Top #10 Video Arcade Games
1) A.S.O
I used to play this circa 1984/85. I think it was in the minicab office in Kingsland Road. It’s a really difficult game as you have to assemble upgrades for your next space ship, certain ships are better than others for the mighty end of level bosses.
2) Silent Scope
I used to travel into London from my tiny studio flat in Weybridge into London every Saturday circa 1998 or ’99 and there was an arcade hall near Leicester Square back in the Trocadero's building. It was my weekly ‘thing’ to do that each weekend, given I was single at the same and pretty broke! Being over weight and broke doesn't lend itself favourably to relationships. So spending a few quid playing games and walking around London and perhaps buying a burger was an entire full day affair on sub £10. Approx £3 of that total of £10 would get pumped into the Silent Scope machine, I got so good at it that I could make a single credit last for a long time. I learnt a lot about London during this era as I would just walk random streets and neighbourhoods getting lost, having no real destination and continuing until my legs got tired and stiff. Discovered lots of interesting places this way. The game itself was a shooter with a replica sniper rifle mounted on the cabinet and I thought it good fun.
3) Crossbow
Similar to the above but a crossbow was mounted onto the cabinet front. I recall playing this in a place in Soho a lot with my brother who was pretty good at it. Very tough due to imprecise controller but a great looking game at the time.
4) Ms Pacman
I never liked Pac-Man but I loved Ms Pac-man. It’s a far superior game. I played this so so much as an adolescent! One of the greats.
5) Operation Wolf
Late 1980’s. I really enjoyed blasting my way through this game pretending I was Rambo. Enjoyable mindless violence!
6) Kung Fu Master
There was a chip shop in Shacklewell Lane right across my school which housed this beauty. I loved playing it with my best (and only!) friend Stephen Hughes (who I sadly lost touch with in 1986 after he left school early) we would buy chips at lunch time (thus avoiding horrid school dinners) and play this game.
7) ShaoLin’s Road
Back to Kingsland Road and the minicab office again. Me and a whole bunch of other spotty teenagers would crowd around this one after school and play it. I would sometimes be faced with the choice, do I : a) play 1 more game with my last coin or b) get the bus home. Sometimes I ended up walking home.
8) Defender
A true classic. I played this at a guess around in 1982 or ’83. It was different in that the joystick only went up and down, and then you had an array of other buttons, shoot/hyperspace/smart bomb/change direction which made it somewhat clumsy to play given I am left handed, nevertheless , this was the first twitch game ever released. You had to act before you could think, so a lot of the game is just pure basic instinct play that makes your heart beat fast.
9) Cyber Ball
Southbank University circa 1990 had this game in the Students chill out area. Played it a fair few times without really getting anywhere, but once I got MAME I got my head wrapped around the strategy side of it.
10) Gauntlet
In Tottenham Court Road back in 1989 or so there was an arcade hall that my brother would take me to. We used to play this game and it was novel because it was a co-op game that you worked together with to beat, rather than just try to beat up on each other, so it was a good bonding experience. Cracking game also.
