I was 12 in '81. I remember fondly riding my bmx to the corner majik Mart to play galaga, donkey Kong, joust, tempest and can't forget that kiss pinball machine. A roll of quarters, a mountain dew and some pop rocks. Good times! Still gaming and collecting today strong as ever.
@@tonyp9313 Not tough at all actually. I was born in 69. The 70s was awesome as a kid. The best toys ever! The six million dollar man, evil kenieval, G I Joe's, space 1999, star wars, dungeons and dragons. And by '78 asteroids came into the picture then a few years later the Atari.
@@stevethomas5978 Atari was out in North America in 1977. The year I was born. I grew up in the 80's & that was a terrible time. Before the 80's that even worse. Those things you mentioned only became popular or iconic status in the 80's. Gi Joe was in the 80's. I don't even know if you had a color tv in the 70's. Most people had a black & white tv with 6 channels at most and like 3 of them snowy reception. What about Rotary phones? That even exist in the 70's? A lot mom & pop shops. So it's not like going to Walmart. We're talking small. VCR's little to none. If there was no cable I doubt you had a VCR growing up in the 70's. It's just a lot of things in your time that wasn't even invented yet.
Sometimes I thought the clone games were better than some of the more popular and well-known arcade titles. Especially when they come up with Atari 2600 or 5200 clone games for home. Ahhhhh the memories!
Super Cobra IS the sequel to Scramble. BTW, if you play Gradius Galaxies (aka Gradius Advance in Europe) on the GBA, the attract screen has a series timeline, which does include Scramble (but not Super Cobra, for some reason). Turns out that Gradius was originally meant to be another sequel to Scramble before becoming its own thing.
Love your videos, man! This is my favorite of your sequential history of things, as classic arcade games are so underrated! There are so many arcade gems to dig up.
Nice, I think I played about half of these back in the 80s, never had a big arcade nearby back then, it was only bars, sports clubs and fast food places.
Most arcades were not very wheelchair friendly so my playing arcade type games started with an atari and i got my fix later on with a commodore 64. My favourite games was graphically simple and i live in hope for a remake ... that game being Jack Attack ... a cartridge game sent FREE and i was an immediate addict!!! Love the nostalgia of your videos take care ❤💙💜
In 1981 I still didn't know about arcades or maybe video games. It wasn't until 1982 when we relocated to NY that I knew what video games were. The first ones I saw were Ms.Pac-Man, Tron and Qix. I played them once in a while but I bearly knew what I was doing but had a lot of fun. I think I played a videogames system previously but I can't remember well. Crush Roller was known in some places as Make Traxx and I played it quite a bit. Great showing good reviews and cool video John!👍
This was the year I really got into video games. I don't even want to remember how many 20 cent (New Zealand) pieces I put into the games you've highlighted here...... 😆🤣🤣
My love for this era of games has never waned, to the point I have an '80s patch style tattoo of Pac-Man and the ghosts going down my entire left rib cage.
I can only assume the 'not mame' refence during DK was a dig at the whole billy mitchell thing?! that whole thing was wild. ms. pac-man might be my all time favorite on the list, followed by DK and galaga (my wife's favorite) next time I fire up the atgames legends gamer mini I may have to give some of these a credit I think!
I'm commenting on your latest video hoping you'll see it: I would like you to provide a video on all the NES games that your rated an S. I think that would be so helpful in getting the absolute best games in my library. And while you're at it, you might as well make a vid of the A games too! lol
I just realized- Galaga should have restored a life (a ship) to the player if your were skillful enough to create a double-ship for yourself. That was an advanced move and should have been rewarded esp since the double-ship was doubly-wide and therefore twice as likely to get hit by an enemy bomb. So I don’t think going for the double-ship was ultimately worth the risk, all things considered….
Riggs you must been 6 or 8 in that picture in 1981? I'm guessing myself I was 12 or 13 in 1981 and I played or seen a few of these arcade games like ms Pac-Man and donkey Kong and frenzy and gorf and Stargate. The other games never played or seen them or heard of them before.
