The 1980s were the peak for arcade fans. Sure, Nintendo and a few other companies had success with home consoles, but arcade cabinets were so much more powerful, opening up new possibilities for developers. 1984 was a particularly strong year for arcade fans, as it introduced a few hit games that went on to establish popular genres. Toss in a few games that eventually became console hits as well, and you have a year that fans of the era will never forget. Here are five arcade games from 1984 that every ’80s kid remembers fondly.
Videos by ComicBook.com
5) Pac-Land
By 1984, Pac-Man had already become a massive franchise. In fact, it was so big that Hanna-Barbera made a cartoon based on the hungry yellow circle. Namco was hoping to capitalize on the show by having programmer Yoshihiro Kishimoto create Pac-Land. Kishimoto and the team didn’t just make a new Pac-Man skin. Instead, they helped usher in a new era of gaming.
See, Pac-Land took the button controls of Konami’s Track & Field, turning Pac-Man into a sidescrolling platformer of sorts. It’s not exactly Super Mario Bros., but as one of the early efforts in the genre, it proved that style could work. Pac-Man can jump over obstacles and eat pellets that let him gobble up ghosts for extra points. It’s relatively rudimentary compared to Nintendo’s later efforts in the genre and ridiculously difficult, but Pac-Land was a big success for Namco. And while we probably would’ve gotten the platforming revolution without it, Pac-Land is an important foundational piece for the genre.
4) Karate Champ
While we’re on the topic of essentially creating a genre, it’s worth talking about Karate Champ. The fighting game from the wizards at Data East launched in 1984 as a single-player fighter. You used both joysticks to give you 24 different attacks. It was a solid fighter, but Data East released an update later that year called Karate Champ – Player vs. Player. This is the version most fans will remember because it was a revolution.
Player vs. Player lets two gamers compete against each other in one-on-one combat. It was one of the first games to do so, helping popularize the fighting genre as we know it today. Again, we probably would’ve eventually gotten games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat without Karate Champ, but Data East’s classic game is foundational to the genre. It established the best out of three rounds format. It also had bonus stages where you would dodge potted plants or kick through boards. Karate Champ was an instant hit, becoming the highest-grossing cabinet in 1985.
3) Kung-Fu Master
How about one more foundational game for a fan-favorite genre? And this one also involves Data East. Kung-Fu Master was developed by Irem, but Data East handled North American publishing. This one was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, who essentially wanted to adapt a Jackie Chan film to the arcades. If you know your Nishiyama history, you’ll remember that he was the guy behind the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol, which launched in 1982.
Kung-Fu Master took that side-scrolling gameplay he’d used so well in Moon Patrol and adapted it to the martial arts world. You can probably guess where this is going, but Nishiyama basically created the beat ’em up genre, which later gave us games like Double Dragon and Final Fight. It was a massive hit in arcades, only trailing Karate Champ as the top-grossing arcade cabinet in 1985. Of course, it’s a little primative compared to where the genre went, but as the first game to make the beat ’em up popular, it was a must-play cabinet in the ’80s.
2) Marble Madness
Mark Cerny is better known for his work for PlayStation these days, but Marble Madness remains one of the creator’s best efforts. Published by Atari, this relatively simple marble maze game uses a trackball, giving players exceptional control over their marble. It’s more than just a solid maze game; Marble Madness was also filled with new tech. It was the first Atari game to use the Atari System 1 hardware and the first to be programmed in the C programming language.
That’s not all. PlayStation fans will know about Cerny’s love for audio, so it’s probably not a surprise to learn that Marble Madness was the first Atari game to use true stereo sound. Marble Madness was a huge success for Atari in the arcades, becoming a top-seller almost instantly. It was then ported to several platforms, many of which lacked the trackball controls. It’s a testament to how good Marble Madness is that those versions were still relatively successful. However, it’s a shame that the sequel (which was not developed by Cerny) never saw the light of day.
1) Punch-Out!!
These days, most people think about the home versions of Punch-Out when remembering the classic series. However, Nintendo’s boxing game got its start in the arcades. It’s lacking some of the fan-favorite features of later games, but the first game still has most of what you know and love about Punch-Out. You’re still fighting as Little Mac against the likes of Glass Joe, Bald Bull, and Mr. Sandman, and you still have to master Punch-Out‘s particular brand of boxing.
As you’d expect, given the future of the series, the arcade version of Punch-Out was a massive success. It topped sales charts in 1984 in the United States and established a franchise. Not only that, but Punch-Out was also where composer Koji Kondo got his start. Kondo later went on to compose scores for Mario and The Legend of Zelda, so his work here is almost as important as the gameplay. Simply put, Punch-Out was a massive game for Nintendo, and anybody who grew up in the ’80s spent dozens of quarters trying to become the best boxer in the world.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
