Episode 653: The Bronze Age of Arcade Games
Added 2024-11-18 12:00:09 +0000 UTCKevin: Today’s episode focuses on a topic that has absolutely fascinated me since I was a small child reading decade-old video game books from the library: the coin-op video games of the 1970s. This was a formative and experimental era of video games that has gone largely overlooked and forgotten due largely to how inaccessible these games are. Only a handful of games from this decade are commercially available today, and even through emulation the vast majority are simply unplayable for technical reasons we delve into here… but that doesn’t mean these early works from companies like Atari, Midway, Chicago Coin, Taito, Sega, Allied Leisure, Ramtek, Exidy and more don’t deserve a round of recognition and celebration.
Joining me on this stroll through the annals of gaming history are fellow ’70s gaming enthusiasts Benj Edwards and Nate Lockhart, who each bring some unique technological and historical experiences from myself. Whether you’ve gotten the opportunity to play these games yourself in their original form factor, through emulation or an early home port, or are simply warming up a YouTube search browser to see them in action, hopefully you’ll come away sharing our excitement for titles that informed the following decades of the medium.
Edits by Greg Leahy, art by Nick Wanserski
08:01 - The Temptations: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
16:59 - Donna Summer: "I Feel Love"
30:59 - Ruth Roberts & Bill Katz: "Meet the Mets" (1974-'79 ver.)
40:59 - Led Zeppelin: "Going to California"
56:01 - Mike Oldfield: "Tubular Bells" (Pt. II)
1:08:57 - Paul Chihara: "Fight Scene from Death Race 2000"
1:16:50 - Pink Lady: "Monster"
1:29:53 - The O'Jays: "Livin' for the Weekend"
1:42:31 - Patrice Rushen: "Forget Me Nots"
Closing - Giorgio Moroder: "From Here to Eternity"
Comments
Hell yeah, Benj is Back! Also, I love hearing about gaming blogs that I haven't heard about. That's where the real niche knowledge lies. When the social medias finally oversalt their own earth, the blogs will return!!
Shrunken Shrine
2024-11-25 23:18:21 +0000 UTCThis was a fantastic episode. Great host & guests. I read Ed Fries's articles about repairing transistor machines and have been fascinated by the idea ever since. Building a computer without any software seems crazy, but that's how they did it. It was super cool to hear more about that.
Andrew Eikum
2024-11-23 02:00:25 +0000 UTCSup, fellow twin citiesian.
Andrew Eikum
2024-11-23 01:58:22 +0000 UTCI can absolutely sympathize with Nate having to "brute force" his way through learning how to troubleshoot antique electronics. My background is in theatre, but I've found myself for a while now working more on building lighting and less on performance lighting. Without the help of my very patient coworkers I would never have been able to work on dimmers twice as old as I am using only my degree in pretend. When this episode goes on the public feed I'm going to share it with one of them, who also grew up in Rochester and studied electronics, as I'm certain he'll understand waaay more of the tech side than I did.
DragoonBoots
2024-11-22 23:06:20 +0000 UTCIf you guys hit the Twin Cities on your road trip, I’ll join you at Can Can Wonderland. They have a lot of Bronze Age EM games, as well as a custom pneumatic golf ball-based shooting gallery enclosed in plexiglass that is great fun.
Julian
2024-11-20 14:27:48 +0000 UTCI understood none of the tech talk and I loved every second of it. There needs to be a monthly segment called “Story Time with Benj” where he talks about any random nerd thing or interview he’s done.
Sebastiano Gerace
2024-11-20 14:24:06 +0000 UTCBenj is back, baby! Always good to hear him.
littleterr0r
2024-11-20 03:47:43 +0000 UTCThe title of this episode is wonderful. Of course calling something a gold/silver age is common but the idea of Pong being a Sumerian artefact is hilarious.
Wood Duck
2024-11-18 22:39:29 +0000 UTCAnother great episode. I shall now refer to this group as the Bunch Bros. A chill and educational episode for sure.
Craig
2024-11-18 22:34:07 +0000 UTC
