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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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2 votes
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Help identify a 1980s vertical space shooter [closed]

I need help identify a 1980s vertical space shooter. It was a coin operated arcade game, I remember it around the mid 80's at a local aracde. The player's spacecraft was at the bottom, and fired up at ...
Paul Marra's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
644 views

Why does the boot-up screen for Cruis'n USA (arcade version) display this strange text?

(I originally asked this in the "gaming"/Arqade section. However, it was suggested by a commenter that I should instead migrate it here. Since I don't know how one "migrates" a ...
user296681's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
914 views

Arcade game similar to Commando, but better music

I'm trying to find the ROMs for an arcade game I played circa 1987. It was very similar to Commando in general concept - vertical scroller, very simple isometrics, guns and grenades. Although it was ...
Maury Markowitz's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
4k views

Do people fix software bugs in old arcade games?

Do people fix software bugs in old coin-op arcade games? Here is one list of arcade game bugs. Presumably the ROM images that run on emulators like MAME allow reverse compilation. This would allow ...
user2023370's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
217 views

Futuristic arcade spaceship game where your ship gains wings and wheels, collecting power-ups—from the late 80s/early 90s

Can anyone identify this game from the late 80s to the early 90s? What I remember about this game is that it had some very particular mechanics. For example, in some levels, your ship had wings, and ...
jose montalvo's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
793 views

Finding a vertical scrolling arcade game from the '90s

The game I'm looking for had the possibility for two players controlling a red or blue fighter jet. The style reminds me of the "Raiden" games in the arcades. The only specifics I remember ...
Terje's user avatar
  • 53
0 votes
1 answer
255 views

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
981 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
  • 153
2 votes
1 answer
635 views

Breakout style arcade game from 90s

I'm looking for a breakout style game where the paddle was held by a Chinese character with red clothes. The character holding the paddle above his head and he was running to prevent the ball from ...
Nestor Baños's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
738 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
3k 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
687 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
226 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
2 votes
3 answers
926 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
3k 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
901 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
  • 777
2 votes
1 answer
669 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
  • 37
6 votes
0 answers
754 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
1k 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
  • 93
5 votes
1 answer
2k 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
230 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
7 votes
1 answer
556 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
  • 63.8k
4 votes
1 answer
525 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
  • 63.8k
12 votes
1 answer
840 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
  • 9,368
9 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
  • 4,081
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
558 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
  • 1,129
4 votes
2 answers
2k 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
4 votes
2 answers
364 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
  • 15.5k
12 votes
1 answer
634 views

How similar were the X68000 and Capcom CP system?

The Sharp X68000 was used in the development of many Capcom games in the CP system era. It was a formidable workstation but I've also heard it said that the two systems were similar in capability, to ...
user's user avatar
  • 15.5k
48 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
  • 583
6 votes
1 answer
575 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
  • 515
4 votes
1 answer
629 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
  • 515
8 votes
1 answer
492 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
  • 515
5 votes
3 answers
663 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
1 vote
2 answers
2k 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
  • 7,234
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
  • 63.8k
7 votes
1 answer
601 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
  • 2,810
44 votes
11 answers
10k 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
  • 407
4 votes
0 answers
249 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
  • 63.8k
8 votes
2 answers
5k 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
322 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
  • 15.5k
3 votes
2 answers
6k 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
  • 7,874
18 votes
1 answer
6k 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
190 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
1k 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
9 votes
1 answer
808 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
  • 63.8k