Retro Arcade Board Games

I have a passion for arcade computer games and also a passion for board games so it was only right that I have a collection of arcade board games.

As you can imagine this is quite a limited and obscure area to collect.

There are also some games which are based around Arcade Games e.g. Invaders which is loosely based on Space Invaders.

These games were mostly produced by Milton Bradley.

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/225294/item/5386915#item5386915

These are the ones I have (not the US versions):

Frogger

US version

Q*bert

Donkey Kong

US version

Pac-Man

US version

Zaxxon

US version

Defender (MB)

Centepede

US version

Berserk

US version

Centipede

    

Missile Command

    

Needed

Pitfall

    

Jungle Hunt

    

Defender (Entax)

Ms Pac Man

Legend of Zelda

Dragons Lair

Super Mario

US version

Doom

Pole Position

Turbo

US version

Tetris

Collecting Tolkien - Computer Games

Being a computer and computer games fan (see other blog entries), this area is of particular interest to me.

The world of Tolkien computer games is a smaller area than some but it is also quite complex. For instance, although there are a limited number of games, each game can be in lots of different formats and also repackaged many times. There can also be compilations of games. Some games are also only produced in some countries, with different packaging and often different production/distribution companies.

Also some games are only available to download, they were never sold in a physical format, in particular there is an awful lot of freeware/non commercial games (I don't include these as part of my collection).

A lot of the games are also unofficial with no licence from the Tolkien estate.

The definitive website for a Tolkien computer games is http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/ (although it is a little bit out of date and does not have any games based on the movies or any produced afterwards). Although there are a few more good sites:

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/inspiration-author-j-r-r-tolkien/offset,0/so,1d/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_in_video_games

Total Items: 103

In the details of my collection below I will mention the formats I have against each game.

My first game was from the 80's, the very famous The Hobbit (tape: C64, BBC, Spec, Ams, Oric, MSX; disk: PC, BBC) by Melbourne House. This was quite a ground breaking game in the adventure genre, with actual graphics.


The follow up Lord of the Rings (tape with promo book: BBC, C64, Spec; disk: PC, Ams) game was also very successful. This was branded as Fellowship of the Ring (disk: PC) in America.

Completing the trilogy was Shadows of Morder (tape: C64, Spec; disk: C64), although this was not as successful as the first 2.

I also have all three of these games packaged as the Tolkien Trilogy (tape: C64, BBC, Spec, Ams).

After this Melbourne House also produced a few games in the series, which I have, but which were not as successful as the first two, War in Middle Earth (tape: Ams) and Riders of Rohan (disk: PC). I don't have Crack of Doom Software Adventure (which was only released in America).

I also have a few of the more obscure Tolkien related games from the early 80's, all of which are unofficial. Shadowfax (tape: BBC, Vic20) by Postern is one of the earliest Tolkien related games, as is Moria (tape: Oric) by Severn Sotfware and Gandalf the Sorcerer (tape: Spec) by Game Gems, but it is only Tolkien related by name with none of the gameplay being Tolkien related. Two parody games by Delta 4, Bored of the Rings (tape: Spec) and The Boggit (tape: Spec), which are both based on parody books.

The next game I got was from the 90's, Lord of the Rings (disk: PC - US and UK versions; cart: SNES) by Interplay, which was a lot more graphically interactive. Although primarily released as a PC game, I also have a fairly rare SNES version. I don't have the follow up game The Two Towers, which was only released in America.

There were no more computer games until the time of the movies. The first of these, which I have, however was based on the books and was not movie related, was The Fellowship of the Ring (PC, XBox, PS2, GB Adv, GB Col) by Vivendi (I also have a promotional copy of this given away by the Sun newspaper), which was followed by The Hobbit (PC, XBox, PS2, GB) and War of the Ring (PC). I also have all three of these games packaged as the Tolkien Collection (PC).

The movie related games The Two Towers (XBox, PS2, GB Adc) and The Return of the King (PC, PS2, XBox, GB Adv) were by Electronic Arts (there was no Fellowship movie game). There were also some follow up games The Third Age (PS2, XBox), Tactics (PSP) (only available on the psp) and later Lord of the Rings Conquest (XBox). I have the Return of the King and The Third Age in an XBox limited edition boxed set. Electronic Arts also produced a PC Tolkien World online game series based on the movies which consists of Battle for Middle Earth (PC), Battle for Middle Earth II (PC - collectors addition) and then a quite rare Rise Of The Witch King (PC), all follow up modules were download only.

I also have a stand alone console game from the movies Lord of the Rings Warrior of Middle-Earth.

A massive online world based on Tolkien's world Lord of the Rings Online was produced by Turbine. The first module of this was Shadow of Angmar (PC - mithril addition) which was followed by Mines of Moria (PC). All other modules were only available via online download.

There have also been some games produced by Warner Bros which I have; Aragorns Quest (PS2) , War In The North (PC - collectors edition with statue), Guardians Of Middle Earth (PS3) and Shadow Of Mordor (XBox One). These are not a series but are separate games.



I also have the Lego Lord Of The Rings (PC, XBox, DS - with Elrond Lego figure) game, and Lego Hobbit (PC, XBox One - with Bilbo Lego figure). And the Lego Dimensions Gollum.

