The Top 100 Golden Era Arcade Games, and a challenge

Golden Era Game of the Week
http://www.gegotw.net/

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Weehawk
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Post by Weehawk »

Chufoglu wrote:I had thought that it was quality, not popularity.
In the original post Weehawk wrote:How did I choose the games? Personal preference and my own perception of their popularity with others...
But anyway, what do you think makes a game popular? People's opinion of its quality. Your (or my) opinion may differ from the majority.
Chufoglu wrote:Lunar Rescue
Space Panic
Hyper Sports
None of those deserves to bump anything off my list.
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Zhorik's top 100 Golden Era games

Post by Zhorik »

Rather than just criticizing Weehawk's top 100 list, I went through KLOV and made my own. I used the criteria of games released between 1978 to 1984, since I didn't know of an easy way to limit my choices to Weehawk's criteria of games released between Space Invaders and Kung Fu Master. I also included Laser Disc games as I saw fit. I didn't include any games I didn't see and play at least a few times in the arcade. 75 of my games were the same as Weehawk's.

1942
Alpine Ski
Arabian
Armor Attack
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluke
Bagman
Battlezone
Bezerk
Blaster
Bomb Jack
Bosconian
Bump 'n' Jump
Burgertime
Carnival
Centipede
Congo Bongo
Crazy Climber
Crossbow
Crystal Castles
Circus Charlie
Cliff Hanger
Defender
Dig Dug
Disks of Tron
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong, Jr.
Dragon's Lair
Elevator Action
Food Fight
Frogger
Front Line
Galaga
Galaxian
Gorf
Gravitar
Gyruss
Hypersports
Joust
Jungle Hunt
Kangeroo
Karate Champ
Kick Man
Lady Bug
Lunar Lander
Major Havoc
Make Trax
Mappy
Marble Madness
Mario Bros.
Millipede
Missle Command
Monaco GP
Moon Cresta
Moon Patrol
Mr Do!
Ms Pac-Man
Omega Race
Pac-Man
Pengo
Phoenix
Pole Position
Pole Position II
Popeye
Punchout
Q*Bert
Qix
Rally-X
Red Alert
Red Baron
Return of the Jedi
Robotron
Satan's Hollow
Scramble
Sinistar
Space Ace
Space Duel
Space Invaders
Spy Hunter
Star Castle
Star Trek
Star Wars
Stargate
Super Cobra
Super Pac-Man
Tac/Scan
Tapper
Tempest
Time Pilot
Track and Field
Tron
Turbo
Tutankham
Vanguard
Venture
Wild Western
Wizard of Wor
Xevious
Zaxxon
Zoo Keeper
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Post by mahlemiut »

I'd consider Kung-fu Master more a platform game than a scrolling fighter. To me, at least, scrolling fighters = beat-em-ups (a la Double Dragon or Renegade).
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Post by Weehawk »

mahlemiut wrote:I'd consider Kung-fu Master more a platform game than a scrolling fighter.
Except...there's no platforms and you scroll along, punching and kicking...
8O
mahlemiut wrote:To me, at least, scrolling fighters = beat-em-ups (a la Double Dragon or Renegade).

Both of which seem to me to be very direct descendants of Kung Fu Master.
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Post by mahlemiut »

Doesn't to me. Just seems a lot less to Kung-fu Master to me, really.
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Post by dbh »

Mario Bros. was indeed popular, but I would not replace anything on my list with it.
Not even Round-Up? That seems like a no-brainer to me. :)
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Post by Chufoglu »

If the popularity was the same thing that quality, Harry Potter would be better that A Confederay of Dunces... for me there is an artistic factor also in the videogames. A game can be estimated later and not in his age, for example. Good, it is only a theory
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Post by Weehawk »

dbh wrote:
Mario Bros. was indeed popular, but I would not replace anything on my list with it.
Not even Round-Up? That seems like a no-brainer to me. :)
I saw a lot more Round-Up machines than I did Mario Bros.

I didn't personally care for either, but at least Round-Up was an arcade game. Mario Bros. looks like it should be played with one of these:

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Post by dbh »

I saw a lot more Round-Up machines than I did Mario Bros.
I never saw or even *heard* of Round-Up until it was in GEGOTW. Granted, I grew up in the sticks of New Hampshire, but I did go to a fair number of different arcades in the New England area.
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Post by Zhorik »

dbh wrote:
I saw a lot more Round-Up machines than I did Mario Bros.
I never saw or even *heard* of Round-Up until it was in GEGOTW. Granted, I grew up in the sticks of New Hampshire, but I did go to a fair number of different arcades in the New England area.
I think its extremely unlikely that more Round-Up's were sold than Mario Bros., even if you discount the many conversions that were done to Mario Bros.

There certainly are way, way fewer Round-Up machines in collectors hands now. KLOV's entry for Mario Bros. shows 52 instances of the game amongst VAPS 900 collectors (Very Common - 29 original dedicated machines, 5 conversions, 18 circuit boards). On the other hand Round-Up shows 3 known instances (Scarce - 1 original dedicated machine, and 2 circuit boards).

Regardless, personal dislike of a game is certainly reason enough to leave the game off of one's personal top 100. Even if its a great game :)
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Post by Weehawk »

Following are all the high score lists from Joystik Magazine which I was able to find online:

April 83
Dec 83 page 1
Dec 83 page 2
Apr 83
Jul 83
Nov 82
Nov 83
Sep 82
Sep 83

The set of games listed here would be an excellent starting point for a list such as the one I have created. Those who are unaware or whose memories are foggy of what was going on in the early 80's would learn something to look these over.
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Post by The_Pro »

I learned that in the 80's it was trivial to score above 3.3M in pac-man. Also 4.7M on frogger and 9M on digdug... don't think so. Lots of recognisable names in there though, including everybody's favorite wacko.
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Post by Weehawk »

The_Pro wrote:I learned that in the 80's it was trivial to score above 3.3M in pac-man. Also 4.7M on frogger and 9M on digdug... don't think so. Lots of recognisable names in there though, including everybody's favorite wacko.
Yes, some games were so popular that people lied about them.

I didn't realize so many different people claimed bogus Pac-Man scores. The Les Martin and Jeffrey Yee stories are legend.

Jeffrey Yee on Starcade:

http://www.starcade.tv/starcade/Special/JefferyYee.mov
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