When the film Tron was released in 1982, no-one believed that the video game would go on to make more than the film did.

The previous few years had been some of the biggest in gaming, some of the games that were released are still some of the highest-grossing titles ever. Although Tron was a great game, it didn’t quite live up to the big hits in the previous years.

Tron may not have lived up to the likes of Pac-Man and Space Invaders but that didn’t stop it being a successful game. Tron the video game went on to make more money than the film even did. Tron the film made a total gross of $33 million so the video game managed to make even more than that. Tron was even introduced onto the Xbox 360 arcade in 2008.

Tron may not be one of the best games of the 1980’s but it was definitely a great one.

The post 1982 – Video Game Outshines Its Own Movie first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The start of the new decade saw the release of one of the biggest ever video games, Pac-Man. In a time that was dominated by shooter arcade games, Pac-Man managed to storm onto the scene. Pac-Man managed to create a new genre of video games, maze chase games.

Pac-Man became one of the biggest pop-culture icons on the 1980’s due to its incredible popularity. Pac-Man generated over $2.5 billion by the 1990’s making it not only one of the highest grossing arcade games of all time, but also one of the highest grossing video games ever.

As surprising as it sounds, the idea for Pac-Man came from pizza. When 27 year old Toru Iwatani decided to order a pizza for dinner, it inspired him in several ways. The pizza gave Iwatani the design for Pac-Man as he had already eaten two slices, the rest of the pizza resembled a mouth. It also gave Iwatani the idea for the game, he wanted to create a game that was based on eating. Pac-Man was developed and published by Namco when it was first released in Japan and it was then licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway.

The idea of the game was that the player controls Pac-Man and has to eat all of the pac-dots so that you could move onto the next level. Trying to stop you from eating the pac-dots were four different ghosts that would chase you, when they make contact with you, you would lose a life. Alternatively you could eat the ghosts when you got one of four power-ups which were located in each of the four corners of the maze.

When Pac-Man was first released in Japan it didn’t get the best response due to the insane popularity of Space Invaders but after a poor start it was released in the United States and soon picked up. Pac-Man went on to make over $1 billion in its first year alone. Pac-Man is the second highest grossing video game of all time making a total $12.8 billion since 1980.

The world record us currently held by David Race who managed to get a score of 3,333,360 in a total time of 3 hours, 28 minutes and 49 seconds.

Pac-Man is still to this day, one of the biggest icons in popular culture. Now just imagine if Iwatani decided not to get a pizza for dinner that night…

The post 1980 Pac-Man is Born first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In 1979 we saw the release of Asteroids which joined a list of games that were the major hits of the golden age of arcade games. Asteroids was a shooter game and had a space theme much like Space Invaders, which was released a year before Asteroids.

Although it was similar to Space Invaders, Asteroids was also very different as you had to cover yourself from every angle and there was a lot more movement involved. In the game, the player controls a spaceship that is in an asteroid field with the occasional flying saucer flying past. The player needs to shoot and destroy the asteroids and flying saucers without colliding with them. The more asteroids the player destroyed, the more points the player got.

The competitiveness of the game and always wanting to get your name up on the high-score leader board meant people spent lots of money on the game to keep playing and trying to beat their former high-score and of course beating their friends’ scores.

The total money spent on the game meant that Asteroids is in the top 10 of highest-grossing arcade games of all time. Asteroids had already made a revenue of $800 million by 1991 and selling 100,000 machines in the process.

In 2010, John McAllister broke the Asteroids world record with a flabbergasting high-score of 41,338,740 in a 58-hour livestream. Whether that score is ever beaten remains to be seen.

The post 1979 – Asteroids Debuts first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Rampage – The classic arcade game turned film

Following the success of his most recent film, San Andreas, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is set to appear in another similar film.. Except this one is based on Midway’s classic arcade game, Rampage. Details on the plot have not yet been revealed but, needless to day, it will include a giant gorilla, lizard, and wolf, who will rampage all across America and destroy anything that gets in their way!

