152 Fun Facts About Arcade

Which 1971 game by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney was the first commercial arcade video game?

Computer Space, a coin-op adaptation of the 1962 mainframe game Spacewar!, was released by Nutting Associates in November 1971 in a curvy fiberglass cabinet Bushnell designed to look futuristic.

Atari's Pong was built by engineer Allan Alcorn as what kind of assignment from Nolan Bushnell?

Bushnell gave Alcorn Pong as a training exercise, telling him it was a General Electric contract; the table-tennis concept came from the Magnavox Odyssey, and Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

In which Sunnyvale, California bar was the Pong prototype test-installed in August 1972?

The Pong prototype at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale was so popular its coin box jammed with quarters, convincing Atari it had a hit worth manufacturing.

Which retailer sold Atari's Home Pong console exclusively during the 1975 Christmas season?

Sears sold Home Pong under its Tele-Games label for Christmas 1975 after toy retailers turned Atari down; Bushnell approached Sears after spotting a Magnavox Odyssey ad in its sporting goods catalogue.

Space Invaders designer Tomohiro Nishikado modelled his aliens on the octopus-like creatures from which novel?

Nishikado based the aliens on the octopus-like Martians of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, and borrowed the space theme after seeing Space Battleship Yamato and Star Wars coverage.

Which company released Space Invaders in Japan in July 1978?

Taito released Space Invaders in Japan in July 1978 and licensed it to Midway for North America, where it arrived later that year and became a coin-op phenomenon.

The first Space Invaders cabinets had black-and-white graphics. How did they add colour to the screen?

Both Taito's and Midway's originals used transparent orange and green overlays; Namco's Galaxian brought a true RGB display a year later.

The 1980 Atari 2600 port of Space Invaders is credited with roughly what effect on console sales?

It was the first officially licensed arcade-to-console port and is often called the first killer app for home consoles.

Under what title was Pac-Man originally released in Japan in May 1980?

Puck Man, from the Japanese paku paku taberu (gobbling), was renamed Pac-Man for North America over fears vandals would turn the P into an F.

Which of the four Pac-Man ghosts is the orange one that alternates between chasing and fleeing?

Clyde, the orange ghost nicknamed Pokey, chases Pac-Man but retreats to his corner whenever he gets within eight tiles; Namco's president had wanted all four ghosts identical and red.

What is the perfect score on the original Pac-Man arcade game?

A perfect Pac-Man score is 3,333,360: every dot, energizer, ghost and fruit on all 255 levels plus every point available on the glitched 256th split-screen level. Billy Mitchell first achieved it in 1999.

Which novelty duo took the song "Pac-Man Fever" to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Buckner & Garcia's 'Pac-Man Fever' reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982, and the single went gold with more than a million copies sold.

What was the unofficial Pac-Man enhancement kit that became Ms. Pac-Man called?

General Computer Corporation built Crazy Otto as an unauthorised Pac-Man enhancement kit; a settlement with Atari barred selling such kits, so GCC took it to Midway, which released it as Ms. Pac-Man in 1982.

Donkey Kong was created to salvage thousands of unsold cabinets of which flop Nintendo game?

Nintendo of America was stuck with about 2,000 unsold Radar Scope machines, so Hiroshi Yamauchi ordered a conversion, which gave Shigeru Miyamoto his first game design job: Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong's hero was originally called Jumpman. He was renamed Mario after whom?

Mario Segale rented Nintendo of America its first office space; the name Jumpman had been chosen for its similarity to Walkman and Pac-Man.

Which studio unsuccessfully sued Nintendo, claiming Donkey Kong infringed its King Kong trademark?

Universal City Studios lost because the court found it did not own the King Kong rights it claimed; Nintendo's lawyer John Kirby was later thanked with a namesake character.

At the start of which level number does Donkey Kong's infamous kill screen occur?

The kill screen hits on level 22's first barrel board, the 117th screen: the bonus-timer calculation overflows an 8-bit value, giving Mario only a few seconds before he dies.

The King of Kong (2007) follows Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong rivalry with which challenger?

Steve Wiebe, a Washington schoolteacher, chased Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong record in The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), directed by Seth Gordon.

Galaga was the 1981 sequel to which earlier Namco shooter?

