Best 1980s Video Games! 

Pauline was just Pauline, not Peach. She appears in Super Mario Odyssey on the Switch. Great video still.

Good gosh there will NEVER BE A DECADE as FUN as the 80's. I miss it so badly :(

I miss the 80s more than I can express, as a 16 yr old back than I wouldn't trade those awesome memories for anything 🦋💕

80s was an awesome decade to be a kid. I was born mid 70s so I got childhood and adolescence during that stretch. My parents used to forbid me from hanging out at the local arcade cuz they said that’s where the riff raff hung out. They were in denial, not realizing that I was part of the riff raff.

The 80s was decade where everything sort of came together for a lot of kids in America. I miss everything about it.

Galaga was my all time favorite, especially when you doubled up on ships and shooting the bonus rounds!

No missle command? That was a classic

Great video. One of the most popular games of the 80s left off the list was Asteroids. GREAT game and even more popular than Pacman in it's time.

Gauntlet with four players was extremely fun! I also loved Space Duel, a two player sequel to Asteroids; you could link the two ships together that would make movement a wacky and risky endeavor. The sit-inside version of Star Wars was incredible but usually cost 50¢, as did Dragon's Lair when it released. I also love another vector graphics game from Atari that is rarely mentioned....Major Havoc!

I spent a lot of time and money in arcades back in the day, my favorite being Joust. Thanks for the memories Rhetty

Moon Patrol and Ghosts and Goblins were my favorites.

I wish I were a youngster seeing this through fresh eyes and being entirely taken aback. As a 61 year old, I remember well when our mall got rid of an eatery/food court across from the theaters and the space gave way to a video arcade. It was an experience you can not recreate on a home videogame system by oneself.

I was 12 yrs. old in 1980... the perfect time for the video arcade craze that was just beginning to sweep the country. "Crazy Climber" was one of my favorites! Wish I had a time machine! Nice video by the way!! Thanks.

I think my favorite Frogger TV reference was when George found a Frogger arcade and had to cross a busy street with it. They then filmed a top view of George crossing the street, Frogger style, avoiding cars to get to the other side. That’s gold, Jerry. Gold!

My boyfriend & I spent rolls of quarters at a 7-11 playing GAUNTLET!!!! We Loved it!

I was born in 1968, and loved going to arcades in the 80s. One arcade near me had Pac Man Plus. I don't remember seeing that one around as much as regular Pac Man. Jr. Pac Man could be a real challenge.

I remember being 13 years old and my dad dropping me off at the mall. Of course I skipped the movie and went straight to the arcade and spent all my money there. When my dad pick me up later he picked me up on the other side of the mall where the arcade was. He says to me so you're telling me you spent all your money in that arcade and didn't even go see a movie and all those other kids leaving out of there spent all their money at the arcade as well. And I said begrudgingly yes. Thinking I was kind of in trouble within a couple of weeks my dad owned businesses at the front of our property and had a one right up front by the highway that was empty. Next thing I know the whole building is full of pool tables pinball machines and some of the first arcade games. He hands me the keys to the place that says make sure everybody has a good time and make sure they have plenty of change so they can spend their money. Man I was like a kid in a candy store even after closing I could play all the games I wanted for hours on end. We even had one pinball machine called Bigfoot. It was so large that it took two players most the time to play. Needless to say I had an awesome time and learned how to work and work with people. My dad made good money and also I got paid as well. Thanks Dad. I'm 55 years old and I will never forget it.

Classic arcade games are one of my favorite to play, even though the graphics are outdated i still enjoy them.

2 games that immediately came to mind were Star Castle and Gorf. There was also Omega Race, Berzerk, Rally X. But one of my absolute favorites was Wizard of Wor. It's one of the earliest co-op games that I know of but you also had the challenge of not shooting your teammate. Great times. On a side note, once I made a slug out of melted solder and it actually worked.

Asteriods, Missile Command, Xevious, Gyruss, Joust, Burger Time just to name a few that were not on the list. The early 80's was a timeless, priceless era. Tons and tons of bands touring to choose from, along with arcades everywhere, so much to do as a teenager. Nothing compares.

The 80s...I miss sooo much 😞 damn....❤️ The 80s is just a era that will always stay relevant, there's still games, movies and other related things that have a 80s influence or concepts 👍

Still think Defender has some of the best sounds ever created for a video game.

Pitfall was one of my favorites. It was released in 1982 on Atari.

