|
|
Games of Interest
Home » Game Rooms » Arcade Games » Games of Interest• Space Invaders: This was the first arcade game to achieve widespread success, becoming so popular it moved from arcades to pizza parlors and restaurants.
• Galaxian: An improvement on Space Invaders, Galaxian included dive-bombing aliens that could kidnap your spaceship. This was the first full color arcade game.
• Pacman: Based on Japanese folk tale, this game was originally named “Puck Man”. The name was changed for the American release, to reduce the risk that a teenager with a magic marker would strategically deface the name into profanity. Pacman was so popular, it spawned a TV show, a breakfast cereal, a top-10 Billboard hit record, and a board game. In Japan, a shortage of Yen coins was directly attributed to the popularity of the game. Pacman is one of the most successful arcade games of all time, having earned over four hundred million quarters since 1982.
• Battlezone: The first truly 3D arcade game was Battlezone. The US Army was so impressed by the technology, they commissioned Atari to convert Battlezone for use as a tank training simulator.
• Donkey Kong: The first game designed by a young artist named Shigeru Miyamoto, this humble game about a stubborn ape and a plucky plumber stood out in arcades full of spaceships and aliens. It was a huge hit for Nintendo, and the first appearance of Mario (yes, THAT Mario). Miyamoto has helped Nintendo build an empire out of monkeys, mushrooms, and damsels in distress.
• Breakout: Designed by Nolan Bushnell, this brick-breaking game had its roots in Pong. Two of the employees who worked on it were the young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who later went on to become millionaires as the founders of Apple Computers Inc.
• Centipede: This was the first coin-operated game designed by a woman, Dona Bailey. Like Pacman, Centipede stands out as a game that is equally enjoyed by men and women, while other titles (like Battlezone) were much more popular with men.
• Dragon's Lair: While other arcade games struggled with primitive graphics and sound, Dragon's Lair stood out by offering movie-quality animation by Don Bluth Studios (creators of American Tail and The Secret of NiMH). Although the use of laser disk and a professional animation studio made the development of Dragon's Lair very expensive, it grossed more than 32 million dollars in its first 8 months.
• Street Fighter II: Although there had been many “fighting” games before, this game set many trends that are still visible today. First of all, each of the playable characters in the game had their own set of “special moves”. These special moves could be triggered by a specific sequence of joystick motions, and they would unleash anything from a fireball to a flurry of kicks. Also, each character had their own fighting style, making the game feel completely different and new when you switched characters. Finally, it featured “Chun-Li”, the first instance of a female character who wasn't a girlfriend or a princess waiting to be rescued. Chun-Li opened the door for future female fighters like Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame.
• Mortal Kombat: Although it didn't cover much new ground compared to Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat did make its mark in one area: extreme violence. With finishing moves that could remove an opponent's still beating heart amidst a spray of blood, this game got a huge reaction from politicians and family groups throughout the world. The backlash against Mortal Kombat eventually lead to the creation of the ESRB rating system used today. In spite of (or maybe because of) the negative publicity surrounding it, this game was quite successful, and went on to spawn several sequels, movies, and TV shows of the same name.
Related Arcade Games Articles