The Best '80s Arcade Games (2024)

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BurgerTime is a 1982 arcade game created by Data East for its DECO Cassette System. The game's original title, Hamburger, was changed to BurgerTime before its introduction to the US. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients located across a maze of platforms while avoiding pursuing characters. In the US, Data East USA licensed BurgerTime for distribution by Bally Midway. The Data East and Midway versions are distinguished by the manufacturer's name on the title screen and by the marquee and cabinet artworks.According to Twin Galaxies, the record high score on BurgerTime is 11,512,500 points, set by Bryan L. Wagner in 2008.When Data East went bankrupt in 2003, G-Mode bought most of Data East's intellectual properties, including BurgerTime, BurgerTime Deluxe, Super BurgerTime, and Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory.

617

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Moon Patrol is an arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America. Moon Patrol was an early side-scrolling shooter and is widely credited for the introduction of parallax scrolling in side-scrolling video games.

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Ghosts 'n Goblins is a 1985 side-scrolling platforming game developed by Capcom for video arcades and has since been released on several other platforms. It is the first game in the Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise.

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Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983 as the first game in the Dragon's Lair series. In the game, the protagonist Dirk the Daring is a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has locked the princess in the foul wizard Mordroc's castle. It featured animation by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.Most other games of the era represented the character as a sprite, which consisted of a series of pixels displayed in succession. Due to hardware limitations of the era, artists were greatly restricted in the detail they could achieve using that technique; the resolution, framerate and number of frames were severely constrained. Dragon's Lair overcame those limitations by tapping into the vast storage potential of the LaserDisc, but imposed other limitations on the actual gameplay.The success of the game sparked numerous home ports, sequels and related games. In the 21st century it has been repackaged in a number of formats as a "retro" or historic game.

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Street Fighter is a 1987 arcade game developed by Capcom. It is the first competitive fighting game produced by the company and the inaugural game in the Street Fighter series. While it did not achieve the same worldwide popularity as its sequel Street Fighter II when it was first released, the original Street Fighter introduced some of the conventions made standard in later games, such as the six button controls and the use of command based special techniques.A port for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD console was released under the title Fighting Street in 1988. This same version was later re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on November 2, 2009, and in the PAL region on November 5, 2009.

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Contra, distributed as Gryzor in Europe and Oceania, is a 1987 run and gun action game developed and published by Konami originally released as a coin-operated arcade game on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various computer formats, including the MSX2. The home versions were localized in the PAL region as Gryzor on the various computer formats and as Probotector on the NES, released later. Several Contra sequels were produced following the original game.

598

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Mario Bros. is a platform game published and developed for arcades by Nintendo in 1983. It was created by Shigeru Miyamoto. It has been featured as a minigame in the Super Mario Advance series and numerous other games. Mario Bros. has been re-released for the Wii's, Nintendo 3DS's, and Wii U's Virtual Console services in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia.In the game, Mario is portrayed as an Italian-American plumber who, along with his younger brother Luigi, has to defeat creatures that have been coming from the sewers below New York City. The gameplay focuses on Mario's extermination of them by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away. The original versions of Mario Bros.—the arcade version and the Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System version—were received positively by critics.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Super Kame Ninja in Japan and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Europe, is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up released by Konami as a coin-operated video game in 1989. It is based on the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series which began airing in the winter of 1987. The original coin-operated game was distributed to the arcades in two variants: a standard 2-player version that allowed either player to choose their character and a deluxe 4-player version with each player controlling a different character. Home versions of the game were released for various platforms.Konami followed the game up with an NES-exclusive title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project, and an arcade sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.

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Zaxxon is a 1982 isometric shooter arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities The object of the game is to hit as many targets as possible without being shot down or running out of fuel—which can be replenished, paradoxically, by blowing up fuel drums.At the time of its release, Zaxxon was unique as it was the first game to employ axonometric projection, which lent its name to the game. The type of axonometric projection is isometric projection: this effect simulated three dimensions from a third-person viewpoint. It was also one of the first video games to display shadows, to indicate the ship's altitude above the surface; the game also employed an altitude meter, allowing the player to control how high or low the ship is above the surface. It was also the first arcade game to be advertised on television, with a commercial produced by Paramount Pictures for $150,000.

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Robotron: 2084 is an arcade video game developed by Vid Kidz and released by Williams Electronics in 1982. It is a shoot 'em up with two-dimensional graphics. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional world where robots have turned against humans in a cybernetic revolt. The aim is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans, and earn as many points as possible.Robotron popularized the twin joystick control scheme, one that had previously been used in Taito's Space Dungeon.Robotron: 2084 was critically and commercially successful. Praise among critics focused on the game's intense action and control scheme. The game is frequently listed as one of Jarvis's best contributions to the video game industry. Robotron: 2084 arcade cabinets have since become a sought-after collector's item. It was ported to numerous platforms.

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After Burner is a 1987 combat flight simulator arcade game by Sega AM2. It is one of the first games designed by Yu Suzuki. The player flew an F-14 using a specialized joystick, and the game spawned several sequels.

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Xevious is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in December 1982. It runs on Namco Galaga hardware, and was designed by Masanobu Endō. In North America, the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari, Inc.. In Brazil, the arcade cabinet was printed with the name of "COLUMBIA" for the game, while the software still showed the original title of "Xevious".

