I recently came across a few interesting and previously unseen rejected artwork examples from the original cabinet design of Puck Man. So this week, I figured I’d do a follow up to the last blog entry about the Puck Man PCB, by sharing some of the great artwork originally created … | Continue reading
44 years ago (22 May 1980 to be precise), the first Puck Man machine was placed in an arcade in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, starting a worldwide global videogaming phenomenon. Today, Namco’s Pac-Man remains one of the most recognisable video game characters, transcending popular cu … | Continue reading
Episode 33 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Senior corporate executive, serial entrepreneur, automotive designer and fine artist. Roger Hecto … | Continue reading
I’ll start with an apology – I’m rather ashamed that its taken me this long to post my review of last year’s event! It completely passed me by, and its only the recent announcement of the 2024 dates, that reminded me I didn’t share this write up. So let’s put that right! I’ve bee … | Continue reading
You may have noticed that I don’t share many repairs here on the blog. Although useful (and I’m glad people do share their knowledge) I think they’re pretty dry to read and I don’t tend to tackle repairs – and when I do, they aren’t always successful! My arcade technical expertis … | Continue reading
Episode 32 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Eugene Jarvis cut his teeth in the Atari pinball division before going on to produce the groundbr … | Continue reading
Some sad news to report on the blog this week. I got word that long-time Industrial Designer at Atari coin-operated division, Mike Jang, has passed away. I’ve known Mike since 2016, and whilst we never met, he was always on the other end of an email answering my questions and pro … | Continue reading
A few weeks back I wrote about Automatic Services and the arcade cabinets that a group of us were able to acquire, after its owner Mark Shepherd passed away. If you missed that post, go here. This week, I wanted to follow up by taking a closer look at one particular cabinet from … | Continue reading
Generic cabinets from the Golden Age of arcade gaming tended to be functional workhorses. Of course the beauty of dedicated cabinets from manufacturers such as Atari, Williams, Gottlieb and Sega is undeniable. Those cabinets usually had bespoke designs, dedicated controls and glo … | Continue reading
Episode 31 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Dr Alan Meades teaches the undergraduate and post-graduate game design courses at Canterbury Chri … | Continue reading
If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll have read several articles where I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go through old collections or stashes of arcade cabinets. This is where arcade collectors get together to acquire, rescue, save (call it what you … | Continue reading
Searching the web for photos of classic arcades from back in the day, tends to bring up a plethora of American locations. Which is all well and good and pretty informative, but sets of genuine photographs taken in the 80s and 90s that documented the British arcade videogame lands … | Continue reading
My recent trip to the USA allowed me some time to check out a few arcades, specifically one of my favourites in Miami, FL. The last time I reviewed Arcade Odyssey, was a good five years ago. You can check that out here. The upshot I concluded back then, was that this was probably … | Continue reading
imagine keeping a pristine arcade game in your garage for decades and then just dumping it with the weekly garbage # | Continue reading
Is there a classic arcade game player out there that doesn’t like Robotron? Released by Williams Electronics in 1982, it is the quintessential arcade shooter. Ferocious enemies, panic-inducin… | Continue reading
Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be a part of an extraordinary arcade rescue mission. This turned out to be a very memorable raid for both good and bad reasons. Nothing could have prepared u… | Continue reading
For all the wrong reasons, Slither holds its very own special place in classic arcade gaming history. Created by Game Domain International (GDI) in 1982, it could be politely argued that the game w… | Continue reading
Very sad news to report on the blog today. Tim Skelly, the legendary designer and programmer of many classic arcade titles has passed away. Tim’s contributions to the early days of arcade gam… | Continue reading
Regular readers of this blog will have seen me reference “Arcade Raids” in previous articles. This might create images in your head of hooded gangs of arcade collectors breaking into warehouses in … | Continue reading
Last year I wrote an article which looked at some of Atari’s early industrial design concept drawings. I was looking again at that piece last night, and one picture jumped out at me: It’… | Continue reading
Well here we are, the end of another year. I should offer my apologies for the slowdown in posts in recent weeks – real life has been all-consuming with one thing and another so work on the b… | Continue reading
The 70s and early 80s arcade industry was cumbersome and wasteful to say the least. Manufacturers like Atari, Williams and Centuri built business models based on the ability to sell new hardware to… | Continue reading
Released in October 1973, Atari’s fourth arcade videogame Gotcha was an attempt to further diversify the company and put some innovative distance between itself and its competitors. At the ti… | Continue reading
This week, I thought it would be interesting to look at Atari Coin-Operated Division’s B2B marketing efforts in the early 80s. By ‘B2B’ I mean the way in which they marketed their… | Continue reading
During the peak of Atari’s success, one of the more unlikely tasks given to some of its coin-operated programmers, was to analyse potentially pirated versions of their games. This week, I tho… | Continue reading
I was thinking recently that here in the West we take our video game history largely for granted. Look back at the Golden Age of video games, and it’s apparent that we had it pretty good R… | Continue reading
Ask any fan of Golden Age classic arcade machines what their fondest recollection of the era is, and it is likely that Atari’s seminal Star Wars game is going to be mentioned by most. Release… | Continue reading
The trackball as a method of user interface control has been around for some time. In terms of public consciousness, I would argue that arcade games pioneered their widespread use by getting them l… | Continue reading
It is true to say that software piracy and video games go hand in hand, but not just in the home computer and console market. Since the early 70s, literally the infancy of video arcade gaming, manu… | Continue reading
As Atari’s best-selling arcade game of all time, Asteroids was literally a game changer. Released in December 1979, it was responsible for catapulting Atari into mainstream public consciousne… | Continue reading
As Atari’s best-selling arcade game of all time, Asteroids was literally a game changer. Released in December 1979, it was responsible for catapulting Atari into mainstream public consciousne… | Continue reading