here was a time, back in the 1980s, when arcades ruled the malls. Teenagers destroyed thousands of aliens, asteroids and other nasties in games like Asteroid, Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Billions of quarters were slipped into the thin, red maws of these games and hundreds of books were written on how to best them. Then, as the games became more and more advanced, the old classics slipped away into memory. Until now.
The programming language called Java has allowed many of these games to be resurrected. Initially the resurrection was sporadic--a game here, a game there--but now dozens of these classic titles have been gathered on a single Web site, The Arcade Machine.
The Arcade Machine is broken up into a number of sections. First is the Classic Arcade area, which features dozens of classic, Java-based games, including SF favorites like Asteroids, Missile Command and Lunar Lander. The games are listed alphabetically, and each has up to three icons next to it explaining whether the game requires a mouse, keyboard or soundcard. The recommended screen size of each game is also given.
In the Cafe Java section, visitors will find strategy and puzzle games such as Connect Four and Rubik's Cube. There are three games in the Trivia section--including classic, entertainment and sports--and playing them enters visitors into a drawing to win $25.
There are also three game system emulators on the site. The first one is for the 1980s relic called Colecovision, which made many an Atari 2600 owner drool with envy because of its then-cutting edge graphics. The emulator has many of the classic "cartridges," including some visitors may never have played, like 2010.
Airwolf , Danger Mouse, Rambo, and Arkanoid top the list of the games player will find for the MSX and ZX Spectrum Sinclair emulators. Both of these machines debuted in the early 1980s and were popular outside of the United States.
Get ready to rumble
The Arcade Machine is an easy site to navigate, and most of the games load quickly, especially the Java applets. Classic Arcade, Trivia and Cafe Java are the most playable of the site's sections. The icons describing each game's requirements are excellent, and most of the games include basic instructions. The emulators, while fun to explore, are much harder to play because they lack detailed directions.
The games on The Arcade Machine are painfully primitive by today's standards, and those looking for something that will drop-kick their minds into outer space are going to be disappointed. The inability to play against other people over the Internet is also a drawback, but not a disabling one.
The site is more about nostalgia and videogame history than it is about bleeding-edge technology. The games featured on the site have been lovingly built by programmers who clearly remember the fun of these simple, mostly two-dimensional titles. Any reader who's ever spent a rainy day mastering Yar's Revenge on a 2600, or developed sore fingers from hours of destroying incoming nukes in Missile Command, will enjoy these games.
Those who never took the time to plunk down a few quarters on the old, ghostly version of Asteroids or who weren't alive during the '80s should find the site amusing for its historical perspective. The eight-bit games featured here--Pong, Pac-Man, Q-bert--are the trail-blazing veterans that made things like Sony PlayStations and Nintendo 64s possible. And then there's the psychological element: those trying to get a handle on the children of the '80s could learn a lot from a few addictive games of Pac-Man.
The Arcade Machine summons memories of dimly lit arcades, spent bubble gum, and stale sweat, and excels at reminding readers of one fundamental fact: these games are still fun to play.