Galaga (1981) was the sequel to Namco's 1979 Galaxian; its Boss Galaga can capture your fighter with a tractor beam, and rescuing it gives you a dual fighter with double firepower.

Asteroids, Atari's best-selling arcade game, was drawn on what kind of monitor?

Asteroids ran on a vector display, using the Digital Vector Generator hardware built for Lunar Lander to draw crisp lines; players soon found a 'lurking' exploit by hiding at the screen edge.

Which 1981 trackball-controlled Atari game co-designed by Dona Bailey was an early arcade hit with women?

Centipede, co-designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, has players fire at a segmented bug winding down through a mushroom field; Bailey was one of very few female programmers in the industry then.

Defender was the first video game project of which Williams pinball programmer?

Eugene Jarvis had programmed Williams pinball tables such as Firepower before leading Defender (1981); its joystick plus five buttons for thrust, reverse, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace made it notoriously hard.

In Frogger, how many frogs must you guide home to clear a level?

A Frogger level ends once five frogs have reached the home bays at the top of the screen; Konami made the 1981 game and Sega/Gremlin distributed it in North America.

Q*bert (1982), the hopper who curses in symbols, was the biggest video game hit for which pinball maker?

Gottlieb, renamed Mylstar Electronics in 1983, was owned by Columbia Pictures, so the Q*bert rights stayed with Columbia after the pinball company was sold off in 1984.

Q*bert starts each round at the top of a pyramid made of how many cubes?

Q*bert's pyramid has 28 cubes arranged in seven rows; the level ends when every cube shows the target colour, and hopping off the edge costs a life.

Dragon's Lair (1983) stood out for film-quality animation by which former Disney animator?

Don Bluth, who left Disney in 1979, animated Dragon's Lair; the Cinematronics cabinet played his footage from a LaserDisc player, a first for a hit arcade game in 1983.

In Dragon's Lair the player controls Dirk the Daring on a quest to save whom?

Dirk the Daring rescues Princess Daphne from the dragon Singe; the game was such a sensation that the LaserDisc players inside many cabinets broke down from overuse.

Which fruit is the first bonus item to appear in Pac-Man?

The cherry is Pac-Man's first bonus fruit, worth 100 points; strawberry, orange, apple and melon follow, with a key as the final prize on later boards.

Which 1982 Sega game introduced isometric graphics and shadows to arcades?

Zaxxon (1982) was the first arcade game drawn in isometric projection, casting a shadow beneath the player's ship; the same year Sega's SubRoc-3D used a special eyepiece for stereoscopic 3D.

Street Fighter II is a landmark of which Capcom arcade hardware, being the fourteenth game to use it?

Street Fighter II ran on Capcom's CP System board, introduced with Forgotten Worlds in 1988; its combo system was accidental, discovered when players found certain moves flowed into others.

How many playable fighters did the original 1991 Street Fighter II offer?

The original Street Fighter II has eight playable fighters: Ryu and Ken from the first game plus six newcomers, with four CPU-only Grand Masters at the end of the single-player ladder.

Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage was loosely modelled on which martial-arts star Midway had hoped to feature?

Midway had wanted a Jean-Claude Van Damme game, but the actor was negotiating a deal elsewhere, so Johnny Cage became a Van Damme-style movie star; Daniel Pesina played Cage and the ninjas.

Controversy over Mortal Kombat's digitized gore helped prompt the creation of which body?

The 1993 US Senate hearings over Mortal Kombat's gore and Night Trap pushed the industry to form the ESRB, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, in September 1994.

Sega's Daytona USA (1994) was the first game released on which arcade board, developed with GE Aerospace?

Daytona USA launched Sega's Model 2 board, co-developed with GE Aerospace, which added texture mapping and filtering to 3D polygons; Sega's stated aim was to outdo Namco's Ridge Racer.

Namco's Time Crisis series set itself apart from other light-gun shooters with what mechanic?

The first game arrived in December 1995 and also forced players to clear each battle within a time limit, hence the title.

Dance Dance Revolution debuted in Japanese arcades in 1998 as part of which Konami music-game brand?

Dance Dance Revolution launched in 1998 under Konami's Bemani label, the music-game brand that began with Beatmania in 1997; DDR reached North America and Europe in 1999.

Skee-Ball was patented in 1908 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, a resident of which state?

