Questions tagged [arcade]

Early arcade games and hardware. Not to be used for modern arcade machines capable of running early games, or for custom (e.g. home-made) machines that happen to be old.

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Arcade game from 80s or 90s about a doctor and spray [closed]

I recall (vaguely) being a doctor/scientist who had a spray can to kill bugs/enemies. Not remembering the name is driving me crazy! Help! :-) It is not Dr. Mario.
Nelson Araujo's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
890 views

Drawing Asteroids DVG vector objects

I'm trying to draw the vector objects from the original coordinates of the Asteroids arcade game, starting with the ship from here, but I'm having trouble figuring it out and getting weird results. E....
Martin's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
366 views

Breakout style arcade game from 90s

I'm looking for a breakout style game where the paddle was holding by a Chinese character, with red clothes. The character was on the holding above his head the paddle and he was running to not allow ...
Nestor Baños's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
253 views

Bloodsport: Which version of Karate Champ is it?

In the movie "Bloodsport", there's a sequence which is famous among video game players, where Frank Dux and Jackson "fight" through a Karate Champ arcade game machine. Now I'm ...
Jean-François Fabre's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

Help identifying an arcade game from the late 1980s

I'm looking for an arcade coin-op game from the late 80's that I remember seeing as a child. Game in question is a puzzle-action featuring a penguin pushing blocks of ice over smooth ice. After a few ...
vic's user avatar
  • 139
0 votes
3 answers
497 views

Help identifying an 80's Vertical Shoot em up

I remember playing this on an arcade machine in the late 80s. You started as a ship but by collecting power ups you slowly began adding robot parts until finally you were piloting a full size robot. ...
Miguel maturen's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
203 views

Arcade/Computer Game: Alien crashed in graveyard, platform/side-scroller

I'm looking for a game which I remember playing at an arcade, probably around 1995-2000. I also think I played it (or a very similar game) on PC under Linux ~5 years ago. It's your typical platform/...
Baard Kopperud's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
433 views

Late 1980s shooter arcade game with a flying robot

I am trying to find the name of an arcade shoot em up game (vertical scroller). The game is probably from the early 1990s or late 1980s. It had a flying robot that would shoot bullets (round bullets) ...
louistex's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

1980s arcade game with overhead perspective and line-art cut scenes

This is a long shot. I saw this game around 1990 at an arcade in eastern Europe. The place had all western machines (e.g. Rampage, Gauntlet, Tron, Donkey Kong Jr, etc) so I believe it was also a ...
aquaticapetheory's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Identify a vertical arcade shooter from the very early 1980s

I'm trying to identify an arcade game that I remember playing. At the bottom was the player's rocket that you could move in left-right direction and possibly also a small amount up and down (not sure ...
Torsten's user avatar
  • 429
7 votes
1 answer
807 views

Identify those arcade games from a 1983 Brazilian music video

This is a music video, recorded around 1982/1983, from Kodiak Bachine, considered to be the first Brazilian synthpop musician. At 5:39 you can see what looks like an arcade game: and at 5:50 another ...
Renan's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
595 views

Help me name this Arcade game?

Help me identify an arcade game I played, trying to remember what it was called.. All i remember it was a 2D platformer cartoon-like person character which had a gun and could fly with a jetpack, I ...
Ransom's user avatar
  • 39
6 votes
0 answers
555 views

Are the details of the Galaga entrance patterns deterministic or random?

I've been playing a lot of Galaga lately on a Namco Revision B board, and I'm running into an interesting game detail that has probably been documented or examined by others or could be divined by ...
GGMG-he-him's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
878 views

How did Ridge Racer the arcade game store its music?

For both Daytona USA and Sega Rally (released around the same time but produced by SEGA), the arcade machines had sort of a synthesizer soundtrack with no CD-ROM involved. Only the home ports of those ...
J Poley's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
635 views

Help me identify a vertical shooter from the 80's, please

Just reaching you guys because I'm completely unable to identify the game, and I haven't seen it in any compilation neither in Mame, etc. The following data are based just in my memories from the 80's....
user26311's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

What was the first games console to be as powerful as the Sega Model 2 board? [closed]

Back in the day, Sega's Daytona USA was the king of arcades. All those polygons flying around at 60 frames per second, it was incredible. It was also hugely expensive. What was the first games console ...
Joel Sickmeier's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
209 views

What would "Special Makeup" design have been in the 1988 arcade game, Splatterhouse? [closed]

Upon beating the Namco arcade game Splatterhouse, released in November 1988, the following is shown in the credits along with the expected programmers and artists: SPECIAL MAKEUP DESIGNED ...
GGMG-he-him's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
500 views

Did ancillary LEDs trade arcade game design for manufacturing cost?

