcade games that I played regularly in little out of the way places.
Comments