Joseph Fourestier Simpson of Vineland, New Jersey, patented Skee-Ball in December 1908; the name comes from 'skee', an old spelling of ski, because the ball jumps off a ramp like a ski jumper.

Whac-A-Mole descends from Mogura Taiji, a 1975 arcade machine Kazuo Yamada invented for which company?

Kazuo Yamada of TOGO built Mogura Taiji in 1975; in Japan it was the second highest-grossing electro-mechanical arcade game of 1976 and 1977, behind only Namco's F-1.

Which New York City mayor banned pinball in the early 1940s, a ban that lasted until 1976?

Fiorello La Guardia had pinball machines seized and smashed from 1942, believing they robbed schoolchildren of nickels; the ban ended in 1976 after Roger Sharpe called a shot before the city council.

Which 1947 machine was the first pinball game with electromechanical player-controlled flippers?

Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty (1947) had six weak flippers in three pairs up the playfield, and they faced outward, the opposite of modern machines.

Which 1992 licensed pinball machine set the modern sales record with 20,270 units?

Bally's The Addams Family (1992), designed by Pat Lawlor, sold 20,270 units; Williams celebrated in 1994 with 1,000 gold-trimmed Special Collector's Edition machines carrying new software features.

Bally's and Williams' first solid-state pinball machines of 1976-77 used which microprocessor?

Bally's first solid-state games (Freedom, Eight Ball) and Williams' Hot Tip (1977) were built around the Motorola 6800; Gottlieb alone went with Rockwell's PPS-4.

Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre was founded in 1977 by the founder of which company?

The Atari founder wanted arcades in family-friendly venues rather than pool halls, and the chain doubled as a distribution outlet for Atari's new releases.

Dave & Buster's, founded in Dallas in 1982, calls the arcade inside each location by what name?

Dave & Buster's calls its game floor the Million Dollar Midway; the chain is named for founders David Corriveau and James 'Buster' Corley, and it bought Main Event Entertainment in 2022.

Which 1980 game by Sun Electronics was the first arcade game to use speech synthesis?

Stratovox (1980), released in Japan as Speak & Rescue, was the first arcade game with synthesized speech; Namco's King & Balloon followed, and Berzerk's taunting robots made talking cabinets famous in the West.

Which 1976 Exidy driving game caused outrage by letting players run over 'gremlins'?

Exidy's Death Race (1976) had players run over fleeing 'gremlins', which turned into gravestones; the national press outcry made it the first video game violence controversy.

Space Invaders supposedly caused a shortage of which item in Japan, a story now seen as a myth?

The tale that Space Invaders caused a nationwide shortage of 100-yen coins is unsupported: coin production figures showed nothing unusual, and designer Tomohiro Nishikado himself doubted it.

Who designed Pac-Man, aiming to make a game women would enjoy as much as men?

Toru Iwatani designed Pac-Man for Namco with a team of about nine, aiming at women and couples; he has said the character was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing.

Which of Pac-Man's four ghosts is red and chases him directly?

Blinky, the red ghost nicknamed Shadow, targets Pac-Man's own tile and speeds up as the dots run out; Pinky and Inky try to get in front of him instead.

Which 1981 Konami game was among the first forced-scrolling shooters, with a draining fuel gauge?

Scramble (1981), distributed by Stern in the US, scrolls sideways across six stages; the jet's fuel gauge drains constantly and is refilled only by bombing fuel tanks on the ground.

Frogger's second half has the frog crossing a river by hopping on logs, turtles and what?

Frogger's river section has the frog ride logs, turtles and alligators, hopping on an alligator's back but never its open jaws; diving turtles also sink beneath the water.

What is the player protecting from the alien waves in Defender?

Defender's landers snatch astronauts from the planet surface and turn them into mutants; lose every astronaut and the planet explodes. You start with three smart bombs that clear the screen.

Which control device does Missile Command use to aim its counter-missiles?

Missile Command uses a trackball to sweep the targeting cursor across the sky, faster than a joystick for the nuclear-panic scenario it simulates; three fire buttons launch from the three silos.

How many cities must the player defend in Missile Command?

Its designer went on to make Tempest for Atari the following year.

What is the name of the purple snake that chases Q*bert?

