Classic Look Back - My favorite arcade games - Part 3

Welcome to the third installment in my list of my favorites from the "Golden Age of Arcade Games". (See the June and July 2026 posts for Parts 1 and 2, respectively). Enjoy!

#9 - Centipede

The fixed shooter title Centipede developed and published by Atari in 1981 for arcades was a massive hit for the company and is also notable for being among the first games widely embraced by a female audience. Using a trackball controller, you navigate a small, insect-like "Bug Blaster" around the bottom section of a field of mushrooms, firing darts upward at a segmented centipede moving downward from the top of the screen. Destroying any segment other than the head of the creepy-crawly creature creates separate centipedes which move individually. Once they reach the bottom, they loop around the player area and new head segments appear periodically, making things more difficult until all are eliminated. Other enemies include Fleas, Spiders and Scorpions, all of which affect gameplay in different ways and all of which can also be destroyed for points. Your Bug Blaster is destroyed by a collision with any enemy, and an extra life is awarded every 12,000 points. With each centipede that is destroyed, the game gets faster and more difficult. The goal is to achieve the highest score possible before expending all lives.

Mushrooms are everywhere in Atari's arcade smash Centipede

Centipede is an action-packed, fast-moving game that is quite simply a lot of fun. It's appealing due to its colorful and unique playfield which makes gameplay interesting to say the least. So much is onscreen to fire at that there's never a dull moment, and at the same time, one can employ quite a bit of strategy. For example, rapidly clearing away mushrooms for breathing room (and a few extra points) brings Fleas divebombing down to replenish them, but ignoring the shrooms as they get progressively denser accelerates the arrival of the centipede to the bottom. And there is definitely an art to avoiding collisions with the Spider and also destroying as many as possible at close range for big points. This is of course all accomplished using the trackball, a controller which wasn't the most common and was only used in a handful of famous titles. But the feel and movement of this controller also add to the fun and unique rhythm of the game. For these reasons, Centipede was always among my go-to arcade games.

#8 - Moon Patrol

Moon Patrol is a side-scrolling space shooter game developed by Irem and published by Williams Electronics for arcades in America in 1982. The player takes the role of a Luna City police officer driving a lunar rover through hostile territory on the surface of the moon. Your vehicle travels over the bumpy surface from left to right and fires bullets simultaneously forward and upward to defend against obstacles and enemies in front of and above you. The flying combatants drop bombs, some of which create craters which must be jumped over in the same way boulders in your path can be avoided (in addition to firing on them). There are two courses divided into 26 checkpoints which are labeled with letters from the alphabet, and progress through these checkpoints is displayed in a timeline-style map at the top of the screen. Other items displayed are time elapsed, indicator lights signaling upcoming enemy attacks, and score. As you move along, a funky, upbeat electronic tune plays in the background. Points are awarded by destroying or avoiding obstacles, taking down enemies, and beating average times to clear courses. Extra rovers (lives) are awarded at 10,000, 30,000, and 50,000 points, and the game ends when your last patrol car is destroyed.

Riding across the surface of the moon in your lunar rover in Moon Patrol

As I've often mentioned, space shooter games were usually among my favorites back in the days of the arcades. And Moon Patrol was certainly a unique one, primarily because of its side-scrolling action. This game also always had a very user-friendly, inviting feel due to its overall look and fun background music, and it was one where you could immediately start playing and more or less know what to do. And I think the checkpoints were an especially nice touch because I always found them to be motivational. That is, passing one reminded me I was one step closer to completing the course. Combine those things with colorful graphics that "popped" and challenging gameplay and you've got a winner. And Moon Patrol certainly was a winner in my book, and another excellent release from the always reliable Williams Electronics.

#7 - Asteroids

Asteroids is a vector graphics space shooter developed and published by Atari for arcades in 1979. In the game the player controls a triangular shaped ship navigating an asteroid field seen in a two-dimensional view where all objects wrap around both screen axes, while an ominous and slowly accelerating pulsing sound is heard in the background. The ship can rotate left and right, thrust forward, and fire to destroy the asteroids for points. As these space rocks are shot, they break into smaller, faster moving asteroids which are more difficult to hit but are worth more points. Enemy saucers also appear to attack, with the large ones firing randomly and generally inaccurately, while the small ones are more precise and therefore more dangerous. Destroying these threats also increases a player's score, and bonus lives are earned at every 10,000 points. When a screen has been completely cleared, a new level begins with a new set of large asteroids. Additionally, the player can activate "hyperspace", which makes the ship disappear and reappear randomly in another spot of the playfield. This can be used to avoid imminent destruction from an asteroid hit or enemy fire, but the player runs the risk of being destroyed upon reappearing. And like most arcade games, play becomes increasingly difficult as more levels are cleared, more asteroids appear on screen, and enemy fire (only small saucers appear after 40,000 points) gets more and more accurate. The goal is to score as many points as possible before all lives are lost. 

The Asteroids arcade cabinet as pictured on Atari Vault on Steam

Asteroids was Atari's best-selling arcade title and with good reason. It was highly original when first introduced, and the gameplay is compelling, fast paced, intense, and challenging to say the least. The minimalist vector graphics with black background, combined with the unnerving drone sound compliment the theme of deep space isolation. But most of all, I've always found this game to be deceptively difficult. After a level or two the asteroids become really tough to avoid, and one cannot simply haphazardly fire at the larger ones (especially in close proximity) because of the unpredictability in the trajectory of the smaller sized rocks. And despite the aforementioned description of the large saucers not being accurate in targeting, I've found all saucer attacks after those initial stages to be tough to avoid. And yet despite the steep acceleration in difficulty, it's a game that begs the player to keep trying different strategies in order to reach higher scores. Is it best to stay in the center of the screen no matter what, take your chances thrusting around, or leave one asteroid floating in space and go up against the enemy ships one by one as they appear? Whatever approach I take, the point is that I keep hitting that reset button.

Watch my future posts where I will continue my "Best Of" arcade games list.