In 2010, I wanted to create some kind of portfolio for my writing, as the work I was doing within the games industry was not public. I wanted to talk about games, but had to avoid conflicts of interest with publishers and other developers. As a child of the 80s who spent his summers in seaside arcades, the answer was obvious: write about old arcade games. And so Arcade Throwback was born.
I no longer work in the games industry, but my love and sense of nostalgia for those old games is as strong as ever. And it's not just the games, but the cabinets and arcades themselves that I want to celebrate. They were theme parks for games and no matter how good modern games get (and I do love modern gaming too), for me they will never replace those long, lost pixel playgrounds.
So join me in my continuing celebration of all things arcade, either here on Blogger, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ArcadeThrowback or follow me on Twitter @ArcadeThrowback.
MTW
P.S. Wondering what arcade game and manufacturer names make up the Arcade Throwback logo? They are all from genuine logos, stretching from the early 80s to the late 90s. Can you guess them all?
Highlight the blocks to find the answers
A is from Altered Beast
R is from Ridge Racer
C is from Pac-Man
A is from Metal Slug
D is from the Data East logo
E is from Centipede
T is from Track and Field
H is from Hang-On
R is from R-Type
O is from Arkanoid
W is from World Heroes
B is from Bubble Bobble
A is from the Sega logo
C is from Contra
K is from the original Konami logo
How did you do? If it's anything over 10 you are truly an arcade nut. If you got all 15 then you're some kind of walking coin-op encyclopedia.
And in case you're wondering why those particular games and companies, my choice was based on either how iconic the font was or how easy it was to extract from the rest of the logo. Lazy, eh?
