Love Classic games

There are so many choices for playing games nowadays.  What's your favorite?  Some people really like to play Tetris online.  Others like to download flash games.

 Whatever your choice, there are tons of classic old games available for free on the web.  Just look around, do a Google search and you'll find them!

 

Brief History of Classic Arcade Games
Mood:  cool
Topic: Classic Arcade Games

Since posting this, I've gotten quite a response from people who like to play Mario online games.  Seems everyone is crazy for classic arcade games and wants do things like play Donkey Kong online.

Ever wonder how far back some of today’s popular game titles go back?  I do, so I did a little Internet sleuthing to determine the history of some of our classic arcade game titles.  You may be surprised at how old some of the top names in gaming really are!

 

1978: Space Invaders (Midway).  The game that started the video game revolution is over 30 years old.

1979: Asteroids (Atari).  Only $.25 to play a 2D classic.

1979: Galaxian (Midway).  A Space Invaders knock-off.

1980: Battle Zone (Atari).  Originally developed for the US Military, Atari repurposed this successful game for the consumer market.

1980: Centipede (Atari).  One of the 1^st games to use a trackball with a vertical screen.

1980: Defender (Williams).  One of the best-sellers ever.

1980: Missile Command (Atari).  Another early game to feature trackball control.

1980: Pacman (Midway).  One of the most popular games of all time.  Also one of the first sit-down arcade games.

1980: Rally-X (Namco).  Intended as a contender for Defender and Pacman but never touched them in terms of poularity.

1981: Donkey Kong (Nintendo).  Hugely popular and introduced Mario, one of the most enduring game characters of all time.

1981: Frogger (Konami).  A non-fighting game, but still demanded concentration and skill.

1981: Galaga (Midway).  A successor to Galaxian and became a more popular title.

1981: Ms. Pacman (Midway).  Allegedly developed from a bootlegged copy of Pacman.

1981: Gorf (Midway).  First game to introduce a synthesized voice.

1982: Dig Dug (Atari).  Number 6 most popular coin-operated game of all time.

1982: Donkey Kong Jr. (Nintendo).  Featured Mario again, but as a villain.

1982: Joust (Williams).  It had a mistake in the game, remember what it was?

1982: Moon Patrol (Williams).  Featured special parallax scrolling.

1982: Pole Position (Atari).  Introduced the rear-view mirror perspective in racing games that is still popular today.

1982: Robotron 2084 (Williams).  Dual joysticks.

1982: Tron (Midway).  Game based on the film of the same name.

1983: Mario Bros. (Nintendo).  Mario is back with Luigi (his brother).

1983: Star Wars (Atari).  Based on the movie and featured dialog from the movie in the game.

1984: 1942 (Capcom).  That company’s first best-seller.

1984: Punch Out (Nintendo).  2 monitors and synthesized voice.

That was a lot of classic games for 6 year period.  Remember, this was before home video really took off, so to play the latest and greatest games, you made your way to an actual video arcade with a pocketful of quarters, and played standing in front of your favorite machine for hours.

If you want to relive some of these game, it’s easy.  Many websites feature these classic games online.  Play favorites like Donkey Kong online for free or download them to your computer.  I personally like to play Mario online.  What’s your favorite classic arcade game?