Ikari Warriors arcade

Posted by CarloCarrasco@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 12 comments

Were you able to play Ikari Warriors in the arcade when it was first released in 1986? Was it a major attraction back then?

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Appropriate-Lab1970@reddit

This game used to be in the 7-11 down the street from Homestead Highschool in the late eighties. I loved this game.

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I played the shit out of this game in the 80s. Those chunky, yello, octagonal joysticks that rotated were pretty unique to this game. It wasn't very uncommon to drop a quarter in, select a player (red or blue!), and start the game, only to discover the rotation component of the joystick wasn't working properly. The Ikari Warriors cabinet in my local arcade was well- maintained, so the busted joystick issue was mostly when I was playing elsewhere.

Arkanoid and Forgotten Worlds also had weird controller designs, though the Forgotten Worlds version seemed to be the most dysfunction-prone among the games mentioned here. Forgotten Worlds was a wild time when the wheel-buttons weren't screwed up.

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numsixof1@reddit

I don't know if it was the biggest game at the time or anything but I enjoyed it.

Ended up buying a stand up version years later.. the arcade version is really short though you can play through it in about 25 minutes if you have unlimited credits compared to the NES version which adds a bunch of extra levels.

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Empty-Back-207@reddit

Worked in the arcade industry for 25 years. I despise those damned joysticks

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littleoctagon@reddit

They break often or what/how?

Cuz I came here to point out how frustrating it was to play this on any system other than the arcade after playing in the arcade. Similarly, how can a joystick compare to a radial controller like with arcade Arkanoid, you know?

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Empty-Back-207@reddit

The joystick for Arkanoid was different than the one in Ikari Warriors. Arkanoid was a simple design. It used optical scanning. Ikari used an 8-way joystick with an additional rotary. An insane amount of switches. Plus, the way it was put together, it would not stay put together. Recently, I did see that someone came up with an upgraded joystick, and it looks to be pretty decent.

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