Konami‘s 1983 arcade hit Track & Field broke new ground with its button-bashing gameplay.
It also broke a fair few cabinets along the way, with arcade machine operators having to repair the buttons on machines quite often, to keep them operative (and therefore earning money). A broken Track & Field machine was no good to anyone, and people tend to get carried away and hit too hard when playing this game.
Known as Gradius in Japan – but Nemesis everywhere else – Konami‘s classic 1985 shoot ’em up is one of the earliest progressive weapons blasters, with distinct levels and boss battles.
The game is somewhat reminiscent of the classic side-scrolling Scramble (also by Konami), but in Nemesis you fly a ship called the “Vic Viper”, and which has a variety of different weapons which can be powered-up by collecting capsules left by destroyed enemies.
Yes, Data East‘s classic 1981 arcade game does feature a policeman called “Stiffy”. The other three are called “Scaredy”, “Smarty” and “Silly”. And together the four of them chase you – a thief – whose mission it is to collect the coins in the maze, and any other treasure that appears, before escaping.
Scramble was the first ever side-scrolling shoot ’em up, coming out in arcades in 1981.
It was certainly one of the earliest colour video games, and was a big hit for developer Konami and distributor Stern Electronics.
Developer Gottlieb released Mad Planets into video game arcades in 1982.
Way back to 1984 and tennis on the ZX Spectrum.
Match Point, by Psion, was about as good as computer tennis got in the early Eighties.
Set in a post-apocalypse USA (in the year 3472, no less), Tranz Am is an overhead racing game where the aim is to collect eight cups (The Great Cups of Ultimate), which have been randomly dispersed around the continent.
Featuring a cute robot (called Robbie) whose job it is to keep the insects away from the plants.
Another of Ultimate‘s early ZX Spectrum classics, Cookie – from 1983 – is a simple arcade-style action game where you are a little chef sprite shooting bags of flour at ingredients to knock them into a mixing bowl.
A 1983 Spanish cult hit from Paco & Paco (aka Indescomp), Bugaboo is a simple platform game were you have to jump from ledge to ledge, to reach the hole at the top of the cave, and freedom.
The King of Grabs 