Coily, the purple snake, starts as a bouncing purple ball that hatches near the pyramid's base; luring him off the edge onto a flying disc kills him for bonus points.

During arcade gaming's golden age, which 1982 film was closely tied to an arcade game of the same name?

Tron and its game crossed over in 1982; the golden age also saw Pac-Man, Mario and Q*bert turn up in songs, cartoons and movies.

Which Street Fighter II fighter is a sumo wrestler?

E. Honda, Street Fighter II's sumo wrestler, fights in a Japanese bathhouse stage and attacks with the Hundred Hand Slap and the Sumo Headbutt.

Which two Sega games of the early 1990s popularised 3D polygon graphics in arcades?

Virtua Racing (1992) and Virtua Fighter (1993), both on Sega's Model 1 board, made flat-shaded 3D polygon graphics an arcade draw; Virtua Fighter became the first hit 3D fighting game.

What is regarded as the first microprocessor-based arcade video game, from 1975?

Gun Fight (1975), Dave Nutting's conversion of Taito's Western Gun for Midway, ran on an Intel 8080 microprocessor; earlier arcade games were built from discrete logic chips.

Which 1966 Sega electro-mechanical game began an arcade 'technological renaissance'?

Sega's Periscope (1966), a submarine game with light-and-sound torpedo effects, established the quarter-per-play price and sparked an audio-visual novelty boom that preceded video games.

Which 1982 Nintendo arcade sequel casts Mario as the villain who caged Donkey Kong?

Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) casts Mario as the captor who has caged Donkey Kong; his son climbs vines and drops fruit on Snapjaw enemies to reach the key that frees his father.

Which 1984 Namco side-scroller sent Pac-Man walking through towns to carry a fairy home?

Pac-Land (1984) gave Pac-Man arms, legs and a hat, walking him across side-scrolling towns to carry a lost fairy home; Shigeru Miyamoto cited it as an influence on Super Mario Bros.

In Namco's 1979 answer to Space Invaders, what is the player's starfighter called?

The Galaxian player ship is the Galaxip; it fires only one shot at a time, so the next cannot launch until the first hits something or leaves the screen.

In Centipede, what is the small insect-like creature the player controls called?

The Centipede player character is the Bug Blaster, a small insect-like creature moved by trackball that fires darts upward through the mushroom field as the centipede winds down.

Which 1982 arcade sequel followed Atari's Centipede?

Millipede (1982), designed by Ed Logg, followed Centipede with DDT bombs and new insects such as bees and earwigs; both games used Atari's trackball.

Tempest (1981) let players choose a starting level. What did Atari call the system?

Tempest was also among the first games to use Atari's Color-QuadraScan vector display.

Who designed and programmed Atari's tube shooter Tempest?

Dave Theurer designed and programmed Tempest (1981) after Missile Command, taking the idea from a nightmare of monsters climbing out of a hole; the claw-shaped blaster snaps between lanes as the knob turns.

Which 1980 Atari tank game is considered the first successful first-person shooter?

Its wireframe 3D vector graphics helped it sell roughly 15,000 cabinets.

In Atari's 1980 vector tank shooter, what colour tints the score and radar strip up top?

Battlezone's monochrome vector monitor carried a transparent overlay: red across the top band holding the radar and scores, green over the battlefield below.

In Dig Dug, what are the round enemies in comically large goggles called?

Pookas are the round red enemies in oversized goggles; the other enemy, the Fygar, is a green fire-breathing dragon. Both can be inflated with the pump until they burst.

Dig Dug spawned which long-running Namco drilling spin-off series?

Mr. Driller (1999) stars Susumu Hori, son of Dig Dug's Taizo Hori, drilling down through coloured blocks; Namco had marketed the original Dig Dug as a 'strategic digging game'.

The 1982 racer Pole Position is set at which real circuit?

Pole Position's single course is Fuji Speedway in Japan; players must first post a qualifying lap under the time limit before the race proper begins.

How many tracks did Pole Position II (1983) offer, up from one in the original?

The original was the highest-grossing arcade game in North America in both 1983 and 1984.

Peter Pepper in BurgerTime is chased by hot dogs, fried eggs and what?

A limited supply of pepper can be thrown to stun them briefly.

In Joust, Player 1 rides an ostrich. What bird does Player 2 ride?

Enemy knights ride buzzards, and combat is decided by the height of collisions.

