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A tour of the Golf ‘n Stuff arcade from the 1984 Karate Kid movie

Posted in movies, pop culture with tags arcades, Cavalcade Arcade, movies, pop culture, video games on July 24, 2013 by Paxton

Late last year I took a look at the Pinball City arcade from the 1980 movie Midnight Madness. It featured lots of good, awesome vintage arcade games for us to take a look at. It was a pretty popular article so I thought I’d take a look at another movie arcade. This time, I’m looking at the famous Golf n’ Stuff arcade from The Karate Kid.

Here is that spinning red sign.

Until grabbing screenshots for this article, I never noticed the sign has a hole in it right by the ‘S’ in Stuff. Interestingly, the director, John Avildsen, has been posting film he took in 1983 when they were rehearsing for shooting The Karate Kid. Some of the Golf n’ Stuff rehearsals are out there. The spinning sign has that same hole in it. I love that continuity.

So, Daniel and Alli go to this mythical Golf n’ Stuff amusement center for a first date. The first part of the date is quickly spent in the Arcade. Here they are walking into the entrance.

Inside during this adorable music montage (Can You Feel the Night by Baxter Robertson) we get a glimpse of a few vintage video games. Click any of the below screenshots to see them BIGGER. It makes it easier to see the games in some instances.

Super Chexx Hockey

Up first is this awesome Super Chexx Hockey by ICE. Manufactured in 1983. There was also a regular Chexx Hockey released the same year, but I think the Super version was what was used in this scene.

Daniel appears to score a goal on Alli and he sort of overreacts to his victory. During this douchey hockey celebration, right behind Mr Larusso, is a Stern Flight 2000 pinball machine from 1980.

Nope, no video games here. I just think Elizabeth Shue is achingly adorable in this movie. I thought we should all just take a moment and drink it in.

Okay, let’s move on.

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It’s Atari National Pac-Man Day!

Posted in Pac-Man, pop culture with tags anniversary, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, holiday, Pac-Man, pop culture, video games on April 3, 2013 by Paxton

Today marks the 31st annual Atari National Pac-Man Day.

Atari declared National Pac-Man Day on the day they released the Atari port of Pac-Man back on April 3, 1982.

(Via Sascha Grant)

Pac-Man was a cultural phenomenon in the early 80s. It was merchandised as thoroughly as anything is today. So on this most auspicious holiday think back on the Atari 2600 and the game of Pac-Man. Maybe head on over to an emulator site and play a game. Enjoy one of the first video games to become a global phenomenon.

Check out these other Pac-Man specific articles:

1. On Episode 77 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast we discuss the Atari 2600 and its games (including Pac-Man)
2. First Perfect Game of Pac-Man played back in 1999
3. America’s Love Affair with a man named Pac
4. Check out some Pac-Man photos in my Video Games Flickr set

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Nerd Lunch Episode 77: Atari 2600 VCS retrospective

Posted in Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, pop culture, video games on March 19, 2013 by Paxton

This week on the show CT abandons us so Jeeg and I invite The Retroist back for his second appearance and he brings along Vic Sage, one of the head writers on The Retroist blog, for his first appearance on the show. We bring in these retro experts to help us discuss one of the greatest gaming systems of all time, the Atari 2600 VCS.

We each talk about our own history with the system, then we discuss a bunch of our favorite and least favorite games. Yes, we even discuss our own views on the extremely controversial E.T. game. Also discussed in this episode are the Activision Master Gamer Badges, the Atari port of Pac-Man as well as the bootleg Atari Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween video games.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online here.

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Tour of the vintage Pinball City arcade in the 1980 movie Midnight Madness

Posted in 80s, Atari, movies, pop culture, video games with tags Cavalcade Arcade, movies, pop culture, video games on November 27, 2012 by Paxton

I love video arcades. I always have. I also loved it when arcades popped up in movies. It was fun trying to pick out what games I could see and identify. So, I thought it would be a fun exercise to pick some of my favorite movies that have an arcade scene and do a “walk through” to see what games we could see. This should be interesting because video arcades during the the late 70s to mid 80s are ancient history. There’s nothing really like them anymore. These walk throughs should be nice snapshots of a moment in time at a video arcade during their hey day. So let’s begin.

One of my favorite movies from childhood is the 1980 screwball road race comedy Midnight Madness.

The movie stars David Naughton, Stephen Furst, Eddie Deezen, Debra Clinger and a very young Michael J Fox as a group of college students split up into colored teams (yellow, blue, green, red and white) who go out on an all night long clue hunt.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the arcade scene at a place called Pinball City. It’s here the characters play a game that I thought was fake, called Star Fire. I’ve talked about this scene before. You can watch that full scene here. Well, there’s a wealth of other awesomely vintage video games in that scene, so let’s start off this first walking tour with Pinball City from the movie Midnight Madness.

This movie was released in early 1980, which means it was probably filmed in mid-to-late 1979.

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This is the clue the players receive for the arcade. It essentially is a word game that tells them to go to PIN + BALL + SIT + E, or Pinball City.

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Here’s the entrance to Pinball City.

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Here’s the adorable Debra Clinger checking out an Atari Football game which was produced in 1979. Behind her is a carnival shooter game called Shark Bait. However, I could find no information on that game anywhere. I can’t believe that this was created specifically for the movie to be used in a background shot when they didn’t even bother to do that for the Star Fire game.

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In the background of this scene is a giant game called Indy 800. It was manufactured by Kee Games in 1975. The game cabinet was huge and took up 16 feet of space.

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Here’s a very young Michael J Fox leaning up against a Death Race game. It was manufactured by Exidy in 1976. This game is based on and inspired by the movie Death Race 2000. There were only 500 or so made. When it came out it was banned in many cities due to its violent content.

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Happy Atari National Pac-Man Day

Posted in Atari, Pac-Man, pop culture, video games with tags Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, Pac-Man, pop culture, video games on April 3, 2012 by Paxton

30 years ago today on April 3, 1982, Atari announced National Pac-Man Day.

National Pac-Man Day coincided with the release of Atari’s port of the Pac-Man arcade game.

Via John Mundy

Despite that game being one of the worst ports of a game ever created, it was the highest selling game of the year and received an enormous marketing push from Atari.

Above is an ad touting the popularity of Pac-Man and it includes pictures from Pac-Man release parties all over the world. Atari even held several Pac-Man Championships. Here’s an ad for the UK Championship.

Atari’s Pac-Man, along with E.T., probably killed not only Atari but the entire home console video game market. At least for 4 or 5 years until the Nintendo Entertainment System took off. Because, despite selling millions of Pac-Man cartridges (as well as E.T.), Atari had over estimated demand and made many, many more than was sold and they were left with tons of extra cartridges.

So, enjoy Atari National Pac-Man Day! One of the nerdiest holidays ever!