The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1986

1986: Very much the year of the sequel, tech consolidation, and an understandable flattening of the innovation curve. Little did we know that, behind the scenes, this was the beginning of the end for the Video Game arcade.

If I had the chance to jump on the video game merry-go-round for any year, it would have been 1986. 1985 may well have produced my favourite games, but 1986, for me at least, represented the arcade in its heyday before its inevitable decline. I didn’t know it at the time, but a year earlier, Nintendo had released the NES, and soon, people wouldn’t need the arcades anymore.

Looking back, the arcades were never just about gaming, they were a way of life. Wherever I went and whatever I was doing: Going to the swimming pool, going on holiday, even going to the chippy, I was always looking out for an arcade, or at least an arcade machine tucked away in the corner. I have a treasured memory of attending the Gang Show at the Whitley Bay Playhouse with my Grandma (an annual thing in those days), but couldn’t resist dragging her over to the nearest arcade where I proudly demonstrated my prowess on Exciting Hour before finally succumbing to a shockingly brutal double leg drop from Bloody Bloody. She mocked my contorting facial expressions and signature lifting of my back leg (a concentration thing) before proceeding back over the road.

Nowadays, with online gaming, we have trolling and suicide. Back then? Friendships, shared experiences, excitement, but above all, a certain level of respect, courtesy, even kindness at times. There were no professional gamers or competitions, there were no ‘mental health concerns’. In fact, there was no seriousness or negativity at all. It was all above escapism and fun. I miss it greatly.

All in all. 1986 was really less about the games and more about the enrichening of my arcade experience. I was comfortable in my own skin here, but it was still fresh, surprising, and interesting, every time. With the sheer number of new games appearing on a weekly basis, I was even getting to be choosy in the games I would entertain.

And speaking of games, here’s the cream of the 1986 crop.

Arkanoid

1976’s Breakout on steroids, which in itself was a development of 1972’s Pong, the first arcade game ever made. So yeah, Arkanoid had the genes, but as with quite a few of this year’s titles, it was a development on a theme, rather than video-game innovation. As such, the game really needs no explanation other than the vid below.

Super Sprint

Another development on a theme from an obscure 70’s black and white top-down car racer I can’t remember the name of. The difference is Atari pulled off their usual trick of being innovative and quirky, despite this not being an original idea. The first thing I loved above Super Sprint was the sheer speed of the gameplay, of being able to whizz around the track, pedal to the metal, and spin the wheel to powerslide around the corners.

The graphics were great. Colourful, and slick, plus it had a few welcome gameplay elements like car upgrades, and various track hazards to keep it interesting… But the best thing? the multiplayer, which at the time was one of the highlights of the whole arcade experience.

Out Run

I’ll never forget clapping eyes on this for the first time (in its stand-up form rather than the hydraulic cabinet), and thinking. It’s just Hang-On on four wheels! Out Run, as we all know, went on to become one of the most successful and well-known video games of all time. But first impressions last.

Once I’d gotten over the lack of innovation, I began to appreciate Out Run as the ultimate expression of Sega Blue Skies, which was, I guess, UX, 35 years before it became a thing.

Out Run was strangely about taking it all in… to a time-limit!, gauping at the AM2 team’s graphical mastery along to its trump card: The best soundtrack ever heard in a video game. For the first time ever, you could actually select the background music (I loved Passing Breeze) via the in-car radio.

So there you go. A red Ferrari, palm trees, a blond girlfriend, beautiful scenery, blue sky, and an amazing soundtrack. Out Run grew on me to the point of falling in love with it.

Enduro Racer

Another from SEGA in the same mold as Out Run and Hang On. Enduro Racer, rather than focusing on pure racing and Sega Blue Skies, was intense arcade adrenaline! There’s a LOT of game here and It always amazed me how Sega could pull off the thrills and spills of motocross so well back in 1986.

Ikari Warriors

At last, now for something completely different. A slower-paced, tactical, top-down, co-op shooter no less.

