arcade posts

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Classic 80's Arcade Games - the ultimate Time Waster

by Jason Clarke Oct 13th 2009

If you grew up in the 80's in the golden age of video game arcades, you're going to like this Time Waster. Classic 80's Arcade Games is actually a mega time waster, since it's a site dedicated to 80's arcade games, with tons of free online-playable games. Games like 1943, Commando, Contra, Defender, Dig Dug, Frogger... the list just goes on and on.

The games are built on various platforms - Shockwave, Flash, Java, and even DOS and Windows games. Some are offered on multiple platforms, and some have downloadable emulator ROMs available.

It's not clear to me what the legality of these games is; in most cases they are abandonware, but I imagine that copyrights still exist for many of them. Classic gaming is big business, and even though underground trading of game ROMs for MAME setups has been going on for years, that still doesn't legitimize the practice.

In any event, Classic 80's Arcade Games is a wonderful compilation of the games from my youth that I loved. I hope it doesn't go away any time soon.

Tags: arcade, arcade game, arcade-game, ArcadeGame, classic gaming, classic-gaming, ClassicGaming, com

Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet, Time-Wasters

RetroShoot is colorful, casual space shoot 'em up - Time Waster

by Lee Mathews Apr 17th 2009

It's Friday, and time to take it easy - so how about a Time Waster that only requires you to move your mouse? Hello, RetroShoot!

Just because the controls are dead simple doesn't make the game any less fun. It's a packed with colorful old-school arcade goodness. Manouver your ship with the mouse and let your ship take care of the shooting. Apart from that, the only other controls are space bar to pause/restart and escape to quit.

Collect powerups as you progress to add area effects, improved blasters, and extra lives. Take a hit, and you'll receive a strike. You guessed it: three of those and you're out.

As an added twist, the screen will pivot 90 degrees during some stages. Sure, it's just the same thing sideways, but it makes things a little more interesting than playing up-and-down constantly.

Let the blasting commence!

Tags: arcade, classic, shoot-em-up, shooter, vintage

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

Virus is a frantic, old-school space shooter - Time Waster

by Lee Mathews Feb 2nd 2009

If you're a fan of classic shooters like Space Invaders, Centipede, and Galaga, Virus may well keep you from doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Your ship is armed with a single blaster. As you destroy enemies, you'll pick up the occasional multifunctional bomb that works in one of three ways. Use it to destroy or immobilize enemies, or destroy hexes (like the ones you see in the screenshot) that certain annoying opponents leave behind.

The instructions state that you can "click to fire," but you'll probably find holding the button down and strafing your enemies into space dust much more satisfying, especially during working hours.

Keep an eye on your life meter: as your attackers increase in number and speed, a few are bound to make it past your barrage. When they do, you'll see the magic number drop. If it hits zero, you're toast.

You can, of course, start over and go Last Starfighter on the bad guys. Too bad there's no vomit-inducing death blossom.

Tags: arcade, defender, time-waster, vintage

Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet, Time-Wasters

5 Sites For Old-School Gaming in Your Browser -Time Waster

by Lee Mathews Sep 7th 2008

Enough of this practical advice and useful downloads! I know you've been working hard, and you're probably itching for some fun and excitement. If you've read some of my previous Time Wasters, you'll know that I've got a soft spot for old school gaming.

Grab your browser, and get ready for some classic, low-fi action!

Neave Games specializes in making flash remakes of classic games, and has a few tasty selections for you. Among them are Frogger, Space Invaders, Tetris, and the old Nokia cellphone game Snake (pictured). Rad.

c64s.com is dedicated to my first computer and gaming system, the Commodore 64. It's been on DS before, but they've added a lot of great new games over the years. Packacuda, Wizard's Lair, Crystal Castles. It's hard to believe how good some of the games were for the trusty old c64.

Tags: arcade, classic, games, gaming, timewaster, vintage

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Time-Wasters

Knuckleheads - Time Waster

by Kristin Shoemaker May 26th 2008

Have you ever felt like a really colorful, but inexplicably ticked off tiki-head chained against your will to another tiki-head? Did it upset you that the only way you could get through your tiki existence was to work with the head to which you were chained, like it or not? If so, stay far away from Knuckleheads, today's Time Waster. We don't want you to get flashbacks.

If the idea of manuevering little heads on chains around an arcade world reminiscient of those of your childhood (but with better graphics), Knuckleheads might be the escape from the month end paperwork you were looking for.

The idea is to move your heads forward while hitting as many desirable targets (little star capsules, to start with) as you possibly can. Using your keyboard, the left and right arrows move your heads backward and forward, and the up and down arrows allow you to lengthen and shorten your chain. The game gets progressively trickier, calling upon your coordination and patience to hit correctly colored monsters with the matching head, avoid spikes, and adhere to some really unsavory sounding sticky blocks.

