I was 2 in 1983, i started playing coin op arcade in 1987, I also got a sega master system in 1987 and a nes in 1989.Then all the arcades died around 1999 to 2001,
The mid 80's were amazing for arcade games and arcades in general. Our local mall didn't just have one but TWO full sized arcades in it. One upstairs and one downstairs!
The downtown area of my city had this amazing spot called Space Center, which was such a cool vibe growing up. In addition were the arcades at Hampton Beach, NH and of course Funspot in Laconia NH.
I never saw the "crash" either and many other people I talk to that grew up back then say the same thing when the topic comes up. The truth is there never was a "crash" like so much pop media tries to portray after all these years. Atari crashed do to numerous terrible decisions made by Warner Communications (which had owned Atari for a while by then) which included grossly over-inflated projections, subsequent over production of game carts (more carts for some titles than were total consoles in existence at the time) and tons of poor quality games coming from everybody and their brother (since the lawsuit with Activision made it possible for anybody to make games for the system by then). Since other systems had nowhere near the market share in the home that Atari did people say the market crashed (not that it didn't affect the other companies to some degree). The arcade never really suffered in the same way. You didn't necessarily see as many arcades as a whole over time because the business model didn't scale well over time but as you mentioned you did still see them in all kinds of other places. There was a reason why the NES was able to come here in 1985 and "revive" the market - it was never truly dead. People still played and loved video games. Lol... and guys like me were still buying games for our Commodore 64's too during that time. Anyways, there's a lot of simplification there but the bottom line is that there was never really a crash like the fables of today tell tales of IMO.
There was a mass exodus from consoles, but I believe it was because of the home computers. All of my friends and family were buying 8-bit computers and the C-64 was so popular, that I'd see book stores selling its software. The consoles really couldn't compete with those home computers, especially since all of us were sharing copies of games with each other.
Im uk and had a segamaster and commodore 64 only got an nes yeats later cos games were reallyhard to get as mattel were in charge and really fucked up nes game distribution in the uk.
I think the "crash" really was all us old school Atari 2600 players had moved to Atari 8bit computers or Commodore 64s, leaving the 2600 and other early consoles to collect dust (i.e. the console market dried up). The 2600 E.T. game was just a scapegoat, and really had nothing to do with causing the crash (just really bad returns on an overproduced/undersold game).
(John: Please do another 1983 arcade games video. You can make it a series? There are so many of them!) I really loved Gyruss, Star Wars and Track and Field which also came out in 1983. Gyruss is one that I actually got 3,000,000 points on with one quarter! The arcade games back then were great! was in 1983. It was a sight to see all of the arcade games lined up in rows ready too suck up your quarters like a sponge! Great days to think back on!
I loved those days as a kid where every supermarket has an arcade game. My parents would do their groceries while I plunked quarters and enjoyed these arcade classics
Great video! I remember playing Wacko for the first time on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and I loved it. Loved how interesting it was an loved learning about the arcade cabinet being tilted! Another great 1983 arcade game that I'd have on my personal list is Crossbow by Exidy
Man, I used to love the fact that every 7-Eleven and laundromat in the 80s had arcades!?!?! Me and friends would walk around town looking for new... Good Times!?!
Last new game I remember playing in an arcade was "Pole Position". I was working and still in high school in '83 and I haven't been in an arcade since then. Honestly I didn't even know there was a video game crash until I started collecting vintage consoles about 15 years ago.
Mappy is sooo underrated! Very happy you put Mappy on the list :) Mappy is a really fun and great game. Even to this day, I still have a great time playing it. I never understand why Mappy is not as popular as Pacman, Dig Dug, and Galaga. If you ask me, out of all the Namco games, Mappy is the game I have most fun with.
@David Herrera, if I do recall correctly, both Mappy and Mappyland got good NES/FDS home ports as well, so that might do for you if you lack an arcade cabinet of either game near you.
Mappy was very popular and successful, but those are three amazing classics you're talking about. Rally-X was another great game from Namco but hard as heck!
I was born in 86 just in time to experience and love the NES and arcade games. I still own my nes and will probably be buried with it. And tapper is freaking legit!
I remember being 12 in 83, walking into a sears and seeing Atari games in a bargain bin pile, these game would always be behind glass, knew something was wrong, bought ET for 5 dollars new, Dragons Lair in the arcade for 50 cents, unreal!
I always explain to people younger than me that the crash was noticed by no one except executives. As a kid we got great games in 1983, tons of cheaper games in 1984 and the c64 and NES in 1985. There was no bump in the road or changes at all. As per arcades kids kept going. The only difference was no more 30 year old dudes playing ms pacman on their lunch break.
The Atari 2600 stuff was real stale by then but Intellivision and Colecovision still had quality software that kids enjoyed. All generations were the same though. At the beginning of NES we couldn't believe we were playing almost arcade quality Popeye at home. A couple years later NES was garbage compared to the arcade. Then the cycle repeated itself with Genesis.
I was blessed to have grown up during the 70's and 80's. I fondly recall numerous hours spent in various arcades and pretty much anyplace that had a video game around my hometown of Los Angeles, CA. From the local liquor stores in my neighborhood to the SEGA center in Fox Hills Mall to the Santa Monica Pier.
What a time to be alive. I was too young (ie. short) to play these games myself, but I do remember hanging out at the local mall arcade watching others and the attract modes.
There are so many of my favorite games on this list, and it boggles my mind to consider this period the start of a downturn, since I'll always consider it the birth of video games. It seemed like every week a new amazing game would appear at my local arcade.
But the downturn was mostly (only?) about bad 2600 atari games and even worse knockoffs because everybody wanted to make a quick profit. Solid quality arcade games were fine.
@@Blackadder75 I do recall going to a new arcade around early 80s, and it had only unmarked generic cabinets with weird games I'd never heard of, this was probably a sign if the crash as well.
Tapper still drives me nuts. Always start to struggle by the punk bar stage. I forgot that you can run up and collect the cash tips, though when things get hectic, it never feels like there's time to do so.
