Arcade games of the past

Ya know, the very first arcade video game that I played was a F1 racing car game. No, its not like those cool 3D image racing games you may find in video arcade today. It was just plain top-view-2D image and it don't even have color. It's all green in color and nothing else. The game is rather simple where you only need to evade other cars in the never-have-corner straight road. It has a steering wheel and a gear shift joystick but I only know how to use the steering wheel and everytime the car came into the slippery road, it sure going to bang somewhere cos I never know I suppose to shift to low gear lol. So, my driving skill really sucks!
Well, arcade game was like that 20 years ago before it evolve into what we have today. Although there may not be a lot of game choice available back then, there are a few top-hits game which always attracts crowd.

Buble Boble
This two player game which control a cute little dragon that shot bubles to the monster and then burst it with their spike was a real hit game. There is even a secret key stroke which gives some 'Power Up' enhancement when people starting the game.
It has 100 stage and takes somewhat 2 hours to complete the entire game. Now, this is really a losing money business cos good player tends to spend hours long on the machine and it only cost 20 cent per game! lol... now I understand why the video arcade never have more than 1 machine running on this game. I think the highest stage I ever got to is 62.

1943 Battle of Midway
This is my favourite game of all time. It's a 2 player aeroplane fighting game during the World War 2 period. It has a total of 16 stage and each stage has a 'Boss' which consist of war ship, aircraft carrier or a giant aeroplane. There's also a secret key stroke at every beginning of stage which gives max weapon time and even gives unlimited Laser on certain stage. It also allow fuel sharing between 2 players when one party is running low of fuel. The game takes slightly more than an hour to complete entirely but I never manage to finish the last stage alone. The last stage is really one hell of a battle where the enemy fleet of planes, ships and bombers are so massive.The 'Boss' consist of the great Japanese battleship, the Yamato. But well, 20 cent for more than an hour of game, the taukeh certainly wont like me lol.

1943 Kai
A neo version of the previous 1943 with some enhancement on it's weapon. Honestly I feel this new version is a failure. While the previous version, the shot gun is deemed useless but this new version's Shot Gun is indeed an ultimate weapon. Not only it could eliminate enemy's shot, it's shooting range is also higher and is even more powerful. Player only need to constantly use this weapon and they can simply complete the 10 stage game alone. Personally, I still prefer the first version which is deemed more challenging and because I haven't be able to conquer the game all by myself.

Street Fighter
This is the most recognisable name of video game and I guess everyone know about this name today. But how many of you every played the very first version of Street Fighter? When I first saw the game on arcade, not many people would play it. People are not used to the method of casting those killer attack such as HaDouKen where you need to swing the joystick in an awkward position. The game action speed were very fast, you can hardly make a flying kick that hit perfectly to the opponent.

But when gamers know how to swing those killer attack smoothly, the dummy opponent can be killed by only 3 hit. That was lame considering if you swing the killer attack continously, you are sure to win!
But thing took a turn when 2 people start to fight against each other aka the white karate Ryu vs Ken in red. Street Fighter has then becoming the challenging ring among gamer fans and soon has become an iconic name which is so well known until today. People are constantly playing the game and the taukeh were smilling big with coins constantly slot into their machine every few minutes.

Street Fighter 2
As a result of the evolution of player vs player game, the Street Fighter 2 is born after 4 years of the first version featuring a more well balanced and better control gameplay during the fight. Movement has become slower allowing fist and foot attack being emphasized rather of using killer attack all the time. It require more skills and movement strategy during the fight and eventually, the 'combo attack' terms was born. Combo Attack is a sequence of several hits on one single attack and it gives a hell lots of damage to the opponent. Each combo attack even comes with a nick name, duno who created it but it sounds cool though. The secret move
Street Fighter 2 has 8 playable characters and 4 non playable Boss altogether and Guile is the character with several secret key stroke. 'Guile Invisible throw' is the most famous move where it can throw the opponent without even need to get close to it. It can even throw the opponent consecutively until it dies!
Somehow, it was consider a cheat and is ban when dueling against another player.

Street Fighter 2' the champion Edition
This is an upgrade version of the Street Fighter 2 with all of the error and cheats being removed and the addition of player being able to play the 4 unplayable Boss character from the previous version which includes Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M Bison.

The name Street Fighter has become so famous that they even have comics and even movie were made, remember Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue starring in the Street Fighter the movie ? Also the movie 'City Hunter' by Jackie Chan which feature a scene of him fighting as a Street Fighter character. which is deemed hillarious.

There are a few others famous classical arcade game back then.
Pac Man
I guess everyone should know this cute round little yellow colored smiley which moved around a mapped path chasing ghost. This ain't my type of game though.

Kung Fu Master
Remember the Kung Fu Master who make flashy punch and jumping kick fighting from one floor to another in his quest to recsue his kidnapped girlfriend. The game has 5 stage where the Kungfu Master has to defeat the Boss at each stage before proceeding to the next floor. Once the player defeat the last Boss at the fifth floor, he will get to rescue his girlfriend and earn a dragon head point before the player start over again. The game will continue over and over again until the player running out of life.

Arkanoid
This is a very classical game but isn't one which is well accepted. It's joystick consist of a rotating cap for you to control the movement of the platter motion. Although the game become more challenging one stage after another, but I feel it is kinda boring because you only get to move the platter left and right and nothing else to control.

Galaga
A whole fleet of space alien ship is coming over to invade you territory. Shoot the down at will or they will capture and destroy your ship. This is another well known shooting game back in the 80's.

Terra Cresta
This is a futurism space ship fighting game where the player's ship could merge with additional part that will power up the ship and eventually could turn into a fire bird like object. I'm not very fascinated with this game but I enjoy looking at other people playing it.

Darwin 4078
I prefer playing the Darwin 4078 which is also a futurism space ship shooting game. The player's ship will transform into new looking ship everytime it gets a power up and it's ultimate form consist of a giant Black Bat looking object. But when the player ship got hit by enemy, it will shrink into a small ship and it hsa to take up some power up in order to progress into a more powerful ship. I remember the enemy boss is always the Cicada looking ship.

Double Dragon
This 2 player street gang buster game was a real fun game back then. You walked down the street and whack up every gangster looking fella you come across with. Punch them, kick them, slap them on their face, grab their hair and knock 'em with your knees. The most common attack is to use the elbow, the enemy would fall down when you give 'em an elbow blow. The game was so good that it came up with a Double Dragon 2 sequel.

Tetris
This is the most widely accepted game around the world. Even my mum still playing it until today on a hand held game unit. It was a very fun game where quick thinking and reaction is required as the game becoming more and more fast.