Robotron: 2084 is credited with popularising which control scheme?

One stick moves, the other fires, letting players shoot in any direction while fleeing.

Spy Hunter (1983) was originally meant to carry which film franchise's brand?

Spy Hunter was planned as a James Bond game, but Bally Midway could not secure the licence, so the player's car became the unbranded G-6155 Interceptor.

In Rampage, which of the three monsters is a giant werewolf?

Ralph is Rampage's giant werewolf; George is a King Kong-like gorilla and Lizzie a Godzilla-like lizard, each a mutated human.

Rampage (1986) plays out across how many days of city-smashing?

The cycle of North American cities repeats five times.

What is the name of the newspaper delivered in Atari's Paperboy?

Paperboy delivers The Daily Sun to the light-coloured subscriber houses on his route; breaking a non-subscriber's window is fine, but missing a subscriber loses that customer.

Paperboy's three difficulty settings are Easy Street, Middle Road and what?

Paperboy's routes are Easy Street, Middle Road and Hard Way; each harder street adds more hazards and multiplies the point values.

In Gauntlet, the Valkyrie character is given what name on the cabinet art?

The cabinet art names the heroes Thor the Warrior, Merlin the Wizard, Thyra the Valkyrie and Questor the Elf; in-game they are referred to only by class.

Gauntlet's core design came from which 1983 Atari 8-bit game, prompting a legal threat?

John Palevich's Dandy (1983) for the Atari 8-bit computers had four-player cooperative dungeon crawling; after his legal threat, Atari Games settled by giving him a Gauntlet cabinet.

Marble Madness (1984) was Atari's first arcade game programmed in which language?

Marble Madness was Atari's first arcade game written in C rather than assembly; designer Mark Cerny drew on miniature golf and M. C. Escher's art for its isometric courses.

Track & Field (1983) was known by what title in Japan?

Track & Field was released in Japan as Hyper Olympic (1983); its six events, from the 100 m dash to the javelin, are played by hammering two run buttons and one action button.

Which 1984 Nintendo arcade boxing game used two monitors stacked vertically?

Nintendo's Punch-Out!! (1984) used two stacked monitors, the top for stats and the bottom for the fight, with a wireframe boxer so players could see past him to the opponent.

In Capcom's first 194X shooter, what nickname does the player's P-38 Lightning carry?

The player's P-38 Lightning is nicknamed Super Ace; a power-up adds two smaller escort fighters flying alongside it in a Tip Tow formation.

Which 1984 Capcom shooter, set in the Pacific theater, began the 194X series?

1942 (1984) began Capcom's 194X series; despite its Japanese developers, the player flies an American fighter toward Tokyo, because the game was designed for Western markets.

In Ghosts 'n Goblins, knight Sir Arthur sets out to rescue which princess?

Sir Arthur's quest in Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) is to rescue Princess Prin-Prin from Astaroth, king of the Demon World; the game is often ranked among the hardest ever made.

In Bubble Bobble (1986), what colour is the dragon Bob?

Bob, the Player 2 dragon, is blue; Bub, Player 1, is green. The pair must rescue their girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters by trapping enemies in bubbles.

Rainbow Islands (1987) carries what subtitle linking it to its predecessor?

Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987) turns Bub and Bob into human boys who climb each island by conjuring rainbows, with rising water forcing the ascent.

Under what title was the arcade version of Contra released in Europe?

The arcade Contra was sold in Europe as Gryzor (1987); the PAL NES version went by yet another name, Probotector, with the commandos redrawn as robots.

In Contra, Player 1 is commando Bill. Who is Player 2?

Bill is blond in a white tank top; Lance is shirtless with a red bandana.

In Sega's Altered Beast (1988), which god resurrects the hero to rescue his daughter?

Altered Beast (1988) opens with Zeus raising a centurion from the grave to rescue his daughter Athena from Neff; collecting spirit balls transforms the hero into a werewolf, dragon or bear.

Which studio developed Double Dragon (1987), a successor to its own Renegade?

Technōs Japan developed Double Dragon (1987) as a successor to its Renegade (Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun), with Taito distributing the cabinets; it topped the US arcade charts in 1988.

In Sega's Golden Axe, who is the dictator the three heroes seek revenge against?