A minute to learn, a lifetime to master? Yeah, well, maybe not. Nevertheless, Knuckleheads is entertaining, and even when you've pretty well mastered it, there's something really pleasing about the squash of a tiny grimacing head against a sticky block.

[Thanks Jason!]

Tags: arcade, flash, Knuckleheads, Nitro, time-waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Rolling Madness - Today's Time Waster

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Mar 15th 2006

Marble Madness is hands-down one of my favorite arcade games of all time. That said, I really stunk at it. Rolling Madness is a clone of Marble Madness, done using OpenGL and other open source tools... It looks great, and plays perfectly. Unfortunately, I'm just as bad at this as I was the original. The author appears to have used the same music and sounds from the original game, which I hope doesn't cause any trouble, because this one really takes me back. I can almost hear that pocketful of quarters jingling. One of the neat features in Rolling Madness is that you can switch from a true perspective (possible with today's machines), as you see in the screenshot here, or you can use the old perspective from the original, which was really an isometric view. Either way, hours of frustrating ball rolling is yours to be had. I tried using the keyboard controls, but the mouse is a nice change of pace. This has definitely secured a spot in my MAME cabinet (which does not yet exist). The only negative I can find is that it's Windows only. Thanks to David for sending this in!

Tags: arcade, mame, marble madness, MarbleMadness

Filed under: Fun, Games, Freeware, Time-Wasters

The Last Starfighter - Today's Time Waster

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Mar 3rd 2006

This is all too sweet. Some lucky dudes got a replica of the arcade cabinet used in the movie The Last Starfighter, and they are preparing to load a copy of the game used in the movie on it. Well, the game Starfighter is also a replica... But it's fun! And it's free. And with a little soldering know-how and a few spare weekends, maybe you too could build such a replica. The one they bought was used in a documentary on the movie (which is odd enough in itself), as the original was destroyed. And as one astute digg'er noticed, these guys have also given us a replica (mostly) of the game Jeff Bridges plays in his arcade in Tron, Space Paranoids! Now if they would slap together the Global Thermonuclear War game from War Games, we're all set...

[Via digg]

Tags: arcade, last starfighter, LastStarfighter, movie

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Guimp: Tiny arcade games - Today's Time Waster

by Jordan Running Feb 15th 2006

Break out the magnifying glass or be prepared to squint: Guimp is almost certainly the world's smallest arcade. It has more than a dozen games, most of them classics, all of them fitting in a square with 18 pixels to a side and playable in your browser. Among the classics you'll find clones of Pong, Breakout, Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. Some of them are astonishingly fun despite the squint-factor, which I is a testament to the originals' solid design.

[Via GameSetWatch]

Tags: arcade, flash, fun, games, gamesetwatch, guimp

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Time-Wasters

Burger tyme - Today's Time Waster

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Feb 14th 2006

Just the other day we were bouncing ideas around for the "next big game-to-movie franchise" and I happened to blurt out Burger Time, the classic arcade game. What game was more perfect to sit in your mom-and-pop skating rink than Burger Time? I mean, here's a game that entices you to a) put in more quarters, and b) eat more burgers. Awesome! Well it worked on me apparently, because burgers are my favorite food. Almost. Anyway, I found a great Flash port of the game, called Burger Tyme. No sounds, but the gameplay is pretty accurate. Unfortunately, I am just as bad at this version as I was with the original, so I have no idea if it apes the arcade version beyond level one. Post high scores in the comments, as we saw some killer times with Escapa... Does anyone see Burger King appropriating this someday soon?

Tags: arcade, burger time, BurgerTime, flash game, FlashGame

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Freeware

Torus Trooper - Today's Time Waster

by Jordan Running Jan 25th 2006

Oh, my lord. Torus Trooper is the sort of game I should not be allowed to play before bedtime. Torus Trooper is a fly-through-infinite-space-and-kill-the-baddies top-down shooter for Windows that reminds me of Galaga and Tempest but I'm sure will remind younger gamers of more recent console fare. It's an extraordinarily fast-paced game with gorgeous wireframe graphics and a frenetic techno soundtrack, and not only do you have a constant barrage of baddies and projectiles to contend with, you also have to navigate a twisting, turning playing field that zooms past at lightning speed. Best of all, even on my lousy 32MB video card, Torus Trooper runs at full kick, even at 1280x1024.

[Thanks, Jonathan!]

Update: Reader AMD writes in to tell us that Torus Trooper is also available on Linux and Mac OS X. Thanks, AMD!

Tags: arcade, fun, game, torus trooper, TorusTrooper, windows

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Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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