And it was set in Vietnam, and there were head-bands. Yup this is the game where you go to be Rambo!

SNK’s Ikari warrior ticked three boxes for me. 1) It enabled me to live out my Rambo fantasies 2) It was innovative on the software side, 3) … and on the hardware side.

I loved the control system of being able to rotate while moving, of having to slowly, strategically beat out your enemy with various tactics using a gun or grenades. It was at times verging on cerebral among the flying bodies. This was the thinking man’s Commando… with the added bonus of the co-op mode, which never fails to be more fun.

Jackal

The ideal next step from Ikari Warriors. Konami’s Jackal is probably one of the most overlooked and underrated games in video game history. There’s even an argument that it laid the foundations for one of the very best and one of my personal faves: Metal Gear Solid. The stoic, sketchy, special forces imagery of the cabinet is certainly very similar.

Jackal is one of those ‘Perfect’ games that rarely appear and are above criticism. I loved Ikari Warriors, but was it too slow? too cartoony? Jackal addresses both of those flaws. It’s as slow and steady or as viciously hectic as you like, with a focus on rescuing hostages, upgrading your jeep, and, of course, blowing the enemy structures to smithereens.

I love the vehicle-based concept, it adds weight to the businesss of destruction, as you mow over hapless foot-soldiers. Jackal adds a never-seen-before element of realism to your war-mongering, and very unlike Ikari, the fragility of the puny human body.

Blowing up buildings with heavily armed vehicles should always be fun, but it has never been much more fun than the gunplay in Jackal.

Lock-On

The most innovative game of the year, a breath of fresh air, and a nod to Top Gun before Sega jumped on the bandwagon with Afterburner. At the time, Lock-On seemed light years ahead of everything.

This type of first-person combat aircraft simulator didn’t come along that often in 1986 (if at all). but what also instantly attracted me to Lock-On was the sheer ease and number of ways to obliterate the swarms of enemy fighters and ground targets. Those rapid-fire canons never got old, but also the auto-targeting missiles really did make you feel like death from above. There are just some gaming scenarios that will always be fun, and piloting some of America’s finest military hardware of the ’80s is one of them.

And Lock-On delivers the experience perfectly, maybe even more so than the bigger-budget and flashier Afterburner in that the gaming mechanics and draw-dropping visuals are so very well sorted. Lock-On’s dogfights and land-based targets are so much more varied and convincing.

…. The only kicker for me is, looking at the YouTube footage, cutting edge tech games of the ’80s, like this (and for that matter the big-ticket Sega classics too) haven’t aged at all well, but there’s something about Lock-On. The frame-rate, the scrollng, the detail, it still kind of looks ahead of the curve, even now, and unlike Afterburner.

See for yourself.

Mexico ’86

Not as great as Tehkan World Cup but a close second in the league of 80’s arcade football. Mexico 86 is less about passing, crosses, and intricate Escape to Victory style setups, and more about pitch-length dribbling, diving headers, overhead kicks, and, if you can pull one-off, the legendary scorpion kick!

It’s fun, cartoon-style, short, and sweet. A kick about in the schoolyard before the bell. An arcade game in its very purest sense.

Top holiday flashback: A beach cafe in Albufeira, Portugal. With this centre stage.

I didn’t spend much time on the beach!

Oh, and why oh why did they manage to get ALL of the kits the wrong colour?

Quartet

Kind of a Gauntlet in space but with a side-on view and an absolutely perfect way to spend a bank holiday afternoon down the coast with friends.

It’s all coming back to me. The smell of Fish & Chips, candy floss and toffee apples, the sounds and screams of rides at the Spanish City, and the arcades packed and thriving with wide smiles of amazement.

As a game, totally and utterly forgettable (and probably terrible), but an experience that will stay with me forever. And that, my friends, is what arcade gaming in the 1980’s was all about!

Rampage

Like Out Run, this went onto become an all-time classic with many a reboot along the way. Also like Out Run, it never really needed a reboot, the original arcade versions being perfect first time.

