I know, I know, this makes three video entries in a row. What can I say? I keep finding stuff that amuses me. Just play the clip…
Ah, Defender… I wasted many hours of my life on that one…
5 comments on “Life Was So Much Simpler in ’82”
Cranky Robert
I am so out of step with video games, not having played one since about 1987 (except the occasional Pac Man if I find one), that I don’t even know how out of date these games are. I do remember my favorites: Pac Man and its offspring, Dig Dug, Galaga, Star Wars, Marble Madness, and Donkey Kong. I greatly preferred maze-type games over point-and-shoot games. The last video game I remember coming out was Gauntlet. Then my brother got a Nintendo and I spent an entire summer playing Super Mario Bros 3. That’s really all I remember. I don’t even know what the kids are playing nowadays, I just know that “they don’t appreciate it like we did, dagblammit!”
No, they don’t! Dang kids these days, what with their Wii and their Dance Dance Revolution or whatever the call it…
I had (still have) one of the Atari consoles and that was pretty much the limit of my home gaming experience. I never got into Nintendo or PlayStation or PC games. I was basically an arcade player, back in the golden age that’s so brilliantly captured in the movie Tron.
I recall seeing my very first arcade game — Space Invaders — at a crappy neighborhood movie theater called the Greenbriar (long story there). I dumped a lot of quarters into it, as well as Asteroids, BattleZone, Galaga, PacMan, and Tempest. Never did like Donkey Kong much — that stupid ape always squashed me. I was positively obsessed for a while by Zaxxon and, later, Gauntlet. And in college I remember playing a couple called Hydra and Heavy Barrel. I guess I was more of a shooter…
Cranky Robert
I’ve never even heard of Zaxxon, Hydra, or Heavy Barrel. But I’m surprised that you didn’t mention Star Wars. As I recall, the graphics were incredibly crude (even more so than contemporary games), but you got to battle Tie fighters, fly down the trench, and blow up the Death Star. My local arcade had a sit-down console with a super-size screen, so the flying and shooting aspects were truly thrilling.
Hydra and Heavy Barrel both came out in the late ’80s, beyond the time when you said you were playing, so I’m not surprised you never saw them. Hydra was really fun… you got to drive a James Bond-style boat in search of various treasures and stuff, and if you did well, at the end of the level some digital bikini babes would cuddle up to the long-haired rockstar-looking dude that was supposed to be you.
Zaxxon was a fun game, too; I’m surprised you never encountered it. You controlled a sort of airplane-space fighter-type vehicle that was attacking cities and oil refineries and things. Very similar to strafing the Death Star. I actually have a pretty funny Zaxxon story. If I get time in the next couple of days, maybe I’ll tell it here on the blog…
As for that Star Wars game you mention, I remember it well. I just didn’t think to mention it in the earlier comment. I remember the exact same sit-down unit you describe, as well as a more typical upright model. I always preferred the sit-down one; more like being in a for-real X-wing! 😉
There is a fairly modern SW game as well that I still around once in a while. It’s another sit-down style, with three levels: Death Star attack, defend Hoth, and Endor speeder-bike chase. Modern, fairly realistic graphics. I always enjoy the Hoth level, because at one point it turns into a first-person shooter and you can run through the Rebel base frying stormtroopers on your way to the Falcon!
chenopup
Ah, the Greenbriar. I still look up even when walking into the new multiplexes to make sure I won’t hit my head on the ceiling 🙂
As for Atari, that is pretty much my experience with video games. Back when it was entertainment and not a way of life.
I am so out of step with video games, not having played one since about 1987 (except the occasional Pac Man if I find one), that I don’t even know how out of date these games are. I do remember my favorites: Pac Man and its offspring, Dig Dug, Galaga, Star Wars, Marble Madness, and Donkey Kong. I greatly preferred maze-type games over point-and-shoot games. The last video game I remember coming out was Gauntlet. Then my brother got a Nintendo and I spent an entire summer playing Super Mario Bros 3. That’s really all I remember. I don’t even know what the kids are playing nowadays, I just know that “they don’t appreciate it like we did, dagblammit!”
No, they don’t! Dang kids these days, what with their Wii and their Dance Dance Revolution or whatever the call it…
I had (still have) one of the Atari consoles and that was pretty much the limit of my home gaming experience. I never got into Nintendo or PlayStation or PC games. I was basically an arcade player, back in the golden age that’s so brilliantly captured in the movie Tron.
I recall seeing my very first arcade game — Space Invaders — at a crappy neighborhood movie theater called the Greenbriar (long story there). I dumped a lot of quarters into it, as well as Asteroids, BattleZone, Galaga, PacMan, and Tempest. Never did like Donkey Kong much — that stupid ape always squashed me. I was positively obsessed for a while by Zaxxon and, later, Gauntlet. And in college I remember playing a couple called Hydra and Heavy Barrel. I guess I was more of a shooter…
I’ve never even heard of Zaxxon, Hydra, or Heavy Barrel. But I’m surprised that you didn’t mention Star Wars. As I recall, the graphics were incredibly crude (even more so than contemporary games), but you got to battle Tie fighters, fly down the trench, and blow up the Death Star. My local arcade had a sit-down console with a super-size screen, so the flying and shooting aspects were truly thrilling.
Hydra and Heavy Barrel both came out in the late ’80s, beyond the time when you said you were playing, so I’m not surprised you never saw them. Hydra was really fun… you got to drive a James Bond-style boat in search of various treasures and stuff, and if you did well, at the end of the level some digital bikini babes would cuddle up to the long-haired rockstar-looking dude that was supposed to be you.
Zaxxon was a fun game, too; I’m surprised you never encountered it. You controlled a sort of airplane-space fighter-type vehicle that was attacking cities and oil refineries and things. Very similar to strafing the Death Star. I actually have a pretty funny Zaxxon story. If I get time in the next couple of days, maybe I’ll tell it here on the blog…
As for that Star Wars game you mention, I remember it well. I just didn’t think to mention it in the earlier comment. I remember the exact same sit-down unit you describe, as well as a more typical upright model. I always preferred the sit-down one; more like being in a for-real X-wing! 😉
There is a fairly modern SW game as well that I still around once in a while. It’s another sit-down style, with three levels: Death Star attack, defend Hoth, and Endor speeder-bike chase. Modern, fairly realistic graphics. I always enjoy the Hoth level, because at one point it turns into a first-person shooter and you can run through the Rebel base frying stormtroopers on your way to the Falcon!
Ah, the Greenbriar. I still look up even when walking into the new multiplexes to make sure I won’t hit my head on the ceiling 🙂
As for Atari, that is pretty much my experience with video games. Back when it was entertainment and not a way of life.