@@tonyp9313 he said that was him in the picture re-watch the video and yes he's around that old he's mentioned he old but not as old as me. And John is a bit younger than MJR he's 50 I'm 4 years older than MJR.
Most of these games I never heard of. I was 4 in 1981, so definitly wasn't playing any of them. Most that you mentioned weren't in arcades either here later on. 1981 is a stone age year. Maybe 2 of those arcade machines were in bars in 1981. There was no like arcades that were huge & again this was for a very niche audience. 1981: I was doing absolutley nothing. Black & white tv's with the 2 little knobs with attena on it...Probably a 13 inch tv. 6 channels. Not all all were clear either. Maybe 3 were clear & the other snowy reception. No cable, no video games, no movies. No vcr's. You name anything like that & it was 0 for me on all things you have today.
Enjoyed the video. Late '81 was when I became a gamer. My mother was taking my sister and I to the Dairy Queen and they had just got an arcade of Pac-Man. Up to this point, the only video games I knew were Pong clones and Breakout. It seems funny now, but I was absolutely blown away by the idea of being able to move a character around the screen in four directions instead of just two.
A little before my time and never even heard of most of these games but they look like a lot of fun though, I do love me some Galaga! Thanks for the vid John! Peace, Love, and video games... ☮💙🕹
I love these lists. They always bring back such awesome memories. It was so exciting going to all of the local arcades, bowling alleys and convenience stores in search of new games.
You're the same age as me. Man I feel really bad for us because we had it rough compared to the 4 year olds now with little to nothing existing back in 1981.
I guess I hadn't really ever heard that technically Miss Pac-Man is like a rom hack. does that make it the most successful rom hack of all time then must be
Frogger is still fantastic today. Sure I can play Galaga a lot today too, but I have much more fun with Frogger. I loved Scramble on Colecovision! OMG! Never heard of Black Hole. It looks like a rip-off of Phoenix (which was a rip-offs of other games- so Black Hole is super-diluted hahaha!). I think I liked Cosmic Avenger better than Scramble on Colecovision. Similar, yes, but I think it was slightly better.
Why no Bosconian Star Destroyer? That's gotta be among the most under-rated game of that era. It was quite sophisticated, and ahead of it's time, in terms of graphics, audio, and gameplay. I think it's my all-time favorite arcade game ever made, but dang, it's so overlooked and under-appreciated, widely.
The last game Pliades is pronounced plee-uh-deez, and you got it right, it's a star cluster. Loved the video and love the series as a whole too! Thanks Riggs!
I was a big Atari 2600 kid parents had bought me the atari vcs heavy sixer for Xmas 1977 i was 8 at the time had maybe 5 games only but built a good library of games until 1982 when Colecovision came out,skipped Intellevision since a friend had it but hated the controller pad but I would say around 1980 I was always in the arcade and in 81' I think I had the most fun playing ms pacman and DK alot and Qbert too
True story, my dad used to own mrs Pacman and the lady responsible for the bow of Mrs Pacman is one of the vampire lady's from spectre files: deathstalker
With Stargate you could shoot all the humanoids and then see if you can survive the next stages where the mutants chase you up to stage 6 if you're lucky! Loved this on the Atari 2600!
Surprised you didn't bring up Bosconian, I believe it was the first to have a continue feature or I read that somewhere. I think its an amazing game that doesn't get enough attention.
I think that you're right about Bosconian being the first (production) game with a continue option. It along with Rally X and Super Pac Man are Namco arcade games that never got the respect that they deserved.
@@tonyp9313 I was a product of the Vietnam war .... literally. Dad was a Naval Aviator at the time...I was on or near base for most of the 70's... pretty exiting stuff for a kid, seeing the jets and getting to go on an Carrier overnight with dad, all while not realizing that a was was going on... or the concept of it yet really. ... then I discovered Black Sabbath and KISS....and all hell broke lose in the nuclear family... ;)
Nice! This year marks the first I had ever went to an arcade. I was 6 years old and I can still remember it vividly… It was an arcade in a local mall called Pirates Den. I still recall the dark atmosphere and demo music competing with each other to capture the attention of my 6 year old self. I don’t think the arcade had half of these but it did have the popular ones like donkey kong, ms. Pac-Man, and Frogger. So it’s nice to see some of the lesser known games in this video I’ve never seen before. The arcade back then was a great babysitter for my parents back then. They would do their shopping and leave me there for about an hour with a couple dollars in quarters. (It was a different time back then) What was really cool though was it would be on a Saturday afternoon when the arcade wasn’t busy so I pretty much had the whole arcade to myself. If I could go back in time, the Pirates Den arcade would be the first place I’d visit. Magical time. Thank you for posting this!!