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Elevator Action is a 1983 arcade game by Taito. It debuted during the Golden Age of Arcade Games.The player assumes the role of a spy who infiltrates a building filled with elevators. He must collect secret documents from the building and traverse the 30 floors of the building using an increasingly complex series of elevators. The player is pursued by enemy agents who appear from behind closed doors. These agents must be dealt with via force or evasion. Successful completion of a level involves collecting all the secret documents and traversing the building from top to bottom. In the lower floors of the building, the elevator systems are so complex that some puzzle-solving skills are needed.The game was available as a standard upright cabinet The controls consist of a 4-way joystick and two buttons, one for "shoot" and the other for jumping and kicking. The maximum number of players is two, alternating turns. The graphics are extremely simple, 2D color graphics and in-game music was composed by musician Yoshio Imamura. The game was followed by a sequel, Elevator Action II.

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Popeye is a 1982 arcade game developed and released by Nintendo based on the Popeye cartoon characters licensed from King Features Syndicate. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Popeye.The Family Computer saw an educational sequel on November 22, 1983: Popeye no Eigo Asobi, an English teaching game akin to the later Donkey Kong Jr. Math.In Popeye, two players can alternate playing or one player can play alone. The top five highest scores are kept along with the player's three initials. Popeye was available in standard and co*cktail configurations.Ben Falls holds the world record score of 3,023,060 earned on December 20, 2011, according to Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard.The Popeye characters were originally going to be used in the game that later became Donkey Kong. However at that time on the development of the game, Nintendo could not get the licenses to use the characters.

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Bubble Bobble is an arcade game by Taito, first released in 1986 and later ported to numerous home computers and game consoles. The game, starring the twin Bubble Dragons Bub and Bob, is an action-platform game in which players travel through one hundred different stages, blowing and bursting bubbles, dodging enemies and collecting a variety of items. The game became very popular and led to a long series of sequels and spin-offs. The main goal of the game is to rescue Bub and Bob's girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. It is an early example of a game with multiple endings, which depend on the player's performance and discovery of secrets.

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Time Pilot is a multi-directional scrolling shooter and free-roaming aerial combat arcade game designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, released by Konami in 1982, and distributed in the United States by Centuri. Debuting in the golden age of video arcade games, it is a time travel themed game that allowed the player's plane to freely move across open air space that can scroll indefinitely in all directions. The Killer List of Videogames included Time Pilot in its list of top 100 arcade games of all time.

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Kung-Fu Master is a side-scrolling action game produced by Irem that was originally released as an arcade game in 1984 and distributed by Data East in North America. The game was initially released in Japan under the title of Spartan X as a tie-in based on the Jackie Chan film Wheels on Meals, however the game has no bearing on the plot of the film outside the names of the protagonist and his girlfriend, allowing Irem to export the game without the license by simply changing title.The players controls Thomas, the titular Kung-Fu Master, as he fights his way through the five levels of the Devil's Temple in order to rescue his girlfriend Sylvia from the mysterious crime boss Mr. X. It is considered to be one of the precursors to the beat 'em up genre.

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Tapper, also known as Root Beer Tapper, is a 1983 arcade game released by Bally Midway. The goal of the game is to serve beer and collect empty mugs and tips.

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Millipede is a 1982 arcade game by Atari, Inc. and is the sequel to the arcade hit, Centipede. The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible by destroying all segments of the millipede as it moves toward the bottom of the screen, as well as destroying and avoiding other enemies. The game is played with a trackball and a single fire button, which can be held down for rapid-fire. The game is over when the player's last life is lost.

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Arkanoid is an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. It expanded upon Atari's Breakout games of the 1970s by adding power-ups, different types of bricks, and a variety of level layouts. The title refers to a doomed "mothership" from which the player's ship, the Vaus, escapes.

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Jungle Hunt is a one- or two-player side-scrolling arcade platform game produced and released by Taito in 1982. It was initially released as Jungle King.The player controls a jungle explorer who sports a pith helmet and a safari suit. The player attempts to rescue his girl from a tribe of hungry cannibals. To do this, he must swing from vine to vine, survive a crocodile-infested river, jump or duck falling rocks rolling downhill, and release the girl before she is lowered into a boiling cauldron.Jungle Hunt is one of the first video games to use parallax scrolling.

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Gyruss is a shoot 'em up video arcade game developed by Konami, and released in 1983. It was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who had earlier created Time Pilot for Konami. Gyruss was licensed to Centuri in the United States, and was ported to numerous games consoles and home computers. It follows in the tradition of space war games such as Space Invaders and Galaga.Gyruss was the second and last game Yoshiki Okamoto designed for Konami, after Time Pilot. Due to pay disputes, he was fired after the release of this game, and soon joined Capcom, where he would write 1942 and the first Street Fighter game.The game's background music is an electronic, fast-paced arrangement of J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565; this particular arrangement is similar in sound to "Toccata", a rock arrangement by the UK-based instrumentalist group Sky. Gyruss is notable for using stereo sound, which according to the bonus material for Konami Arcade Classics, was achieved by utilizing discrete audio circuits. The game used three microprocessors: two Z80 microprocessors and one 6809, as well as an 8039 microcontroller. For the sound, five AY-3-8910 PSG sound chips and a DAC.

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Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road is an arcade video game released in 1989 by Leland Corporation. The game was endorsed by professional off road racer Ivan Stewart. Virgin Games produced several home versions in 1990. In 1991, an NES version was later released by Leland's Tradewest subsidiary followed by versions for most major home formats, including NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, Amiga and MS-DOS. Some of the ports removed Ivan Stewart's name from the title due to licensing issues and are known simply as Super Off Road.

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Gorf is an arcade game released in 1981 by Midway Mfg., whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a multiple-mission fixed shooter with five distinct modes of play, essentially making it five games in one. It is well known for its use of synthesized speech, a new feature at the time.