Rare Games

Marble Madness II

This game was fun to see but not nearly as fun as the original. Just doesn't feel right playing with a joystick. (link on KLOV)

Speed Freak

The dream JohnYates and I have had of seeing one of these up close and working came true (for me at least!). Man, this is a hard game.

Akka Arrh

This is a lot like Missile Command, except there's two stages. You are protecting your base at the center. At the 'zoom out' level you first try and prevent things from hitting you. If the get in, though, you have to zoom in (and there's a button for this) and destroy the enemy ships and bombs in a zoomed-in mode. Kind of reminds me of Star Raiders' map and warping to sectors. (Link on KLOV)

Gyro Pong

Notably absent from Klov. This was an upgrade kit to pong. Lots of details here. The really weird part is that this is a different 'Syzygy' from Nolan Bushnell's original Atari company moniker

Demon

A vector game I had never heretofore seen!

Thayer's Quest

This sucker was up and rolling, getting plays. Kept asking you questions like 'do you want to take winding trail, or enter the castle'. Also seemed to allow you to use your items you carry at any juncture. It would give you feedbak based on what you did with a voice synth (e.g. CONGRATULTIONS, YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE WIZARD).

Atari 4-Player Football

Watching these guys was a special moment for me. One of the strongest memories of the funness of arcades in the 70s is back when I saw guys furiously spinning those trackballs playing good old Atari Football. Here we see that this game has not lost its charm. This is one of those great moment of honest to goodness, videogame wonder, where great gutteral human interaction is facilitated perfectly by the machine

Boot Hill

Something neat to me about the old 3D backdrop. Guess they anticipated games would have elaborate backgrounds like today, and did the best they could.

A crash!

On a midway (prototype) driving game. Linux?

Pinballs

Target Alpha

(See also TargetAlphaPinball)

Video Pinball

Misc

Pinball Hall of Fame

Had a great long chat with Tim Arnold. He was selling interesting old cartoons and such to raise $$$ for the Pinball Hall of Fame. Each time someone bought something, he rung it up on his homemade electomechanical telethon-like scoreboard made from cannibalized pinball parts. Commiserated about how 'the suits' ruined pinball (as they do most things). I also learned that contrary to my impression, the mob was actually great to deal with in the glory days of arcades - that is, if you paid your bills. They had their own creative ways of collecting unpaid bills. Tim coined one of my favorite phrases for less than stellar quality tools, Taiwan Tool Town. Long live Tim! Even among die hards few stand as tall and deserve such respect.

-- MattWalsh - 27 Jul 2003