Press Start on This Quiz About Classic Arcade Games

Released in 1981, Centipede uses a trackball for inputting controls rather than a typical joystick. Centipede was also one of the first games to garner a large female fan base, and it eventually found its way to Atari gaming systems, Nintendo’s Game Boy, and even some of the very first mobile phones.

In the hit arcade game Punch-Out!!, a green-gloved, wire-framed protagonist faces off against memorable characters such as Glass Joe, Bald Bull, Piston Hurricane, and Mr. Sandman. Upon the game's release, the player character had no name, but when the game migrated to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, the player became known as Little Mac.

A titan of console gaming, Nintendo made a variety of hit arcade games, many of which were eventually ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Wild Gunman (1974), Ice Climber (1984), and Punch-Out!! (1984) were all Nintendo creations. Galaga (1981) was a popular fixed-shooter game released by Japanese gaming manufacturer Namco.

Some arcade games are epic in nature — saving princesses, worlds, and galaxies. Others magnify simpler moments in life, such as a determined frog trying to cross a busy stretch of road. Once past the road, the amphibian hero in Frogger (1981) must make a treacherous water crossing with the help of turtles and logs drifting lazily in the river’s current.

Released in 1982, Dig Dug is a simple puzzle game that follows a protagonist named Hori Taizo, which means “I want to dig,” as he defeats subterranean enemies like the Fygars and Pookas. Today, Dig Dug is one of the nostalgic classics of '80s arcades.

Inspired by Japan’s kaiju monsters like Godzilla, 1986’s Rampage puts players in control of city-destroying beasts George the ape, Lizzie the lizard, and Ralph the wolf. Sadly, no skyscraper-sized squid makes an appearance. In 2018, Rampage got the Hollywood treatment with a film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Another beat 'em up like Double Dragon, The Simpsons lets up to four players fight as "Simpsons" characters Homer, Marge, Bart, or Lisa as they search for kidnapped baby Maggie. The hit TV show combined with a popular arcade genre made The Simpsons one of the biggest-selling games in 1991.

Double Dragon is one of the biggest hits in arcade history. Following the street-fighting exploits of twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, the game defined the “beat 'em up” genre upon its release in 1987 and inspired a follow-up animated TV series, live-action film, and Marvel comic — not to mention countless knockoffs looking to cash in on the Double Dragon magic.

German games manufacturer Gottlieb is best known for pinball machines, but from 1980 to 1989, the company dipped its toes in arcade games and created the classic pyramid-hopping Q*Bert. Ugg and Wrong-way are two ne’er-do-wells in the game, along with Coily, Sam, and Slick.

Released on February 6, 1991, Street Fighter II launched a new era of fighting games and sold more than 60,000 cabinets — the most of any arcade game at that time. The game had a cast of eight playable characters, including Zangief, E. Honda, and Chun-Li. Raiden is the god of thunder found in Street Fighter’s main arcade competitor, Mortal Kombat.

Does this sound familiar? An oafish brute steals the girlfriend of a regular Joe who has to win her back with the help of something that makes him invincible (sometimes spinach, sometimes a sledgehammer). Nintendo had a license to make Popeye products, and that was what game designer Shigeru Miyamoto set out to make in the early 1980s. But at the last minute, Popeye’s owners nixed it. Miyamoto quickly came up with two new characters, Donkey Kong (replacing Bluto) and Mario (nee “Jumpman”), and created the beloved franchise.

An optical disc similar to a DVD but roughly the size of a medium pizza, Laserdisc was first marketed in 1978, only a few years before Dragon’s Lair took arcades by storm. The game used the new technology to set itself apart from other arcade cabinets. While games like Gorf and Qix used pixels and vectors, Dragon’s Lair displayed fully animated vignettes drawn by Disney veteran Don Blume.

Necessity and intergalactic conquest are the mothers of invention. When Space Invaders debuted in 1978, the titular space invaders were supposed to move uniformly. However, limited technology at the time meant only one ship could move every one-sixtieth of a second. As foes were destroyed, the game’s processor would inadvertently move the remaining ones faster. Although it was originally a bug, designer Toshihiro Nishikado thought the quicker speed added more thrills to the game, and an arcade legend was born.

In 1972, engineer Nolan Bushnell needed to find a new name for his electronic gaming company. Its current name, Syzygy (meaning “three celestial bodies in a line”), was, surprisingly, already trademarked. Bushnell turned to his favorite game, the ancient Chinese game Go. In that game, “Atari” is the rough equivalent of “checkmate” in chess — players even shout the word when it occurs.

So... why ostriches? In Joust, players can both fly and run, and game designer John Newcomer needed a steed that could conceivably do both. The original idea was an eagle, but eagles don't look very majestic when running. Instead, Newcomer thought it’d be easy enough to fit ostriches into the game’s lore as creatures bred for combat. As strange as it sounds, it worked.

Mortal Kombat’s most iconic feature was its murderous finishing move, called a “fatality.” After a player input a specific series of moves, a character performed the fatality, which usually involved some brutal, low-resolution dismembering. Game co-creator Ed Boon said the idea came from Street Fighter’s “dizzy” mechanic but thought it’d be more fun at the end of a match.

Each ghost in Pac-Man has a certain algorithm that determines its actions. For Clyde, the Japanese description gives away its particular personality. “Otoboke” means “feigning ignorance,” and that’s why Clyde acts aloof and uninterested. Clyde seems to always be off doing its own thing — but it’s all part of the programming.

Though the titular ape in Donkey Kong is an iconic character in his own right, it was the little mustachioed hero that changed gaming forever. In an unrelenting quest to rescue Princess Pauline, the hero — whose name, “Jumpman,” eventually became “Mario” — soon jumped his way into the follow-up Mario Bros. arcade game, onto the Nintendo Entertainment System, and into the history books.

In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov, working on “an ugly Russian” Electronika 60 computer, played the very first game of Tetris. A combination of the Latin word “Tetra,” meaning four (for the four squares that make up every piece), and tennis, which was Pajitnov’s favorite game, Tetris captivated the world with its simple-yet-addictive gameplay. It’s an addiction that lasts to this day.

In 1980, game designer Toru Iwatani wanted to create a game for both boys and girls to enjoy. The result was a maze game called Puck-Man, featuring a puck-shaped hero hungry for dots — and sometimes ghosts. When imported to the U.S., the name changed to Pac-Man, and it became the most successful arcade game ever created.