I was 2 in 1983, i started playing coin op arcade in 1987, I also got a sega master system in 1987 and a nes in 1989.Then all the arcades died around 1999 to 2001,
The mid 80's were amazing for arcade games and arcades in general. Our local mall didn't just have one but TWO full sized arcades in it. One upstairs and one downstairs!
The downtown area of my city had this amazing spot called Space Center, which was such a cool vibe growing up. In addition were the arcades at Hampton Beach, NH and of course Funspot in Laconia NH.
I loved those days as a kid where every supermarket has an arcade game. My parents would do their groceries while I plunked quarters and enjoyed these arcade classics
I remember being 12 in 83, walking into a sears and seeing Atari games in a bargain bin pile, these game would always be behind glass, knew something was wrong, bought ET for 5 dollars new, Dragons Lair in the arcade for 50 cents, unreal!
Last new game I remember playing in an arcade was "Pole Position". I was working and still in high school in '83 and I haven't been in an arcade since then. Honestly I didn't even know there was a video game crash until I started collecting vintage consoles about 15 years ago.
Man, I used to love the fact that every 7-Eleven and laundromat in the 80s had arcades!?!?! Me and friends would walk around town looking for new... Good Times!?!
Mappy is sooo underrated! Very happy you put Mappy on the list :) Mappy is a really fun and great game. Even to this day, I still have a great time playing it. I never understand why Mappy is not as popular as Pacman, Dig Dug, and Galaga. If you ask me, out of all the Namco games, Mappy is the game I have most fun with.
@David Herrera, if I do recall correctly, both Mappy and Mappyland got good NES/FDS home ports as well, so that might do for you if you lack an arcade cabinet of either game near you.
Mappy was very popular and successful, but those are three amazing classics you're talking about. Rally-X was another great game from Namco but hard as heck!
I was blessed to have grown up during the 70's and 80's. I fondly recall numerous hours spent in various arcades and pretty much anyplace that had a video game around my hometown of Los Angeles, CA. From the local liquor stores in my neighborhood to the SEGA center in Fox Hills Mall to the Santa Monica Pier.
I always explain to people younger than me that the crash was noticed by no one except executives. As a kid we got great games in 1983, tons of cheaper games in 1984 and the c64 and NES in 1985. There was no bump in the road or changes at all. As per arcades kids kept going. The only difference was no more 30 year old dudes playing ms pacman on their lunch break.
The Atari 2600 stuff was real stale by then but Intellivision and Colecovision still had quality software that kids enjoyed. All generations were the same though. At the beginning of NES we couldn't believe we were playing almost arcade quality Popeye at home. A couple years later NES was garbage compared to the arcade. Then the cycle repeated itself with Genesis.
I was born in 86 just in time to experience and love the NES and arcade games. I still own my nes and will probably be buried with it. And tapper is freaking legit!
What a time to be alive. I was too young (ie. short) to play these games myself, but I do remember hanging out at the local mall arcade watching others and the attract modes.
Tapper still drives me nuts. Always start to struggle by the punk bar stage. I forgot that you can run up and collect the cash tips, though when things get hectic, it never feels like there's time to do so.
Wow!! Plated most of these as a young man. Arcades were a big part of life for many of us and why we shoveled snow, cut lawns, and did so many other chores!!
(John: Please do another 1983 arcade games video. You can make it a series? There are so many of them!) I really loved Gyruss, Star Wars and Track and Field which also came out in 1983. Gyruss is one that I actually got 3,000,000 points on with one quarter! The arcade games back then were great! was in 1983. It was a sight to see all of the arcade games lined up in rows ready too suck up your quarters like a sponge! Great days to think back on!
There are so many of my favorite games on this list, and it boggles my mind to consider this period the start of a downturn, since I'll always consider it the birth of video games. It seemed like every week a new amazing game would appear at my local arcade.
But the downturn was mostly (only?) about bad 2600 atari games and even worse knockoffs because everybody wanted to make a quick profit. Solid quality arcade games were fine.
