Best 1980s Video Games!

the 1980s became the golden age of the arcade and kids spent quarter after quarter playing video games there wasn't anything like going to an arcade with your friends on a friday or saturday night and spinning a roll of quarters these arcades were exciting and fun if you didn't play these games in an arcade then perhaps you played them in a bar restaurant or even a convenience store for the most part many of these games from the 1980s have disappeared from those locations however there has been a growing trend of opening retro arcades and for a flat fee you can play until they close or when your fingers get tired in this video we are going to take a look at some of the most popular video games of the 1980s pac-man is considered one of the most famous and iconic video games of all time it was developed by namco in 1980 and it was released in japan under the name of puckman when it was released internationally puckman became pac-man the player is tasked with controlling pac-man who must eat all of the dots in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts if pac-man eats one of the four flashing dots he becomes energized then the ghosts turn blue and he's able to eat them the pac-man craze in the 1980s was real there was all sorts of merchandise from pencils shirts pins folders cartoons and even a song some parents and even some cities became concerned that kids were spending too much time playing pac-man they tried to restrict when these games could be played and how close they could be to schools however pac-man overcame these adversities and it is still going strong today [Music] galaga was developed by namco in 1981 and it was a sequel to galaxia which came out in 1979. a player starts out with three lives and they must destroy galagan ships in each stage while avoiding the enemies and their shots if your spaceship gets abducted and you have one or two ships left to spare you can rescue your ship by destroying the abductor enemy this will allow you to have double the firepower this video game is one of the most commercially successful games of the 1980s and it spun off several sequels super mario brothers was created and published by nintendo in 1985 following the mario brothers game in 1983. the game features an italian-american plumber named mario and his brother luigi the objective of the game is to exterminate various creatures coming out of the sewers by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away the arcade game and the version on the nintendo entertainment systems were a huge hit among video game enthusiasts some consider this to be the greatest video game of all time and it is certainly one of the best selling since its release they have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide it has also been released on some of nintendo's newer game systems frogger is a 1981 arcade game that was developed and released by konami and then published by sega the object of the game was to direct the frogs to their homes across busy streets and a river full of hazards frogger was one of the most popular games of the 1980s it reportedly sold more than 20 million copies worldwide the game set the bar in the video game world and it found its way into pop culture including tv shows and music donkey kong was released by nintendo in japan in 1981 it's considered to be one of the most popular arcade games of all time the object of the game was to maneuver a character named jumpman who we later found out was mario through a construction site a player had to jump over and avoid obstacles in order to rescue the damsel in distress named pauline which we later found out was peach nintendo has had a lot of success with both characters donkey kong and mario from this game donkey kong jr was one of the many sequels and it was released in 1982 [Music] centipede was released in 1980 by atari inc and it became widely popular it became one of the most commercially successful games of the 1980s the player would use a rollerball on the console to control a moving shooter to fight off spiders fleas scorpions and yes centipedes if the centipede was destroyed before reaching the bottom then the player could move on to the next level the game was so popular that it spun off a sequel named millipede and it was released in 1982 miss pac-man was a sequel to the 1980 maze craze arcade game pac-man and it was released in 1982 the objective of the game was pretty much the same as pac-man but miss pac-man wore a bow on her head and she went through different mazes this game was also very popular and it continued the pacman fever over 115 000 arcade cabinets were sold [Music] dig dug was another popular game of the 1980s and it was released in 1982 the game was published by namco and distributed by atari a player was tasked with controlling a character to defeat all enemies in the stage by either inflating and popping them or crushing them under big rocks this game ate up many of those quarters that kids brought into the arcade [Music] defender was developed and released by williams electronics in 1981. it may have been one of the most difficult games at the time but it was certainly fun the objective of the game was to defeat waves of aliens in an unarmed planet while you're protecting astronauts they sold over 55 000 units and it