Damn, I used to play Spy Hunter having to stand on a bar stool to reach the controls...I was about age 5 or so? I would have the quarters stacked up and just go to town. I got really excited one day when a crowd of people surrounded me to watch, as I must have been doing better than any of them ever did, with comments like "this kid is really playing this!!" 🤣
Retro gaming hippie approves! Fondly remember many of these while spending hours and nickel arcades. Pretty sure satan’s hollow was the final games played in a very 80’s movie called “Joysticks”
I was working in Silicon Valley (San Jose and Milpitas areas) from 1983 to 1990. My favorite thing to do on my lunch breaks (at least in the early years) was run down to Chucky Cheese and play Missile Command. I would play it for an hour straight (sometimes two). I lost count of how many times my boss would scold me for walking back in to Engineering an hour or two late, and told me I was addicted and to seek help. LOL! Now THOSE were the days!
Tapper was a blast, even as a kid I didn't care about the beer theme. I seem to remember root beer too. All the home console/computer ports of the game were fairly solid too. Wacko I had only played recently and is surprisingly fun! I wasn't impressed with the look of it back then. Dragon's Lair was amazing graphically, frustratingly awful game play. This is when I learned good graphics don't make a great game (but they can certainly help).
Spy Hunter and Disks of Tron were my jams back in the day. I could play either of those for hours. At least until I got tired from standing on one foot playing Spy Hunter. Of course, if there was a sit down version available, all bets were off!
0:02 I used to love playing with that Fisher-Price gas pump toy in my Preschool I’m currently conducting a collection of old vintage toys and this gas pump toy would make a keen edition to my collection
I dont blame Mario for the career change. I think plummers make more money than carpenters and it seems easier to fight turtles and flies compared to a giant ape throwing drums.
However, with Handy, a person that has experience in carpentry, plumbing, construction, demolition, and other house and building work, would not only be a steal for most people that want to hire such and individual, but that they would be making some SERIOUS bank if they all of those skills, and exceptional skills as well, in real life, @Dan Borggren.
These are all epic arcade games here, John. I've always absolutely loved Spy Hunter from the start of my gaming days on computers! Seeing Mappy is really nostalgic too - I remember that one being a bit more challenging.
Did you know? Discs of Tron was supposed to be part of the original Tron arcade game but they couldn't get it finished in time for the movie to come out. Also, I know this is not a complete list but how dare you not mention Journey, LOL. Also two excellent games from 1983 are Mad Planets and Major Havoc
I know it’s more marketable and click-worthy to refer to the mythical “crash” - but it’s just that, more myth than fact. It was a US only and Atari-exclusive “crash.” There was no general video game crash. There was no world-wide crash. And in the grand scheme of actual market crashes it wasn’t even significant enough to be ever be called a crash. A tiny insignificant blip brought on by the lack of development from Atari trying to hold onto a product that was already over 5 years old and that had been outclassed multiple times over by other products. But love the video besides the title.
I was 16 in 1983. Here in Australia my friends and I would hang out at a local Amusement arcade or bowling alley, and play video games and pinball. Great times !
I'm here!!! Yes, I'm here!!! I!!! Sean the gamer!!! Hello!!! this is me!!! The real Sean the gamer!!! watching a Good old John riggs video!!!! good to see you again!!! Remember me??? I don't mean to sound like a broken record but I'm trying to tell you that it made another good video and it's good content Keep up the good stuff Hi bye
I can remember very vividly Atari 2600 games behind the counter in sears. We were far too poor, like a real poor, likely not too many would understand, to ever dream about buying anything like those. It wasn't until years later when they were nearly, not completely but nearly, no longer being sold, that I was able to work during the summer and bought my own Atari 2600. I had to buy and trade for used games at school still though. No way I had money for new games but all by myself, I learned how to become a master trader and I ended up with a box of 30 -35 games just the same! haha. As for how poor, I had to work hard during the summer because I only money for toys after I bought my own school cloths. Most kids might have resented their parents for that but even as a little kid, I understood how destitute we were and just how hard it was coming by enough money for a loaf of bread (as in, we had to look around for lose change often to buy a loaf, not kidding) so I knew it wasn't them being mean or anything, they had no way to buy things other kids got in the neighborhood. I recently collected all the games I had when I was a kid, complete with owners manuals and placed them in plastic inserts.
You are no better than those that you condemn with your hypocritical double speak. I reject the worldview of those that you condemn as well as your own brands of Satanism, as the both of you are under the control of the same Luciferian globalist elite, and the more that either group denies it, the more that they ironically prove it to be true in the end. Argue otherwise and it will not end well for you.
@@paxhumana2015 Affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such, - United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Holy Cow! Discs of Tron is One of my favorite Arcade games of all Time! I was Obsessed with it but I could never get above 250,000 points! 🙄 I also liked Donkey Kong 3 a Lot!
Yes i remember everything i was 10 and good part all Atari games was cheap at stores and arcades was everywhere and of Love mario ,tapper and spy hunter
Up until id say mid 90's we still had a full sized arcade in the mall. Several diner's had at least one video arcade and one pinball machine as well. I miss those days.
@@JohnRiggs , I think that, instead of making an outright Tapper/Root Beer Tapper clone, you should go for a hybrid of that, Burgertime, and something that is a bit more modern like, say, Diner Dash. However, if you want an outright Tapper clone, well, part of the reason why Tapper was limited to arcade games was not just because of groups that hated alcohol being marketed to people, especially children, but for a more obvious set of reasons, namely, that games that promoted getting drunk is not a good idea and the fact that there would be royalties that would need to be paid to the alcohol manufacturers if video games had home console versions, thus due to all of those reasons, Tapper became Root Beer Tapper. (Of course, being as I came from a home where I had an ex-stepfather that had issues with drugs and alcohol did not help, and some of my other family members struggled with those things in their own lives as well.)
