10 Awesome Arcade Games of Yesteryear

Discs of Tron

Without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite arcade games. You play Tron from the Disney movie. You’re stuck in an arena of sorts while using a throwing disc as a weapon and as a shield. Across from you is another guy with a disc. It’s his job to kill you. It’s your job to survive as long as possible. The graphics were pretty solid for it’s time, and this was just a fun game to play. It got complicated in the higher levels, with all kinds of funk additions adding to the difficulty of the game.

Popeye

Just a cute little game. It’s another, fairly simple climbing-around-the-screen game, vaguely reminiscent of earlier video games such as Donkey Kong. Here you play the sailor Popeye trying to win the love of your favorite girl, Olive Oil, while avoiding the dastardly Bluto. Even though this was a pretty easy game, I never could seem to master it for some reason.

Robotron: 2084

This game has a lot of basic similarities to the earlier Berzerk game, but Robtron: 2084 is a lot tougher. For one thing, there are a LOT more robots gunning for you. For another thing, the action here is much, much faster than older robot-shooting games like Berzerk. I always like this game. It had fairly simple graphics, but plenty of color flashing at you all the time.

Sinistar

At first glance, Sinistar would seem to be like a hundred other games. You’re flying a ship through space while avoiding meteors and enemy spaceships while you try to take out those enemy spaceships. Sound familiar? It should, but there’s more. There’s Sinistar, this great, big, giant spaceship or robot thing with the face of a devil. And it’s coming for you. Fast. Very fast. And it’s loud, screaming and roaring at you like a demon. I think I had nightmares about that scream when I was a kid.

Spy Hunter

One of the sleekest video games to ever hit the arcades. You’re a spy driving a car down the road. Enemy spies come along, trying to take you out while you try to avoid hurting civilian traffic. To add to the fun of this game, you’ve got some special weapons you can use, such as oil slicks that shoot out the back of your vehicle, a rocket launcher, and more. For even more fun, every so often you got the opportunity to trade in your spy car for a jet boat. Awesome! But watch out for those helicopters overhead.