177 replies to this topic

[retrorussell]

Crazy Climber, on Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:03 AM, said:

Still to this day have never played or seen a RoTJ. I have seen a few for sale over the years on CL locally but never pulled the trigger due to high asking prices and just being unfamilier with the game. I'm still surprised I never saw one since I played the hell out of SW and ESB and it seems like they were EVERYWHERE! I can even remember reading stuff for the Atari game but never saw the arcade cab, oh well, I imagine the lack of vector would make it the worst of the series?

Kind of how I felt. I mean, the graphics were good but I thought the Milliennium Falcon and AT/ST levels were kind of dull. And the voices weren't that great (actually a common occurence of the day with voices, sounded a bit similar to the ones in Nintendo's Arm Wrestling.. very goofy voices. And with such a known commodity as Star Wars characters it was kind of laughable.

[Cafeman]

Previous list of all games - I don't think I ever saw any of those in an arcade - except Mouse Trap, I do remember seeing that. I remember when I got Namco Classics for PSX, I had never heard of Mappy but loved it.

However... RETURN OF TH E JEDI (1984, Atari)

I used to see this in just about every PA arcade I'd go to, from the malls found Johnstown/Indiana/Altoona and even in Meadsville's little mall arcade. I kind of liked what they tried to do. The graphics were great for their day. Zipping between Ewoks log traps, and thus activating them to smash the chasing stormtroopers on their speeds, was always fun. I beat the death star escape a few times and it was exhiliarating with that excellent SW music. But it quickly got too difficult and I would never dump too many quarters into it. This game also reminds me of the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom game for some reason. The sounds, graphics sound like they could've been done by the same team.

[Crazy Climber]

Cafeman, on Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:00 PM, said:

This game also reminds me of the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom game for some reason. The sounds, graphics sound like they could've been done by the same team.

I might like it then. Temple of Doom is one of, if not my favorite, arcade game.

[retrorussell]

There's another one to chew over, while others can also think about ROTJ and other old ones..
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1985, Atari Games)
Good platformer with you as Indy whipping Thuggee guards, riding the minecarts and rescuing children. I like this a lot better than the fairly stupid movie, which was still way better than Crystal Skull (ouch). I first saw this at Malibu Gran Prix in Beaverton OR when I was 14 or so.

[schuwalker]

retrorussell, on Tue Nov 29, 2011 2:35 PM, said:

Good choice for a new game! Let's make it official:
RETURN OF TH E JEDI (1984, Atari)
I didn't really care for this game.. no longer is it a vector first-person shooter but it shifts to an uncomfortable 3/4 perspective ala Zaxxon. You shoot down enemies from astride your speeder while the Ewoks help trap some of them. Then it's basically an obstacle course, flying the Millenium Falcon on your way to destroy a reactor. Then another speeder level, then pilot an AT-ST, then the Falcon, to destroy a star destroyer. I didn't care for this game much; the voice effects weren't very good.

I played the hell out of this @ Aladdin's Castle in Spring Hill Mall, Il.

I'm probably one of the few that like this game. Does it have it's flaws? Sure.... I know for me personally, the isometric view took
awhile to get used to. I do wish there was some different levels or some more variety. The Scout Walker one is alright, but the level
doesn't change much in higher progress. I do think the Star Destroyer one is lame - you really don't do anything here! My favorite, by
far, is the Speeder Bike chase... followed closely by the Death Star. Ironically, it's the two I have most trouble w/ at higher difficulty - damn
Ewok Gliders!

I actually like the sounds and voices in the game - it's very Atari-esque for the time...

There was a thread on Klov awhile back on why ROTJ was raster instead of vector. My thoughts, players were getting burned out on vector
and wanting the *higher* graphic quality. Well, that backfired since they went back to vector on ESB... remember the order they were released -
Star Wars, ROTJ then ESB...

There is some good Youtube vids out there of a guy whom is a pro at this game...