Wow, I forgot about Ladybug. These games seemed so magical and unattainable when I was a little kid. Probably because my brother played them and I was slightly too young to really understand how.
I remember Lady Bug for the Colecovision. Only imperefections were no angel wings flying at death, and gave you a vegetable garden bonus round instead of a free credit for SPECIAL.
point of order, arcades were NICKEL munchers, usually only the premium game like Gauntlet was a quarter game, otherwise most were a nickel back in the day
CLICK - ua-cam.com/video/xhB4T4teYY4/v-deo.html
Arcade games from 1983.
I was 12 in '81. I remember fondly riding my bmx to the corner majik Mart to play galaga, donkey Kong, joust, tempest and can't forget that kiss pinball machine. A roll of quarters, a mountain dew and some pop rocks. Good times! Still gaming and collecting today strong as ever.
I was 4 in 81. Oh yeah a bmx bike. Those were popular back then. So you born in the 60's growing up in the 70's. Wow you had it tougher than me even.
@@tonyp9313 nah, he was in a good spot
@@tonyp9313 Not tough at all actually. I was born in 69. The 70s was awesome as a kid. The best toys ever! The six million dollar man, evil kenieval, G I Joe's, space 1999, star wars, dungeons and dragons. And by '78 asteroids came into the picture then a few years later the Atari.
@@stevethomas5978 Atari was out in North America in 1977. The year I was born. I grew up in the 80's & that was a terrible time. Before the 80's that even worse.
Those things you mentioned only became popular or iconic status in the 80's. Gi Joe was in the 80's.
I don't even know if you had a color tv in the 70's. Most people had a black & white tv with 6 channels at most and like 3 of them snowy reception. What about Rotary phones? That even exist in the 70's?
A lot mom & pop shops. So it's not like going to Walmart. We're talking small. VCR's little to none. If there was no cable I doubt you had a VCR growing up in the 70's.
It's just a lot of things in your time that wasn't even invented yet.
@@patsfan4life He grew up in the 70's. So a lot of things that you have today & are obsolete now didn't even exist when he was growing up.
Wow, I haven't heard of a good chunk of these games and I was always in the arcade when I was a kid. Thanks for the video, John.
nice to see you cover more than the "Greatest Hits";
i remember most of these games from the ColecoVision ('82)
Sometimes I thought the clone games were better than some of the more popular and well-known arcade titles. Especially when they come up with Atari 2600 or 5200 clone games for home. Ahhhhh the memories!
Super Cobra IS the sequel to Scramble. BTW, if you play Gradius Galaxies (aka Gradius Advance in Europe) on the GBA, the attract screen has a series timeline, which does include Scramble (but not Super Cobra, for some reason). Turns out that Gradius was originally meant to be another sequel to Scramble before becoming its own thing.
Awesome stuff John. I feel really bad for anyone who wasn't a teen in the 80's!!
don't lol I feel bad for you lol i was a kid in the 80's so I also feel bad for myself.
There was some cool looking games back in '81.
I like them because I grew up with them. If you introduce anyone who hasn't, they won't like them.
Love your videos, man! This is my favorite of your sequential history of things, as classic arcade games are so underrated! There are so many arcade gems to dig up.
Nice, I think I played about half of these back in the 80s, never had a big arcade nearby back then, it was only bars, sports clubs and fast food places.
Turtles is famous at least in the Odyssey 2 community since it received a port of it.
someone made an NES homebrew, too. Tortoises
I love this style of video. Good stuff kind sir. More, more
Ladybug is a favorite. Super fun game.
