"What were arcades like?"
posted by bardic on Feb 27, 2009 - 166 comments

The Pac-Man Dossier is an extremely detailed description of the game logic of arcade Pac-Man. It explains why, once in a while, monsters will harmlessly pass through Pac-Man. It explains why they won't go up through the tunnels above the monster box. It explains why occasionally, after losing a life, monsters will refuse to leave the box. It explains when and why Blinky becomes Cruise Elroy, and why sometimes Pinky gets confused and loses track of Pac-Man. It even explains, as far as the player can continue to play, what to do on the kill screen. It is awesome. Previously....
posted by JHarris on Feb 19, 2009 - 35 comments

Chicago-based video game developer Midway Games has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [more inside]
posted by 40 Watt on Feb 14, 2009 - 43 comments

Luna City Arcade is Peter Hirschberg's home / barn video arcade, with about 60 vintage machines all set up to eat quarters. WaPo story about Peter's dream. You can come around to Peter's Virginia home for Game Day every couple months. [more inside]
posted by grobstein on Jan 16, 2009 - 35 comments

An interesting take on galactic conquest for a Flash game, at least.
posted by XMLicious on Dec 5, 2008 - 25 comments

Hacking aliens to pieces with a machete (flash game) [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Nov 6, 2008 - 28 comments

The classic arcade game Dragon's Lair is turning 25 and Don Bluth has a deal for you. For one week only, if you buy a copy of Dragon's Lair for DVD, PC, or Blu-Ray from the online store at DigitialLeisure.com you can have it signed by Don Bluth as well as designer Rick Dyer, and animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy. The new cleaned up version looks sweet! I hear it looks really great on Blu-Ray. I can remember drooling over it when I saw it played on the TV show Starcade. There was even a Saturday morning cartoon based on the game. If you spent any time in an arcade during the mid-80's you'll probably recall the attract mode which is one of the most memorable ones in the history of arcade games. I still have it burned into my brain. Need a walkthrough for the game? Well, the website Dragon's Lair Project has that covered.
posted by GavinR on Jun 20, 2008 - 57 comments

DHTML Arkanoid One of my favorite arcade classics, and one of the slickest applications of DHTML I've ever seen.
posted by Artifice_Eternity on Sep 15, 2007 - 25 comments

M.U.G.E.N [wikipedia] is a 2D fighting game engine, originally developed by Elecbyte and released in 1999. The engine is highly customizable; characters, backgrounds, and sound files -- whether from existing games or original works -- can be easily integrated. Some examples of the engine in action [youtube]: Homer Simpson vs. Peter Griffin, Ryu vs Popeye, Green Power Ranger vs Osama Bin Laden, Fat Albert vs Juggernaut, Marvin the Martian vs. Duck Dodgers. Also, game crossovers: Homer in NES Land, Thunder Force III vs. Duck Hunt. [mi] WARNING: some of the videos are very loud.
posted by milquetoast on Jun 17, 2007 - 10 comments

Uptick in Cold War-like rhetoric making you a little nostalgic for the era of parachute pants and Members Only jackets?
A cabal of Russki comrades at some pinko university have been going around collecting and resurrecting disused Soviet-era arcade games, which became instantly obsolete with the collapse of communism. Sea Wolf, Duck Hunt, Pole Position, Dogfight!
We begin bombing in five minutes.
posted by planetkyoto on Jun 7, 2007 - 28 comments

Billed as TV's frst video arcade game show, Starcade had its contestants battling each other on video game trivia, as well as actual gameplay. Originally aired in the early 1980's, the show featured games like Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, Star Trek and Journey, to name a few.

Ten full episodes are available online, for those of you who want a bit of video game nostalgia. And, if nothing else, looking at the contestants is pretty entertaining, in and of itself.
posted by avoision on Jan 17, 2007 - 28 comments

Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03, 1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris. The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith on Feb 16, 2006 - 44 comments

SHMUPS! aka 2D Scrolling Shoot-em-ups. Shmups.com is dedicated to this classic genre, from ancient history (Space Invaders, Tempest) to grandfather games (R-Type II, 1941) to golden age shmups (Tyrian, Blazing Star) to modern classics (Radiant Silvergun, Mars Matrix, Ikaruga). Most aren't for the PC, unfortunately, but that's what Mame and other emulators (mac too) are for. As for roms, can't help you there. For PC enthusiasts, Shoot the Core's PC Shmup listing is the most complete I've ever seen, with many links to download as well. This Thanksgiving weekend, what better to do in your food coma than sit back and blast through a few games in the most enduring video game genre of all time? *CAUTION! These sites took up five hours of my time last night and I downloaded 42 games.*
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Nov 23, 2005 - 33 comments

Arcade Sounds. We recorded video games from 1982 until 1988. Fortunately I managed to save all fourteen audio tapes of video game sounds and arcade ambience which were recorded from a variety of locations in the US. Most of the recordings are from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY and Ocean City, MD.
posted by rxrfrx on Nov 1, 2005 - 46 comments

Looking to recreate the dark, smoky arcades of your misspent youth? Got the MAME cabinet in your rec room but still missing something? Arcade ambience supplies the soundtrack to your MAME cabinet with two super-long MP3'd mixes of vintage arcade noises. Authentic, right down to the sound of the coin changers and background hum. Sticky floor, shouted pizza to go orders, and smell of ozone and unwashed nerds not included.
posted by 40 Watt on Dec 12, 2003 - 11 comments

Nostalgic for old video games? Try the java arcade machine emulator. Play classic games such as Tempest, Ms. Pacman, and Arkanoid, arcade perfect and available on the internet via the magic of java.
posted by phatboy on Nov 2, 2001 - 8 comments