Rockett Science Labs

"Where Yesterday Is Tomorrow"

LAZEROIDS!!!

Lazeroids

LAZEROIDS -- a never-ending, massively multiplayer, peer-to-peer version of Asteroids -- was the Innovation category winner in August's Rails Rumble. 

An MMO of any early 1980s arcade game would get me excited, but Asteroids...erm. I have to admit that I'm very conflicted about Asteroids. I was terrible at it, and loathed and envied the smug kid at my arcade who  boasted that he could play the game "as long as I want, on one quarter." Someone needed to wipe the smirk off that punk's face, but it wasn't going to be me.

(via RWW)

Wizard of Wor video game, Midway Mfg. Co. (1980)

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via arcade-history.com

I was visiting my grandmother in Albany, Georgia one summer in the early 80s. One day, she had a lot of errands to run; so she gave me $20 for quarters and dropped me off at Aladdin's Castle arcade in the Albany Mall. I spent hours playing Wizard of Wor.

That was one of the best days of my teenage life.

Part of the game's immense appeal was that it talked: the Wizard regularly mocked and abused you, taunting you with his robotic "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Arcade History's writeup of the game includes all 71 lines of the Wizard's dialogue.

(Thanks to http://www.videogamey.com for the link)