@@Blackadder75 I do recall going to a new arcade around early 80s, and it had only unmarked generic cabinets with weird games I'd never heard of, this was probably a sign if the crash as well.
I was 16 in 1983. Here in Australia my friends and I would hang out at a local Amusement arcade or bowling alley, and play video games and pinball. Great times !
Up until id say mid 90's we still had a full sized arcade in the mall. Several diner's had at least one video arcade and one pinball machine as well. I miss those days.
I never saw the "crash" either and many other people I talk to that grew up back then say the same thing when the topic comes up. The truth is there never was a "crash" like so much pop media tries to portray after all these years. Atari crashed do to numerous terrible decisions made by Warner Communications (which had owned Atari for a while by then) which included grossly over-inflated projections, subsequent over production of game carts (more carts for some titles than were total consoles in existence at the time) and tons of poor quality games coming from everybody and their brother (since the lawsuit with Activision made it possible for anybody to make games for the system by then). Since other systems had nowhere near the market share in the home that Atari did people say the market crashed (not that it didn't affect the other companies to some degree). The arcade never really suffered in the same way. You didn't necessarily see as many arcades as a whole over time because the business model didn't scale well over time but as you mentioned you did still see them in all kinds of other places. There was a reason why the NES was able to come here in 1985 and "revive" the market - it was never truly dead. People still played and loved video games. Lol... and guys like me were still buying games for our Commodore 64's too during that time. Anyways, there's a lot of simplification there but the bottom line is that there was never really a crash like the fables of today tell tales of IMO.
There was a mass exodus from consoles, but I believe it was because of the home computers. All of my friends and family were buying 8-bit computers and the C-64 was so popular, that I'd see book stores selling its software. The consoles really couldn't compete with those home computers, especially since all of us were sharing copies of games with each other.
Im uk and had a segamaster and commodore 64 only got an nes yeats later cos games were reallyhard to get as mattel were in charge and really fucked up nes game distribution in the uk.
I think the "crash" really was all us old school Atari 2600 players had moved to Atari 8bit computers or Commodore 64s, leaving the 2600 and other early consoles to collect dust (i.e. the console market dried up). The 2600 E.T. game was just a scapegoat, and really had nothing to do with causing the crash (just really bad returns on an overproduced/undersold game).
Great video! I remember playing Wacko for the first time on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and I loved it. Loved how interesting it was an loved learning about the arcade cabinet being tilted! Another great 1983 arcade game that I'd have on my personal list is Crossbow by Exidy
Yeah, that's very true. From an 80's kid perspective, we had no idea there was a video game "crash". Didn't even hear about it, let alone notice it. In our world, we had the arcades and the Atari 2600 at home. If you asked us, video games were taking over the world, very common and popular. I didn't learn about the "crash" decades later, until I was an adult.
I came to US in 84 as a refugee. Seeing a tv is for rich people in my country. Let along a video game. My uncle let me play a black box with controller when I came here and I was amazed that I can control a pic on tv. A decade later, I eventually found out it was the Atari 2600. Video game crash? Never heard of it back then because I was awed by all the new modern things in a new country. The crash to me never happen. It's a beginning of my love for video games.
Great Video! I know what you mean John. I lived through the Arcade era. I was born in 76. There was arcades all over the place. I had three within walking distance from my house when I was a kid. Plus Arcade machines in every store,mall,bowling alley,roller rink,gas station and restaurant! I really miss those days.
Awesome video man, A tribute to the time. Discs of Tron had a "walk-in" cabinet had light-up neon floor and Sark's voice. Still one of my favorite arcade cabinets ever.
I recall the time. The cool arcades started closing but as you mentioned most bars, restaurants, stores, etc all had a mini arcade. Home gaming was fairly stuck in late 1970s tech.
Spy Hunter and Disks of Tron were my jams back in the day. I could play either of those for hours. At least until I got tired from standing on one foot playing Spy Hunter. Of course, if there was a sit down version available, all bets were off!
