A place for games that have something unusual or interesting to say about.
Space Invaders
1978
While Pong was the first commercially successfully video game, nothing beat or has yet to beat the gross sales of Space Invaders. A quick internet search will report back that in 2024 Minecraft has made about 4 billion Dollars. Adjusted for inflation Space Invaders is 18+ billon.
Also of note is the sheer number of advancements it brought to video game design in general. Limitless play, multiple levels, and difficultly spikes just to name a few.
Of particular interest to playing the game with an emulator is the method they added color and the background image. The game is in black and white with the green color along the bottom and red color along the top achieved by nothing more high tech then a strip of colored film. As for the background image they went all out with a version of the "Peppers Ghost" illusion using a painted backdrop and mirrors.
 Black and White |
 Color Overlay |
 Background Image |
Asteroids
1979
I totally forgot that this game did not have a joystick. Just rotate left and rotate right buttons. I tried this once on my play through and just said no. I'd love to know the reasons behind this design but given it's age it could be nothing more than "that's just the way we thought we would do it". It's hard to remember that many of the control schemes and game design ideas were being created and designed on the fly so lots of different ideas were tried out but then discarded. In trying to play it now the 5 button control system is a bit much and I prefer a joystick for the rotate left and right.
 Game |
 Control Scheme |
Lunar Lander
1979
My first "stumble upon". I don't remember ever seeing this one as a kid but my brother does. It's a rather fun little game and the vector based graphics still look great. A simple premise but wickedly difficult to execute. It's also a game that is difficult to emulate in MAME. You don't think much about the differences in digital verse analog controllers until you run across one like this. In the original arcade the thrust control is analog and allows you to add and keep just a little bit of thrust to keep you from crashing. Most arcade contols on the other hand are pure on and off. This makes getting just the perfect speed to land tricky to say the least.
 Game |
 Control Scheme |
Monaco GP
1979
Another game of interest. Monaco GP was one of the last (and most complex) arcade games without a CPU to be released. So sorry, it doesn't run in MAME.
"All arcade games prior to 1975 lacked a CPU, and were instead designed using a mish-mash of digital logic for driving game events, with analog circuitry for things like paddle controls or audio. From 1975 to 1980, arcade companies either adopted microprocessor-based games or died out, though larger companies like Sega continued to release "discrete" games alongside CPU-driven games until the very end of that time frame." - reddit user
09-21-2025