Back then you couldn't save your game, you had to get points to get extra lives, but it was really fun going into an arcade to play these 80's games i remember all the sounds from different machines all at once it was like entering to heaven for me LOL.
These old video games had a magic that can't be captured in any Xbox or Playstation game. Don't get me wrong, there are incredibly awesome games on those devices.... but there was something about the feel about these games as they were introduced to the public that cannot be underestimated. I imagine it would be like seeing the first cars evolve over the first couple of decades. Cars are better now, but how special the pioneer age is is lost.
I think it’s because old school games got straight to the point. You knew the objective of the game and went straight to work. You didn’t have to know a million button combos, you didn’t have long drawn out storylines full of long cut scenes, and you didn’t have long side quests and such where you have to travel in real time to accomplish (such as games like Assassin’s Creed where you may be doing a bit of walking before you get to whatever item or mission you have to accomplish. I’ve personally noticed that with a lot of up to date games, you have to have a lot of patience to play them because nothing is straight to the point.
Wow... Hearing, and seeing this clip brings back so many memories. Makes me wonder how many thousands of dollars I spent on Phoenix, Tempest, and Defender back in the 80's.
I agree. I have not thought about this particular game in a long ass time. And the sights and sounds triggered a whole bunch of memories from that time period.
I have a Phoenix machine in my basement but it needs a new monitor. Phoenix is my favorite of all of the classic arcade games. I first played it at Kroger in 1981.
I remember this back then in early 1980s along with Pac Man, Galaga, Galaxian, etc. and with over ten arcade machines running simultaneously it's very loud that you could barely hear each other.
I love this game! Just played it on my mame emulator the other day. Nothing beats playing this at the arcade during the 80s though. Blue moon carpet, smell of popcorn and pizza, and the sounds of defender, joust, venture, Gorf, robotron, galaxian, dig dug, etc. going on in the background! There is nothing that will ever come close to that feeling and arcade experience, as then. Was magical almost. Something I wish every young gamer could experience today. I still love games and play all the new ones, but nothing compares to 80s arcades! It was awesome! Build me a time machine someone.
Getting dropped off at the mall with $20 to see a movie, browse, get a pretzel and drink, and play video games for an hour was my idea of a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon as a young teen. As a college student, I'd walk between classes to the arcade at the edge of campus, next to the Kinkos copy place, and play Phoenix and Tron (the original one). A fellow computer science student worked at the arcade but was too honest to give his friends free games. :-)
This is what I love most about the Super Retro-cade. All these classic games are available and there's a joystick compatible with it that's readily available. And this classic game is one of the best! Thanks for the video!
This was one of the first video games that came to my town. It seems primitive now but I remember being so captivated by it, especially the sounds of it, as we had never heard or seen anything like it before. I just wanted to play it over and over.
Wow, this machine-game was the king in the arcade halls back in the early 80s. The atmosphere around it and the feeling once you hit the boss in the shielded spaceship was awesome (everybody were looking at you once you reached this challenging stage).
I worked in an automotive factory and I noticed the stamping presses always played tunes at different times depending on what was being done. Most of these were recognizable (Empire Strikes Back, Camp Town Races, Happy Birthday etc.). My favorite however, played when the steel coil was depleted and I could finally rest for a while in the 95 degree heat. The tune sounded haunting, yet strangely familiar, as it echoed throughout the factory. Now I realize why. It is the song at the beginning of this video. Had not heard it since I was a boy in the skating rink arcade.
Love this game, it's in my top 5 all time favorite arcade games. We used to have one in the lobby of a local movie theater that we would play while waiting to get into the movie. This is one of those games that is pathetically neglected on the home consoles. Other than the Atari 2600 port, I don't believe this game has been ported officially to any other console.
My very first video game addiction @ 80s Galleria (Ghetto) Mall in the 416. When an arcade game can make your ears burn like red hot coal, you know for certain you are completely immersed in it. For me, Phoenix was that game. Best arcade game of the 80's!
Oh jeez, me and my cousin Paul used to sit opposite each other and spend hours playing this in the arcade on holiday when I was a kid, man, so many great memories, sat there, each with a stack of 10 pence pieces, a couple of bags of crisps, and a can of coke to keep us going!
i loved this game!! its amazing what you are reminded of! i have recently bought a slightly inferior version for my tv and i am addicted all over again!!