I'm 41. I remember arcade cabinets being EVERYWHERE after 1983, at least up until the late-ish 80s. At least one cabinet would be in some random business. Nice list. Wacko is underrated!
Oh man those take me back. I was seven that year, and was finally starting to be able to play a lot of the stand up games without having to find a stool. Yes, the local Aladdin’s Castle had stools. Very thoughtful given the number of kids that were always in there. I don’t remember all these games, but Spy Hunter, Elevator Action, and Discs of Tron, and Mario Brothers joined the likes of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Missile Command, Centipede, Turbo, and a bunch of pinball machines and that weird domed hockey game.
I was working in Silicon Valley (San Jose and Milpitas areas) from 1983 to 1990. My favorite thing to do on my lunch breaks (at least in the early years) was run down to Chucky Cheese and play Missile Command. I would play it for an hour straight (sometimes two). I lost count of how many times my boss would scold me for walking back in to Engineering an hour or two late, and told me I was addicted and to seek help. LOL! Now THOSE were the days!
0:02 I used to love playing with that Fisher-Price gas pump toy in my Preschool I’m currently conducting a collection of old vintage toys and this gas pump toy would make a keen edition to my collection
Graduated in '83. Worked at an after school job in a hardware store. Right across the street was an arcade. My friend and I spent soooo much time and money in it.
These are all epic arcade games here, John. I've always absolutely loved Spy Hunter from the start of my gaming days on computers! Seeing Mappy is really nostalgic too - I remember that one being a bit more challenging.
I was a child of the 80's and also had no idea the video game crash had happened. My Atari 2600 kept me entertained right up until getting a Nintendo for Christmas in '87.
Retro gaming hippie approves! Fondly remember many of these while spending hours and nickel arcades. Pretty sure satan’s hollow was the final games played in a very 80’s movie called “Joysticks”
Nice video. I played a lot arcade games during the classic era of acrade games (80s). Where I lived at the time, a mid size western town, arcade games showed up about 18 months after their original release (probably used games passed down from larger cities), so in 1983 the popular game around town were from 1981 and earlier, such as Tempest, Centipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Defender, Battle Zone. The games in this video never really showed up where I lived because when the video game crash occured, no more new games showed up where I lived, and the older games only remained in a few bars in town where kids could not enter. The number of games that kids could play in town dropped from a couple of hundred to about a dozen in a very short period of time. I was smart, and managed to buy a Tempest arcade game in 1983, and I still own it. IMO, best arcade ever designed.
I would've added Gyruss to this list, which I think is an underrated classic. And I also had no idea there was a "crash" during this time. I was 6 years old, enjoying my Atari 5200, and playing games at Showbiz, at my local arcade (which stayed open well into the late 90s), and at every restaurant in town. It was a magical time to be a kid.
Same. At least in my walking distance. My local burger joint down the street had a couple, my grocery store had a couple more, the gas stations a few blocks one way and a few the other way. Gotta keep track.
Wacko...WOW. Just wow. I played it one summer visiting relatives in the diner of a small town. Never saw the game again after that week. Thank you for jarring my memory for this.
The NES had some pretty good arcade ports as well. Joust, Mappy, Mappy Land, Donkey Kong 3, Mario Brothers, Gyruss, and Spy Hunter were some damn good ports of arcade games.
Disks of Tron was super dope, they had those half sitting cabinets with decent speakers. The music would swell and the voice would come booming out, good fing times!
Disc of Tron in the upright cabinet where you leaned back was so comfy.. :) and when you entered an arcade, who could resist not hitting the attract mode on Spy Hunter for that awesome theme only to be outdone a little later with Reactor.
The Video Game crash of 1983 mostly affected home consoles. Arcades, although they were affected to some extent as some arcades closed, many still stayed open and the good ones usually got new games such as these. Interesting that you mentioned the Washington Redskins winning the Super Bowl in January of 1983. The MVP was John RIggs, er, John Riggins.
