Less known arcade games for 8-bit computers

itguyinaction

Hi,


Are they any arcades games which are less know but you think they are worth to mention? Which one would you put on the list of forgot but worth to play games?


Btw, do you know these games for Atari: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K7DezSt5Uo Were they popular in Ireland or in other countries (if you live abroad)?

ShawnRaven

I'll bite, being an Amstrad guy in the late 80s who loved arcade conversions.

Mr Heli. I only saw the occasional bootleg cab in Dublin, but it was a lot of fun. The Amstrad version, while not completely arcade accurate was still a very enjoyable version, released by Firebird in 1989.

I thought Peter Pack Rat was fun on the C64 and the Spectrum. That was another I only saw around bootleg cabs too. Sadly it was a slow, unplayable mess of a Spectrum port on the Amstrad and it went straight to budget release on the Silverbird label in 1988 (I think?). Needless to say the tape got smashed off the wall promptly. So disappointing.

I'll throw Gunsmoke in here for an odd reason. Not because it was so much a rarity in the arcade, but moreso the conversion was difficult to find. It was released in Spain as Desperado, but I'm not sure many copies of it surfaced in the UK and Ireland. Capcom did licence it to US Gold's 'Go!' label, and it was advertised in the likes of C+VG, etc but I never saw it anywhere. I don't believe it ever made any compilations later either.

I'll wrap up with Action Fighter, a somewhat unofficial sequel to Spy Hunter. I've never seen that in the arcades! It was quite fun to play on the Amstrad and yet another rare coin-op conversion by Firebird in 1989

CiDeRmAn

Ah, there were tons of arcade conversions over the years, but the good ones were well known and the lousy ones equally notorious and avoided.
RType and Chase HQ on the Spectrum are fantastic conversions, we had a regular here posting a retrospective on them, quite eye-opening, especially where it came to the 8 Bit systems.

If I would pick a single title that I really enjoyed back in the day,
I had Galaxians on the Spectrum that was pretty brilliant, and less well know was 3D Tank Duel and 3D Star Strike, both on the Spectrum but versions of Battle Zone and Star Wars respectively.

3D Tank Duel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZv5-mLDmY

3D Star Strike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux6KaB6h_Qg

Retr0gamer

Rodland is not that well known arcade game from Jaleco but a really good one. It got some very late conversions to 8-bit micro computers and they all turned out really well. I was a big fan of the C64 version.

rubadub

I am not sure if the OP is looking for actual arcade conversions, I get the impression they might just say "arcade games" meaning "video/computer games" and is just looking for any little known gems.

I liked penetrator on the spectrum, it has its own wiki page so I guess is was more well known than I thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penetrator_(video_game)

itguyinaction

One thing is for me a real secret - why so many people are still interested with such simple games developed 30-40 years ago...

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117781144#Comment_117781144

Because they are still heaps of fun and haven't aged? And they provide an experience that you can't get on modern consoles.

Turn on a modern game. You spend ages going through developer and publish flash screens, endless tutorials and cutscenes.

Turn on Bubble Bobble and you are having fun the instant you press that start button and you will probably die in a few minutes but those few minutes offer countless hours of fun. Also the best games may seem simple but have near infinite challenge and possibilities with simple controls. Something that seems simple like Galaga, Tempest or Centipede offer so much strategy and it's really rewarding to learn them.

itguyinaction

Yeah, it might be sth in that what you are writing. In case of old games you know how to play in that 20 seconds after loading. Currently I have spend much more time, sometimes many minutes, sometimes even hours to learn how to play. I have impression that they are over-complicated but it might be the case I have 8-bit brain. :P

Noxegon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117781144#Comment_117781144

Because they're still fun to play 30-40 years later?

I hardly play anything modern but I'm still partial to a game of Sonic the Hedgehog II.