The script is set to be written by Ryan Engle (Non-Stop), and produced by Beau Flynn (San Andreas, Hercules, Red Dawn), who frequently collaborates with Johnson. The New Line film is said to be going into production next year, and this will be Johnson’s second video game based film, after starring in 2005’s Doom.

As the original arcade game, Rampage was released in 1986 in arcades, before being ported across dozens of other paltforms. A number of sequels have also been produced but, by the time the film is released, it will not have seen the screen since it’s last release, Total Destruction, more than 10 years ago.

The post Rampage – The Rock to Star in New Film Based on the Classic Arcade Game first appeared on Get2Gaming.

80’s gaming – Pac-Man

Gaming in the 1980’s brought us some iconic games in the form of Donkey Kong, Tetris and, of course, the Super Mario Bros! To kick start this awesome decade of gaming was the ghost-munching Pac-Man. Released in 1980 by game develop Namco, the idea of the game was to control Pac-Man through a maze, eating Pac-docs whilst also, when giving the chance, eat the enemies. Due to its popularity, game developers Namco decided to release a Mrs. Pac-Man version only two years later.

Being among the most famous arcade games of all time, Pac-Man is surely one of the most recognized gaming figures in history.

The post Gaming Through The Years – 1980 first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Invading arcades around the world – Space Invaders

Created by Tomohiro and produced by Japanese electronic game manufacturer Taito Corp, 1978 saw Space Invaders hit arcades in Japan before making its way around the world.  Rumour even has it that due to its popularity in Japan, the ever-lasting arcade game led to a coin shortage and promoted an increase in production of the 100-yen coin. In 1980 Atari adapted a version for its Atari 2600 console, helping fuel the popularity of home gaming that we see today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437Ld_rKM2s

Space Invaders arguably paved the way the successful shooting genre that has produced so many popular games over the years, so simple but so effective.

The post Gaming Through The Years – 1978 first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Our “Top 15” Pieces of Video Game Inspired Furniture

We’ve searched the depths for the best of the best and have picked out fifteen video game inspired pieces of furniture, which are an essential for the avid gamer. Enjoy!

15) Mario Filing Cabinets

14) Pacman Egg Chair

13) Atari 2600 Controller Coat Hangers

12) Donkey Kong Bookshelves

11) PlayStation Controller Coffee Table

10) Another grand PlayStation Controller Coffee Table

09) Portal Dining Room Set

08) NES Toaster

07) Nintendo Controller & Gameboy Desks

06) Sega Master System Couch

05) Wii Remote Cabinets

04) Space Invaders Couch

03) SNES Bed

02) Arcade Machine Kegerator

01) It had to be… A bloomin’ TRON Kitchen!!

The post “Top 15” Pieces of Video Game Inspired Furniture first appeared on Get2Gaming.

 RETRO ALERT!
You are now able to play over 900 classic arcade games in your browser, for FREE!!

What a joyous bit of news for a gloomy Monday morning! There are so many things right with this.. Classic arcade games, over 900 of them and for FREE!

We have Internet Archive to thanks for this, who are a San Francisco-based non-profit that collect web pages, audio and other info that exists in digital format. Golden Axe and Dig Dug are but a few amongst the wonderfully ancient games you can play, and find, at the Internet Arcade. 

“Of the roughly 900 arcade games (yes, nine hundred arcade games) up there, some are in pretty weird shape – vector games are an issue, scaling is broken for some, and some have control mechanisms that are just not going to translate to a keyboard or even a joypad,” programmer Jason Scott said. “But damn if so many are good enough. More than good enough. In the right browser, on a speedy machine, it almost feels perfect. The usual debates about the ‘realness’ of emulation come into play, but it works”.

All very exciting stuff and if you come across any that you used to play then do let us know how you like it!

The post Retro Alert – You Can Now Play Over 900 Arcade Games In Your Browser For Free! first appeared on Get2Gaming.