Arcade Games - Profiles and Reviews

Nazi's on the moon?! When the Red Skull constructs a giant laser pointed at Earth, it's time for the game's title hog Captain America to assemble Iron Man, Hawkeye, and The Vision in a 4-way beat-'em-up adventure that ends up being more hilarious than serious thanks to some horrible English translations.

After Atari made a big splash on the arcade and home-console market with Pong, the company's co-founder Nolan Bushnell, sought to find a new way to milk the franchise. They had already exhaustively repackaged Pong as much as they could, so the only option was to create an all-new type of game using the same mechanics - a single-player Pong with...

Video game experts state that great games come from iterative design, meaning that the more you build upon your ideas and design, expand upon them, and rework them based on testing and feedback, the better your game can be. So is the case of Super Breakout, which not only uses, but builds upon the fun and addictive gameplay of the original.

After landing the North American license to distribute Namco's megahit Pac-Man in North America, Midway Games came up with a foolproof plan to keep the Pac-train moving. They put out an unofficial, unauthorized mod of the video game cash chow and titled it Ms. Pac-Man, which was not only the first arcade game with a female protagonist, but is...

A year after negotiations for the Popeye video game license fell apart, Nintendo and their legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto got a second crack at a Popeye arcade game thanks to the success of Donkey Kong.

Ever spot Pong in a barrel, or see Snoopy taking a snooze on top of the game cabinet? Don't you wish your doctor had a Pong cabinet in their waiting room? Well at one time all of these weird versions of Pong existed, and they were all officially made by Atari.

Video games are always the topic of controversy, but have you ever wondered what was the very first controversial video game? Surprisingly it wasn't due to violence, or even the game's content. The ruckus was all about how you played it - buy rubbing pink rubber breasts...and it was all the brainchild of Atari.

While there are loads of popular non-violent video games ranging from Pong and Tetris to Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, video games have always been associated with violence. There is no real mystery behind this as the very first video arcade games, Computer Space and Galaxy Game were shooters where the goal was to shoot down...

Back in the golden age of the video arcade, coin-op game manufactures would pitch their latest and greatest offerings to arcades, pizza places, bars and bowling alleys using arcade flyers. These slick one sheets showed awesome art and did their best to tease managers, owners and buyers to take the plunge. Being that 1981 was the height of the...

In a far off galaxy alien invaders torment an innocent planet, kidnapping the humanoid inhabitants and transforming them into berserk killer mutants. Their only hope for survival is in the hands of the Defender, a lone gunner space ship who must destroy the enemy crafts and rescue their victims in the first side-scrolling video game.

Today it would be a shock to meet a gamer who hasn’t heard of Pac-Man. The game as well as our hungry hero have become icons of arcade games and ‘80s pop-culture, thrusting video games from a fad into a phenomena. Pac-Man spawned it’s own market beyond just video games with toys, clothes, books, cartoons, even food products, and it all started...

He jumps, he hops, he eats flies and sometimes he even falls in love. He’s Frogger, the most addictive amphibian in arcade history and it’s up to you to make sure he makes it home safe without getting splattered.

Pac-Man may have been the icon of ‘80s arcade games, but it was Donkey Kong that put Nintendo on the video game map, spawned two of the most enduring characters in video game history, and turned newbie game designer Shigeru Miyamoto into an industry legend.

By the mid-'70s arcade games were staring to build a modest popularity thanks to the 1972 hit Pong, but at the pizza parlor and amusement arcades Pinball was still king; that was until 1978 when a Japanese space shooter came along that became such a pop-culture phenomenon it caused a coin shortage, turned arcades into “video arcades” and went on...

Originally built in 1971 and painstakingly restored by a private collector, take a rare look at an original working model of the very first video arcade game.

Before becoming the founders of Atari, Inc. and introducing the world to Pong, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney made their first historic stamp in the video games industry when they reworked the popular computer lab game Spacewar! into a mass produced coin-op arcade cabinet. In doing so they created the very first commercially distributed video...

In anticipation of the 1984 Summer Olympic games, and to ride on the merchandising success the global competition brings with it, Konami released an innovative button mashing arcade title that was destined to become the most popular Olympic-themed video game of all time at both the video arcade and home.

Just a year after video games made their debut in arcades, SEGA unveiled the first coin-op cabinet to star the most terrifying aquatic creature, the Killer Shark. While this light gun arcade shooter gained considerable notoriety from its cameo in Steven Spielberg's classic monster shark movie JAWS, it turned out that Killer Shark was actually not a video game at all, but a mechanical achievement in coin-op animation.

What began as a sequel to a Space Invaders rip-off became one of the most popular arcade game of all time though it's addictive, unique, and fun gameplay that never gets old.

In the 70s and 80s the video arcade was the place for gamers to be! Imagine a hang out where you’re surrounded by some of the greatest video games ever made, other fanatics who share your 8-bit passions and really bad snack bar food.

Are you ready for some Medieval Football! Teams from two villages straight out of the dark ages battle with brutal violence and hilarious action in one of the most unusual, addictive and rare football video games ever made.

Twin Brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee fight rival gangs after a post-apocalyptic holocaust in the beat-em-up game that defined the genre.

Come join us as we take a fantastic journey inside a classic video arcade game and learn just what makes those awesome old-school games tick.

When Spy Hunter first hit arcades in 1983, no gamer had ever seen a driving or shooter game like it. An instant hit, Spy Hunter has become a staple of Midway Games arcade classics, and although it has gone through several remakes and sequels, none of its descendents hold a steering wheel to the original.

Journey through a dark wizard’s castle, escape deadly traps and battle monstrous minions on a quest to save the beautiful Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe in the closest you’ll get to playing the original Don Bluth animated Dragon’s Lair arcade game at home.

Lost in a sea of early 90s fighting games, Magic Sword is a hack ‘n slash arcade classic that never gained the recognition it deserved. Slashing your way through evil wizards, dragons, flying wasp men…and Grizzly Bears…has never been so much fun.

Dedicated to one of the first coin-op arcade games ever created. Includes the history, image, images and technical specs. Computer Space was released almost simultaneously with the other first coin-op arcade game ever created, Galaxy Game.

Online document breaking down the background and history of Galaxy Game. Released at nearly the same time as Computer Space, this is one of the first coin-op arcade games ever.

Article from thelogbook.com on Disco No. 1, an obscure arcade oddity where you have to boogie down to impress the ladies at a discotheque. A game made when there still were discos!