Most arcades were not very wheelchair friendly so my playing arcade type games started with an atari and i got my fix later on with a commodore 64. My favourite games was graphically simple and i live in hope for a remake ... that game being Jack Attack ... a cartridge game sent FREE and i was an immediate addict!!! Love the nostalgia of your videos take care ❤💙💜
This reminds me of sneaking and walking to the arcade in Houston when I was 8, or playing Gorf and Defender at the 711 .
In 1981 I still didn't know about arcades or maybe video games. It wasn't until 1982 when we relocated to NY that I knew what video games were. The first ones I saw were Ms.Pac-Man, Tron and Qix. I played them once in a while but I bearly knew what I was doing but had a lot of fun. I think I played a videogames system previously but I can't remember well. Crush Roller was known in some places as Make Traxx and I played it quite a bit. Great showing good reviews and cool video John!👍
This was the year I really got into video games. I don't even want to remember how many 20 cent (New Zealand) pieces I put into the games you've highlighted here...... 😆🤣🤣
I have the Odyssey 2 version of Turtles and it's great! Plays almost exactly like the arcade version except the graphics are a little simpler
1:50 Glad you got a MiSter! How long have you had yours? I had mine since December and loving every minute of it!
That was a good year for arcade games!
I didn't realize all of these were on miSTer. Thanks!
Good stuff
How about Games for the 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Astrocade, Odyssey, 5200 and Vectrex by year?
What a great video 🕹️ I was 4.
My love for this era of games has never waned, to the point I have an '80s patch style tattoo of Pac-Man and the ghosts going down my entire left rib cage.
2:30 "Coming out in 1991." Oopsie!
Still laughing about Ms. Pac-Man not being a very good kisser.
I can only assume the 'not mame' refence during DK was a dig at the whole billy mitchell thing?! that whole thing was wild. ms. pac-man might be my all time favorite on the list, followed by DK and galaga (my wife's favorite) next time I fire up the atgames legends gamer mini I may have to give some of these a credit I think!
Pleiades is pronounced plee-uh-deez. Is also what the Subaru logo is based on, a cluster of 7 stars.
I'm commenting on your latest video hoping you'll see it: I would like you to provide a video on all the NES games that your rated an S. I think that would be so helpful in getting the absolute best games in my library. And while you're at it, you might as well make a vid of the A games too! lol
John Riggs‼️🤘
I just realized- Galaga should have restored a life (a ship) to the player if your were skillful enough to create a double-ship for yourself. That was an advanced move and should have been rewarded esp since the double-ship was doubly-wide and therefore twice as likely to get hit by an enemy bomb. So I don’t think going for the double-ship was ultimately worth the risk, all things considered….
Oops! Galaga came out in 1981, not 1991. Lol
Riggs you must been 6 or 8 in that picture in 1981? I'm guessing myself I was 12 or 13 in 1981 and I played or seen a few of these arcade games like ms Pac-Man and donkey Kong and frenzy and gorf and Stargate. The other games never played or seen them or heard of them before.
I don't think it's him in the pic lol. That would mean he is like 47-50 years old. I don't think he's that old. Maybe he is in is early 40's.
So I looked him up. If this is true he is born on April 12, 1977. So that means he is 45
@@tonyp9313 he said that was him in the picture re-watch the video and yes he's around that old he's mentioned he old but not as old as me. And John is a bit younger than MJR he's 50 I'm 4 years older than MJR.
@@ardon68 He's 45 lol and it said probably which means it's not him
@@tonyp9313 yes he said that was him in the picture
Hi how to change music rom Snes
I like turtles 😉
where is 1982?
Most of these games I never heard of. I was 4 in 1981, so definitly wasn't playing any of them. Most that you mentioned weren't in arcades either here later on. 1981 is a stone age year.
Maybe 2 of those arcade machines were in bars in 1981. There was no like arcades that were huge & again this was for a very niche audience.
1981: I was doing absolutley nothing. Black & white tv's with the 2 little knobs with attena on it...Probably a 13 inch tv. 6 channels. Not all all were clear either. Maybe 3 were clear & the other snowy reception. No cable, no video games, no movies. No vcr's. You name anything like that & it was 0 for me on all things you have today.
