Desci asks and of course I comply. She names Point Blank as one of the great video games of our time and I agree with her. But what others have taken my fancy over the years? Plenty. Especially on the home computer, but today’s list is about the ones I fed my 20c or $1 or $2 coins into over the years. In no particular order I give you my favourites.
Point Blank
As Desci says this is a lot of fun. No storyline of any kind, just skill tester after skill tester with a nicely ramping difficulty curve. There were times when I was on song that the single shot missions like the falling leaf or the William Tell were a piece of piss. Others where they were nigh on impossible and I blame dodgy calibration for those.
Gyrus
This was the first one I was any good at. I even made it to Earth once or twice. Double fire was king here as it was in Galaga and you needed to base your play around getting it. The soundtrack was pretty cool too.
Gauntlet
This game had a near endless appetite for coins. Mistakes made on any given level could counteracted by sticking in another couple of credits. I liked playing the Valkyrie which, in hinsight, was foolishness. All the best players would fight for the Elf and take the Wizard if that were already taken. Don’t shoot food is sound advice for any situation.
Moon Patrol
I was never very good at it. I would get lazy and complacent in playing it. But I would always want to play it. I think it is the catchy game music that kept me coming back. I had it as my ringtone for several years in the early part of the century.
Spy Hunter
Another catchy tune and an impressive looking cabinet to play at. Machine guns, smoke screens, oil slicks at the ready. I almost wished I had a tuxedo to wear while driving it to get the full spy feel.
Super Sprint
This may not make too many lists of other people’s favourites, but if you could find a friend (or two) to play with it could be awesome. There was steering wheel lock, like so many of this era, so you would spend the race with your foot to the floor spinning the wheel hard to make the turns then grabbing it to straighten out again, drifting like crazy around the track.
Star Wars
The sit down version of this came to Mildura and was the first ‘premium’ game that demanded 2×20c to play instead of 1. And it was totally worth it. The sound was amazing, the graphics were in an unheard of 3D. There were queues to play this game that required more than just putting your 20c on the machine. A blackboard was set up to keep track of who was next to play. I’m not sure I will ever be as impressed with a new game as I was with this one.
So these are the arcade games I have loved. But I have a stronger passion. The silver ball.
A new post for that I think
