Tony's Arcade

SEGA! Before SEGA marketed its home console systems, it had some pretty awesome games in the arcade. Not one of their most popular games, SubRoc (short for “Submarine Rocket”) definitely has its appeal. I remember playing it a couple of times back in 1985 at an arcade near Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island. Mostly because it had something other games didn’t… 3D! I was lucky to purchase this game in great condition from Kevin at K & S Family Amusements. All it needed was to be cleaned up, and have some light bulbs replaced.

The cabinet is great to look at. The side art is spectactular, and the paints used in the sideart and control panel have flourescence (or had, rather! The black lights don’t really bring out the flourescent paints any more.) SEGA went to town on making this game different. The game play is pretty basic; you look through a periscope and with the periscope controls you can move your sub up to the air or down to the water, and left and right. I am surprised as to the crowd this game draws at a party… there are always people playing it… mostly women!

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Ah yes, the ultimate party arcade game. Where else can fight your way out of a dungeon with three of your friends at your sides? Gauntlet, of course! This game evokes memories of hanging out in the arcade, and joining up with your friends to do battle on ghosts and barbarians. Anyone who played this game in the 80s seems to have “Warrior is about to die…!” engrained in their memories. I get the best kicks from this game watching others play it, or by playing it and shouting which direction to go.

I got this game along with Tempest (the one that I trashed in transit). I was very fortunate to have the game in working condition, except that the joysticks didn’t have any spring action to them. With Gauntlet joysticks, abuse over time would break a little plastic collar inside the joystick which presses against a spring. The joystick would then be loose, and have no resistance to it. I had to replace all four joysticks; three I got from eBay. With the fourth joystick, I was able to have someone machine a new plastic collar, which works great.

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Oh man… My #2 favorite game (next to Star Castle, of course…) Tron! I used to play this game at Tons of Fun in Norwich… While my friends were stuck playing Sinistar cockpit, I was up on the second level of the arcade, fighting my way through tanks and running away from those grid bugs. What can I say but everyone seems to be jealous that I have this game…!

For those of you computer nerds from the 80s that enjoyed the movie, this game was better than watching it. You were in the movie. The first arcade game to be based on a movie, and Tron at that! The artwork on the game is fantastic, with a backlit color chrome of the MCP cone above the monitor, and a collage of pictures from the movie on the sides of the cabinet. The glow of the black lights made you and everything around you feel surreal, to add to the effect of being inside a computer.

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