[citricsquid]

I've never heard of Centipede before, are there any other "popular" games of the time that are not talked about much any more? I know of Pac-Man, Space Invaders, games that are that much a part of pop culture, but I'd never heard of Centipede.

[mynameishere]

You can play it here

http://atari.com/arcade/arcade/centipede

It's really difficult, and I think that it might have been partially designed to suck down quarters. The best Atari game is this:

http://atari.com/adventure

...yeah it looks like crap, but he crammed it into 4K, and at the time there was literally nothing like it in the world.

Most people say this is the best Atari game:

http://www.atari.com/arcade/arcade/yars-revenge

...I still remember the rather lengthy comic book that came with the cartridge explaining the plight of the yars in their struggle against the armored cannon, or whatever.

ED: found the comic. I guess it's not that long:

http://www.atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.html?MagazineID=...

[anigbrowl]

I've never heard of Centipede before

what

Well check out tempest and Super Locomotive (which hardly anyone else remembers). And Q*Bert. And Gorf.

[mechanical_fish]

Tempest and QBert are excellent.

Try to find an actual historic arcade. The games make more sense in context. In particular, Tempest has been redone in a dozen forms, but without the original spinner controller it's just not the same.

(QBert, on the other hand, is just fine in emulation.)

In the Northeast you can go to Funspot:

http://www.classicarcademuseum.org/

It's got the flavor of the real thing. Takes me back to the old days.

[tptacek]

In Chicago (or, at least, down the street from me in the near-west suburbs) we have Galloping Ghost, which is $15 for unlimited all-day play; they have both Tempest (every time we've talked about going, Erin asks "but do they have Tempest?") and Q*Bert.

[columbo]

Hrm... never heard of centipede? Not sure what you are looking for but this (http://www.liketotally80s.com/top-20-80s-arcade-games.html) has a good list...

[colomon]

Woah, for some reason I always thought Xevious was from 1986 or so. I'm kind of shocked how many great games came out from 1980-1982...

To that list I'd add Spy Hunter (don't want to think how many quarters I sank into this without ever getting very far) and Gaplus (my favorite of the Galaxion spin-offs).

[amichail]

If you like Centipede, check out Gridrunner for iOS:

http://toucharcade.com/2012/02/29/gridrunner-review/

[waterlesscloud]

Berzerk and its sequel Frenzy.

Robotron:2084.

Gravitar.

Bosconian.

Red Baron and Battlezone.

Many, many quarters spent.

[Dove]

I really liked Gravitar and Asteroids.

[rhizome]

Stargate (best sidescroller ever), Galaga...most video games from 1981-3 were amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_in_video_gaming

[waterlesscloud]

Defender (the game Stargate was the sequel to) and Galaga are the icons of the era.

What amazes me is that you can still find Galaga in arcades today. If, of course, you can find arcades at all.

[rhizome]

Defender (1980?) was great, but Stargate improved and built upon pretty much every aspect of it the same way that Galaga was an all-around improvement over Galaxian.