Death Adder has conquered the land of Yuria and killed the heroes' friend Alex, so Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead set out for revenge in Golden Axe (1989).

Final Fight (1989) takes place in which fictional setting?

Final Fight (1989) is set in Metro City, where Mayor Mike Haggar, Cody and Guy battle the Mad Gear Gang to rescue Haggar's daughter Jessica.

Capcom's 1987 original fighter was ported to the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1988 under what title?

Street Fighter reached the PC Engine CD-ROM² in 1988 as Fighting Street, a launch title for the add-on; the port was later re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2009.

Mortal Kombat II added which two non-lethal finishers alongside Fatalities?

The sequel moved the tournament to the realm of Outworld.

Which recurring Mortal Kombat villain made his debut in Mortal Kombat II?

Shao Kahn, emperor of Outworld, debuted as Mortal Kombat II's final boss; Kitana, Mileena, Kung Lao and hidden fighter Noob Saibot also arrived in the sequel.

Which studio developed the 1994 arcade fighter Killer Instinct?

Rare, the British studio behind Donkey Kong Country, developed Killer Instinct (1994); Midway published the arcade version and Nintendo handled the SNES and Game Boy ports.

Which newcomer was created as the original protagonist of SNK's KOF series?

Kyo Kusanagi was created as The King of Fighters '94's lead, heir to a clan destined to seal the Yamata no Orochi demon; his rival Iori Yagami arrived in KOF '95.

Which SNK arcade system, launched in 1990, ran Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters?

SNK's Neo Geo MVS (Multi Video System), launched in 1990, let operators load up to six game cartridges into one cabinet and hosted Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters.

Which 1992 SNK fighter introduced a spirit gauge that drained when special moves were used?

Art of Fighting (1992) introduced a spirit gauge that drained when Ryo or Robert used special moves and had to be recharged by holding a button; it also scaled sprites as fighters moved apart.

SNK's 1993 weapon-based fighting series is known in Japan by what title?

Samurai Shodown is titled Samurai Spirits in Japan; the 1993 original is set in 1788, and its characters speak only Japanese even in overseas versions.

In the 1991 Simpsons arcade beat 'em up, which family member are players trying to rescue?

Konami's 1991 Simpsons beat 'em up has Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa chase Smithers, who has snatched Maggie after she grabbed a stolen diamond to use as a pacifier.

Which comic-book team starred in Konami's 1989 four-player arcade beat 'em up?

Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989) let four players pick Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo to rescue April O'Neil from Shredder's Foot Clan.

The character designs in the X-Men arcade game came from which 1989 animated pilot?

The game's look came from X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, the 1989 animated pilot, which is why Dazzler joins Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm and Nightcrawler on the roster.

In Sega's 1986 racer Out Run, the player drives what make of car to impress a passenger girlfriend within the time limit?

Out Run's car is a red Ferrari Testarossa Spider, used without a licence at the time; the player races through five checkpoints on a branching route against the clock with a girlfriend riding along.

Which motorcycle world champion inspired Yu Suzuki's riding style in Hang-On (1985)?

Yu Suzuki modelled Hang-On's rider on Freddie Spencer, the American who won both the 250cc and 500cc world titles in 1985; the deluxe cabinet was a full motorbike the player leaned to steer.

In After Burner (1987), the player flies which fighter jet?

After Burner's player flies an F-14 Tomcat, the jet from Top Gun, which inspired Yu Suzuki along with Laputa: Castle in the Sky; the deluxe cabinet rolled and pitched with the plane.

Space Harrier's motion cabinet made it a 'taikan' game in Japan. What does taikan mean?

Suzuki first conceived it as a realistic military flight sim before hardware limits pushed it to fantasy.

Sega Rally Championship (1995) was the first racing game to simulate what?

Sega Rally Championship (1995) was the first racing game to model surfaces with varying friction, with tarmac, gravel and mud each gripping differently; it ran on Sega's Model 2 board.

How many buttons does Virtua Fighter's control scheme use?

Virtua Fighter uses just three buttons, Punch, Kick and Guard, plus an eight-way stick; Sega AM2's 1993 game was the first 3D polygon fighting game.

Sega's 1994 polygon light-gun shooter, a Saturn hit in 1995, reached Windows in 1996 as what?

