Particlasm is home to the browser games of Luke Paakh. He first caught my attention with fine space shoot'em-up Ether War but I also enjoyed his other games, shooter Ether Cannon, tree defending games Phoenix and Shen Long, puzzle game blue and petri dish action game Amoeba. His new game is my favorite. It's called William and Sly and it's a beautiful platformer is about an adorable fox who likes mushrooms and his quest to recharge some runestones with fairyflies.
posted by Kattullus on Oct 9, 2009 - 9 comments

"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

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

Rocks 'n' Diamonds for some Friday puzzle-game fun. Described as "in the tradition of" Boulderdash and Sokoban, it's actually a superset of both, and you can waste tons of time playing all the old familiar levels or tons of others. (It's a quick download, for linux/os x/the other thing.)
posted by Wolfdog on Mar 28, 2008 - 12 comments

Mister Rogers asks a kid how to play Donkey Kong. Later in the clip, Keith David shows up and demonstrates how the buttons in an arcade machine work. [Via.]
posted by tepidmonkey on Oct 25, 2007 - 17 comments

Skee-Ball! (warning: music) Perhaps the longest-running branded arcade game ever invented was created in 1909, originally with a rotator-cuff-injury-inducing 36-foot long alley. Once shortened to a more manageable 14' (10' for the Chuck E. Cheese kiddie model), the game's popularity took off, remaining largely unchanged except for the 1970s electrification of the scoreboard. It's both a nostalgic pastime and a present-day boardwalk staple, even enjoying some hipster revivalism in the form of BrewSkee-Ball. You can even try building your own game.
posted by Miko on Aug 20, 2007 - 30 comments

"PLASMA PONG is a variation of PONG that utilizes real-time fluid dynamics to drive the game environment. ... In the game you can inject plasma fluid into the environment, create a vacuum from your paddle, and blast shockwaves into the playing area."
posted by jbickers on Jun 28, 2007 - 13 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

Rosmarie Fiore is doing some fascinating and beautiful things with long exposures and 80's arcade games.

In the meanwhile, Patrick Dougherty is doing some fascinating and beautiful things with sticks and twigs. [more inside]
posted by wander on Feb 9, 2007 - 17 comments

Halo Zero. The Fall of Reach, old-school style. Some plucky French coders have borrowed a page from Codename: Gordon, the side-scrolling homage to Half-Life. As a result, Master Chief and his cohorts are now fighting the Covenant in 16-bit, 2D graphics. PC download only - though Mac owners at least have Boot Camp to avoid waiting for an OS X port. via Aeropause
posted by Smart Dalek on Jul 7, 2006 - 9 comments

Starcade was an arcade-themed game show that aired in the early 1980's. Today is the last day to watch episode #59 online.
posted by milquetoast on Mar 5, 2006 - 20 comments

More Flash Friday. Dynasty Street is an awesomely intricate, gory, stick-figure beat-'em-up. Make sure to practice your moves in the dojo before you play. For mayhem that's a little more low-key, immerse yourself in the world of Skull Kid and his chainsaw. If you're not in the mood for blood & guts, just go with good old Battleship. FlashPlayer.com features many, many Flash games with which to while away the hours.
posted by Gator on Jan 6, 2006 - 6 comments

Bullet Philharmonic Orchestra. A barebones, vector shooter for PC ala Kenta Cho's made for practicing bullet dodging in manic scrolling shooters, which generates bullet patterns based on the music playing(found here (previously)). Think a very, very poor man's Rez. Here's the download link if, like me, you can't read Japanese. (about 1 megabyte, Windows only, sorry) Further instructions inside the file and comments.
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Dec 8, 2005 - 7 comments

Arcade Classics from the '80s. A few hundred games, all playable online. Watch out for popups. [via]
posted by monju_bosatsu on Nov 30, 2005 - 20 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

Game-Oldies.com features a boatload (approximately) of classic games, playable in Java. Lemmings! Duke Nukem! Toejam and Earl! Trampoline Terror! (What?)
posted by Gator on Nov 11, 2005 - 30 comments

EveryVideogame.com ... many retro videogames (arcade, nintendo, gameboy, sega) available for online play via a java applet.
posted by crunchland on Feb 24, 2005 - 20 comments

The gamebutton arcade is the perfect (super small, javascript-on-a-button code fu) thing for wasting time on a friday afternoon.
posted by mathowie on Nov 1, 2002 - 5 comments

Save pinball! "It's an American icon," said Stern, ever the salesman. "Pinball is cool because it is retro. It's a Volkswagen bug, a PT Cruiser, khaki pants."
posted by justgary on Aug 3, 2002 - 23 comments

Just fun here. Pick your favorite Arcade game and comment on why it is your favorite. Just a little distraction from all the doom and gloom. Mine is Robotron, so much so that a few years ago I actually bought one. It was first released in 1982 and it claimed many quarters from me. Very exciting game that really tested your hand/eye coordination. So, let's hear it for your favorite blast from the past
posted by a3matrix on May 2, 2002 - 45 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

MAME - I'm Gonna Live Forever (Flash link) I found this on the author's Tehkan World Cup site. It's an amusing trip down the MAMEory lane of classic arcade games. How many can you name?
posted by SiW on Nov 1, 2001 - 8 comments