Enjoyed the video. Late '81 was when I became a gamer. My mother was taking my sister and I to the Dairy Queen and they had just got an arcade of Pac-Man. Up to this point, the only video games I knew were Pong clones and Breakout. It seems funny now, but I was absolutely blown away by the idea of being able to move a character around the screen in four directions instead of just two.
A little before my time and never even heard of most of these games but they look like a lot of fun though, I do love me some Galaga! Thanks for the vid John! Peace, Love, and video games... ☮💙🕹
Goooo, Broncos!!!
@@broncosbreaks Let's gooo!! We're going to have an exciting season! 🍊💪🏽
I was 1, but I still played these bad boys!
Most of these games were still in the arcade by the time I was playing at Chuck E. Cheese in the mid-late 80s.
Yeah because they were mostly great
"....which, by the way, Woodpecker is a double-phallic name..." 😅😂
Two other Good Arcade Games from 81 would be Amidar & Bosconian.
Sweet video, been a long time ive seen some of these(and some i dont member).
I love these lists. They always bring back such awesome memories. It was so exciting going to all of the local arcades, bowling alleys and convenience stores in search of new games.
Good video! Brings back some memories of playing these arcade games!
I was only 4 in 1981 so I didn't play any of these in that year but I did get to them eventually.
You're the same age as me. Man I feel really bad for us because we had it rough compared to the 4 year olds now with little to nothing existing back in 1981.
Hey John, you would be an awesome addition should someone make an arcade years for the 90s! Heck, where were you for the arcade years season 1?! Haha
If I remember correctly, Stargate is an official sequel to Defender, and Frenzy is a sequel to Bezerk
That is correct. Stargate is also known as Defender II.
I guess I hadn't really ever heard that technically Miss Pac-Man is like a rom hack. does that make it the most successful rom hack of all time then must be
I was born in 1981😎
Frogger is still fantastic today. Sure I can play Galaga a lot today too, but I have much more fun with Frogger. I loved Scramble on Colecovision! OMG! Never heard of Black Hole. It looks like a rip-off of Phoenix (which was a rip-offs of other games- so Black Hole is super-diluted hahaha!).
I think I liked Cosmic Avenger better than Scramble on Colecovision. Similar, yes, but I think it was slightly better.
The number one arcade I played the most in 1981 that was Donkey Kong.
Why no Bosconian Star Destroyer? That's gotta be among the most under-rated game of that era. It was quite sophisticated, and ahead of it's time, in terms of graphics, audio, and gameplay. I think it's my all-time favorite arcade game ever made, but dang, it's so overlooked and under-appreciated, widely.
You said that Galaga came out in 1991!
Pleiads I always figured was play on the Pleiades constellation, was a the little local pizza shop for years along with Phoenix. What an era.
The last game Pliades is pronounced plee-uh-deez, and you got it right, it's a star cluster.
Loved the video and love the series as a whole too! Thanks Riggs!
I remember playing DONKEY KONG in the USA as a kid when it came out. It 100% called him JUMP MAN on the printed instructions by the control panel.
I was a big Atari 2600 kid parents had bought me the atari vcs heavy sixer for Xmas 1977 i was 8 at the time had maybe 5 games only but built a good library of games until 1982 when Colecovision came out,skipped Intellevision since a friend had it but hated the controller pad but I would say around 1980 I was always in the arcade and in 81' I think I had the most fun playing ms pacman and DK alot and Qbert too
Sweet M.A.S.K. shirt, Riggs.
True story, my dad used to own mrs Pacman and the lady responsible for the bow of Mrs Pacman is one of the vampire lady's from spectre files: deathstalker
With Stargate you could shoot all the humanoids and then see if you can survive the next stages where the mutants chase you up to stage 6 if you're lucky! Loved this on the Atari 2600!
2:30 "1991"
yeah, I didn't catch it when I was editing or on the replay. Oh well, it stays.
Galiga came out in 1991, I remember that way different. Mandela effect!
haha, wrong year. oh well, it stays.