Rampage puts you in contol of one of three hideously ginormous but loveable beasts: George (King Kong), Lizzie (Godzilla) and Ralph (A gigantic were-wolf) in their quest to competitely destroy skycrapers by climbing them and pummelling them with fists and fire,while humanity tries to stop them with various tactics including helicopters.

And yes you can eat people.

It’s all predictably over the top and stupidly good fun, particularly with friends.

Rolling Thunder

This is probably the coolest game in this list as for as a game concept goes, with it’s edgy-side on action influencing the likes of the Shinobi franchise and the secret agent theme continuing with Time Crisis. What stood out to me first was it looks to all intents and purposes the Elevator Action sequel I was waiting for, with all those clever cover-tactics intact, but with a much needed lick of paint.

Rolling Thunder’s backstory and zany hooded characters are intruging as (and rare for the time), the presentation wouldn’t look out of place on a kid’s TV programme. You wanted to get further into the game to see the next chapter in the story, not so much the next level.

Salamander

As I said at the beginning, 1986 was the year of the sequel, and a flattening of the innovation curve. However, with Salamander, the sequel to Gradius. I don’t care.

Salamander is one of the best arcade games of all time, defintely in my top 10, better than Gradius, better than almost anything.

It’s nails just about everything. Graphics, sound (the music is fantastic), difficulty curve, suprises (love it how it alternates between a horizontal and vertical shooter), bosses (who can forget the dragon that circles around your ship), touch sensitve control, weapons, upgrades….. the lot.

Salamander feels like a dramatic gift from the gaming gods. A wish-list of gaming features, delivered. There’s no need for a story, a fancy cabinet, hydraulics or complex control schemes. This is just balls to the wall joystick and two-buttons. All we ever really needed. It’s a celebration of what arcade gaming is all about, Space Invaders and Galaxians, the rest was just fluff, but there’s no fluff, no fat to Salamander whatseoever.

It’s has all slitethery, fire-breathing majesty of it’s title… and co-op!

DESTROY THEM ALL! (Great game).

Slap Fight

With Salamander comprehensively stirring my space-shooty loins again, up pops this mis-fit as a reminder of just how forward-thinking the gaming industry was.

Yes, Salamander probably played it a little safe, but I loved it because it was familiar, only better. I get that. Play to your audience. Slap Fight‘s slower paced, verticle scolling action is kind of a Xevious / Transformers mash up. I say Transformers because these are much more than mere weapons upgrades, these are ship transformations!

… And you’re going to need those upgrades, because Slap Fight is hard, REALLY hard, with weapon upgrades being your only chance to progress. The thing is, weapon upgrades have always been a favourite gameplay mechanic of mine, and to focus on them seems like a trick that was missed until Slap Fight came along.

But the best thing about Salamander and Slap Fight? They paved the way for something truly special. Probably the best shooter of all time. 1987’s R-Type.

Bubble Bobble

A nice one to end with, going back to the roots of the arcade gaming, and a homage to your Pac-man’s, Mr Do’s, and DIg Dugs.

Hands up. Bubble Bobble did nothing for me at the time. The unpredictable nature of the bubbles seemed more like a gaming glitch than anything designed for fun. I also though it was a little too sacharin, too twee, too frustrating, random and chaotic, but most of all, there was just too much competition in the arcade at the time to sacrifice my bus-fare home on baby dinosaurs.

… And that god-awful invincible enemy!

But then you keep walking past it, hearing that tune, one of the tunes of the Golden Age of the Video Arcade, you play it again, just to be sure, and again. To be honest I never really clicked with it, but still, you later realise it too has earned it’s place in gaming history, No Bubble Bobble? Definitely no Rainbow Islands, but probably no Candy Crush (and many others) either. We’ll never know, but it will still go down in history as bona-fide classic.

I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. What are your memories of the Video Game Arcades? What were your favourite games of 1986? Drop me a comment below.

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