Pole Position is a racing arcade video game released by Namco in 1982. It was licensed to Atari, Inc. for US manufacture and distribution. Pole Position is considered one of the most important titles from the golden age of arcade video games. It was an evolution of Namco's earlier arcade racing electro-mechanical games, notably F-1 (1976), whose designer Sho Osugi worked on Pole Position.
Zaxxon is a scrolling shooter developed and released by Sega as an arcade video game in 1982. The player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki was also involved in the game's development.
Qix is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division. At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, containing the Qix, an abstract stick-like entity that performs graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the rectangle. The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.
Lode Runner is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to Space Panic from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a level and get to the end while being chased by a number of enemies. It is one of the first games to include a level editor.
Pengo (ペンゴ) is an arcade video game developed by Coreland and published by Sega. It was first released in Japan on September 26, 1982, in North America the following month, and in Europe that December. The player controls Pengo, a red penguin that resides in the Antarctic. The game takes place in an overhead maze made of ice blocks, where Pengo crushes blob-like Sno-Bees by sliding blocks into them. The objective is to survive each round by eliminating all Sno-Bees and Sno-Bee eggs, while optionally lining up the three diamond blocks to earn a large score bonus.
Mappy is an arcade game by Namco, originally released in 1983 and distributed in the United States by Bally Midway. Running on the Namco's Super Pac-Man hardware modified to support horizontal scrolling, the game features a mouse protagonist and cat antagonists, similar to Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry cartoon series. The name "Mappy" is likely derived from mappo (マッポ), a slightly pejorative Japanese slang term for policeman. The game has been re-released in several Namco arcade compilations. It spawned a handful of sequels and a 2013 animated web series developed by cartoonists Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub.
Popeye is a 1982 platform game developed and released by Nintendo as an arcade video game. It is based on the comic strip of the same name created by E. C. Segar and licensed from King Features Syndicate. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki did programming work on the game. As Popeye, the player must collect hearts thrown by Olive Oyl from the top of the screen while being chased by Bluto. Popeye can punch bottles thrown at him, but can only hurt Bluto after eating the one can of spinach present in each level. Unlike Nintendo's earlier Donkey Kong games, there is no jump button. There are three screens.
Elevator Action is a platform shooter game released in arcades by Taito in 1983. The player assumes the role of Agent 17, a spy infiltrating a 30-story building filled with elevators and enemy agents who emerge from closed doors. The goal is to collect secret documents from specially marked rooms, then escape the building. It runs on the Taito SJ System arcade system.
1985 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario Bros. and Kung Fu, along with new titles such as Commando, Duck Hunt, Gauntlet, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gradius, Hang-On, Space Harrier, Tetris and The Way of the Exploding Fist. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were Hang-On and Karate Champ in the United States, and Commando in the United Kingdom. The year's best‑selling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for a consecutive year, while the year's best‑selling home video game was Super Mario Bros.
Guerrilla War, released in Japan as Guevara (ゲバラ), is an overhead run and gun video game developed and published by SNK. Originally released in 1987 as a coin-operated arcade video game, Guerrilla War was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation Network, and ZX Spectrum.
Bank Panic is an arcade shooter game developed by Sanritsu Denki and released by Sega in 1984. Bally-Midway manufactured the game in the US. The player assumes the part of an Old West sheriff who must protect a bank and its customers from masked robbers.
Assault is a 1988 multi-directional shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It was licensed to Atari Games for release in North America. Controlling a caterpillar-tread self-propelled gun, the player is tasked with completing each of the game's eleven stages while shooting enemies and avoiding projectiles. It uses a twin-stick control layout, similar to games such as Battlezone. The plot involves the human race searching for new planets after Earth reaches its maximum population - after discovering an exo-planet 35,000 light years away from the Milky Way, they enslave the planet's natives and take control, leading to the planet's native population vowing to abolish the humans and bring peace to their world. The protagonist who rides the aforementioned self-propelled gun which players control, is one such native.
Frisky Tom is a 1981 arcade video game developed by Jorudan and published by Nichibutsu. In this game, the player assumes the role of a plumber, named Tom, who is tasked with protecting and maintaining a network of plumbing pipes that route water from a storage tank to a shower.
Yōkai Dōchūki is a 1987 platform arcade game developed and released by Namco in Japan and other parts of Asia. The player controls a young boy named Tarosuke as he must make his way through Jigoku, the Japanese concept of Hell, to reach Buddha, who will determine his fate. Tarosuke can fire small "ki" bullets at enemies to defeat them; he can also charge them to increase their power. Enemies will drop money when defeated, which can be used to purchase weapons and other items in stores. Two versions of the arcade original were released: a Japanese version and an English version which was released in other Asian countries outside Japan. The Arcade Archives release includes both versions.
Ninja Gaiden, released in Japan as Ninja Ryūkenden and in Europe as Shadow Warriors, is a 1988 beat 'em up game developed and published by Tecmo as a coin-operated arcade video game. It was first released in North America and Europe in late 1988, and then in Japan in February 1989. It was the first game released in the Ninja Gaiden franchise. The arcade game was a major commercial success in North America, becoming the highest-grossing arcade conversion kit of 1989 in the United States.
Exerion is a fixed shooter video game developed and published by Jaleco for arcades in September 1983, and licensed to Taito for manufacture and distribution of the game in North America. The player controls a starship and must fire at enemies on the screen while avoiding projectiles. The game uses a pseudo-3D scrolling background, giving a sense of depth, and the player's ship has a sense of inertia while it is being controlled with the joystick.
Up'n Down is an arcade video game developed by Sega and released in 1983. It was ported to the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit computers, and Commodore 64. In Up'n Down, the player drives a car forward and backward along a branching, vertically scrolling track, collecting flags and jumping on other cars to destroy them.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an action game developed by Atari Games and released in arcades in 1985. It is based on the 1984 film of the same name, the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise. It is the first Atari System 1 arcade game to include digitized speech, including voice clips of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Amrish Puri as Mola Ram, as well as John Williams's music from the film.
Thunder Blade is a third-person shoot 'em up video game released by Sega for arcades in 1987. Players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles. The game was released as a stand-up arcade cabinet with force feedback, as the joystick vibrates. A helicopter shaped sit-down model was released, replacing the force feedback with a cockpit seat that moves in tandem with the joystick. It is a motion simulator cabinet, like the previous Sega Super Scaler games Space Harrier (1985) and After Burner (1987). The game's plot and setting was inspired by the film Blue Thunder (1983).
T.A.N.K. is a 1985 vertically scrolling multidirectional shooter developed and released in arcades by SNK. It was published in North America as TNK III by Kitcorp. Versions of T.A.N.K. for home computers were released by Ocean Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC in 1987. A sequel was also released for the Nintendo Entertainment System titled Iron Tank.
