Arcade Blogger
arcadeblogger.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2016
Tony Temple writes about arcade game history, restoration, and development stories, especially Atari and other classic coin-op machines.
What HN saysCommenters point to it as a fantastic arcade blog, describe its author as a nice person with a good book, and cite its design documents.
32HN people shared it
15linked it in comments
50stories submitted
2.1Kstory points
5 months agolast shared
2016people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The Last Ridge Racer4 people · 147 points · first shared 2022 · 35 comments on HN
- 2Rescuing vintage arcade video games from an abandoned ship (2016)3 people · 410 points · first shared 2016 · 49 comments on HN
- 3Atari Tempest Time Lapse Photography3 people · 7 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 4Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic2 people · 155 points · first shared 2018 · 60 comments on HN
- 5Atari Centipede’s Hidden Code Trap2 people · 120 points · first shared 2019 · 43 comments on HN
- 6Atari Coin-op Archive Footage2 people · 62 points · first shared 2019 · 12 comments on HN
- 7The Development of Robotron2 people · 51 points · first shared 2020 · 25 comments on HN
- 8GDI’s Slither: A $1.3M Arcade Crash and Burn2 people · 36 points · first shared 2017 · 3 comments on HN
- 9Bally Sente: Saviour of the Arcades? (2019)2 people · 23 points · first shared 2019 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Creator of MajorBBS Tim Stryker's Aztarac arcade game is found2 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 11What if ataris pong was a sci fi movie2 people · first shared 2022
- 12Homepage2 people · first shared 2017
- 13Soviet Arcade Games from the 70s and 80s1 people · 256 points · first shared 2019 · 35 comments on HN
- 14Atari's Mike Jang1 people · 237 points · first shared 2024 · 15 comments on HN
- 15Atari Tempest: Dave Theurer’s Masterpiece1 people · 232 points · first shared 2018 · 61 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ghostDancer · 2017-01-30
I feel something similar, where i live most arcades have disappeared, sign of the times. If you feel too nostalgic , take a look at this documentary "History of Arcade Video Games" [1] and visit this fantastic blog [2] (not mine).
[1]https://youtu.be/NO0yJ54f-RU
[2]https://arcadeblogger.com/
HansardExpert · 2025-04-19
I assume you're referring to this article https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/11/20/the-last-ridge-racer/ contact Tony (the arcade blogger) he's a nice guy to deal with - his book is also great by the way. Maybe he can do a follow up?
splonk · 2023-09-20
The Pinball Hall of Fame is notable for having a working Pinball Circus[1], of which there were only 2 ever built. I try to give it a play every time I'm in town. It's also got quite a few other rare games that are very difficult to find elsewhere, including a significant collection of electromechanical games that usually don't get much representation in arcades. I do agree that the level of maintenance isn't great, but that's basically true for almost any place with more than ~10 machines. I have a comment here[2] about the state of the places I go to regularly in San Francisco, but basically the only one that's consistently good is the one where the owner is onsite and does the maintenance himself.
[1]: https://arcadeblogger.com/2018/07/06/arcade-holy-grail-the-pinball-cir…
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35965664
FatalLogic · 2020-10-01
The rotation step may be 5.625 degrees. That would be equivalent to a division of 90° by 16, which could be accomplished by a simple 4 bit shift
One of the original design documents mentions a 90°/16 division operation: https://arcadeblogger.com/2018/10/24/atari-asteroids-creating-a-vector…
acomjean · 2017-10-04
I like the old machines. I enjoy reading about those brave collectors that buy these machines and try to keep them running.
For me I think the arcade experience is now more about the controls map to the games. (track ball/ nob/ flight yoke) for games like missile command/centipede , tempest, star wars).
The have "shows" now were people haul their machines to a hall and let the public play. For example the "california extreme expo"
https://arcadeblogger.com/2017/08/04/california-extreme-2017-arcade-ex…
I find this blog about restoring and finding old machines fun :
https://arcadeblogger.com/
lordfrito · 2022-12-23
The artist for the image on the basic programming cart was Rick Guidice. He did a lot of art for Nasa in the same style. [1]
A big reason video artwork from that period is so interesting is that the game graphics were limited, forcing a lot of artistic interpretation. Semi related, I recently found this, which seems like a futuristic reimagining of the original Atari style. [2]
Atari was a real pioneer in this space. They got their start doing arcade games for the midway. Which necessitates having eye popping attraction art to draw in players and collect their quarters. The quickly developed their own style which was pretty much copied all over the industry.
There's a great book called Art of Atari which is I highly recommend if you are interested in the history of this stuff. [3]
[1] https://www.rickguidice.com/nasaart/nasaarti.html
[2] https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/12/04/what-if-ataris-pong-was-a-sci-fi-…
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Art-Atari-Tim-Lapetino/dp/1524101036
msephton · 2026-06-14
Yes, screen printing, but there's more to it than those two words!
And the video in the post was sourced and uploaded by...the blog post author.
Also, let's be serious, that blog has been writing about arcade related things for over a decade https://arcadeblogger.com/2013/04/01/1814065/ and running a podcast since 2020, and the author wrote a book in 2020.
One could say he puts real effort into all this, you know?
robeastham · 2026-02-07
I'd find it easier to believe this comment is AI generated, given that the account is only 53 minutes old. The text on the t-shirt looks totally normal to me.
The fact that this blogger, who's blog I'm reading for the first time today, has been posting archive footage and imagery, using a pretty similar format, from the same factory since at least 2019 (https://arcadeblogger.com/2019/12/26/atari-coin-op-archive-footage/), and also the fact that the new post is his first blog post in 18th months, makes me think it's highly unlikely that this the post AI generated in any way.
z303 · 2025-01-14
Related, Ridge Racer Full Size based on an MX-5/Eunos/Miata
https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/11/20/the-last-ridge-racer/
Doctor_Fegg · 2025-01-10
https://arcadeblogger.com/2016/05/06/arcade-raid-the-duke-of-lancaster… is a much better article.
Here’s the list of games: http://www.opdenkelder.com/muerto/arc/shiplist.png
starkparker · 2024-08-17
Reminded me of the Ridge Racer Full Scale recovery/restoration story: https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/11/20/the-last-ridge-racer/
In which a very limited edition version of Ridge Racer in arcades used a full-size Mazda MX-5 (technically the Eunos Roadster) shell and panoramic projection.
joezydeco · 2022-12-17
Needs less Blade Runner and more Pong:
https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/12/04/what-if-ataris-pong-was-a-sci-fi-…
videotopia · 2020-02-03
molticrystal · 2019-08-03
While I am not implying these were used as such, another purpose these complicated sequences can hold is as a code trap for clone detection.
Code Traps:
https://arcadeblogger.com/2019/06/29/atari-centipedes-hidden-code-trap…
And the discussion here a month ago about code traps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20312256
Along similar lines in both the digital and non-digital world people would include false landmarks and roads on maps to detect copying, since while facts are not protected, fake places are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street