Oh man those take me back. I was seven that year, and was finally starting to be able to play a lot of the stand up games without having to find a stool. Yes, the local Aladdin’s Castle had stools. Very thoughtful given the number of kids that were always in there. I don’t remember all these games, but Spy Hunter, Elevator Action, and Discs of Tron, and Mario Brothers joined the likes of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Missile Command, Centipede, Turbo, and a bunch of pinball machines and that weird domed hockey game.
Yeah, that's very true. From an 80's kid perspective, we had no idea there was a video game "crash". Didn't even hear about it, let alone notice it. In our world, we had the arcades and the Atari 2600 at home. If you asked us, video games were taking over the world, very common and popular. I didn't learn about the "crash" decades later, until I was an adult.
I came to US in 84 as a refugee. Seeing a tv is for rich people in my country. Let along a video game. My uncle let me play a black box with controller when I came here and I was amazed that I can control a pic on tv. A decade later, I eventually found out it was the Atari 2600. Video game crash? Never heard of it back then because I was awed by all the new modern things in a new country. The crash to me never happen. It's a beginning of my love for video games.
Mappy is an all time favorite of mine. Yes I hear you. The game crash didn't seem like such a big deal like they make it out to be. I really didn't know it was happening. I remember seeing more Colecovisions and 5200s that year. I had a Texas Instruments Home Computer and 3rd party titles were made available during that time so I got to play Donkey Kong, Burgertime, and a few others I could not play before.
Donkey Kong 3 was a weird title. More like Galaga Kong. I did like playing it. Probably the most obscure sequel I can remember. Wished it had been ported to more systems. Mappy console ports were just as scarce. Both games were ported to the NES. Spy Hunter sure had some awkward controls. I remember playing it on C64 before anything else.
I'm 41. I remember arcade cabinets being EVERYWHERE after 1983, at least up until the late-ish 80s. At least one cabinet would be in some random business. Nice list. Wacko is underrated!
Same. At least in my walking distance. My local burger joint down the street had a couple, my grocery store had a couple more, the gas stations a few blocks one way and a few the other way. Gotta keep track.
My first memories of gaming was in 83. It was when my family got a Colecovision and I thought Donkey Kong was tops. Though Venture was my fave on the system. I never liked Atari 2600.. it was a blocky mess (except Pitfall).
Oh man, Elevator Action is great! I had the GB port. Played it a ton in middle school. Later found out that the GBC got an improved version, so now that's the one I play. The game Sinistar wasn't shown here, but I think it's one of the best. Its difficulty is very punishing. Doesn't stop me from loving the game tho. Awesome vid, John.
The NES/FDS version of Elevator Action is not bad, and the sequels, Elevator Action Returns, which had an arcade, PS2, OG Xbox, and PC release, and Elevator Action Deluxe, which is for the PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC, are both good games in their own right, @Jodeth.
@@MetalJody1990 , Elevator Action Deluxe plays like a hybrid of the two previous Elevator Action games, plus it is also a much longer game, albeit not an endless loop like Elevator Action, but Elevator Action Returns is kind of gory, to be honest.
The NES had some pretty good arcade ports as well. Joust, Mappy, Mappy Land, Donkey Kong 3, Mario Brothers, Gyruss, and Spy Hunter were some damn good ports of arcade games.
Great Video! I know what you mean John. I lived through the Arcade era. I was born in 76. There was arcades all over the place. I had three within walking distance from my house when I was a kid. Plus Arcade machines in every store,mall,bowling alley,roller rink,gas station and restaurant! I really miss those days.
Played most of them at Cosmic Empire a video arcade in the 80's. Elevator action and Spyhunter were great. In the late '80's Tournament Cyberball was huge, we had tournaments with other Cosmic Empire's in the area.
I was 11 in 1983, didn’t know about the video game crash until years later. Here in NYC, every supermarket, candy store and pizza shop had arcade cabinets. While mom would shop for food at the market I’d be playing the arcade with a stack of quarters in my pocket.
I was getting worried that you weren't going to mention Dragon's Lair, but you came through. :) Still, what about classics like Centipede, Congo Bongo, Crystal Castles, and Star Wars, to mention a few? :)
Great video as always John! I was born in 1983, so it’s nice to see a collection of games that came out the year I was born and during the gaming crash. Quite a few quality ones such as Mappy and Beer Tapper
Dude! I remember playing ALL these games back in the day. Still some of my favorites to this day. I was so obsessed w/Dragon's Lair, for YEARS after it disappeared from all my local arcade, I had countless dreams in which I went into an arcade & saw both Dragon's Lair & Space Ace among all the other cabinets. It was always either Dragon's Lair or a sequel to the game -- one which eventually came true once Time Warp came out in the 90's! XD
A company called "Digital Leisure" put out these games you can play on any blu-ray player using a standard remote. They work even better on a system where you can use an actual controller. Look and play exactly like the arcade game. I picked up the original Dragon's Lair. I wanted Space Ace as well, but the only copies I could find were ridiculously expensive.
HELL YEAH! I was in 8th grade in 83. Spent ALL of my time at the arcade, or 7-11's game corner, or wherever we could find a game. I could only find The Discs of Tron at the in Disneyland's Starcade.
Awesome video man, A tribute to the time. Discs of Tron had a "walk-in" cabinet had light-up neon floor and Sark's voice. Still one of my favorite arcade cabinets ever.
Note: Satan's Hollow was 82. I fired SO many quarters into the Satan's Hollow one winter at the local curling club. I got kicked off my curling team at one bonspeil.. I remember Elevator Action was at an arcade that I'd hit whenever I visited my gramma.
Nice video. I played a lot arcade games during the classic era of acrade games (80s). Where I lived at the time, a mid size western town, arcade games showed up about 18 months after their original release (probably used games passed down from larger cities), so in 1983 the popular game around town were from 1981 and earlier, such as Tempest, Centipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Defender, Battle Zone. The games in this video never really showed up where I lived because when the video game crash occured, no more new games showed up where I lived, and the older games only remained in a few bars in town where kids could not enter. The number of games that kids could play in town dropped from a couple of hundred to about a dozen in a very short period of time. I was smart, and managed to buy a Tempest arcade game in 1983, and I still own it. IMO, best arcade ever designed.
