10 Forgotten Arcade Games I Still Love
Children of the ’80s unite! And remember some of these lost favorites from the glory days of the arcade.
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Crazy Climber
A simple game. You climb a building, moving from side to side as you climb because windows are closing and if one of them closes on your fingers, you fall. Crazy Climber was never actually a popular game, but it was something different from the more traditional shooting and maze games popular at the time. I enjoyed it.
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Crossbow
One of the cool things I remember about this game was that the controller was actually built to the size and shape of a crossbow. Your goal was to shoot at anything on the screen that could kill a group of adventurers who wandered from one end of the screen to the other. Sounds simple. It’s not. Especially after you’ve gotten past the first few levels.
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Elevator Action
Probably my favorite game listed here. In Elevator Action, you play a spy who is working his way from the top of a building down to the car garage in the basement. Along the way, enemy spies will try to shoot you. And you have to avoid falling down elevator shafts or being squished by an elevator from above. By today’s standards, Elevator Action wouldn’t have the best graphics, but it’s as much fun as many a game I’ve played on my Playstation 2.
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Gladiator
Does anyone remember this game besides me? Seems not, or at least when I name it, no one call recall it. But when I was a teen, I used to play this game all the time at the convenience store up the street from my house. It’s a basic melee combat combat game. You’re a gladiator who has to traverse through tunnels and buildings, facing off with different enemies, some who were quite tough. One of the cool things about Gladiator was that your armor and shield and sword could be broken by the enemies, and you could do the same to them. Pieces of your armor would fly off when you received a solid hit, and your shield would get small and smaller as your foes whittled away at it. Even your sword could eventually be broken.
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Gorf
Four games in one! That’s right! The spaceship you controlled had to go through four different waves of action to clear a level, and one of those waves looked an awful lot like Space Invaders while another looked like Galaxian. Gorf didn’t have quite as good graphics as those other games, but it had a quirky sound that was interesting. I’d play it right now if it was here in front of me.
Liked it
Cool list!:) I cannot remember having played any of them. So i guess youre right about them being forgotten. its a shame..
I’m in a quest to find the name of a space shooter i played as a kid at a ‘truckstop’ kind of place here in Norway.. it was vertical and had birdlike aliens attacking you in formations and stuff.. early 80’s game.. the owner doesent live anymore and the place is torn down now.:(
But one day i might find that red cabinet again..
Conrad, the game you described sounds like it might have been “Phoenix,” or its sequel, “Pleaids.” Both features birdlike aliens attacking in formation, and both were pretty decent games.
Elevator Action was my favorite arcade game as a kid..I have never seen a pc version of it. I will own the original arcade game for my man cave one day, so help me god