@@JohnRiggs just giving a little crap, thank you for the vids! Love the trip back to memory lane. We got to grow up in a truly wonderous time.
galaga came out in 1991 wow thats crazy 02:30 😂😂 good video riggs
Pleiades is pronounced plea-ah-deez. I've heard it pronounced ply-ah-deez, but it definitely has a deez sound at the end.
Nice Matt Tracker shirt
GORF was the first game ever with a final boss. It's too bad you didn't make it to the fourth stage. :)
It’s like if someone made a hack of a random game and called it Super Mario Bros. 2
Me and the other guy can not be the only one that got that reference
Hahahahahaha nice hat!
"arcade games you were playing in 1981" I was born in 2003, missed it by a few years
Ten-year-old me, two cokes down and twin guns on Galaga… that’s the best life.👍
1981 i'm 1 yearold
John! i was born in 83 but i was definitely playing them soon after :)
I grew up with Cosmic Avenger and GORF on the Colecovision
I wasn't playing any of these games because I was born in 1996.
please do more years for arcade!!!
Nah, was still playing pinball in 1981 (the golden year for Bally)
Surprised you didn't bring up Bosconian, I believe it was the first to have a continue feature or I read that somewhere. I think its an amazing game that doesn't get enough attention.
I think that you're right about Bosconian being the first (production) game with a continue option. It along with Rally X and Super Pac Man are Namco arcade games that never got the respect that they deserved.
Bosconian > Galaga
i used to try play crush roller at the gas station but i was like 9 and i was garbage lol
Nintendo ripped off Crush Roller with Splatoon! 🙃
Jesus has always been Jesus. Mario has always been Mario. 🍄
Thanks
i didn't play any games in 1981, i was born that year :P
I was an eighth grader in 81 ... I survived... I think...
Wow. I respect you a lot. You were born in the 60's growing up in the 70's were video games didn't even exist along with a lot of things.
@@tonyp9313 I was a product of the Vietnam war .... literally.
Dad was a Naval Aviator at the time...I was on or near base for most of the 70's... pretty exiting stuff for a kid, seeing the jets and getting to go on an Carrier overnight with dad, all while not realizing that a was was going on... or the concept of it yet really.
... then I discovered Black Sabbath and KISS....and all hell broke lose in the nuclear family... ;)
"...was a war going on" I mean
i was not playing any game in 1981 thats the year i was born lol
Played a lot of these games around 83 , 84. I was 5
I heard Vanguard was the first game to have a continue.
Thank you, brings back so much memories!
Nice! This year marks the first I had ever went to an arcade. I was 6 years old and I can still remember it vividly… It was an arcade in a local mall called Pirates Den. I still recall the dark atmosphere and demo music competing with each other to capture the attention of my 6 year old self. I don’t think the arcade had half of these but it did have the popular ones like donkey kong, ms. Pac-Man, and Frogger. So it’s nice to see some of the lesser known games in this video I’ve never seen before. The arcade back then was a great babysitter for my parents back then. They would do their shopping and leave me there for about an hour with a couple dollars in quarters. (It was a different time back then) What was really cool though was it would be on a Saturday afternoon when the arcade wasn’t busy so I pretty much had the whole arcade to myself. If I could go back in time, the Pirates Den arcade would be the first place I’d visit. Magical time. Thank you for posting this!!
But wasn’t Galaxian before Galaga?
Galaga “coming out in 1991”??
😆
Wow, I forgot about Ladybug. These games seemed so magical and unattainable when I was a little kid. Probably because my brother played them and I was slightly too young to really understand how.
I remember Lady Bug for the Colecovision. Only imperefections were no angel wings flying at death, and gave you a vegetable garden bonus round instead of a free credit for SPECIAL.
I was 4 years old at the time, so...yeah. ;) Would've been great, though!
Same age lol. I feel for you. I know what you went through with things being non existant to like this didn't exist back in my day.
point of order, arcades were NICKEL munchers, usually only the premium game like Gauntlet was a quarter game, otherwise most were a nickel back in the day
Galaga is my spirit animal.
The year I was born!
yessir. i was there.
I was born in '81