Virtua Cop was renamed Virtua Squad for its 1996 Windows release in the US; the 1994 original ran on Sega's Model 2 board with polygon enemies that reacted to where they were shot.

In The House of the Dead (1997), which mad scientist created the undead army?

Dr. Curien, the scientist behind the experiments at the Curien Mansion, unleashed the undead in The House of the Dead (1997); with Resident Evil it is credited with reviving zombies in pop culture.

Namco's light-gun game Point Blank asks players to protect which pair of characters?

Point Blank's hosts are Dr. Don and Dr. Dan, whom players protect across quick-fire shooting contests; the 1994 Namco game is called Gun Bullet in Japan.

NBA Jam (1993) was Midway's successor to which earlier basketball arcade game?

NBA Jam followed Midway's Arch Rivals (1989), a two-on-two game that let players punch opponents; Jam added the NBA licence and digitised players who leap many times their own height.

Cruis'n USA (1994) was branded the first release of which Midway-Nintendo collaboration?

Cruis'n USA was marketed as the first Ultra 64 arcade game, a Midway-Nintendo tie-in, but it actually ran on Midway's V-Unit hardware, unrelated to the Nintendo 64.

Which Japanese guitar-controller rhythm series laid the foundations for Guitar Hero?

Konami's GuitarFreaks (1999) put a three-button guitar controller in arcades six years before Guitar Hero, and cabinets were often linked with DrumMania for combined sessions.

What does the name of Namco's fighting series Tekken mean in Japanese?

The games follow the King of Iron Fist Tournament hosted by the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Tekken 3 (1997) is set how many years after Tekken 2?

Tekken 3 (1997) jumps 19 years past Tekken 2, so Jin Kazama, son of Jun and Kazuya, is a teenager and most of the cast is new.

Puzzle Bobble (1994) was long known internationally by what name?

Taito's Puzzle Bobble was released abroad as Bust-A-Move (1994); Bub and Bob from Bubble Bobble fire coloured bubbles that pop when three or more of a colour connect.

In Arkanoid (1986), what is the name of the paddle-like craft the player controls?

The player's craft in Arkanoid (1986) is the Vaus, a spacecraft escaping the mothership Arkanoid; Taito's game added power-up capsules to the Breakout formula and ends against the boss Doh.

Which future Apple co-founder built the prototype of Atari's Breakout (1976)?

Steve Wozniak designed Breakout's prototype in four days after Steve Jobs, then at Atari, recruited him; Wozniak later gave the Apple II colour graphics and paddle ports so Breakout could be written in BASIC.

How many rows of bricks line the top of the screen in Breakout?

Breakout's wall has eight rows of bricks, two each of yellow, green, orange and red, with higher rows worth more points; the 1978 sequel Super Breakout added multiple balls.

Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov first programmed the game on which Soviet computer?

Pajitnov wrote Tetris in Pascal on an Elektronika 60 at Moscow's Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre in 1984; the machine had no graphics, so the blocks were drawn with bracket characters.

In which 1983 Nintendo arcade game does exterminator Stanley spray insecticide at Donkey Kong?

Donkey Kong 3 (1983) replaced Mario with Stanley the Bugman, who sprays insecticide to drive Donkey Kong up out of a greenhouse while swatting the insects he stirs up.

In Namco's Mappy (1983), the hero is a police officer of what species?

Mappy is a police mouse who bounces on trampolines to recover goods stolen by the cat gang led by Goro; the name likely comes from mappo, Japanese slang for a policeman.

In Rally-X (1980), what does the player's car lay down to stun pursuing red cars?

The car in Rally-X lays down smoke screens that stall the pursuing red cars, at the cost of fuel; it was among the first games with a bonus stage and continuous background music.

The bartending game Tapper (1983) originally featured which beer brand?

Tapper (1983) was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch and served Budweiser, with the logo on the cabinet; early cabinets even used real beer tap handles as controllers.

Why was Tapper re-themed as Root Beer Tapper in 1984?

The Japanese version swapped in the Suntory beer brand instead.

Which animated follow-up to Dragon's Lair was unveiled in October 1983?

It arrived just four months after its predecessor but never matched its success.

Atari's 1983 Star Wars game has the player fly as Luke Skywalker under which callsign?

