Play video games like it’s the ’80s. The launches of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are right around the corner, but they shouldn’t stop you from enjoying some classic arcade games.
Even if you’re not old enough to have played arcade games growing up, you’ve still probably felt nostalgic for them. Maybe you’ve had a hankering to play certain games ever since you saw them in Stranger Things.
Stop dreaming and start doing. Learn how to play those retro arcade games by reading this article.
Nothing Like Classic Arcade Games
Season two of Stranger Things frequently refers to Dig Dug, a game featuring a titular character who digs into the earth and defeats monsters in their subterranean tunnels. Players rack up points by slaying these beasts in different ways.
In the show itself, people enter tunnels to kill monsters to save lives. In one episode, some characters wear swimming goggles while dealing with demodogs. The goggles allude to one of the two monsters in Dig Dug: pookas.
These are small, red tunnel creatures that sport big goggles. The show also references the fygar, the game’s other monster. In one scene, a large monster unleashes fire at Hopper and Eleven.
That’s just like how fygars breathe fire when attacking Dig Dug to kill him in a single hit.
Games Galore
Another game that’s featured prominently in the show is Dragon’s Lair.
Season two shows the four main boy characters – Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, and Lucas Sinclair – gathered around playing this game. This 1983 game distinguished itself from its peers with its gorgeously hand-drawn animation, by Don Bluth.
Dragon’s Lair features Dirk the Daring, a hero trying to save a damsel-in-distress archetype, Princess Daphne, from a dragon that locked her in an evil wizard’s castle. Players maneuver the knight through the castle and underlying caverns. In the latter, Dirk overcomes various monsters and obstacles.
Or, he dies multiple times, whether he’s strangled by a monster’s tentacles, buried in debris, consumed by fire, or impaled on spikes. How gory!
If less violent games are your thing, then we’ve got you covered.
The somewhat less violent Double Dragon excels in its storytelling through its narrative punctuality. In the game’s beginning, Black Warriors gang members kidnap Marian, martial artist Billy Lee’s love interest.
A few seconds later, Billy and his twin brother Jimmy start kicking and punching their way through enemy territory to get her back. Thusly, the game’s whole storyline is set without as much as a line of dialogue.
If these sound like fun, then play arcade games online.
Stranger Things, Better Games
Pop culture is awash in ’80s-themed nostalgia. Stranger Things‘ popularity is just the tip of the iceberg, as a TikTok trend helps Fleetwood Mac make a bit of a comeback. Drive-in movie theaters are cool again, and the Wonder Woman franchise is one of many circa-’80s franchises experiencing a modern rebirth.
Beercades and other arcades for adults have breathed new life into classic arcade games. Now that you know how to play them, learn how to handle other pieces of tech in the site’s Technology section.