[schuwalker]

retrorussell, on Sun Dec 4, 2011 2:10 AM, said:

There's another one to chew over, while others can also think about ROTJ and other old ones..
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1985, Atari Games)
Good platformer with you as Indy whipping Thuggee guards, riding the minecarts and rescuing children. I like this a lot better than the fairly stupid movie, which was still way better than Crystal Skull (ouch). I first saw this at Malibu Gran Prix in Beaverton OR when I was 14 or so.

First and foremost... I love the movie TOD. It's right behind Raiders form but ahead of Crusade. I saw it opening day and about a dozen
viewings at the theater....

If there is anything you want to know about this game.. let me know!

This was my first arcade game purchased in 1990. Unofficially, I have the beaten all the world records on TG settings on ALL the difficulty levels...
I need to get off my lazy butt and submit a tape! This is definitely up there for my favorite arcade games ever.....

Edit: Here is a thread where I mention my high score....
http://forums.arcade...ght=temple doom

Edited by schuwalker, Sun Dec 4, 2011 8:03 AM.

[retrorussell]

Wow.. I was never really good at this game.. not good enough even to get to 100,000. I'd wander everywhere aimlessly trying to find all the stupid kids and Mola Ram and the bat would keep hounding me until I gave in to frustration and let them kill me.

[Crazy Climber]

retrorussell, on Sun Dec 4, 2011 2:10 AM, said:

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1985, Atari Games)

I'm in on this one! Probably one of the most memorable arcade games EVER for me personally
Flashback to the year 1986.....

ME - "Please, please, please Mom can I go to the arcade!!"

My Mom - "ask your Father"

ME - "Uh...Dad....can you please take me to the arcade?"

My Dad - "Yeah, I'll go to Chuck e Cheese"

My Mom - "Flash!?" (yeah, My Dads name is and always was Flash around our house, oh, our last name is Gordon, lol"

My Dad - "Oh c'mon, he loves the place and I can have a Beer and watch the game, 2 birds with one stone right?"

My Mom - "Okay but not so late this time"

That was a typical weekend conversation at my household back in 86 and my Dad loved Chuck e Cheese since he could hang in the lounge area, have a few beers and watch TV pretty much uninterupted. No, I didn't get to go every weekend but between my Father, My older Cousin, my other friends/parents and local places within walking distance I spent a LOT of time in the arcades

I don't think any game had the impact on me that Indiana Jones and the temple of doom did.....

As a kid I was a HUGE Indiana Jones fan, seriously, I wanted to BE Indiana Jones. I loved the movies, I had the toys (yup, they made IJ action figures and I had them ALL) I played the hell out of the Atari 2600 game, I read the comic versions of the movies, you name it I did it. Well, I remember one fine Saturday evening my Dad brought me to Chuck e Cheese and as I did my usual walk through, carefully deciding which game would get my first token, I saw it...Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom the Arcade Machine!!

This was huge, I had no idea this exsisted. If you could flasback in time I bet you would have heard my 10 year old self mumble an excited "Holy Shit" as I stared at it and walked towards it, fast, so nobody else could play it before me. As I marveled at this masterpiece I did my usual routine when I found the game I was going to play and started placing tokens on the control panel. All the older/cooler teens like my Cousin always did that so I did too since I wanted to be like them. I remember staring at the CPO for a while. I had a habit of spending a lot of time looking at the art and watching the attract modes. Then when somebody would start eyeing the game like they wanted to play I would start playing. I didn't do that to be a dick, more because I had to make every token count. I got to go to the arcade a lot so due to that I did not get large amounts of money when I was there. It wasn't unusual at all to have to make $2 or $3 last an evening. I was just thankful my Dad would bring me so I didn't want to ruin it by begging for money every 20 minutes, lol.

