You Are What You Were. Celebrate Retro Pop Culture At Retroland.
When Atari released their first attempt at a racing game in 1974, called Gran Track 10, the response was somewhat underwhelming. Undaunted, they forged forward the following year with the much more ambitious Indy 800. This time around, the game allowed up to eight players to compete simultaneously against each other and the notorious clock. A steady stream of quarters would soon follow, making this one of the most popular racing games of the 70s.
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The video game console wars of the early 80s were reminiscent of the video format wars a few years earlier, where VHS won the popularity contest hands-down, yet Betamax still boasted a better quality. In this arena, the Atari 2600 played the role of the VHS tape and underdog challenger was Mattel’s Intellivision, a fine little video game system that never quite captured the same spotlight, but will forever be remembered by many from that era as the superior system.
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A decade had passed since humans set foot on the moon, when Atari decided to give their quarter-bearing customers a whack at it. Released in 1979, Lunar Lander was a challenging, pressure-filled game that probably sucked up enough quarters to finance the real Apollo mission.
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There once was a playing card company in Japan that decided to get their feet wet in the world of arcade games. One day, they introduced an addicting little video game about a plumber battling with an ape and within five years, the name Nintendo would become synonymous with home video game systems. Perhaps every family in America didn’t have a deck of Nintendo playing cards in their living room but millions would eventually have one of their Game Systems. And if you were a kid during this era, it was simply the only game to have. Let's take a look at the history of this iconic toy.
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It's strange to fathom those dark ages prior to the advent of the home video game, but civilization waited until 1972, when we were forever changed by the release of the Odyssey. We owe our thanks to a man named Ralph Baer (who would later introduce us to a beloved electronic memory game called Simon). He was the mastermind that teamed with Magnavox to change the world forever and make home gaming the preferred recreational activity of children and adults alike.
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The hunt was on in 1976's Sea Wolf, a submarine simulator with realistic sounds (explosions, sonar pings, buzzing motors and more) and a rotating periscope. Somewhere deep in enemy waters, your sub hunted down freighters, warships and speedy PT boats with stealthy, deadly precision, dispatching your torpedoes with the touch of a button. These features made Sea Hunt a magnet for quarters, sucking them from the depths of our pockets for a few mere minutes of undersea adventure.
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Backed by a thudding bass beat, dozens of invaders from another world descended on our planet in 1978. Within months, Space Invaders was one of the hottest fads on the globe, helping propel the video arcade into a multi-billion dollar industry. Let's take a look back and trace this history of this beloved game.
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Although it wasn't released to arcades until 1978, the origins of Space Wars stretch back to the birth of video games in 1962. Generally considered to be the first computer game, the original Spacewar was written by a group of MIT students and quickly spread to computer labs across the country, giving grad students yet another excuse to put off their studies.
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Today, we direct you to the always-insightful blog of actor Wil Wheaton, known for his roles in Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He posted this thought-provoking gem recently, and we couldn’t help but notice that his question might be intriguing to our readers as well.
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Tough day at school? Siblings giving you a hard time? What you need is little cathartic activity to make things seem all better. All can be cured with a trip down to the local Chuck E. Cheese (or Showtime Pizza, if you prefer) where a plastic mallet and a field of unsuspecting rodents await your assault. The game is called Whac-A-Mole, and it's been delighting kids for decades.
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