Ahhh. The early 80s. When my Colecovision cost over $300 and Ronnie Raygun initiated his attack on the middle class that is felt to this day. At least we have video games to distract us from reality, huh? (And I still laugh watching Smurfs die in their game on the CV)
I remember people talking about the 'video game crash' - but it always felt over-exaggerated to me. If It really did happen, it was only in the US as far as I can tell. Over here things were booming and becoming more popular in '83
This is all well and good, but when I see something like this featuring games from the early '80s, I can't help but just be reminded how magical Super Mario Bros. would be just a few years later. Discs of Tron is legit though; it holds up better than most games of this era.
Video Game Crash of 1983 definitely felt fabled to me as I was still living in Japan at the time. That was the year that the Famicom and the SG-1000 were released. Between those and the Commodore 64, the video game scene (and really everything else about living) in 80's Japan was pretty awesome. Some of the arcade games that I loved playing back in Japan in 1983: Xevious (by Namco) Gyruss (by Konami) Track and Field (by Konami) Crystal Castles (by Atari) Punch-Out! (by Nintendo) Astron Belt (a LaserDisc game by Sega featuring footage from Message from Space) Exerion (by Jaleco) I hope you have a chance to check some of those out if you haven't already!
@@RokkitGrrl Nice! :) I'd love to play Mappy in its original Arcade machine since I'm a huge fan of the game. I feel it might be rare these days since lot of Mappy Arcade machines are converted to Pacman Jr Arcade machines and that's due to Mappy not being that successful in the US back in the 80's. I wonder if the Mappy Arcade machine in its original form is still in the Arcade section of Seiyu.
Gyruss got a surprisingly good NES/FDS port, though its NTSB-U version was released by the Konami subsidiary that was called Ultra Games and the PAL port, if I am correct about it existing, got released by the EU division of Konami that was called Palcom Games.
20 Underrated Arcade Games of the 80s and early 90s - ruclips.net/video/IoGgCf3u1YE/видео.html
You gotta play Mario vs Donkey advanced. You'll love that game. It should've been a actual arcade machine.
I was 2 in 1983, i started playing coin op arcade in 1987, I also got a sega master system in 1987 and a nes in 1989.Then all the arcades died around 1999 to 2001,
$1.16/gallon
On point
@@Gohan1138 There was a gas station in Phoenix that sold gas @ 1987 for $.75 a gallon. I don't know how they swung that deal.
The mid 80's were amazing for arcade games and arcades in general. Our local mall didn't just have one but TWO full sized arcades in it. One upstairs and one downstairs!
I lived in a town of 5k people we had an arcade. Dairy Queens always had Galaga it seemed. And gas stations had arcades about until 92 in my area.
Time Out?
@@rufusmtvernon Fun n Games was the name of both arcades
The downtown area of my city had this amazing spot called Space Center, which was such a cool vibe growing up. In addition were the arcades at Hampton Beach, NH and of course Funspot in Laconia NH.
Alleluia!
I never saw the "crash" either and many other people I talk to that grew up back then say the same thing when the topic comes up. The truth is there never was a "crash" like so much pop media tries to portray after all these years. Atari crashed do to numerous terrible decisions made by Warner Communications (which had owned Atari for a while by then) which included grossly over-inflated projections, subsequent over production of game carts (more carts for some titles than were total consoles in existence at the time) and tons of poor quality games coming from everybody and their brother (since the lawsuit with Activision made it possible for anybody to make games for the system by then). Since other systems had nowhere near the market share in the home that Atari did people say the market crashed (not that it didn't affect the other companies to some degree). The arcade never really suffered in the same way. You didn't necessarily see as many arcades as a whole over time because the business model didn't scale well over time but as you mentioned you did still see them in all kinds of other places. There was a reason why the NES was able to come here in 1985 and "revive" the market - it was never truly dead. People still played and loved video games. Lol... and guys like me were still buying games for our Commodore 64's too during that time. Anyways, there's a lot of simplification there but the bottom line is that there was never really a crash like the fables of today tell tales of IMO.
There was a mass exodus from consoles, but I believe it was because of the home computers. All of my friends and family were buying 8-bit computers and the C-64 was so popular, that I'd see book stores selling its software. The consoles really couldn't compete with those home computers, especially since all of us were sharing copies of games with each other.
I think there was a real Crash for Consoles industry, but not for the Gamers at all.
Im uk and had a segamaster and commodore 64 only got an nes yeats later cos games were reallyhard to get as mattel were in charge and really fucked up nes game distribution in the uk.
I think the "crash" really was all us old school Atari 2600 players had moved to Atari 8bit computers or Commodore 64s, leaving the 2600 and other early consoles to collect dust (i.e. the console market dried up). The 2600 E.T. game was just a scapegoat, and really had nothing to do with causing the crash (just really bad returns on an overproduced/undersold game).
There was a crash for consoles as Atari, Intellivision and Coleco failed miserably with successors.
(John: Please do another 1983 arcade games video. You can make it a series? There are so many of them!) I really loved Gyruss, Star Wars and Track and Field which also came out in 1983. Gyruss is one that I actually got 3,000,000 points on with one quarter! The arcade games back then were great! was in 1983. It was a sight to see all of the arcade games lined up in rows ready too suck up your quarters like a sponge! Great days to think back on!
Burgertime, Crystal Castles, Gyruss, Congo Bongo and Track and Field all came out in 1983.
All classics too
I remember haunting the arcades in the very early 80s. Maybe 81-82.
There will never be a time like it. :)
Greatest memories ever.
I loved those days as a kid where every supermarket has an arcade game. My parents would do their groceries while I plunked quarters and enjoyed these arcade classics
Great video! I remember playing Wacko for the first time on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and I loved it. Loved how interesting it was an loved learning about the arcade cabinet being tilted! Another great 1983 arcade game that I'd have on my personal list is Crossbow by Exidy
ooh, yeah! Loved that one. The animation was so realistic to me.