Dragon’s Lair was super popular at the pizza restaurant my family frequented back when it came out. The cabinet had such large crowds gathered around it, they eventually added a second monitor on top of the cabinet so people in the back of the crowd could see what was happening. I remember that game being incredibly hard to play. But those laser disc games were pretty awesome to look at back then!

Thanks for the memories! I seem to recall a Star Wars game you could sit in. Being told that” the force is strong in this one “ is still a highlight of my arcade days!

Awesome. Centipede ruled!

Hi Rhetty ! I was huge centipede fan. Used to go as a big group on Fridays and hang. Was really a great generation (Genx) we had all the cool shyt 😍😎

Wish I had all those quarters back today! Every weekend was spent at the arcade. I can still remember many rows of different games.

The 89s really was the best decade ever. Such fun. So many wonderful memories. The arcade was always so much fun.

Vanguard, Mr. Do, Lady Bug and Jungle Hunt were among my favorite.

Going to the large arcades was like going to Disney land as a kid. But the best arcade games were in your local pizzeria :)

Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, Space Gun, and The Legend of Kage, were some arcade favorites of mine.

Nothing can really beat the 80's which was basically the last limited restriction era for kids where you can go basically anywhere without being questioned as long you don't piss off the wrong people.

I rarely see any of my favorites anymore. Asteroids, Star Castle, and Space Invaders were all staples of my childhood. Maybe I can one day play these again. Fingers crossed.

I still hit up arcades whenever I can. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, a lot of arcades now charge the flat fee, and that's not so great if you only have a short time to drop in and play a few games. But it's good to see all the retro arcades doing pretty well these days, regardless of their business model. Favorite games of all time: Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, Terminator 2, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Though I do love me many of the "deep classics" you mentioned in the video.

As a kid in the 80’s, the local arcade was such a magical place of wonder. Our town had 3 of them! I never had a roll of quarters - usually just $1-2 worth. Once I cashed in $5 and felt like a king! I could play so many games! The arcades were busy places, full of kids, though mostly teenagers. When you’re 8 years old, those 14 year old giants were intimidating. A bunch of time in the arcade was not spent playing the games, but instead watching others play. It was commonplace that if you walked by someone playing, and they were doing real good, you’d stay and watch. Not uncommon for crowds to form to watch. I can proudly (?) say there were some games I got pretty good at. Turning around after your game and seeing a bunch of strangers standing there and some commenting how good you were felt pretty great. Getting to put your initials, or 3 letter word in the high scores list was cool. I played the heck out of Track And Field - both the rollerball control version which pinched the hell out of your fingers, or the two buttons to run where you would quickly and loudly pound those buttons to run fast. I gravitated toward the driving games, so besides Pole Position, there were games like Spy Hunter, and a bunch of others that I thoroughly enjoyed. Cruising USA was late 80’s, but a lot of fun.

I was a teen in the 80s. Strange that none of these games had really caught my attention until Operation Wolf did it in the very late 80s.

This brings back memories. I spent the first two years of college in an arcade. I’ve remember and played most of the games that you mentioned.

I've actually played all of the games mentioned at one time or another. Although I think my absolute favorite was tempest. The glories of a misspent use.

I used to love going to the arcade back then. I was pretty good at Centipede and Tempest. Also loved Galaxian, Galaga, Defender, Stargate and Star Castle. There was another Flying Shooter game I recall it was F-14 Tomcat or After burn ... something like that. That was really cool too!

I loved playing Galaga & Donkey Kong. I could hardly ever get past the third set of elevators. I did maybe three times and I felt such a sense of accomplishment! I was so addicted to these games I would actually steal quarters from my parents! I wasn’t a bad kid really, I just needed my fix!

Asteroids hooked me but Dig Dug got me addicted. I could get my quarter's worth playing Dig Dug after you learned the patterns to stay alive. Joust, Frontline and Berserk also ate a lot of my quarters....Fun times.

Oh, I remember the arcades back in the day. I was 18 in 1980 when I went to my first arcade, which was old enough to still have pinballs and pool tables. When video games really took off in the early 80s, I saw machines in grocery stores and even drug stores (the drug store in Ashville OH was where I first played Donkey Kong), and back then, some of the arcades, particularly the one I remember just inside of Circleville OH allowed smoking; not good when you could see some of those old machines with burn marks where people parked their cigarette while they played. Games I would suggest for a possible future installment would include Taito's Jungle Hunt, Midway's Sinistar (an early game that featured digitized speech ("RUN, COWARD!"), Berzerk (two people playing this one died during play!), Konami's Gyruss, Nintendo's Mario Bros (which introduced Luigi, though I don't think he was called that initially), Atari's Battlezone (a very early FPS that was used to train tank crews as the Bradley Trainer), Sega's Space Harrier and Afterburner, and I could go on but won't :)

Some of my fondest childhood memories come from Arcades. When I was 7 I played a pinball machine in a skating rink. For whatever reason I kept playing for about 45 minutes. I drew a small crowd and didn’t understand why. But I was happy and having fun. Great times. 😢

Atari had some of the best Arcade games in the 80's. Paperboy, Guantlet, and Star Wars just to name a few. Great times 👍

I remember so many of these games. Awesome look back on them.