You know that during the "cloud city" scene, you don't have to blast a hole through the underbelly. Just blast all of the moving purple barrier until the ship reaches bottom... then move to the center and your fire will go right through the underbelly and you get your max points.
100%. The 104,000 increase (that wasn't exactly 104,000 ... I don't know how it determined what the increase was, but it was my secret weapon when playing Phoenix. :-)
Many happy quarters spent on this game in childhood, and many more happy hours playing this on Taito Legends for PS2. Thanks for sharing! (Any similarity between the final boss and The Comet Empire is entirely coincidental.)
I remember playing this game with my brother back at one of the arcades. (Back when there were arcades.) This was more than just another Galaga clone, it had a different feel to it and tougher enemies.
Love all these old games, first time I ever cut out of school was in 5th grade to play Donkey Kong. Phoenix one of my all time favorites... sound effects take me baaack Game reminds me of Joust..
Ha! I love that at the end of the pink birds section of the 2nd level, you centred the spaceship and whacked the force field. That is how I played EVERY round.
Man, I forgot all about this game! Definitely one of my faves, but I always thought it sucked that you couldn't get a shooting rhythm with this game. A better fire control would've made this one of my all time favorites!
I played this a LOT in the arcades back in the 80s. Those were the days. No save games or anything like that, you HAD to stay on as long as possible with literally every arcade game back then.
I have a Phoenix arcade machine but it needs a new monitor. I started playing Phoenix during the Spring of 1981 at the age of nine. It has always been my favorite arcade game.
Yes remember this game I loved it. Around 1986 when I was 8 years old a friend of mine had this game in his garage we played it all the time. I'm 39 now and for about the last 10 years every so often I would try to remember and search for this game but I would always come up empty until I was driving home about 2 hours ago and so a guy wheeling an old arcade game out of a store and it said Phoinex on the side I instantly said that's it. When I looked it up and I was right. Brought back good memories. I miss doing chores around the house or cutting someone's grass in the neighborhood and going to the arcade with a 10 dollar and getting a pocket full of quarters and having the time of your life.
This game had a software glitch that would give you a ridiculous amount of points if you did it right. Me and my friend figured this out and had fun for about two summers......;love the '80's
Just walking into an arcade back in the late 70s and 80s was so fun... trying to make that $5 in quarters last as long as you could... :) The sounds ... the place lit up mainly by the machines only. Good times :)
Sounds different from how I recall it. I always thought these older Taito games had the arcade equivalent of a MIDI or PC speaker, and the notes it produced depended on the hardware of the specific machine. Played a lot of this as a kid, and even more recently on my PS2 copy of Taito Legends.
+TheCassiusTain This could be the rejuvenation of British pubs. Full of 45 year old men beating the crap out of Track & Field, trying to take sups of bitter before the next aliens come, victoriously filling out their initials in the top ten GAZ, BAZ, DAZ, ANT...
I never came across this game in the arcade as a kid, but some of the ships remind me of the arcade game Moon Cresta AKA Eagle. Also, I had a TRS-80 computer, and there was a black & white game on it called Cosmic Fighter that had similar-looking ships.
Yeah, there was an arcade game on the entry of the supermarket. As child, I could watch only the demos - my parents never ever gave me money to play this :D
Heck yeah!! I played this game all day everyday on Brunswick bowling alley in Northridge ca back in the day. I took my $1 weekly allowance and laid all 4 quarters on that game.
The first time I played this was around 1980...it was in a Shakey's Pizza parlor in Roebuck, Alabama (suburb of Birmingham); my Uncle bought us some thin-crust pepperoni pizza; I was 13, and when he shook my hand he practically *crushed* it (he was a little drunk, lol). I can practically *taste* that pizza when seeing this video of the gameplay :)
Fantastic game, I spent a small fortune playing this in the old wooden arcade (Where the pub is now) near the beach front at Dawlish Warren, great game.Don't know if it's been fixed now, but unfortunately in this Mame version the shoot sound isn't right (it sounds as if it's been reversed?), better using an older version that used samples, or better still, owning the real thing as I was lucky enough to have until a couple of years ago, sadly damaged beyond repair by a leaking roof! :(