Man, I used to love the fact that every 7-Eleven and laundromat in the 80s had arcades!?!?! Me and friends would walk around town looking for new... Good Times!?!
Last new game I remember playing in an arcade was "Pole Position". I was working and still in high school in '83 and I haven't been in an arcade since then. Honestly I didn't even know there was a video game crash until I started collecting vintage consoles about 15 years ago.
Prepare to qualify!
Mappy is sooo underrated! Very happy you put Mappy on the list :) Mappy is a really fun and great game. Even to this day, I still have a great time playing it. I never understand why Mappy is not as popular as Pacman, Dig Dug, and Galaga. If you ask me, out of all the Namco games, Mappy is the game I have most fun with.
@David Herrera, if I do recall correctly, both Mappy and Mappyland got good NES/FDS home ports as well, so that might do for you if you lack an arcade cabinet of either game near you.
Mappy was very popular and successful, but those are three amazing classics you're talking about.
Rally-X was another great game from Namco but hard as heck!
@David
I just bought a arcade1up that includes all those games in 1 cabinet👍
I was born in 86 just in time to experience and love the NES and arcade games. I still own my nes and will probably be buried with it. And tapper is freaking legit!
I'm an 85 birth and my little brother was 86 and he still has our NES and SNES. His now 6 year old son loves both too. He's done well as a father. ;)
I love Donkey Kong 3! I still play it today! Loved the music! Spy Hunter was fun but it was a bit too hard.
I remember being 12 in 83, walking into a sears and seeing Atari games in a bargain bin pile, these game would always be behind glass, knew something was wrong, bought ET for 5 dollars new, Dragons Lair in the arcade for 50 cents, unreal!
I can remember walking into a Western Auto in 1987 in the middle of the NES craze and Atari 2600 Pole Position was $37.
Dragons Lair was released in 1984 in Australia...for a full dollar as the dollar coin was introduced that year here.
I always explain to people younger than me that the crash was noticed by no one except executives. As a kid we got great games in 1983, tons of cheaper games in 1984 and the c64 and NES in 1985. There was no bump in the road or changes at all.
As per arcades kids kept going. The only difference was no more 30 year old dudes playing ms pacman on their lunch break.
Also worth noting that the crash is a North America thing, not a global issue.
I remember thinking the quality of games were bad and cheap and kids played outside until 1986.
The Atari 2600 stuff was real stale by then but Intellivision and Colecovision still had quality software that kids enjoyed. All generations were the same though. At the beginning of NES we couldn't believe we were playing almost arcade quality Popeye at home. A couple years later NES was garbage compared to the arcade. Then the cycle repeated itself with Genesis.
@@Daz555Daz , it was a global issue, so shut your unlearned pie holes, @Daz555, et al.
@@paxhumana2015 No, it wasn't at all.
I didn't realize Spy hunter was that old... what an amazing, and advanced game for the time.... loved it at our local bowling alley... great times.
I was oblivious to the crash myself. I was 5, was playing my colecovision. Thanks for the nostalgia sir🙏
Remember Starcade on TBS each Saturday AM? Great year that 1983.
God I hated Dragons Lair so much growing up. I have yet to experience a quarter-sucking video game as much as that one.
I was blessed to have grown up during the 70's and 80's. I fondly recall numerous hours spent in various arcades and pretty much anyplace that had a video game around my hometown of Los Angeles, CA. From the local liquor stores in my neighborhood to the SEGA center in Fox Hills Mall to the Santa Monica Pier.
What a time to be alive. I was too young (ie. short) to play these games myself, but I do remember hanging out at the local mall arcade watching others and the attract modes.
There are so many of my favorite games on this list, and it boggles my mind to consider this period the start of a downturn, since I'll always consider it the birth of video games. It seemed like every week a new amazing game would appear at my local arcade.
But the downturn was mostly (only?) about bad 2600 atari games and even worse knockoffs because everybody wanted to make a quick profit. Solid quality arcade games were fine.
@@Blackadder75 I do recall going to a new arcade around early 80s, and it had only unmarked generic cabinets with weird games I'd never heard of, this was probably a sign if the crash as well.
Tapper still drives me nuts. Always start to struggle by the punk bar stage. I forgot that you can run up and collect the cash tips, though when things get hectic, it never feels like there's time to do so.
I never gave a damn for Tapper myself. However, one can rightly claim that it is the direct ancestor of games that are like Diner Dash, though.
Damn, I used to play Spy Hunter having to stand on a bar stool to reach the controls...I was about age 5 or so?
I would have the quarters stacked up and just go to town. I got really excited one day when a crowd of people surrounded me to watch, as I must have been doing better than any of them ever did, with comments like "this kid is really playing this!!" 🤣
Nice.
Man, I love Satan's Hollow. Got a barcade near me that has a pristine cabinet. Such a great game.
Retro gaming hippie approves! Fondly remember many of these while spending hours and nickel arcades.
Pretty sure satan’s hollow was the final games played in a very 80’s movie called
“Joysticks”
I was working in Silicon Valley (San Jose and Milpitas areas) from 1983 to 1990. My favorite thing to do on my lunch breaks (at least in the early years) was run down to Chucky Cheese and play Missile Command. I would play it for an hour straight (sometimes two). I lost count of how many times my boss would scold me for walking back in to Engineering an hour or two late, and told me I was addicted and to seek help. LOL! Now THOSE were the days!
Tapper was a blast, even as a kid I didn't care about the beer theme. I seem to remember root beer too. All the home console/computer ports of the game were fairly solid too. Wacko I had only played recently and is surprisingly fun! I wasn't impressed with the look of it back then. Dragon's Lair was amazing graphically, frustratingly awful game play. This is when I learned good graphics don't make a great game (but they can certainly help).
I miss going to the arcades... I loved Discs of Tron - great vid 👍
Spy Hunter and Disks of Tron were my jams back in the day. I could play either of those for hours. At least until I got tired from standing on one foot playing Spy Hunter. Of course, if there was a sit down version available, all bets were off!