Wow! What a trip down memory lane! As an 80's kid, I dropped many, MANY quarters into Pac-Man, Galaga, Defender, and Star Wars! Those were good days and good times! Thanks for the great video!

I was totally addicted to Astroids in the early 80s. I could play for hours with just a few quarters. It was one of the first converted arcade games I played on my first PC around 1984.

This video definitely brought some great arcade memories. Thank you for sharing

I remember these and my kids wanting quarters constantly 😎

I remember when PacMan machines were lined up like that in the arcades...It was a phenomenon.

An arcade recently opened up in my town. We had a birthday party there for my son & daughter. They had a great time, but I think my dad had the most fun. ❤️ Wonderful memories we made & revisited!

Man I was so lucky to grow up in the 80's. There was nothing better than walking home from school (not even thinking about being kidnapped or shot) with friends and going to the arcade. I spent so many hours playing games its not even funny. I wish I could go back in time and just spend one week there just so I could appreciate it. Sadly, as kids we didn't know how goos it was...we didn't know these were the good times. We all wanted to grow up and be adults, now we all want to go back and be kids again...

My two biggest favorites that you didn't mention are Robotron 2084 & Marble Madness.

I played and loved everyone of those games. 2 of my favorites that you didn't mention are Joust and Synastar.

I loved Moon Cresta…I played it at my local Bowling alley every chance I got

Along with Joust, Robotron 2084, Time PIlot, and Gyruss were some of my favorites. I would spend hours trying to master each of these back then!

Gauntlet and elevator action also super sprint fun times

Shinobi and pole position for me!!! I had forgotten some of these I was really really bad at paperboy 🙄 awesome video 👍 thanks Rhetty ✌️💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Thanks for the memories...now I really feel OLD!!

When Q*Bert fell off the pyramid there was an electric “thumper” inside that would create a brief sound and a sensation throughout the wooden frame that made it seem as if Q*Bert had hit the bottom of the box inside. My favorite as a kid back then was “Battle Zone” - it was a three dimensional tank battle that you had to fight by out maneuvering the A.I. opponents. “Karate Champ” was another iconic game. Running out of quarters was awful … so to delay the inevitable you would just watch other people play. The Arcades always had the smell of warm T.V. tubes and circuit boards .. that warm electronics smell from all those machines being pushed to their graphical limits daily. Great memories from the 80’s !!

Love your videos! Living in the arcades as a teen and young adult it brought me about 5 years ago to remodel my basement to put an arcade in it. Have 9 games and 3 pinball machines. The only bad thing is being so old now, you spend more time fixing them then playing them. ps props on the Micheal Anthony with Pac Man pic!

Ahh the memories, Rhetty my friend you are still on top with your ideas, so enjoyable, keep up the great work.....thanks

Awesome video ! Thanks. Please never stop.

Joust! ... with the screeching pterodactyl! Great video 👍

Best gaming era ever... we went from zero to 60mph in the blink of an eye. There was nothing (apart from pinball and a few shooting cabinets) then there was everything.

These certainly take me back to the days of my youth as I visited many arcades in & outside Chicago. Good times. 👾

THANKS a million for taking me back to MEMORY LN.. with this video. I actually remember PLAYING every single game that you mention in your video.

Wow that was a trip down memory lane. 😊 Excellent 🎉

You rock! Please keep these "life in the 80s" videos going please!

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and the school I attended during the early/mid 80s was right across the street from a popular mall that a great video game arcade, so almost everyday during lunch or after school, I'd go and play in my favorite games. I tried most of the games on this list at least once, but some I played over and over again. My favorite back then was Ms., Pacman. I remember liking Q-Bert even though I was really bad at it. I'd tried my best but I'd always wind up sending poor little Q-bert flying backwards off the steps. Sigh...good times.

Great video, thanks for posting!