Looking at the 1974 arcade game Speed Race, I notice that the cabinet includes ancillary LEDs to show the scores. https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=wide-flyer&db=videodb&id=4056&image=...
rwallace's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
454 views

Why was Atari Tank less cloned?

The first commercially successful arcade video game was Pong in 1972. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_video_game the number of units eventually sold was about 19,000. (A lower figure ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 58.4k
12 votes
1 answer
780 views

How common was MADSEL?

I recently completed a software disassembly of the 1980 coin-op arcade game Missile Command. I'm curious whether a feature of the hardware is unique or commonplace. First, a bit of background: ...
fadden's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
2k views

What's the point of the CPS-2 suicide battery?

The CPS-2 arcade board contains a suicide battery that will force the board to kill itself when it runs below a certain power threshold. Supposedly this was created to mitigate piracy of the games, ...
Badasahog's user avatar
  • 4,001
18 votes
1 answer
3k views

Arcade game: pseudo-3D flying down a Death-Star-like trench

I cannot find any references to this game so maybe someone here will recall it: It was a full-sized arcade cabinet with an aircraft-yoke type controller with fire buttons on the tip of the yoke. I ...
Maury Markowitz's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
476 views

What kind of graphics hardware did Nichibutsu's 1985 arcade game "MagMax" use?

The arcade game MagMax by Nichibutsu came out in 1985 and features for its time an impressive 3D scrolling effect which, in my observation, is not widely discussed yet, although it should be ...
scrØllbær's user avatar
  • 1,109
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Mid 80's arcade top-down scrolling spaceship shooter with upgradable ship

I used to play an arcade game back in 1987 (first year high school) and I can't remember what it was called. The screen scrolled from the top (very much like 1942) but you flew a spaceship. Some ...
Al Smith's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
343 views

How did Capcom make the decision to produce 1942? [closed]

The classic Capcom game 1942 puts the player in the pilot seat of an American fighter aircraft in WW2, shooting down wave after wave of Japanese aircraft. Capcom is a Japanese company. How did Capcom ...
user's user avatar
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45 votes
3 answers
6k views

How was a demo mode implemented in arcade machines

On many arcade machines when running in attract mode, they often show a demo gameplay. I wondered how they did this?I guess those are not pre-recorded movies, so I think that they probably ran the ...
Devolus's user avatar
  • 553
6 votes
1 answer
490 views

Were vertical monitor arcade games programmed differently from those with horizontal monitors?

Many classic arcade games like Pac Man (Namco 1980), Assault (Namco 1988), Mercs (Capcom 1990), etc, use a monitor oriented vertically. I assume that they used the same physical hardware, with the ...
Châu's user avatar
  • 505
4 votes
1 answer
599 views

How does the rotary control button of Forgotten Worlds/Lost Worlds encode rotation?

How does the rotary control button of Forgotten Worlds/Lost Worlds encode motion? How does it create a binary signal for game software to know how far and which direction to rotate the player's game ...
Châu's user avatar
  • 505
8 votes
1 answer
461 views

What is language use for level name in level 3 and 5 of Strider arcade game? [closed]

Arcade strider game show level name use different language follow Strider Hiryu (飛竜)'s adventure. But I not recognize languages for level 3 and level 5. Can see titles in this video, Arcade Longplay [...
Châu's user avatar
  • 505
5 votes
3 answers
608 views

How did 1980's 8 bit video game coders create realistic fireballs and explosions?

Back in the 1980's, I tried my hand at programming video games, mostly using Atari's player/missle system which used sprites. I could freehand draw most sprites but couldn't come close to the animated ...
Walter's user avatar
  • 139
0 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why the 50/60Hz speed rule didn't apply for arcades but did for consoles?

Take the NES, the Super NES and say, the PlayStation, they all have something in common : games on PAL regions were about 16.7% slower than their NTSC counterpart. Now if on you play an arcade game, ...
aybe's user avatar
  • 6,358
26 votes
3 answers
6k views

What was Pong called in Britain?

Pong, the electronic ping-pong game invented by Atari in 1972, was the first really successful video game. In Britain, 'pong' was also slang for a nasty smell, and I remember reading somewhere, a long ...
rwallace's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
472 views

Player 1 / Player 2 input for Space Invaders

According to the Computer Archeology page on Space Invaders, port 1 presents "player 1's shoot/left/right" input to the CPU, whereas port 2 presents player 2. Playing around the code in an ...
Cactus's user avatar
  • 2,642
42 votes
11 answers
9k views

Was it actually possible to do the cartoon "coin on a string trick" for old arcade and slot machines? [closed]

In cartoons, you often see characters like Scrooge McDuck with a coin where they have drilled a hole in the middle and attached a string, enabling them to insert the coin multiple times and keep ...
Dailey's user avatar
  • 387
4 votes
0 answers
216 views

Why did Gran Trak 10 cost so much?