Agreed. The sit down versions of Spy Hunter and Star Wars were so cool.
I always loved enclosure games. Discs of Tron had the basic uprights and the walk-in. The walk-in is still one of my favorite old school arcade games.
If you're a big fan of Satan's Hollow, make sure you check out the C64 port at some point. I'm not sure I don't prefer it over the arcade.
0:02 I used to love playing with that Fisher-Price gas pump toy in my Preschool I’m currently conducting a collection of old vintage toys and this gas pump toy would make a keen edition to my collection
I dont blame Mario for the career change. I think plummers make more money than carpenters and it seems easier to fight turtles and flies compared to a giant ape throwing drums.
However, with Handy, a person that has experience in carpentry, plumbing, construction, demolition, and other house and building work, would not only be a steal for most people that want to hire such and individual, but that they would be making some SERIOUS bank if they all of those skills, and exceptional skills as well, in real life, @Dan Borggren.
These are all epic arcade games here, John. I've always absolutely loved Spy Hunter from the start of my gaming days on computers! Seeing Mappy is really nostalgic too - I remember that one being a bit more challenging.
Did you know? Discs of Tron was supposed to be part of the original Tron arcade game but they couldn't get it finished in time for the movie to come out. Also, I know this is not a complete list but how dare you not mention Journey, LOL. Also two excellent games from 1983 are Mad Planets and Major Havoc
I know it’s more marketable and click-worthy to refer to the mythical “crash” - but it’s just that, more myth than fact. It was a US only and Atari-exclusive “crash.” There was no general video game crash. There was no world-wide crash. And in the grand scheme of actual market crashes it wasn’t even significant enough to be ever be called a crash. A tiny insignificant blip brought on by the lack of development from Atari trying to hold onto a product that was already over 5 years old and that had been outclassed multiple times over by other products.
But love the video besides the title.
I was 16 in 1983. Here in Australia my friends and I would hang out at a local Amusement arcade or bowling alley, and play video games and pinball. Great times !
Spy Hunter blew my mind until I played RoadBlasters in the arcade.
I'm here!!! Yes, I'm here!!! I!!! Sean the gamer!!! Hello!!! this is me!!! The real Sean the gamer!!! watching a Good old John riggs video!!!! good to see you again!!! Remember me???
I don't mean to sound like a broken record but I'm trying to tell you that it made another good video and it's good content Keep up the good stuff Hi bye
I can remember very vividly Atari 2600 games behind the counter in sears. We were far too poor, like a real poor, likely not too many would understand, to ever dream about buying anything like those. It wasn't until years later when they were nearly, not completely but nearly, no longer being sold, that I was able to work during the summer and bought my own Atari 2600. I had to buy and trade for used games at school still though. No way I had money for new games but all by myself, I learned how to become a master trader and I ended up with a box of 30 -35 games just the same! haha. As for how poor, I had to work hard during the summer because I only money for toys after I bought my own school cloths. Most kids might have resented their parents for that but even as a little kid, I understood how destitute we were and just how hard it was coming by enough money for a loaf of bread (as in, we had to look around for lose change often to buy a loaf, not kidding) so I knew it wasn't them being mean or anything, they had no way to buy things other kids got in the neighborhood.
I recently collected all the games I had when I was a kid, complete with owners manuals and placed them in plastic inserts.
You are a human, not an Indian or Native American. Why can people not comprehend this fact?
You are no better than those that you condemn with your hypocritical double speak. I reject the worldview of those that you condemn as well as your own brands of Satanism, as the both of you are under the control of the same Luciferian globalist elite, and the more that either group denies it, the more that they ironically prove it to be true in the end. Argue otherwise and it will not end well for you.
@@paxhumana2015 Affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to all
other peoples, while recognizing the right of all
peoples to be different, to consider themselves
different, and to be respected as such,
- United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Holy Cow! Discs of Tron is One of my favorite Arcade games of all Time! I was Obsessed with it but I could never get above 250,000 points! 🙄 I also liked Donkey Kong 3 a Lot!
I was really blessed to have worked at an arcade in 1983 (Games Galore - Thousand Oaks, CA). I had lots of time after my shift to play free games!
Yes i remember everything i was 10 and good part all Atari games was cheap at stores and arcades was everywhere and of Love mario ,tapper and spy hunter
No Robotron? Best game ever. Arcade version was 1982 but Apple, Atari, Commodore etc.. released 1983.
Up until id say mid 90's we still had a full sized arcade in the mall. Several diner's had at least one video arcade and one pinball machine as well. I miss those days.
I remember having to stand on milk crates to play games bc I was short and 5 years old 🤣😭
Punch out and Mario bros came out in 83 some of my favorite Nintendo arcade games of all time!🕹️🎮🕹️
The Satan's Hollow game had the same translucent internally luminated joystick as Tron but with a red color.
Loved Tapper! Hadn't seen many of the others but some that I loved from around that time were Commando and Timber.
I love tapper, I wished they made it for the NES
A Remake would be Great too
I'm working on a similar homebrew for NES for probably 2022. :)
@@JohnRiggs omg I cannot wait😍😍
I’ll buy it immediately of you🤪😅
@@JohnRiggs , I think that, instead of making an outright Tapper/Root Beer Tapper clone, you should go for a hybrid of that, Burgertime, and something that is a bit more modern like, say, Diner Dash. However, if you want an outright Tapper clone, well, part of the reason why Tapper was limited to arcade games was not just because of groups that hated alcohol being marketed to people, especially children, but for a more obvious set of reasons, namely, that games that promoted getting drunk is not a good idea and the fact that there would be royalties that would need to be paid to the alcohol manufacturers if video games had home console versions, thus due to all of those reasons, Tapper became Root Beer Tapper. (Of course, being as I came from a home where I had an ex-stepfather that had issues with drugs and alcohol did not help, and some of my other family members struggled with those things in their own lives as well.)
