photo credit: smcgee
There’s something about an old video game that does a body good. The 16-color graphics, the 8-bit sound — something about it conjures memories of simpler times, when joysticks seemed larger because our hands were still small, and a dollar seemed like a heck of a lot more money than it does right now.
Allow us to take you on a vintage voyage with a time machine of links, if you will. Here are ten computer and arcade games we all know and love that you can now play online and free of charge. If you’re of a certain age, you probably played these games while waiting for your mom to finish grocery shopping. Or they might have been on your very first video game console. We hope you remember them fondly and enjoy playing them again.
The original Donkey Kong arcade game is the stuff of legends. A recent documentary about hardcore Kong players, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, follows a group of dudes who are all competing against one another for the Donkey Kong world record high score. It’s intense stuff. The game they played was the 1981 Nintendo release that features “Jumpman,” the tiny character dodging Kong’s barrels, who would later become, none other than the infamous man in red overalls, Mario.
This 1984 classic was the first video game I ever played. It came on these wild contraptions called floppy disks. This prototypical adventure game required hours of fun using green-and-white-striped printer paper to map out the various screens of the game. The original King’s Quest spawned an entire series that followed the evolution of computer games over the years, culminating with King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity, which was released in 1998. Still, for my money, you can’t beat the original.
There wasn’t a kid on the block who didn’t go bananas over Super Mario Bros. when this game came out with the Nintendo Entertainment System console. We had been playing “regular” Mario Bros. in the arcades since 1983. Now Super Mario was packaged with the “regular” NES along with Duck Hunt in 1985. What made the Mario Bros. suddenly super was somewhat confusing for a 7-year-old, especially considering the Super Nintendo Entertainment System wasn’t released until the 1990s. Whatever, they were all super in my book.
Asteroids was released by Atari in 1979 as an arcade game and was later ported to the 2600, a seminal system that was launched in 1977. Last summer we heard that Universal Studios has secured the rights to make a movie out of the game. If you’ve ever played Asteroids, you know the plot might be a bit lacking for Hollywood. Still, the game was groundbreaking and addictive in its time, spawning a slew of knockoffs and sequels. We’re recommending you try this OG Asteroids clone, if only for the astounding and hilarious sound design.
Nintendo’s Zelda series is one of the greatest successes in video game history. To date, the Zelda games have sold more than 59 million copies worldwide. U.S. gamers originally got The Legend of Zelda as an NES cartridge game in 1987. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that it combines elements of RPGs, puzzles, “exploration” games and action/battle games.
This 1980 Atari arcade shooter is a fan favorite and a true perennial. The concept is simple; the game lets players defend six cities from an infinite volley of ballistic missiles. It’s essentially a losing battle, as all the cities are eventually destroyed. Players simply rack up points as the speed increases. Missile Command was ported to the 2600 and remained immensely popular as an arcade game until the 1990s. In later years, the game also morphed into 3D and hi-def spinoffs as well.
Then there’s the granddaddy of them all, Pong. Pong was one of the first video games ever created, and almost forty years after its debut, it still charms us with its simplicity. Pong came out as a cabinet arcade game in 1972 and was ported as “Home Pong” in 1974 — this was a single-game console, mind you. The game was a huge success for maker Atari, who had to design a special chip just for the console. At the time, it was the highest-performing chip available in any consumer product.
Centipede, Atari’s 1980 shooter, was a hugely successful arcade game and was also ported to the Atari 2600, 5600, and other Atari systems. It was followed in 1982 by the slightly less successful Millipede. It’s interesting to note that one of Centipede’s two designers was a woman, Dona Bailey, and the game was the first to grab a significant amount of female players.
Whether you were the kid who sat mere inches from the screen with Nintendo’s plastic “gun” controller or you preferred a more challenging approach, you know you loved Duck Hunt. The 1984 version of this game came bundled with Super Mario Bros. in the NES package. Previously, it had been a game for Nintendo’s Laser Clay Shooting System, a 1973 home entertainment product that predated Nintendo’s video game offerings.
You can’t discuss vintage video games without mentioning Pac-Man. The Pac-Man brand is the single most recognizable name in the industry. When Pac-Man debuted in 1980, most of the arcade games out there were space-themed shooters or Pong-like sports games. Pac-Man was the first face, and the first real character in gaming. It also set the stage for “casual game” models that would appeal to both sexes.
Pac-Man gave way to a herd of sequels, clones and spin-offs, but none were more popular than Ms. Pac-Man, a 1981 version that some diehard Pac-Man fans even prefer over the original. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 with moderate success, but many folks still enjoy playing the arcade game. Word on the street is that a Japanese game manufacturer might be rolling out a touchscreen version of Pac-Man for the iPad soon.
While conducting research for this post, we also came across a rad SNES emulator, a clearinghouse of old arcade games online and this excellent Atari site, with games such as Lunar Lander, Yars’ Revenge and Gravitar.
What great games did we miss? Be sure to share them with us in the comments, along with a link to where we can play them online.
