REACTOR: An Arcade Gem from the Golden Age | Kim Justice 

Never thought this game would get the attention it deserved, but it's like you said, finding those underrated gems on MAME is the best. This is why I treasure the arcade as well.

That music.. ! When my kid was little, I used to blast the Reactor song and pretend I was a killer robot chasing him, he still freaks out a bit when he hears it.

Your channel is massively underrated.

It looks a lot like a game that I've been playing recently. I fondly remembered a game on one of the 8bit micros, that I couldn't remember the name of, or find in my rom collection. I didn't realize that it was a port of an arcade machine, it was Namco's Motos, and it has lived up to expectations of my nostalgia. A fantastic forgotten arcade gem. Highly recommended :)

HI Kim, thanks for this :)

While I never played the arcade version of Reactor my best friend's family did own a 2600 and had that console's version of it way back when. We didn't understand exactly what was going on in that game, as we both young kids, but we did have a ton of fun "frying" the console (as my best friend called it then) by turning the power on and off rapidly, messing with the cartridge while the 2600 was on and so on to glitch out the graphics and sound for the game even more. In particular we managed to get some really gnarly 2600 versions of the Reactor music going. They had their 2600 hooked up to an old 25 inch console television in their basement that had a surprising large and loud speaker on it. We got yelled at by my friend's mother many times to turn it down while we were rocking out to Reactor on the 2600!

Man, I spent countless quarters on this in Funtime Arcade in Plainfield, NJ. back in the early 80's. The beauty of this game was that not many people played it, so I always got to have the machine to myself for a lot of the time. My girlfriend would gravitate to the Centipede machine just behind the Reactor machine and we would happily spend hours playing. I could never explain to my friends why I loved it so much. I just thought it had novel gameplay, a great soundtrack and a cool aesthetic. Now I carry it with me everywhere in my Miyoo Mini Plus, along with many of my other arcade classics. Thanks for highlighting this forgotten classic.

I had this for my Atari. Although not exact, it was still a pretty good port. I finally played the arcadeabout 10 years later. It's crazy there was once a time where you could play a port and it would be forever until you saw the original.

Maybe my favourite arcade game, alongside Tempest. Both were part of the “Game Masters” exhibition, which toured Australia, Europe and the USA a couple of years ago. I was lucky to work at the museum when it was shown here in Hamburg, so I could experience the original cabinet. Highly underrated, highly recommended!

I. Loved. Every. Version. Of this game!!

This game is so bizarre; but so cool. Emulated it over a decade ago now! Hey Kim.... you know I've been watching you since the days you played out your vids with 'white summer' from space harrier!? All the best ok?

I absolutely love the tutorial music in this game. For what it's worth, there's a pretty good clone for the Atari 2600 called SpaceMaster X7.

Damn, a riff so dirty you could get MRSA

Super fun! Thanks for another video!

There's something about that short snippet of music that Reactor plays that's so... metal. It has one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music ever. It's also one of the very few games where, when they ported it to the Atari 2600, the music still sounded badass. Almost no music sounded badass on the Atrari 2600. This game achieved that. And the sounds that this game made in the arcade were right up there with the awesome sounds of Defender, and Robotron. And that heartbeat... that deep "Thump Thump Thump" that the game made, that got faster and faster as you started losing more and more space to move was so paranoia inducing. This is sadly one of those arcade games that you really can't get the feel of using an emulator, unless you have an actual track ball controller. If you don't have a track ball, you're better off playing one of the ports that are designed for a joystick like the Atari 2600 version.

I have been watching some of your old videos and loving them. Still got loads to go through as well. Massively underrated channel and I can't believe you don't have more subscribers. Keep up the fantastic work ❤

A Kim video - my day is complete.

Neat little arcade game. I like it.

What a quality "Skelly" game that was! Thanks Kim!

Gottlieb's games all had great, crunchy soundtracks.

I still remember the sounds when playing it on my Atari.

Never heard of it but looks very interesting. There's a Spectrum game about bashing other balls off a surface too isn't there?

Great topic for series of videos. Looking forward to upcoming videos.

I briefly played it years ago. I can remember being confused and trying something else. Nice video, I'm going to give it another go.

Simplicity itself but with fantastic gameplay. A perfect example of less is more unlike games of today, which are bloated hollow experiences. Thanks for this, Kim.

Always a pleasure to see you upload 🕹 👍

Great format. Thanks 🎉❤

Next do Uncle Poo. This game escaped my attention until just a few years ago. It's hilarious and an OK game. . I don't know why it didn't have a wider distribution. Maybe the whole poo thing was just too much. Younger people probably don't realize how common it was to find video games in all kinds of weird places. In super markets, regular stores, corner stores, restaurants .They were in bars too, but being 12, I wasn't allowed in them. The Sears in my area, which was very large (it also served as the logistics hub for the East coast) had a full blown mini-arcade on the third floor, plus a game or 2 at every entrance to the store, of which there were a few. . It usually had about 12 video games and 4 or 5 pinball machines.

Oh, and I do like a "nice and dirty riff"...

Good Work as Always, Kim 😊

That is a DIRTY riff!

I always wanted to hear a mash-up between the Reactor theme and You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates.

I learned of this game by watching nuclear documentaries. It looks actually really fun.

I didn't know anything about this one, thanks!

Great video, never heard of this one!

I suspect that corporations like Warner, William and Bally/Midway (and so on) were uneasy with the idea of revealing the fact that the cartridge they were demanding $30 for was the product of just one person. In an era when consumers were used to seeing the caption roller crediting everyone involved in a TV show running for about a minute at the end, or cinema credits that could run for several minutes, allowing such text as "Written by D. Crane" into your 'product' would have let the cat out of the bag/genie out of the bottle. It's often said that Activision and EA took advantage of brand loyalty and yes, both entities still exist, but the days of crediting teams ended 30 years ago with John Romero and John Cormack. Prove me wrong ;-)

This looks like a lot of fun, thanks for introducing this to me! Would never have heard of it otherwise.

Never seen this before. Looks interesting.

Hooray for 8-bit particles! 1982 eternal!

I thoroughly support this kind of content Kim... but appreciate the longer form `deep dives' too!

Thanks a lot for your fast reply. Sorry I like to get to know the Name of the the 2nd Sidescroller from Left to right which featured Insects attacking at the beginning of the Video. Thanks a lot for your help.

I think that pulsating mass in the middle of the screen might put me off, sorry.

Anyone know the game with the giant chicken around 0:15?

How is the shoot em up Game called with the Insects at the Start of the Video?

What's the name of that vector game ?

WARNING: Core unstable!

Addicting, Kim? Not you too

the word is FRANTIC not PHRENETIC.......... for god's sake....