Oh man those take me back. I was seven that year, and was finally starting to be able to play a lot of the stand up games without having to find a stool.
Yes, the local Aladdin’s Castle had stools. Very thoughtful given the number of kids that were always in there. I don’t remember all these games, but Spy Hunter, Elevator Action, and Discs of Tron, and Mario Brothers joined the likes of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Missile Command, Centipede, Turbo, and a bunch of pinball machines and that weird domed hockey game.
gas $1.16 a gallon in 1983? Where was that at? It was way under a dollar where I live.
Oh don't forget to let me out that 1983 was definitely my and very proud of birth year
Yeah, that's very true. From an 80's kid perspective, we had no idea there was a video game "crash". Didn't even hear about it, let alone notice it. In our world, we had the arcades and the Atari 2600 at home. If you asked us, video games were taking over the world, very common and popular. I didn't learn about the "crash" decades later, until I was an adult.
Same.
I came to US in 84 as a refugee. Seeing a tv is for rich people in my country. Let along a video game. My uncle let me play a black box with controller when I came here and I was amazed that I can control a pic on tv. A decade later, I eventually found out it was the Atari 2600.
Video game crash? Never heard of it back then because I was awed by all the new modern things in a new country. The crash to me never happen. It's a beginning of my love for video games.
Broooo satans hollow! I thought I was the only one who played it! Really good game 🎮👏👌👍
Fun fact: Elevator Action featured prominently in the movie Cloak and Dagger.
Both great.
Thank you! This was a fun trip down memory lane, and a few games I didn't know about like Mr. TNT and Birdy. Subscribed!
It was more of a crash for home consoles and that was more or less the states. Over seas micro pc's like the spectrum were doing well.
*American video game crash.
Europe and Japan were fine.
Mappy is an all time favorite of mine.
Yes I hear you. The game crash didn't seem like such a big deal like they make it out to be. I really didn't know it was happening. I remember seeing more Colecovisions and 5200s that year.
I had a Texas Instruments Home Computer and 3rd party titles were made available during that time so I got to play Donkey Kong, Burgertime, and a few others I could not play before.
Donkey Kong 3 was a weird title. More like Galaga Kong. I did like playing it. Probably the most obscure sequel I can remember. Wished it had been ported to more systems. Mappy console ports were just as scarce. Both games were ported to the NES. Spy Hunter sure had some awkward controls. I remember playing it on C64 before anything else.
I'm 41. I remember arcade cabinets being EVERYWHERE after 1983, at least up until the late-ish 80s. At least one cabinet would be in some random business. Nice list. Wacko is underrated!
A local skating rink where I lived in western Tennessee years ago had an arcade cabinet of Wacko. Sadly, I never got good at playing that game.
@@paxhumana2015 Admittedly, I could never reach the controller as a little girl. I was too short and Wacko was too high.
@@anactualmotherbear , that only applies to Player 1...Player 2 had lower to reach controls.
@@paxhumana2015 You're underestimating how tiny I was from age 4-6. I needed to be boosted up for most arcade games.
You ain't kidding about games being everywhere...funny part is, I can remember what places had what games and when they had them...
Same. At least in my walking distance. My local burger joint down the street had a couple, my grocery store had a couple more, the gas stations a few blocks one way and a few the other way. Gotta keep track.
My first memories of gaming was in 83. It was when my family got a Colecovision and I thought Donkey Kong was tops. Though Venture was my fave on the system. I never liked Atari 2600.. it was a blocky mess (except Pitfall).
Oh man, Elevator Action is great! I had the GB port. Played it a ton in middle school. Later found out that the GBC got an improved version, so now that's the one I play.
The game Sinistar wasn't shown here, but I think it's one of the best. Its difficulty is very punishing. Doesn't stop me from loving the game tho.
Awesome vid, John.
The NES/FDS version of Elevator Action is not bad, and the sequels, Elevator Action Returns, which had an arcade, PS2, OG Xbox, and PC release, and Elevator Action Deluxe, which is for the PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC, are both good games in their own right, @Jodeth.
@@paxhumana2015 Wow I had no idea there were so many versions. That's pretty awesome.
@@MetalJody1990 , Elevator Action Deluxe plays like a hybrid of the two previous Elevator Action games, plus it is also a much longer game, albeit not an endless loop like Elevator Action, but Elevator Action Returns is kind of gory, to be honest.
Love that shirt! Man, if it werent for the crash I think Coleco might have been able to pull out the win over Atari. Too bad. :(
I wonder how much bud paid for the advertising
The C-64 had most of these games ported to it. Those awesome arcade ports were the reason why I got the C-64.
The NES had some pretty good arcade ports as well. Joust, Mappy, Mappy Land, Donkey Kong 3, Mario Brothers, Gyruss, and Spy Hunter were some damn good ports of arcade games.
One thing I vividly remember from 1983 is that the big games from 1981 and 1982 were still the biggest games in 1983.
Great Video! I know what you mean John. I lived through the Arcade era. I was born in 76. There was arcades all over the place. I had three within walking distance from my house when I was a kid. Plus Arcade machines in every store,mall,bowling alley,roller rink,gas station and restaurant! I really miss those days.
Nice list! And Lol nice perm 🤣
In Mappy,You recover stolen treasures,pirated items,or NFTs.😄😂😆
haha, definitely NFTs. I need to do a hack of Mappy for NES recovering the WATA merch.
I played about half these at Showbiz Pizza
Was always excited to go into any 711 to see if it had a game I'd never seen. Think I had at least 3 or 4 birthday parties at a nickel arcade.
Played most of them at Cosmic Empire a video arcade in the 80's. Elevator action and Spyhunter were great. In the late '80's Tournament Cyberball was huge, we had tournaments with other Cosmic Empire's in the area.
I was 11 in 1983, didn’t know about the video game crash until years later. Here in NYC, every supermarket, candy store and pizza shop had arcade cabinets. While mom would shop for food at the market I’d be playing the arcade with a stack of quarters in my pocket.