A lot of fun games and great memories from the 80's video games and music. They sure have changed over the years though, there weren't any games that you had to cut off heads, shoot people in the face or cut off arms either.

Great nostalgic video! Some other games I’d throw in are Joust, Burgertime, and Tapper!

I like seeing the arcade games coming back. We had a bunch here that the kids played on the Atari and Nintendo systems. I was a master at Frogger!

Thank you for the nostalgia...

Wow, you brought back so many memories. I’ve played every single one of those games and loved every minute of it.

Man this video just hit me hard with the nostalgia! I've played every game on this list. Donkey Kong was one of the first video games I ever played. There was a cabinet in our Holiday Inn that we were staying at and I'll never forget getting hooked on this game and video games in general because of it. I also played Pac Man all the time although I really enjoyed Ms. Pacman much more. I also spent a lot of time playing Dig Dug,Tempest, Tron and Q-bert. There are just so many games I used to play that it's hard to list them all. I do remember loving Crystal Caverns and dropped a lot of tokens in that one. Joust was another one I played a lot. I remember being blown away by Dragon's Lair when I first played it in a Crystal's pizza. The cartoon graphics were so far above anything else we had ever seen although the "gameplay" was limited to simple button clicks and joystick movements but it didn't matter to me because it was just so cool looking and exciting. By the time I played Super Mario Bros. at a Peter Piper pizza, the Nintendo Entertainment system was released and I was soon playing it at home. That was just the most amazing moment for me in playing video games, that I was playing an arcade game at home and it looked exactly like the arcade game, unlike Pac Man for the Atari 3600. I've been a gamer ever since. Great video!

Galaga & Dig Dug were the games I was the best at, really enjoyed playing for hours ✌️ Hanging out at the arcade was the place to be

Tanks for the memories. Video game tanks, that is!

Great video. Takes me back. Was waiting patiently for Tron.

Man this brings back memories I'm a 90s kid. But the bowling alley that I used to hang out at had a bunch of these old games that still worked. I spent alot of quarters on Pac Man, Mario, Donkey Kong, Qubert, and 1942.

we had this place in Island Park, NY called Tony Greco's Pizza Machine in the 1980s that was a giant arcade and pizza place , it was the best place ever for an 11 year old. Nathan's in Oceanside, NY was a great arcade until the late 1990s also who remembers these places

Fantastic times in 1980 s, loved it

Really great walk back in time. I loved all of these games. One more for the list is "Joust"

Brings back memories of my childhood at the skating rink my favorite game was Ms Pacman & Thanks Rhetty you're AWESOME!!!🤍

Best years ever as a kid. Best video games ever

I used to visit various Arcades all through the 80’s & loved playing Popeye,Donkey Kong,Ms.Pac-Man,Centipede,Frogger,Tron,Pole Position,Mario Brothers,Moon Patrol,Rhett the list could go on.Thank You for another of your awesome video’s.Have a good one!

I loved them all and was master at most of them! I could go into an arcade with just a dollar and play all day! Kids hated it when I was playing because they knew I would be on there for an hour with just one quarter/game lol The 80s were so awesome!! Thanks Rhett!

This is going to sound bizarre but I never played any video games EVER! I played pin ball and that was it. I was a geology nerd and loved my rocks! Sorry to disappoint Rhett!

Awesome video. A lot of good memories here. Thanks!

My Dad loved playing Defender, he was good at it. Asteroids was another great game.

Hi Rhett. Hope you are good.

I've played them all and hands down Galaga was my deal! :)

Absolutely POWERFUL! Loved every minute of this! I have played almost all of the ones mentioned. Out of all the consoles I have owned, I would say I had the most fun with the Sega Master System. Shinobi and Joust were Arcade favorites!

My Favorites: Frogger, Centipede, Pole Position, Star Wars... and the Pinball Machines!

Dragon's Lair and Space ace were technically one of a kind as they both used regular animation on a Laserdisk that would be selected by the joystick input at certain key points in the game. Space Invaders was also technically impressive as it used a two way mirror to overlay the animation on the background. The arcade games achieved great performance because most of them used multiple processors for audio and video, something that wasn't the case for home computers and consoles. As for me, the best game was Space Harrier. If there was still an arcade opened around here, I'd still pop-in some tokens just to play this on the big motion-controlled cabinet that they had.

I know this is a 1979 game, but anyone know Lunar Lander? That game is amazing.

LOVE this!! That was me. Every weekend at the local arcade, Stargate. Wearing bright colored clothes and suspenders, playing Pac Man. Such a fun childhood!!

Brings back tons of good memories!