Whitey & The Professors’ All-Time Arcade Game Challenge

Here they are - all the first round match-ups. The original post with some of our criteria is HERE. A look at the brackets is HERE.





PAC-MAN REGION




#1 Pac-Man v. #8 Frogger. Poor Frogger, you couldn't ask much more of a game based on frogs and dodging traffic. It has pulled a bad first round matchup against arguably the best arcade game of all-time. Should Frogger pull a first round upset over Pac-Man it would be historic – or slightly noteworthy.

#2 Gauntlet v. #7 Double Dragon. I remember playing Gauntlet. At Kings Island. Let me tell you, there are a lot of things to do at Kings Island (just ask the Brady Bunch) other than play a video game, but I was hooked. Double Dragon was one of the first of its kind and certainly popular, but doesn’t take out Gauntlet for me.

#3 Ms. Pac-Man v. #6 Dragon’s Lair. Yep, Ms. Pac-Man got seeded in the same region with her overbearing other half (we're not having a Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man final.) Dragon’s Lair was such a weird game – I remember putting money into this thing and having no idea what I was supposed to actually do. Not that this should sway you, but there are three games on permanent display in the Smithsonian: Pong, Pac-Man, and...Dragon's Lair. Ms. Pac-Man, well, those intermissions did it all didn’t they?

#4 Defender v. #5 Tron. Whitey is calling it, Tron pulls the upset. It was based on a movie, bad as that movie was. Defender is defending a plant, and for the entire game you travel on a horizontal plane. Most Defender machines had burns on the playing panel. These were left by: 1) people who let a perfectly good smoke go to waste, just to smell melting plastic, as they were trying to prove the world was flat; or 2) stoners that had a good game going. Whitey takes two. Tron was certainly one of the best looking arcade games of all time. The game itself was kind of blah though.

SPACE INVADERS REGION






#1 Space Invaders v. #8 Jungle Hunt. Space Invaders had one of those sounds that haunt you in your sleep. It wasn't a matter of if the Invaders were gonna get there, just when. Try as you might, I only saw the screen cleared a few times before the quarter dropped again. Space Invaders is notable for many reasons, but one you might not know is it was the first game that saved hi-scores and, in a later incarnation, became the first game in which you could also enter your initials. [If you're one of those people wondering why games like, say, Golden Tee aren't ranked higher in the tourney imagine Golden Tee with no hi-scores or, god forbid, no option for initials.] Jungle Hunt was swinging. And swimming. And running and jumping. Timing was everything in this one - never did find out what happens at the end, or even if there is an end. But I did like knifing sharks.

#4 Tempest v. #5 Duck Hunt. Tempest really had one goal: spin the dial in a circle and run the outer edge of different shapes shooting at projectiles, but it was the first vector game in color (Tempest, Star Wars, and Asteroids are our only vector games in the tourney, so they represent.) Duck Hunt was great due to the fact you had a gun in hand - Duck Hunt was one of the pioneering 'shoot the screen' games. "Bang," as that dog laughs at you for missing. But you couldn't trust the hi-score as you could put the gun literally on the screen and kill everything. Didn't stop us.

#3 Mario Bros. v. #6 Missile Command. Missile Command was a tricky little game. Three shooting stations with ten shots in each - and you talk about a loud game - if you sent everything off it was like a static explosion. Chances were after you cleared the early stage you were hooked for a dollar and it was gone in a hurry. Toughest game in the bracket. Mario Bros. spawned what could be considered the most successful franchise in history - Nintendo was (and still is) built on Donkey Kong...and Mario. Whitey majored in Mario Bros. for two semesters in college. We would stay up even if we weren't playing, and you couldn't get guys out of the dorm with a cattle prod. [Remember: we're not voting on the game you could play in your dorm room...]

#2 Dig Dug v. #7 BurgerTime. I don't remember BurgerTime, but I saw it on so many lists I figured we had to include it. Maybe it was a good game. Whitey remembers Dig Dug was everywhere. Most enjoyable was the one by the baseball field in the High's Ice Cream. Man, after a hot day at the park, a Sherbet Freeze, Dig Dug, and a hand to squeeze. Ah, summertime.

