Archive for Cavalcade Arcade
Only 5 More Days Until Atari National Pac-Man Day
Posted in Atari, Pac-Man, pop culture, video games with tags Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, Pac-Man, video games on March 29, 2012 by Paxton10 custom Atari 2600 cartridges based on movie video games
Posted in Atari, movies, Tron, video games, War Games with tags Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, movies, pop culture, Tron, video games, War Games on March 2, 2012 by Paxton
In May of last year I wrote an article talking about video games in movies that I thought were fake but were actually real. Then, CT over at Nerd Lunch used an image of a Nerd Lunch Atari 2600 cart for Episode 26 of the Nerd Lunch podcast. This immediately got me thinking about all those movie games I want to exist. So, I went out to the custom Atari 2600 label generator and just went buck wild.
Here are some of my creations (click the images to make them BIGGER).
Global Thermonuclear War (War Games) – I did a bunch for WarGames. This was the first one that popped into my mind. How cool would this game be?
Falken’s Maze (War Games) – Another WarGames creation. The name of this game appears in the scene where David Lightman lists the games available from Joshua (aka WOPR). I think Eddie Deezen even tells Matthew Broderick to research Falken’s Maze to learn about the enigmatic programmer. Atari released a similar maze game called Maze Craze (from which I got the picture on the cartridge).
Joshua’s Tic Tac Toe (War Games) – Essentially just a themed Tic-Tac-Toe game. This may seem a bit thin, but Atari actually released a 3D Tic-Tac-Toe game which could probably be re-branded and maybe skinned to match the movie game.
WarGames: NORAD (War Games) – This is not necessarily based on anything specific in the movie. It could be a conglomeration of all the Joshua Games or maybe even a video game recreation of the final NORAD sequence in the film. I just thought it sounded cool.
Video Games in movies that I totally thought were fake…but aren’t
Posted in Atari, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, video games with tags Cavalcade Arcade, movies, pop culture, video games on May 18, 2011 by Paxton
So, the other day, I was watching one of my favorite movies, Midnight Madness.
In case you didn’t know, it’s about a group of college kids that take part in a city-wide game of chase. They are given clues that lead to specific destinations which eventually end up at the finish line. It’s a great movie and is one of Michael J Fox’s earliest roles. Anyway, about 3/4 of the way through the movie there is a great scene that takes place in a video arcade. It’s always been one of my favorite scenes, especially now, because you can see a bunch of old school video games as the camera changes perspective.
So, after arriving at the video arcade (which is run by a young Paul Reubens in a cowboy costume), the players discover they must play the game Star Fire, and beat it, in order to get the final clue. They gather around the machine with like a million quarters and start playing.
For years, I thought this game was a creation of the movie. The logo was obviously a rip off of Star Wars and the game play was disjointed and just looked manufactured. You could even see images of TIE Fighters in the game.
How could this crappy ass game be real? Am I right? However, just recently, while searching around the Internet I discovered that Star Fire was an actual video game. It was manufactured in 1980 by a company called Exidy. The graphics, game play and cabinet were slightly altered in the movie for the purposes of the script (which explains why it felt fake), but the game was most definitely real. Not only that, it is considered a ground breaking shoot ’em up. It was the first arcade game to use the sit down cockpit (however the movie used the stand up version) and was also the first game to keep track of player initials and high scores. Here’s a flyer from 1979 advertising the Star Fire arcade game.
(Via the Arcade Flyer Archive)
I was blown away. I couldn’t believe this was real. I’d seen Midnight Madness thousands of times and I just assumed Star Fire was fake. For me, this is nearly akin to finding out Mattel actually made hoverboards back in 1989. Earth. Shattering. I’ll have to see if I can download an emulator ROM for it.
This got me thinking about other movies with awesome video game machines that I assumed were fake but are, in fact, real.
What 10 video games would be in my dream arcade?
Posted in nostalgia, pop culture, video games with tags arcades, Cavalcade Arcade, LEB, nostalgia, pop culture, video games on March 25, 2011 by Paxton
I-Mockery put up a fascinating question on Tuesday. What games would be in your own personal dream arcade? I thought this was a good topic for a lazy Friday afternoon.