A lot of computer games also have corresponding book guides, these are the ones I have:

Hobbit (Melbourne House) multiple versions

Lord of the Rings (interplay)

The Fellowship of the Ring (Vivendi)

The Hobbit (Vivendi)

War of the Ring (Vivendi)

The Two Towers (Electronic Arts)

Return of the Key (Electronic Arts)

The Third Age (Electronic Arts)

Battle of Middle Earth II (Electronic Arts)

Lord of the Rings online (Turbine)

Lord of the Rings online (Turbine) vol II

I also have some computer/games promotional items:

Third Age poster

EA Lord of the Rings game series soundtrack

Return of the King movie game standup

Battle of Middle Earth tin (x2)

Vivendi Fellowship of the Ring game newspaper give away

Postcards (Hobbit game) (x5)

There are some other Tolkien computing items I have, which are not games related. Most of these are movie promotional items. There are not very many of these so I will include them here:

PlayStation 2 controller Two Towers movie

Computer mouse mats (x6)

Interactive cd's

Activity Studio's from the 3 movies (x3)

Gaming Magazines (x6)

Home Computing and Games Consoles

As seen from my previous blog entry on Computing, I was always a Computing geek, so it was only right I got into home computing and games consoles.

As previously seen, my first exposure to computing in the home was a Binatone pong machine, which was amazing but limited in scope.

This was followed by a ZX80, but I don't remember doing that much on it apart from a small bit of Basic. I was mainly doing programming at work and was more interested in games at home. I don't remember playing many games on the ZX80.

When I was about 16, as the 70s were turning into the 80s, on our summer holidays I came across arcade machines including Space Invaders and loved them. I then found some magazine adverts for the Atari 2600 games console which had interchangeable cartragies, including a Space Invaders. I became obsessed, but It took a while to persuade my dad to get one, as they were quite expensive, but he eventually did and I spent a lot of time playing Space Invaders, Pacman, Asteriods and many other games.

Following on from this was my first real foray into home computing with a TRS-80. There were mainly text adventure games such as Zork and Scott Adams Advetureland and Voodoo Castle. Not that many graphics based games were available but I remember Android Nim and a decent Galaxians. There was also the weird Dancing Demon!

Next up I got a ZX Spectrum, with its rubber keyboard and loading games from tape (with its classic data transfer noise). This was great because it was fairly cheap so a lot of people brought one which led to there being a lot of software available. There were also a lot of computer magazines available (such as Crash) to keep you up to date with the games and also giving you programs to type in yourself. I spent a lot of time on the Spectrum, I even wrote some games in assembler language. I remember playing Manic Minor, The Hobbit, Ant Attack etc but mainly the Ultimate games; Jetpac, Atic Atac, Saber Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore etc. I remember travelling to Northampton on the bus to go to the only local computer games shop to get the latest Ultimate releases.

I then had a Commodore 64. This was quite similar to the Spectrum but had a proper keyboard. I remember loving Boulderdash, Elite, Bubble Bobble, Pit Stop II and many others. I spent ages converting an interactive adventure game in a magazine from BBC code and my girlfriend (future wife) and me playing it for ages (whilst listening to the Queen II album), it was very good. I also regularly got the Commodore magazine ZZAP 64. I got a disk drive for the 64 which took 5 1/4 inch floppy disks, no more sporadic/noisy tape loading.

I started going to the Wellingborough computer club where I met a good friend Dale Thompson.

It was at the computer club that I first saw the next level home computers Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. There was quite a battle between these 2, I plumped for the ST as Dale had one. It had a GUI desktop and a mouse and used the classic 3 1/2 inch floppy disks. The games I loved on the ST were Dungeon Master, Super Sprint, Xenon, Populous, Leaderboard, Bards Tale, Bomb Jack, Lemmings, Cannon Fodder, Gauntlet II and who can forget Leisure Suit Larry In the Land of the Lounge Lizards. There were a lot more games, I loved the ST.

I did eventually succumb to the dark side and get the slightly superior Amiga, but I don't remember playing it as much, the games were very much the same as the ST, I cannot remember much of the Amiga.

About this time came the rise of the games consoles, the first we had (after the Atari 2600) was the Sega Megadrive. The main games here were obviously the Sonics, but I also remember Disney's Aladdin, Ecco and Micro Machines.

This was quickly followed by a Sony Playstation. With a lot of great games; Doom (which we completed), Wipeout, Medieval, Crash Bandicoot, Gran Tourismo, Spyro, Oddworld, Final Fantasy. My young daughter spilled a yoghurt on the Playstation so we had to get it replaced.

We then had a SNES with the first introduction to the best game ever, Mario Kart. We also played Donkey Kong Country a lot and Super Bomberman 2.

Next up we had a Nintendo 64 which we played a lot, particularly Mario 64 and Zelda (I actually completed Octarina of Time). I was never a big fan of Mario Bros, but the rest of the family were.

At some point we got a PC and I remember playing Command & Conquer a lot.

We also had a few handholds. The Gameboy, with Tetris, and a psp.

We then had a Nintendo Gamecube on which I mainly remember playing Mario Kart.

The next generations of consoles has mainly been the domain of my kids.

We had a Playstation 2 on which we played Guitar Hero and Singstar a lot. We still occasionally play the Buzz series of quiz and junior games.

We had a Nintendo Wii which was brilliant for the family, particularly Sports, Mario Kart and Party.

We then had an XBox and Xbox 360, playing SSX Tricky, various Call of Duty's and Halo's (including the on-line multiplayer versions).

We have not yet got any of the latest generation consoles.

Today it is mainly iPads and App games, with a lot of time wasted on Candy Crush!

As previously mentioned I am a hoarder, which is vaguely disguised as collecting, and still have all my games consoles. Plus a few others I have picked up along the way, such as a SNES and Saga Saturn etc.