[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.