VMFP-3 80s Flashback

Home / 80s Arcades

Golden Age Of Arcade Video Games
By Marc "Devil Dog Of The Web" Iseli / Updated Dec. 2025
Early 80s arcades were about as high-tech as a field day mop bucket, but we thought they were the future. Graphics? Please. If you squinted, you might see something that looked like a spaceship, or maybe it was just a pixelated potato. No cutscenes, no voice acting, just pure, unfiltered button-mashing mayhem. If a game wanted to survive, it had to be more fun than a barracks brawl on payday. That’s why those old-school games are still more addictive than a rack of liberty cards before a three-day weekend. Arcades started popping up faster than new lieutenants at a safety brief, all thanks to Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Galaxian. By 1980, Pac-Man, Missile Command, and Defender had stormed the beach, and suddenly every kid with a quarter thought he was a joystick commando. Some of these games got so big they were basically the national anthem for anyone under 18. Space Invaders kicked things off, but Pac-Man? That little yellow chow hound started a full-blown outbreak. Pac-Mania was everywhere, and nobody was safe.

Late 70s, my hometown bowling alley, first time I ever laid eyes on a video game. pong, Two paddles, one dot, and somehow it was more addictive than Smiley’s fried rice after a 24-hour duty shift. I had no idea the arcade invasion was about to hit harder than a DI with a hangover. Fast forward to 1980, I’m at MCAS El Toro. Just outside the back gate, heading toward Irvine, there’s this arcade stuffed with more machines than a squad bay has unclaimed laundry. Cpl Paul Genarie and I spent enough quarters in there to fund a new wing for the PX, killing time and pretending we were prepping for a one-man assault on Tehran. Even the USS Midway had a few machines tucked away in the bowels of the ship, because even sailors need a break from chipping paint and pretending to work.

Space Invaders

Space Invaders is an arcade video game developed and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway and released in October 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Pac-Man succeeded by creating a new genre and appealing to both genders. Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time. It is also one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, having generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Mario (originally named "Jumpman") must rescue a damsel in distress named Pauline (originally named Lady), from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. Regardless of initial doubts by Nintendo's American staff, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan.

Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. is a platform game published and developed for arcades by Nintendo in 1983. In the game, Mario is portrayed as an Italian-American plumber who, along with his younger brother Luigi, has to defeat creatures that have been coming from the sewers below New York City. The gameplay focuses on Mario's extermination of them by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away. The original versions of Mario Bros., the arcade version and the Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System (FC/NES) version, were received positively by critics.

Frogger

Frogger is a 1981 arcade game developed and licensed for North American distribution by Sega-Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one by crossing a busy road and navigating a river full of hazards. The Frogger coin-op is an early example of a game with more than one CPU, as it used two Z80 processors. Frogger is available as a standard upright or cocktail cabinet. The controls consist solely of a 4-direction joystick used to guide the frog's jump direction. The number of simultaneous players is one, and the game has a maximum of two players.

Q*bert

Q*bert is an arcade video game developed and published by Gottlieb in 1982. It is a 2D action game with puzzle elements that uses "isometric" graphics to create a pseudo-3D effect, and serves as a precursor to the isometric platformer genre. The objective is to change the color of every cube in a pyramid by making the on-screen character hop on top of the cube while avoiding obstacles and enemies. Players use a joystick to control the character. The character Q*bert became known for his "swearing", an incoherent phrase of synthesized speech generated by the sound chip and a speech balloon of nonsensical characters that appear when he collides with an enemy.

Defender

Defender is an arcade video game developed and released by Williams Electronics in February 1981. A shooting game featuring two-dimensional (2D) graphics, the game is set on a fictional planet where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis' best contributions to the video game industry, as well as one of the most difficult video games. Defender was ported to numerous platforms, inspired the development of other games, and was followed by sequels and many imitations.

Alright, you glorious Rat Phixers and Phlyers, if we ever survived a TAD, a Det, or a BOHICA, who haven't, and you didn’t think I was the biggest gaff off in the squadron. Got a sea story, or some grainy photos your ex didn’t set on fire, and they’re only slightly illegal? Send ‘em by email, snail mail, or safety wire it to a carrier pigeon. I collect ‘em all, just nothing that would incriminate me.
80svmfp3@gmail.com

Return To The Home Page