The player flies as Luke Skywalker under the callsign Red Five, hearing digitised film dialogue such as 'Use the Force, Luke' while attacking the Death Star in colour vector graphics.

In Elevator Action (1983), how many storeys tall is the building the agent infiltrates?

Elevator Action's building is 30 storeys tall; Agent 17, codename Otto, starts on the roof and collects secret documents from the red doors on his way down to the basement getaway car.

Kung-Fu Master (1984) is a loose adaptation of which Jackie Chan film?

Kung-Fu Master was released in Japan as Spartan X, the Japanese title of Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals (1984); the hero Thomas is named after Chan's character in that film.

Air hockey was invented between 1969 and 1972 by employees of which company?

Brunswick Billiards engineers Phil Crossman, Bob Kenrick and Brad Baldwin built air hockey around 1969-72 on a low-friction table, and Brunswick sold the first commercial tables in 1972.

Stern Electronics, formed from Chicago Coin's assets, is best known for which 1980 game?

Stern Electronics, run by Sam Stern and his son Gary, released Berzerk in 1980, a maze shooter whose robots taunted players with synthesized speech such as 'Intruder alert!'.

Williams entered the arcade video game market in 1973 with which Pong clone?

Williams' first video game was Paddle Ball (1973), one of the many Pong clones of that year; the pinball maker later created Defender, Joust and Robotron: 2084.

Which 1931 machine is regarded as the first successful coin-operated pinball game?

Baffle Ball (1931), made by David Gottlieb's Chicago company, sold about 50,000 units at a penny a play and is regarded as the first successful coin-operated pinball game.

Where did the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre open in 1977?

The first Pizza Time Theatre opened on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, in May 1977, the first family restaurant to combine food, arcade games and animatronic shows.

After a 1984 bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese's parent was bought by the owner of which rival chain?

ShowBiz Pizza Place's owner, Brock Hotel Corporation, bought the bankrupt Pizza Time Theatre in 1985; the two brands were unified in 1990 under the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza name.

Which 1999 Sega arcade game had drivers ferry fares across a hilly city against the clock?

Crazy Taxi (1999), from Sega's Hitmaker team on NAOMI hardware, had drivers pick up fares and race them to real-brand destinations such as Pizza Hut and KFC, with The Offspring on the soundtrack.

The name Namco is derived from what?

Namco comes from Nakamura Manufacturing Company (Nakamura Seisakusho), later expanded as Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company; Masaya Nakamura started it in 1955 with two mechanical horse rides on a Yokohama department store roof.

The company behind Space Invaders began in 1953 importing jukeboxes, vending machines and what?

Taito, founded in 1953 by Odessa-born Michael Kogan, imported jukeboxes and vending machines and became the first company to distill and sell vodka in Japan.

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell moved to California after college hoping to be hired by whom?

Bushnell wanted a job at Disney, which turned him down, so he joined Ampex instead; born in Clearfield, Utah, he had studied engineering at Utah State.

What is the name of the starship the player pilots in Namco's 1983 shooter Xevious?

The Solvalou carries an air-to-air zapper and an air-to-ground blaster; Atari released the game in North America in February 1983.

Irem's 1982 lunar-rover game Moon Patrol is often credited with bringing which visual technique to side-scrollers?

Full parallax scrolling is the innovation credited to Moon Patrol; Takashi Nishiyama designed it, and Williams Electronics released it in North America.

Which 1984 Atari title, complete with a drawing mode called Doodle City, was the first arcade game rendered entirely in 3D polygons?

I, Robot casts the player as a servant robot rebelling against Big Brother, and rendered its 3D polygon graphics at runtime.

Which line does the giant spacecraft in Williams' Sinistar (1983) announce when it is completed?

When the Sinistar is fully assembled it booms 'Beware, I live!', then hounds the player with 'Run, coward!', 'I hunger!' and 'Run! Run! Run!'; the 1983 game was notorious for its difficulty.

The 1983 tube shooter Gyruss set its action to an uptempo electronic arrangement of which composer's work?

Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, provides the music; the game was licensed to Centuri in North America.

Which 1985 Konami shooter fills a power-up bar with capsules you cash in at will?

Gradius (1985), sold as Nemesis outside Japan, let players collect capsules to fill a power-up bar and cash in when they chose for speed-ups, missiles, lasers, options or a shield.