In 1974, Atari released a driving game called Gran Trak 10. The development prototypes had used real car steering wheels and pedals, but it was realized these were too expensive, so they were changed ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 58.4k
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why exactly does MAME (apparently) require different ROMs for different versions of MAME?

I've never heard of any emulator which requires different ROMs based on which version the emulator is. I thought that ROMs were fixed files that were dumped from hardware cartridges or PCBs, and then ...
Pac-Kong's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

In Donkey Kong (arcade), is there some way to skip the annoying intro sequence?

I find myself dying constantly in Donkey Kong. Although I don't have to pay money each time, it's still annoying to keep having to watch the intro each time. I've tried pressing all buttons I could ...
Antvan's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
0 answers
289 views

How does the Hard Drivin' game engine work?

Hard Drivin' is a classic Atari video game released in the arcades and then ported to many home systems. How does the game engine work? How is the world data handled, how is collision detection done ...
user's user avatar
  • 15.1k
3 votes
2 answers
4k views

How can I get MAME to run modified ROMs whose checksums don't match the originals?

In the aftermath of the question about running the arcade Pac-Man ROM on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum I discovered that about the same time that was done, somebody else did the reverse, porting a classic ...
hippietrail's user avatar
  • 6,333
18 votes
1 answer
5k views

Could Pac-Man be replicated perfectly on the ZX Spectrum?

We all know that various ports of Pac-Man exist but my question is just for one specific computer. Could the Spectrum, with time and proper knowledge, run the Arcade version of Pac-Man despite it's ...
Vpirate21's user avatar
  • 197
7 votes
0 answers
178 views

Need help checking an ADC0808 / ADC0809 chip in a arcade shooting game

Main Question: How can I check a ADC0808 chip to determine if it needs to be replaced or if my issue is something else? Any advice you can offer is SO appreciated! ADDITIONAL INFO When the arcade is ...
Red732's user avatar
  • 71
10 votes
1 answer
930 views

Can you program an arcade game and have MAME or another emu run it?

I know Mame works with drivers for each game or hardware, and it checks for specific ROMs, and I guess it might check also for some checksum to verify the ROMs integrity. Is there some way you could ...
Petruza's user avatar
  • 321
8 votes
1 answer
642 views

Did Atari make more money from arcade games or consoles?

Atari was originally an arcade game company, starting at the beginning of the seventies with Computer Space and Pong. In 1977, they entered the console business with the VCS a.k.a. 2600; in 1979, they ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 58.4k
38 votes
6 answers
11k views

Why did early arcade games use vertical displays?

Surprisingly many early arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Galaxian and Galaga, mounted their displays vertically, in portrait rather than landscape orientation. (From the perspective of the electronics, ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 58.4k
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

How did the Donkey Kong arcade hardware provide 128 sprites?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(video_game) The Donkey Kong hardware has the memory capacity for displaying 128 foreground sprites at 16x16 pixels each and 256 background ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 58.4k
2 votes
1 answer
305 views

What version of Space Invaders is this?

I would like to know which manufacturer/version is the Space Invaders game that I show playing in the video linked below. The game setup is similar to Galaxian/Galaga but it is not. It also feels ...
JoanLluch's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
2k views

Where did the standard arcade font originate?

Nearly anyone who has seen an early arcade game from any company has probably seen this or a very similar font. Who created it and where, and why did it become so widespread, ending up in games from ...
Kitten's user avatar
  • 275
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

How well can a NEO GEO theoretically run Sega´s Super Scallers Games?

The Neo Geo had a remarkable capacity to scale sprites, as we can see in fighting games, but it does not have any racing, flight or any game that simulated a non ray casting pseudo 3D to my knowledge. ...
user36088's user avatar
  • 409
25 votes
2 answers
3k views

Details of video memory access arbitration in Space Invaders

I am working on an FPGA implementation of the original Space Invaders arcade machine and I'd like to implement access arbitration between the CPU and the video system. I can imagine several ways of ...
Cactus's user avatar
  • 2,642
26 votes
6 answers
7k views

Why weren't discrete x86 CPUs ever used in game hardware?

Please don't point out APUs with x86_64 cores used in current generation game consoles, these are not part of the question I cannot recall a single arcade system or game console that ever used x86 ...
Brian H's user avatar
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