The crash only happened in America
I was getting worried that you weren't going to mention Dragon's Lair, but you came through. :) Still, what about classics like Centipede, Congo Bongo, Crystal Castles, and Star Wars, to mention a few? :)
I remember Stanley being in one episode of that old Donkey Kong cartoon.
haha, same!
I was 5 years old in 1983 and I remember those days. Arcades in every store those were nice!
Great video as always John! I was born in 1983, so it’s nice to see a collection of games that came out the year I was born and during the gaming crash. Quite a few quality ones such as Mappy and Beer Tapper
Dude! I remember playing ALL these games back in the day.
Still some of my favorites to this day.
I was so obsessed w/Dragon's Lair, for YEARS after it disappeared from all my local arcade, I had countless dreams in which I went into an arcade & saw both Dragon's Lair & Space Ace among all the other cabinets. It was always either Dragon's Lair or a sequel to the game -- one which eventually came true once Time Warp came out in the 90's! XD
A company called "Digital Leisure" put out these games you can play on any blu-ray player using a standard remote. They work even better on a system where you can use an actual controller.
Look and play exactly like the arcade game.
I picked up the original Dragon's Lair. I wanted Space Ace as well, but the only copies I could find were ridiculously expensive.
I mastered Spy Hunter to the point that I finished whenever I wanted--meaning if I wanted to play for hours off of one quarter, I would!!!
Can’t beat anything from the 80s such classics
YES!!! Satan's Hollow love.
HELL YEAH! I was in 8th grade in 83. Spent ALL of my time at the arcade, or 7-11's game corner, or wherever we could find a game. I could only find The Discs of Tron at the in Disneyland's Starcade.
Awesome video man, A tribute to the time. Discs of Tron had a "walk-in" cabinet had light-up neon floor and Sark's voice. Still one of my favorite arcade cabinets ever.
Cool, I didn't know that about the discs of Tron arcade machine. I never saw a discs of Tron arcade machine
@@marccaselle8108 The "Environmental Cab" was an immersive experience like no one had ever seen in 1983
@@DrVernSFC I wish I could have seen that. By the time I started to go to arcades in 1989, Tron was long gone.
Discs of Tron had both stand up, as well as "walk-in", cabinets, whereas Spy Hunter had both upright and sit down cabinets.
Note: Satan's Hollow was 82. I fired SO many quarters into the Satan's Hollow one winter at the local curling club. I got kicked off my curling team at one bonspeil.. I remember Elevator Action was at an arcade that I'd hit whenever I visited my gramma.
Nice video. I played a lot arcade games during the classic era of acrade games (80s). Where I lived at the time, a mid size western town, arcade games showed up about 18 months after their original release (probably used games passed down from larger cities), so in 1983 the popular game around town were from 1981 and earlier, such as Tempest, Centipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Defender, Battle Zone. The games in this video never really showed up where I lived because when the video game crash occured, no more new games showed up where I lived, and the older games only remained in a few bars in town where kids could not enter. The number of games that kids could play in town dropped from a couple of hundred to about a dozen in a very short period of time. I was smart, and managed to buy a Tempest arcade game in 1983, and I still own it. IMO, best arcade ever designed.
Ahhh. The early 80s. When my Colecovision cost over $300 and Ronnie Raygun initiated his attack on the middle class that is felt to this day.
At least we have video games to distract us from reality, huh? (And I still laugh watching Smurfs die in their game on the CV)
I remember people talking about the 'video game crash' - but it always felt over-exaggerated to me. If It really did happen, it was only in the US as far as I can tell. Over here things were booming and becoming more popular in '83
This is all well and good, but when I see something like this featuring games from the early '80s, I can't help but just be reminded how magical Super Mario Bros. would be just a few years later. Discs of Tron is legit though; it holds up better than most games of this era.
Video Game Crash of 1983 definitely felt fabled to me as I was still living in Japan at the time. That was the year that the Famicom and the SG-1000 were released. Between those and the Commodore 64, the video game scene (and really everything else about living) in 80's Japan was pretty awesome.
Some of the arcade games that I loved playing back in Japan in 1983:
Xevious (by Namco)
Gyruss (by Konami)
Track and Field (by Konami)
Crystal Castles (by Atari)
Punch-Out! (by Nintendo)
Astron Belt (a LaserDisc game by Sega featuring footage from Message from Space)
Exerion (by Jaleco)
I hope you have a chance to check some of those out if you haven't already!
Have you tried playing Mappy?
@@retrofan4963 I have, they had a Mappy machine in the arcade section of the Seiyu near by, up on the top floor.
@@RokkitGrrl Nice! :) I'd love to play Mappy in its original Arcade machine since I'm a huge fan of the game. I feel it might be rare these days since lot of Mappy Arcade machines are converted to Pacman Jr Arcade machines and that's due to Mappy not being that successful in the US back in the 80's. I wonder if the Mappy Arcade machine in its original form is still in the Arcade section of Seiyu.
Gyruss got a surprisingly good NES/FDS port, though its NTSB-U version was released by the Konami subsidiary that was called Ultra Games and the PAL port, if I am correct about it existing, got released by the EU division of Konami that was called Palcom Games.
Spy Hunter and Elevator Action are two classic arcade games that have surprisingly badass sequels in Super Spy Hunter and Elevator Action 2.
dammit! i remember tapper! but we played it on my pc with EGA graphics for some reason. but it was already VGA times..
Most every place I went & wandered into from 1983 to 1990 had 1-3 arcade games. Convenience stores especially. Some even had a great pinball game.
Never heard of either Birdie or Wacko or whatever that slanted one was called
Yep, Wacko. It's also on the midway classics for PS2/Game Cube. Probably PS3 and maybe PSP (don't remember)
1983 Gas was like 70 cents a gallon I lived in Oregon I think you're a little high on your gas prices
1983..I was in my gaming prime. 12yrs old with a Mongoose BMX. I had to play arcades and keep one eye on my bike out the front of the deli 😄
I used to have Zippy Race on a multi-game cart for the NES but unfortunately that particular multi-game cart stopped working properly