became one of the company's best-selling games defender did have a number of sequels but they weren't quite as popular as the original one tempus was designed and programmed by dave there in 1981 the game took place on a three-dimensional surface but it sometimes wrapped into a tube the player was tasked with controlling a claw shaped blaster that moves along the edge of the playing field this game was one of the first ones to use atari's color quadrascan vector display technology and it allowed players to choose their own starting level each level of the game had a different layout it was certainly one of the most memorable games of the 1980s the star wars game was released by atari inc in 1983. it was based on the original star wars movie players would take control of luke skywalker's x-wing fighter through different levels in a first-person point of view this game did not require you to destroy every fighter in order to reach the next level instead you had to survive a certain length of time avoiding enemies and their gunshots the game itself featured voices from the movie which included luke skywalker obi-wan kenobi darth vader han solo r2d2 and chewbacca dragon's lair is certainly not the most popular game on this list but it is certainly well known for having superior graphics compared to other video games that were out at the time it was made by cinematronix in 1983. the game followed the adventures of dirk the knight who was trying to rescue the princess from an evil dragon this game has been on a number of platforms and it has had several sequels it was also made into a tv and comic book series dragon's lair is one of three video games that is housed at the smithsonian institution in washington dc [Music] hubert was published and created by gottlieb in north america in 1982 the goal of the game is to hop from one cube to another and change the color of every pyramid without falling off or getting caught by the bad guys if kubert was caught then he would show a censored cuss word this game was the company's most successful one and it resulted in several sequels toys merchandise and even an animated television show paperboy was developed and released by atari games in 1985. the object of the game was to use a set of handlebars and a controller to deliver a fictional newspaper called the daily sun along a suburban street players could also vandalize non-subscribing homes and avoid hazards on the street the game was lost if the paperboy missed or damaged a subscriber's house [Music] zachsen was a video game that was developed and released by sega in 1982 the objective of the game was to pilot his ship and hit as many targets as possible within a dangerous fortress while avoiding enemy shots or running out of fuel this was the first video game to be advertised on tv with a commercial produced by paramount pictures for and 150 thousand dollars [Music] 1942 was released in arcades in 1984 and it was made by a company called capcom it was set in the pacific theater of world war ii and the goal was to reach tokyo and destroy the entire japanese air fleet ironically it was created by japanese developers in 1985 it became one of the most successful arcade game units of the year the game was so popular that several spin-offs were released and you may remember one of them called 1943. pole position is a racing game that was released by namco in 1982 it became the most popular arcade game in 1983 because a steering wheel was used to play it along with a gear shifter for high and low gears pole position became the highest grossing arcade game in 1983 with 21 000 arcade machines sold [Music] rampage is a 1986 arcade game that was released by valley midway players would take control of a trio of monsters to try and survive against military forces each level was completed when a city was reduced to rubble the game was so successful that it had several sequels and it even appeared in a movie in 2018 this game is remembered by many people because it was different than any other game that has ever been released tron the video game was inspired by the disney movie by the same name it was released by bally midway in 1982. the new york times reported that 800 arcade units were sold within its first year in 1983 the game made millions in cells and even more in quarters with gameplay in arcades i hope you enjoyed this little look into the most popular video games of the 1980s there were certainly many more than we could cover in one video which of these games did you enjoy playing do you have any others that we didn't mention let us know in the comments below as always thank you so much for watching [Music] [Applause] 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Channel: Rhetty for History

Views: 297,007

Keywords: top video games of the 1980s, top video games, 1980s, 80s, top 10, pac man, dragons lair, rhetty for history, remembering the past, nostalgia, retro gaming, video games, arcade, best video games, 1980s video games, rhetty for history 80s, most popular video games, atari, remembering the 80s, retro, arcade memories, 1980s arcade, 1980s gaming, 1980s most popular video games, 80s kid, 80s games, childhood memories, 80s kids, 80s arcades, 80s video games, 80s arcade games, games

Id: qFPESp27KqI

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022