I was 11 in 1983, didn’t know about the video game crash until years later. Here in NYC, every supermarket, candy store and pizza shop had arcade cabinets. While mom would shop for food at the market I’d be playing the arcade with a stack of quarters in my pocket.
Even with the big home video game crash...1983 was THE best year for arcade games in general. Heck...there was even "Starcade"...an actual game show on TV with arcade games (I still watch the episodes to this very day here on RU-vid)!
Damn, I used to play Spy Hunter having to stand on a bar stool to reach the controls...I was about age 5 or so? I would have the quarters stacked up and just go to town. I got really excited one day when a crowd of people surrounded me to watch, as I must have been doing better than any of them ever did, with comments like "this kid is really playing this!!" 🤣
Mappy is an all time favorite of mine. Yes I hear you. The game crash didn't seem like such a big deal like they make it out to be. I really didn't know it was happening. I remember seeing more Colecovisions and 5200s that year. I had a Texas Instruments Home Computer and 3rd party titles were made available during that time so I got to play Donkey Kong, Burgertime, and a few others I could not play before.
Donkey Kong 3 was a weird title. More like Galaga Kong. I did like playing it. Probably the most obscure sequel I can remember. Wished it had been ported to more systems. Mappy console ports were just as scarce. Both games were ported to the NES. Spy Hunter sure had some awkward controls. I remember playing it on C64 before anything else.
Crystal Castles and Mr Do's Castle are two 1983 arcade games I find myself revisiting the most. Thankfully they are in a collection cabinet at a local barcade near me. Not quite the same as original hardware, but still much closer than playing at home on MAME. I didn't really notice the crash because my Dad had a C64, which continued to steadily receive new games as if nothing happened. Also I was 4 years old at the time :P
Great video as always John! I was born in 1983, so it’s nice to see a collection of games that came out the year I was born and during the gaming crash. Quite a few quality ones such as Mappy and Beer Tapper
Chattanooga, Tennessee...Pinball and Classic Arcade Museum. Pay $20 and play as many games as many times. About 25 pinball gamed and 15 classic arcade. You gotta go! Totally awesome!!
Elevator action. How I loved shooting the lights so they fell on the bad guys' heads. Also crushing them under the elevator was fun. And the music is iconic.
Dude! I remember playing ALL these games back in the day. Still some of my favorites to this day. I was so obsessed w/Dragon's Lair, for YEARS after it disappeared from all my local arcade, I had countless dreams in which I went into an arcade & saw both Dragon's Lair & Space Ace among all the other cabinets. It was always either Dragon's Lair or a sequel to the game -- one which eventually came true once Time Warp came out in the 90's! XD
A company called "Digital Leisure" put out these games you can play on any blu-ray player using a standard remote. They work even better on a system where you can use an actual controller. Look and play exactly like the arcade game. I picked up the original Dragon's Lair. I wanted Space Ace as well, but the only copies I could find were ridiculously expensive.
you should have expounded on why rootbeer tapper came to be and the fact that Dragons Lair never had that awesome little directional cue down in the corner...good video
Little me had no idea about a home console crash either. My parents had a Magnavox Odyssey 2 that I played with, and arcades were doing great, so I was definitely getting my fix before the NES popped up.
My favorite arcade game was a dinosaur by 83. Table top, X's v. O'S, black and white, football game. Buttons and a roller ball. I don't recall the name but I still remember loving it.
Played most of them at Cosmic Empire a video arcade in the 80's. Elevator action and Spyhunter were great. In the late '80's Tournament Cyberball was huge, we had tournaments with other Cosmic Empire's in the area.
I hit that era just right. 15, a little bit of my own money in my pocket so I wasn't always bugging mom. There were two arcades within biking distance. One was one of those big, dedicated ones, with the black lights and giant aliens painted on the walls. A year later when I could drive, the mall near us also had a huge arcade. Loved Crazy Climber, Dragons Lair, and a bit later Gauntlet. Defender. Missile Command, Rush'N'Attack. The sounds, flashing lights, 2:1 deals on tokens. Heck even the paper had COUPONS for the arcades! Then it all.. just kind of vanished. But by then we had the home systems and home computers were now on the scene.
