Tag: Arcades

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Whoa Dave! actually deserves that exclamation point in its title

Whoa Dave! is one of those modern-retro games that makes you wonder if videogames weren’t close to perfect like 30 years ago. Deep down, all they really need is a setup mirroring Mario Bros., some pixel-y beasts hatching from eggs a la Joust, and a couple of players lapping up coins and trying to sabotage each other’s shit. Oh yeah, also needed: some algorithm telling the game to gradually ramp up the intensity from step aerobics to “Holy jeez, I can’t tell where my guy ends and the enemies begin!”  It’s impossible not to have a great time with local…
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An arcade cabinet restorer creates the light-cycle racing game of our dreams

For us children of the ‘80s who had our young and naive brains dazzled by Disney’s Tron, it doesn’t get much better than a sit-down, light cycle-riding arcade game. Oh, wait. Yes, it does. That’s because this light-cycle racer is VR-enabled, played while sitting on a scrap of wood and welded metal while strapped into a sense-depriving mask—perhaps a bit dangerous, but oh so worth it!  This wicked invention is the passion project of The Arcade Man, an expert at restoring classic cabinets and pinball tables to beautiful, pristine condition. For aesthetic reasons, and just because motorcycles are far more…
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Arcade-themed yearbook from ’82 is great in a way that only a yearbook from ’82 can be

Ah, the 80s; when teenage smoking was still glamourous, punk was holding on by tooth and nail, and it was culturally viable for a yearbook to be themed around the concept of arcade games. When I came across this nostalgic album from a Florida high school on IDEA Books of London’s classy Instagram feed, I could hardly believe that my own yearbook in contrast was so uncool. To rub it in I also discovered the way-too-wack-for-this-world learner’s manual on how to breakdance that I couldn’t help posting down below. I was born too late, I tell you.
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Local-multiplayer game Heli Brawl is Matisse meets Messhof

Something about developer 2bam’s depiction of Walter from The Big Lebowski getting his head blown off is distinctly Henri Matisse. The art direction in their game Heli Brawl, alternatively, Helibrawl, has a similar striking color palette and deformed abstract quality. But the other half of it—the fierce yet simplistic local-multiplayer action; the whirling pinwheels of vomit; the crude, square brushstrokes and mild probability of dizziness—that’s all Messhof. You know, the guy who made Nidhogg and a bunch of other awesome games. I’m not saying Fauvists were the forerunners of the sloppy/beautiful games movement, but they sure can look alike if you’re squinting. Heli…