So I decided to pick 10 arcade machines I would love to have in my own personal arcade. They are in no particular order.
I want to thank the International Arcade Museum for the awesome images of the video game cabinets. I surf their site regularly for images of my favorite arcade and pinball games as well as images of some awesome video game advertisement flyers. To see more images (including screen shots of game play) of these and thousands more arcade games as well as get more detailed info, click the images to go to the International Arcade Museum.
Anyway, on to the games.
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (1991) – There were like a million different versions of this game. I’d take any of them, but I hold a special place in my heart for Champion Edition and Champion Edition Turbo. This was one of the first great fighting games. Great for competitions. It attracted large audiences to watch two guys just go at it. Lots of fun characters with cool move combos. The character I preferred to use was Chun-Li. She was both pretty and deadly.
Mortal Kombat II (1993) – The only one in the arcade franchise to use Roman Numerals. The next two games would be MK3 and MK4. The first Mortal Kombat was almost too easy but Mortal Kombat 3 was way too damn hard. This fell right in the sweet spot of hard but fun. Also, this game rivaled NBA Jam for the amount of hidden Easter Eggs you could find. Characters, finishing moves like fatalities, friendships, etc. It was insane and fun. I liked to use Sub Zero and my friend, Steve, liked Scorpion. I still hear Scorpion’s “GET OVER HERE!” in my nightmares.
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (1993) – I talked about this game in-depth over on Strange Kid’s Club. Greatest. Basketball. Game. EVER. I would also like to have NBA Maximum Hangtime, but it’s so close in gameplay to NBA Jam that I am reluctant to have two machines that are so similar in the same arcade.
Karate Champ (1984) – This is the game that got me into fighting games. I LOVED THIS GAME. I used to play it at my local movie theater arcade. I got pretty good and made it through a punch of matches. The scenery changed constantly. One time you’d be in the forest, then on a log spanning a cavern, then on a cruise ship deck. The bonus stage had you battling a bull. This game was kicked all kinds of ass.
14 vintage ads for video games based on movies
Posted in Activision, advertising, Atari, Back to the Future, Batman, movies, Star Wars, video games with tags advertising, Back to the Future, Batman, Cavalcade Arcade, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Star Wars, video games, vintage on February 21, 2011 by Paxton
I love movies. I love video games. So, obviously, I love video games based on movies. Well, I love the idea of video games based on movies. And this type of corporate synergy has been going on for years. Ever since the enormous popularity of the Atari 2600, both video game companies and Hollywood have tried to capitalize on popular movie brands to boost sales. And it makes for awesome pop culture ephemera.
So here are 14 awesomely vintage ads for video games based on popular movie franchises.
ET (Atari 2600 – 1982) – This is it. The game that felled the house of Atari. Yes, I owned this game and hated every second I played it. I know a lot of people now retroactively say they enjoyed it, but I HATED it. You can only fall into an empty pit so many times before you throw the controller through the TV screen. Surprisingly, this game was designed by the same guy that did Yars’ Revenge, the highest selling original Atari game (and one of my all time favorites). Talk about Jekyll and Hyde. Seanbaby rated ET #1 on his list of 20 worst video games OF ALL TIME.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Atari 2600 – 1982) – Around the same time ET was released, Atari also released this game based on the first Indiana Jones movie. And it’s starring YOU!
Total Recall (NES – 1990) – Video game based on the popular Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall. Seanbaby rated this game #15 on his list of 20 worst video games OF ALL TIME.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure (NES – 1991) – Bill & Ted. It is amazing this movie was as popular as it was. I mean, the movie spawned a sequel, a cereal, a cartoon show and a live action show at Universal Studios. And Keanu is even talking about making another one. Most excellent. I never played this game but I loved the first movie.
Rambo (NES – 1988) – A side scrolling shoot ’em up adventure game that very closely resembled the Zelda sequel, The Adventures of Link.
(via oldmanwinters)
Star Wars Arcade (Atari – 1983) – The original vector based Star Wars game by Atari was extremely popular with fans. So, of course Atari was going to port it to their home consoles. Here’s an ad for the Atari port of the Star Wars arcade game for the 2600 and 5200.
Cavalcade of Awesome 