Well, I put my first token in, took the "easy" route and started whipping the crap out of anything I could. The first stage was a blast but what really floored me was the music, I thought (and still think to this day) it was just awesome. It fit the game SO well and really motivated me. This particular machine had the volume up LOUD and I absolutely loved it! I think it is the best in game music ever as far as getting me "pumped up to play" with maybe BK2K being a close second. I loved everything about this game but my absolute favorite had to be the mine cart stage. I really felt like I was in the movie, the speed, the intensity, the chase...AMAZING!!! I was hooked...I still do not understand why a proper home port of this was never made...

Well, the years went by and I got older but I still ALWAYS played Indiana Jones FIRST every time I was there. I was a kid with routines/habits and darting straight to the IJ machine first, then following up with a game of Bump n Jump (right next to IJ) had become my Chuck e Cheese ritual. Several other games had made the "cut" as far as games I had to play once every time I was there, Commando, Turbo and Rampage come to mind but none had the lasting effect IJ has had on me. I remember with the NES/Genesis coming out and a lot of my friends just having a general dis-interest in arcades as we got older I stopped going to the old Chuck e Cheese and other arcades for many years. I guess I just felt like it would always be there. If I knew then what I know now I never would have left.

I re visited Chuck e Cheese in my 20's after taking a long time off from arcades and it was different. IJ was replaced with a ticket dispensing redeption machine, in fact all the classics were gone. Sure they had Skeeball and other stuff but it was different, the magic was no longer there. I realized that day I wasn't a kid anymore and it was time to move on.

Okay, flash forward to my mid 30's and recently I was at the new chuck e cheese with my daughter. I spent the first 30 minutes or so walking around complaining to my Wife about how it sucks compared to the old one (when we were kids) and then ended up sitting at a booth drinking a pepsi while my Daughter ran around and played. One thing that always bummed me out back in the day was my Dad's lack of interest in arcade games. Don't get me wrong, we went to the arcade a LOT and now and then he might play a game of Frogger or pinball but overall with my Cousin and his older friends not wanting much to do with a 10 year old and my Dad hanging in the lounge I spent a lot of time by myself, yeah, I was that kid, lol. Well, While sitting in the booth, sipping my Pepsi I realized what I had to do. I saw my Daughter standing in front of some lame Frog redemption machine....

I snuck up behind her and placed a token in the Frog game. Now I knew it was going to be stupid but I pretended it was the best game I ever played. I cheered out loud when a ball landed in it's mouth and groaned in concern when it was over. I then played several more as my Daughter laughed and directed me what game to play next. Sometime in the middle of some Anime Dance Dance revolution game it hit me, the magic....IT WAS BACK! Yeah, it was different since I am on the parent side of things now but I looked around at a world of mystery just like when I was a kid. I wanted to play everything, I wanted to get the biggest pizza they had, I didn't want to leave.

I now have taken an oath to be passionate about whatever hobby my Daughter decides to take an interest in. I can only hope it will be video games but even if it's something like clothes or dolls I am going to do my very best to be a part of it. Games like Indiana Jones had such an impact on my childhood, they really make me think about how lucky I was to have it so good back then. If my Daughter can be my age someday and look back at something/anything the way I do about these old games then I will have done something right

Thanks Mom and Dad for bringing me to countless arcades and sitting through hours and hours of me mashing away quarters, you have no idea how happy those days made me

- Brian

[retrorussell]

Another one:
PLEIADES (or PLEIADS), 1981 Tehkan/Centuri

Very similar to Phoenix (and not as good IMO), you had to mow down 3 different stages of aliens before piloting your ship on a runway to the end of it without crashing, then it all starts over again.





I first saw this at an old Five and Dime store that was in Progress Plaza in Beaverton, OR just off Scholls Ferry Rd. and Hall Blvd., right at the Tigard/Beaverton border. The place always smelled of mothballs.. yuck!

[Crazy Climber]

Never saw this one in person, still to this day including shows/friends houses/etc..but I remember it thanks to that movie with Emelio Estavez.....can't remember the name of it off hand but he gets trapped in a game on lever 13 or something...