I love you’re playing Dragons Lair on an iiRcade, I just got one on a Walmart Black Friday $299 special. I hope more classic games are licensed there in the the next 12 months…
I could have bought a NES from all the quarters I fed a Mappy machine. Pizza hut and the front entry at Wal-Mart was our arcade back in the day. Great lineup and great review!
@@JohnRiggs , I think that, instead of making an outright Tapper/Root Beer Tapper clone, you should go for a hybrid of that, Burgertime, and something that is a bit more modern like, say, Diner Dash. However, if you want an outright Tapper clone, well, part of the reason why Tapper was limited to arcade games was not just because of groups that hated alcohol being marketed to people, especially children, but for a more obvious set of reasons, namely, that games that promoted getting drunk is not a good idea and the fact that there would be royalties that would need to be paid to the alcohol manufacturers if video games had home console versions, thus due to all of those reasons, Tapper became Root Beer Tapper. (Of course, being as I came from a home where I had an ex-stepfather that had issues with drugs and alcohol did not help, and some of my other family members struggled with those things in their own lives as well.)
Oh man, Elevator Action is great! I had the GB port. Played it a ton in middle school. Later found out that the GBC got an improved version, so now that's the one I play. The game Sinistar wasn't shown here, but I think it's one of the best. Its difficulty is very punishing. Doesn't stop me from loving the game tho. Awesome vid, John.
The NES/FDS version of Elevator Action is not bad, and the sequels, Elevator Action Returns, which had an arcade, PS2, OG Xbox, and PC release, and Elevator Action Deluxe, which is for the PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC, are both good games in their own right, @Jodeth.
@@MetalJody1990 , Elevator Action Deluxe plays like a hybrid of the two previous Elevator Action games, plus it is also a much longer game, albeit not an endless loop like Elevator Action, but Elevator Action Returns is kind of gory, to be honest.
It wasn't in 1983, but one of my favorite arcade games from the late 80s was a game were you fly a plane over an enemy ship and bomb it while fighting off enemy aircraft. I liked that the ship took damage each time you hit it.
Good game picks! Now to be fair, these games were all still pre-crash. The crash didn't actually manifest until Christmas 1983, when home game sales officially missed their (unrealistic) projections. 1984 was really the year when things got weird... The Atari systems and their competitors were basically defunct, and most US arcade makers had scaled back significantly, some due to their failed ventures into laserdisc games. Most of the slack in the arcade was picked up by imported Japanese titles-- notably from newcomer Capcom, and also the Vs System by Nintendo, which introduced us to the NES games we'd be buying in a year or two.
I was born in 1984 and lived in a rural portion of Texas. Nearest grocery store was 30 minutes away. But growing up in the 80's and 90's arcade machines were all over. Even way out in the middle of no where. There is one game I've always wanted to find but I have no idea the name of the game from back in my childhood. But yea arcade machines were everywhere.
In 1983 I played the games in an Arcade / Tuxedo rental place. You actually got tickets for a free tux if you got the high score. I played some of these games a lot. Discs of Tron in the big full booth enclosure was one of my all time favorites. I loved Satan's Hollow. I was about to knock your list until you tossed in Elevator Action and Dragon's Quest at the end. Even though it came out in 1982, it looks like Pole Position scored the most money in 1983. Played a ton of that one. I loved Spy Hunter but was horrible at it.
Holy Cow! Discs of Tron is One of my favorite Arcade games of all Time! I was Obsessed with it but I could never get above 250,000 points! 🙄 I also liked Donkey Kong 3 a Lot!
Arcade owner I knew then figured out how to win dragon's lair in about five minutes. When I graduated HS in '79, the student lounge had Asteroids and space invaders, maybe Tournament table.