DONKEY KONG REGION 




#1 Donkey Kong v. #8 Tapper. Tapper? Really? Frogger at least had a chance to upset Pac-Man. Although Tapper was one-of-a-kind, and the cabinet came complete with a coaster for your drink and a railing for your feet, this is a no-brainer. The big monkey rolling barrels down the grades, and who could forget the best pulley-lever system in gaming. Donkey Kong also has the unique mystique of having introduced us to the main character of another game in the tourney: Mario. And even though I can't stand when people use this, it's still relevant today: it's on like Donkey Kong!

#4 Joust v. #5 Golden Tee. Joust was one of the games Whitey lived on. It was at the 7-11 a block from school. My study hall was Joust. I never questioned what would make a guy get on a flying ostrich and engage in level to level combat. It just worked. Joust gets a leg up on Golden Tee. The Professor says Joust is one crazy game, and one of the first co-operative games that I remember. I was not good at it, but that didn't stop me. Golden Tee is the only true sports game in the tourney and while it is a classic, its popularity seems to have spiked fairly recently. That said, Golden Tee's many offspring have stood the test of time - a great initial idea which I don't see going out of style anytime soon. Whitey says just spin the ball as hard as you can and most of the time it goes straight. I say, remember that hole-in-one? Pure skill. 

#3 Street Fighter v. #6 Pole Position. A battle between two icons of their respective genres: driving games and fighting games. Street Fighter was a double joystick machine, meaning there were some 64 possible moves. However, it could be defeated using about five of them (and while the original Street Fighter was ok, Street Fighter II is really where this franchise took off. Again though, a la Golden Tee, the first game spawned a monster.) Pole Position was the perfect game of its day - the game gave you more time for hangin' it all out for your quarter. Before Pole Position the only driving games were staged at night due to the limitations of technology. Pole Position is the original modern driving game - that's a steering wheel!

#2 Star Wars v. #7 Q*Bert. One of two games in the tournament which originated as a movie (Tron), Star Wars is a classic, even for people on the Dark Side of the Force. Q-Bert is just Pac-Man on a pyramid. I dropped a lot of quarters into that machine; however, most were for my girlfriend.

PONG REGION




#1 Pong v. #8 Moon Patrol. Wow, Pong v. Moon Patrol - where does one start? Pong is the grand-daddy of them all and may be the sentimental favorite in the tournament. Moon Patrol is Defender on wheels. Sure there was a catchy tune, and the way the buggy kinda floated when you hit the jump button made you think you were driving in space. Pong was just two lines that bounced a block back and forth. And back. And forth. But take a look at Brick Breaker on your phone. Look familiar? This is a knockout! Whitey says Pong!

#4 Centipede v. #5 Rampage. Rampage - what more could you ask from a game but to trash buildings? Kong, Wolfman, and Zilla could bring down the house. One player wasn't enough though, you needed 2-3 to really beat the machine. Centipede was chaos, but it’s the all-time trackball/single-shot game. And the mushrooms gave you a fit. Whitey remembers when Centipede came out - Milton's pizza had one, and as the speed increased so did your heartbeat.

#3 Galaga v. #6 Spy Hunter. Spy Hunter was a great game if you had a lot of time to kill. Like Pac-Man, there was a pattern, but it was much easier. The Professor says Spy Hunter is one his favorite games of all-time, and if there was some discernible pattern I didn't discover it.. Oil slicks? Rotating blades from your wheels? And when you died you got dropped off from the moving semi. As a Bond fan, this was a great game, although I was not good at it. Galaga was awesome! When you doubled up your ship…awesome! From that point the challenge stages got easier and the points racked up. The Professor forgot about the double ships...that was pretty sweet.

#2 Asteroids v. #7 Paperboy. A true test of old/new school. Well, new school circa 1987. Not many of us have driven a spaceship through an asteroid field, but most of us had a paper route. You could just chuck papers at windows, flower pots, and front porches. The only thing missing was the old man yelling because it wasn't on his doorstep, or the lady who always waved hello. Asteroids was a game that really put your head in a vice. Since we were all teenagers, we knew nothing about space propulsion. The second button, that allowed you to move, caused more problems than Felix the Cat. You couldn't stop on a dime, Whitey got crushed, and reached for another quarter. And the Professor did the same.

all polls by twiigs.com