[schuwalker]

retrorussell, on Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:29 PM, said:

Another one:
PLEIADES (or PLEIADS), 1981 Tehkan/Centuri

Very similar to Phoenix (and not as good IMO), you had to mow down 3 different stages of aliens before piloting your ship on a runway to the end of it without crashing, then it all starts over again.





I first saw this at an old Five and Dime store that was in Progress Plaza in Beaverton, OR just off Scholls Ferry Rd. and Hall Blvd., right at the Tigard/Beaverton border. The place always smelled of mothballs.. yuck!

Believe it or not.... the first time I encountered one of these was at a Dominicks Gorcery Store - yeahhhhhh....

[Tempest]

Monte Carlo - Never seen it. I love the late 70's Atari look on the marquee though.

Mad Planets - I saw it once at an arcade, but it was out of order. Never got to play it.

Nintendo VS Cab - I got play this a Chuckie Cheese once. It had Duck Hunt in it, I remember it because I was amazed that when I shot the dog out of frustration it actually did something! I tried it again on my NES and, of course, nothing happened.

Return of the Jedi - I saw this a looong time after the movie had been out (maybe 1988-89). I could never beat the AT-ST level. Years later a guy at a local comic book shop had it in the store and I discovered that I still sucked at it.


Temple of Doom - The local arcade had this when it first came out. I thought it was really cool because of the music and voices (typical System 1 stuff), but it was brutally hard. I could never do the mine cart stage.

Pleiades - Never saw it in the arcades. I first played it on the Arcadia 2001 and then the 2600. They're pretty good conversions.

[retrorussell]

Crazy Climber, on Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

Never saw this one in person, still to this day including shows/friends houses/etc..but I remember it thanks to that movie with Emelio Estavez.....can't remember the name of it off hand but he gets trapped in a game on lever 13 or something...

NIGHTMARES (1983). Bad movie. Horror flick with like 3 or 4 stories, ala Creepshow style. The game he played was like Tron or something. I think Pleiades also showed up in WarGames of the same year.

[Crazy Climber]

retrorussell, on Fri Dec 16, 2011 2:31 PM, said:

Crazy Climber, on Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:13 AM, said:

Never saw this one in person, still to this day including shows/friends houses/etc..but I remember it thanks to that movie with Emelio Estavez.....can't remember the name of it off hand but he gets trapped in a game on lever 13 or something...

NIGHTMARES (1983). Bad movie. Horror flick with like 3 or 4 stories, ala Creepshow style. The game he played was like Tron or something. I think Pleiades also showed up in WarGames of the same year.

Nightmares huh, I never would have remembered that. Going to have to watch it now...

[retrorussell]

Another one:
TARG (1980, Exidy)
Simplistic but effective and challenging game with the player racing through a 9 by 9 grid shooting the Targ ramships and the Spectar Smuggler (Huh? What the hell is it smuggling? Heroin? Illegal arms? WTF?!), and as the number of enemies gets lower and lower, they get faster and smarter till you're in deep, deep sh*t. Great game, but one I was never particularly good at. The sequel Spectar was MUCH easier!


I think I first saw it at Malibu Gran Prix. Those ramships moved so fast toward the end of a level they scared me!
I think I first saw SPECTAR at Engine House Pizza in the Washington Square parking lot (now either the bus transit station or a Macy's parking garage).

[7800Lover]

I remember ROTJ - I saw it in a few arcades down in North Carolina in the early 1990s.

Funny you should mention Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was at the North Carolina State Fair in 1993 and I hung out by the video arcade set up there. This was around the time that Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat were popular. Those games had many kids gathered around them - so many that I could even get close. I stumbled upon a Temple of Doom arcade machine - and found it had 30+ credits on it! I spent the whole afternoon playing it.

[retrorussell]

7800Lover, on Sun Jan 15, 2012 6:39 PM, said:

I remember ROTJ - I saw it in a few arcades down in North Carolina in the early 1990s.

