Gallery: Rarest, Craziest, Most Memorable Arcade Games of California Extreme
01crossbow
SANTA CLARA, California — Remember that one arcade game? The one you'd always play at the bowling alley whenever you could squeeze your parents for their spare change? Well, odds are you'll never find it again. It's rare to find those old classics still up and running; the ones that weren't sent to the junk heap with burnt-out CRT monitors or busted joysticks rest in the homes and warehouses of hard-core collectors. But once a year, said collectors haul their games out of storage to show them off at [California Extreme](http://www.caextreme.org), a Silicon Valley exhibition of coin-operated amusements. As I've said before in these pages, it's like [the Brigadoon of arcades](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2009/07/california-extreme/), here one day and gone the next. You'll be able to experience California Extreme next July; until then, tide yourself over with this gallery of the craziest, most obscure or just plain awesomest arcade games of the sexy '70s, excellent '80s and gnarly '90s that we found at this year's show. __Above:__ Crossbow -------- Arcade gamemaker Exidy probably didn't need such a literal title on this machine; one look at it and players could have probably figured out pretty quickly that it involves shooting a crossbow even if it hadn't been titled [Crossbow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow_(video_game)). Crudely drawn medieval warriors march across various battlefields, and you're playing the part of the hidden sniper. Take out enemies before they get to your pals. You've really got to lean in and put your face on the crossbow and use the sights if you want to actually hit them. So they actually could have titled this Eye Infection.
02donkey-kong-ii
Donkey Kong II -------------- Nintendo did make a game called Donkey Kong II, but it was [a little-known LCD "Game & Watch" handheld gadget](http://www.flickr.com/photos/appelogen/4413792146/). This is something completely different: A [fan-made hack for expert players with fiendishly difficult levels](http://www.jeffsromhack.com/products/d2k.htm). But rather than just modifying the game code, the creator went all out and built arcade cabinets with backglass and artwork. Even better, the game now has little Pac-Man-style intermission sequences between levels, assuming you can ever make it to them. 
03journey-10
Journey ------- Released in 1983, this action game based on legendary rock band Journey featured the latest in graphics technology: digitized black-and-white photographs of the group's five members, each of whom stars in a separate mini-game level. In *[Journey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_%281983_video_game%29)*, Steve Perry navigates a maze of turnstiles to get to his beloved microphone. Neil Schon retrieves his guitar by flying a jet pack. And so forth. At the game's finale, the band plays "Separate Ways" — thanks to an actual cassette deck installed in the machine with a looping tape.
04beavis-butt-head
Beavis & Butt-Head ------------------ Given the exorbitant production costs of stand-up machines and the general decline in interest in traditional arcades toward the end of the '90s, many games were completed but never produced. Several of these are on display at California Extreme, and one of the most notorious is this cooperative action game starring MTV's original animated juvenile delinquents. [Beavis & Butt-Head](http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7087) is a beat'em-up that borrows ideas from the cartoon, alternately asking players to work together or fight each other (outside in a mud pit using boxing gloves on the end of baseball bats, naturally).
05touch-me
Touch-Me -------- Although it doesn't quite qualify as a videogame, this arcade amusement machine became an interesting footnote in Atari's history. Released in 1974 as the company was establishing its dominance in the arcade world, [Touch-Me](http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=12694) made you repeat a sequence of buttons that lit up and played sounds. Ralph Baer, creator of the Odyssey home videogame console, saw the game at a trade show and thought he could create something with a more pleasing aesthetic and more harmonious sounds. Thus inspired, he created [Simon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%28game%29), which became an extremely popular electronic toy and is still sold today.
06gee-bee
Gee-Bee ------- California Extreme is packed full of all the most historically significant arcade game releases, but one of the landmark games of the era went almost unnoticed at the show. [Gee-Bee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee_Bee_%28arcade_game%29) is the first original arcade game ever produced by Namco, and the first game designed by Pac-Man creator [Toru Iwatani](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/). It's quite a creative game, a combination of pinball and block-breaking games like [Arkanoid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkanoid). Colored gels overlaid atop the black-and-white display crudely shade various areas of the playfield.
07death-race
Death Race ---------- The original controversial videogame, [Death Race had parents up in arms](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2007/10/how-protests-ag/) for its gruesomely realistic depiction of innocent pedestrians getting mauled by the players' vehicles. And by "gruesomely realistic," we mean black-and-white stick figures. The design team called them "gremlins." It's hard to tell.
08atari-football
Atari 4-Player Football ----------------------- Speaking of the ever-changing definition of "realism," [Atari's video version of the great sport of American football](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Football) was considered to be just short of real life. You could select from any one of four different plays on offense and defense, then run your players — represented by Xs and Os so you could tell the teams apart — around the field. A year later, in 1979, Atari released this colossus: A four-player version of the game with plastic bleachers surrounding the screen and enough standing room for a whole family. Not pictured: The five booths you'd have to take out of your restaurant to have enough space for this machine.
09sea-wolf
Sea Wolf -------- Early black-and-white videogames constantly tried to find ways to add depth to the visual experience without having to use costly color displays. Gee-Bee used colored gels; Video Pinball projected the graphics onto a plastic playfield using a mirror. [Sea Wolf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Wolf_%28arcade_game%29) had the player look through a periscope. A blue sheet of acetate turned everything the hue of the ocean. Looking through the periscope, a player could see his score projected on the glass, "floating" above the screen. The gameplay was clever as well — you moved the periscope around, using it to line up your shots and fire torpedoes.
10vortek-v3
Vortek V3 --------- Sticking your head into a ridiculous helmet remained popular even after the days of Sea Wolf. The [Vortek V3](http://www.globalvr.com/products_v3.html) is a poor man's virtual reality setup, where instead of getting to wear VR glasses or a space-age visor, you stick your head into a massive helmet that rotates around. Inside is a monitor that follows you around, so you have to spin in a circle to shoot down targets.
