Welcome to the Arcade Throwback blog

These days games are everywhere, from the Nintendo Wii becoming the must have console of the last decade to Angry Birds on smartphones in people's pockets. However, not so long ago, if you wanted to play the best games around you had to go to an arcade. Sadly, arcades are a rare sight now. Even seaside resorts have surprisingly few games and the ones left tend to be decade-old Dance Dance Revolution, Time Crisis and Daytona USA machines.  

I'm sure many of you are thinking, Why do you care? Why play Commando when you can play Call of Duty? Well, just think back, the big screens, graphics and sound that were years ahead of home computers and consoles, the custom cabinets, often with custom controls, the neon lighting and the sound of dozens of other machines bring played around you, getting your initials on a high score for all other patrons to see (not that my initials, MTW, appeared at the top very often), going to an arcade was an event and put simply I miss it, mourn it even. If that sounds dramatic, think about this: how would you feel if there were no more concerts or cinema? It does not matter how good your home music system or home theatre is, it just is not the same and if you enjoy going to concerts and the cinema, you'd mourn their end too.

So Arcade Throwback is a blog about those lost, classic arcade games, from the early 8-bit days to the beginning of polygonal graphics. Games like Space Invaders, Galaxians, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Paper Boy, R-Type, Gradius, Wonder Boy, Gryzor, New Zealand Story, Final Fight, King of Fighters, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Twilight Zone pinball and many, many more. This isn't a review site, just a place to talk about what made those coin-op games so memorable and celebrating the origin of our beloved hobby.

MTW