Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Fantastic Voyage

It is flyers like this one that make me glad I changed the format of Arcade Flyer Art Saturday. Despite my best efforts, I could not dig up any information on this game, Fantastic Voyage. Even KLOV, normally a repository of every arcade machine ever made, has no information on this one. It would seem an easy conclusion to make that this has something to do with the 60's movie starring Raquel Welch where a team of scientists are shrunk to a tiny size and injected into a man's body, but alas, it is not. There was an Atari 2600 game based on that movie and comparing the screenshots of it and the ones presented on this flyer lead me to believe that they are completely unrelated. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Grudge Match

This is one of those flyers that I wasn't able to find much info on, but after checking it out I think you'll understand why I featured it this week. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Lode Runner

Hello, and welcome to Arcade Flyer Art Saturday at its new prime time! You can look forward to seeing it at this same time each week from here on out. This week's offering is the arcade version of Broderbund's PC classic, Lode Runner. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Ghouls 'N Ghosts

Three years after their hit with Ghosts 'N Goblins, Capcom continued the adventures of Arthur and his heart boxer shorts with Ghouls 'N Ghosts. The gameplay was essentially the same as Ghosts 'N Goblins with a few additional moves such as the ability to shoot weapons straight into the air and being able to shoot while jumping. This game also introduced Arthur's special gold armor. After the arcade, the game was ported to a wide variety of systems including Sega Master System, Sega Mega-Drive, Sega Saturn, PS1, Sharp X68000, Supergrafx and the Virtual Console on the Wii. Much like it's predecessor, Ghouls 'N Ghosts is considered to one of the most punishingly difficult games of the time. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Computer Space

In almost a year and a half of doing Arcade Flyer Art Saturday I would have been hard pressed to choose a favorite. Until now. What makes this one particularly notable is that Computer Space was designed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney for Nutting Inc. prior to their founding of Atari in 1972. It also happens to be the very first commercially available arcade video game. Here is the description of the gameplay from the back of the flyer which I have posted after the jump along with the flyer for the two player version. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Defender

For this weeks flyer I chose a classic game with one of my all time favorite posters, Defender. I don't think I need to explain the gameplay of Defender to anyone and if I do, then you should just sell all your consoles now and turn in your gamer card. So instead we'll concentrate on the flyer art itself. Like many of the classic games of the time, Defender had multiple flyers created for it and the ones done for other countries varied in style. In this case, the American versions mainly focused on images of the arcade machine while the Japanese one has an elaborate and brightly colored space scene and features a vastly different arcade cabinet. The German one also attempts to throw in some color by adding some nice chunky color frames. The best of all though is the one pictured above with the sultry space babe. You can tell she is a space babe because of her white wrap-around dress, accompanying silver quilted collar and belt. Also note the absence of foot wear. Because in space, no one wears shoes. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Psychic 5

Hello and welcome to a new year of Arcade Flyer Art Saturday. After a year an a half of doing these I've opted for a shorter, more compact version of this feature. Often times it's difficult to dig up solid information on a lot of these older obscure games and the real point of these things is to show of the amazing (good and bad ) artwork. So on to this week's offering... More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday Takes a Hiatus

When I went to the The Arcade Flyer Archive today to start the rigorous search for this week's flyer to feature I saw this note from TAFA's tireless founder, Dan. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Devastators

Konami released Devastators into wide release in 1988. Capitalizing on the popularity of Contra, Devastators took on the similar plot device of two guys taking on hordes of enemies. It was set in the far flung future of 1989 and involved a Middle Eastern dictator who had taken over a small country. The country in turn hires the two main characters to save them and according to the flyer, these badasses were "the best, most efficient, ruthless, disciplined and most expensive 2-man team of freedom fighters in the world." Man, that's a whole lot of adjectives. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Kyros

It's not often that I pick a game that I am unable to find much information on, but something about the Kyros flyer really struck me. Searching around, I was able to find next to no information on the game, even on KLOV or Wikipedia which can usually fill in the gaps for me. After much searching and help from a friend, I discovered that the game was known by a couple of other names and eventually ported to several home computer systems under the name Desolator. So, going on that information, thus unfolds the tale of Kyros aka Kyros' Mansion aka Halls of Kairos aka Desolator. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Death Smiles

Usually, the focus of Arcade Flyer Art Saturday is ton retro arcade games, but this week I actually picked a game that only just came out. Why you may ask? Read on and see... More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Crazy Climber

We're going all the way back to 1980 for this week's Arcade Flyer Art Saturday feature, Crazy Climber. Produced by Nihon Bussan Co. Ltd., credited to Nichibutsu (whos name appears on all the buildings n the game) and eventually licensed by Taito, Crazy Climber will surely be remembered by arcade denizens of years past. Crazy Climber was an early relative of the ever popular Rampage and had the player controlling a man who for some unknown reason enjoys scaling the sides of 200 story buildings. The control was done with two joysticks, each one controlling one of the climber's hands, so some ambidextrous coordination was definitely involved while playing this one. It was eventually ported and remade for several home systems, but nothing could quite recreate that two joystick feeling. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: B.Rap Boys

Kaneko released B.Rap Boys in 1992 with a semi wide release. It was a beat em up that featured three playable characters roaming the mean streets of a fictional New York seeking to put an end to an evil crime lord and his minions. Each character relied on a different mode of transportation to get them to and fro such as a skateboard, a bike and roller skates. It was controlled with a joystick and two buttons and although the fighting was done with one button, players were able to pull off a variety of moves. More »

Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom

Sega produced Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom for arcades in 1982. This was a perfect example of using a well known character to try and sell an otherwise boring game. The only thing branded "Buck Rogers" was the cabinet itself while the game had next to nothing to do with the hero's story besides the fact that it was set in outer space. It was controlled with an eight way joystick and two buttons with the cabinet coming in a stand up version as well as an enclosed sit down style. More »