Funny you should mention Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was at the North Carolina State Fair in 1993 and I hung out by the video arcade set up there. This was around the time that Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat were popular. Those games had many kids gathered around them - so many that I could even get close. I stumbled upon a Temple of Doom arcade machine - and found it had 30+ credits on it! I spent the whole afternoon playing it.

Lucky!
I had a few times when people put credits in a game and just left it there.. or the game was set to free play. My sister and I played the hell out of Blue Shark once at Malibu Gran Prix when it was set to free play. Not the greatest game ever, but we didn't care, we were 7 and 9, and free play is free play!

[retrorussell]

Speaking of which..
BLUE SHARK (1978, Midway)
Kind of blah Sea Wolf clone where you fire with a mounted "dart rifle" (I guess) at sharks (big and small, the smaller quicker ones are worth more), octopii (which just appear here and there and don't move), and trying to avoid deep-sea divers (which deduct points when shot). My sister and I played this at Malibu Gran Prix.

[retrorussell]

And one more to chew on for a while:
DIGGER (1980, Gremlin/SEGA). Rather dull rip-off a Japanese game called "Heiyankyo Alien", where you dig holes in the playfield to trap aliens, then fill the hole (rather crudely rendered here) to kill the alien and earn points. Space Panic would make this formula much more successful with the addition of platforms and ladders. Another lame thing about this game is that you are timed in a matter that if you don't kill all the aliens in time, a HUGE mob of aliens outside the playing field bursts in and you are FRICKING SCREWED!!!
I saw this once at a mini-arcade in Beaverton Mall, by Payless I think. Back in 1981 or so. Also saw a cocktail Ladybug conversion in a Digger cabinet, at a highway diner called "Whimpy's", way back in probably '83 or so.

[7800Lover]

Here's another one: KICK MAN (Midway, 1981) - also known as KICK



I played this at a Showbiz Pizza down in North Carolina in the early 1990s!

The controls were a trackball and buttons. You had to pop balloons by moving so that they landed on your head. If you missed, you had to kick the balloon back into the air - if it touched the ground, you lost a life. Later rounds had you stack balloons on your head and Pac-Man made a guest appearance to eat those balloons or even ghosts that showed up! The bonus round had you trying to catch balloons and dodge bombs.

[retrorussell]

I liked, but was never terribly good at, Kick (Man). I had seen both versions. My best memory of it was at Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. was always looking around for some kid to hug or shake their hand, and I would try to stay far, far away from him.

[Crazy Climber]

Targ, Blue Shark, Digger... never played any of them, no memories
I've actually never even heard of Blue Shark or Digger. I remember seeing Targ but I don't think I ever played it.

[schuwalker]

Targ: Never played it.

Blue Shark: Never played it! (Cool cab though)!

Digger: Never played it!

Kick Man: Have played it! Very fun and VERY addicting!

[Tempest]

Targ - I never saw Targ in an arcade, but I played Sierra's Crossfire on my Apple II which is basically a Targ clone. I might have seen the sequel Spectar in the arcade though.

Blue Shark - Never saw it. Come to think of it, I think I only saw Seawolf II once and it disappeared pretty fast (this was around 88 or so so it was old hat by then anyway).

Digger - Never saw it.

Kick Man - I used to play this all the time in my local arcade. I was actually quite good at it. I remember liking the little Pac-Men even though it was a blatant tacked on element to the game (never saw the original Kick! before). I always liked the cityscape at night in the background, I found it very relaxing for some reason.

[retrorussell]

Another one to throw on the fire..
PROFESSOR PAC-MAN, 1983 Bally/MIDWAY
No participation from Namco.. thank goodness. Horribly conceived misfire of a game; a memory test with Pac-Man characters. Various aptitude questions are asked in multiple-choice fashion involving memory or basic reasoning (what is the mirror image of these glasses, how many windows in this building were red [after showing a picture for a few seconds], etc.) and the player was given points for both a correct answer and an expedient response. The music was loud and annoying. Overall, a terrible experience.