Classic Arcade Games

33 arcade games, oldest first

• Lantern Deep 1977 The first cave adventure, word for word. A road, a brick building, a grate in the gully, and below it a cave full of treasure, dwarves and a pirate. Type or tap your way in.
• Prismwall 1978 A vector brick-breaker: three balls, a wall of faceted gems and shards that add balls or widen the paddle.
• Twin Treads 1978 Two line-drawn tanks in a maze that changes every round. Your shots bounce off the walls, and so do theirs. First to five round wins takes the match, then the next CPU is sharper.
• Lamplight Log 1979 A shut lighthouse, a low tide and eight keepsakes an old keeper left behind. Type your way around Skerrow Rock, its cottage and its sea caves, solve fair puzzles with oil cans, lanterns and one very rude gull, then row home with the hamper full.
• Orbit Tether 1979 Swing a probe round wireframe moons on a rigid rope, cut loose, and let the next moon catch you.
• Spark Shepherd 1979 Loose sparks drift about a glowing field. Shove the bright ones into the sliding pen, steer the red glitch sparks into the drain, and never let eight of them run loose.
• Thrustline 1979 A fuel-starved lander over vector mountains and three pads. The narrower the pad, the bigger the bonus.
• Sparkfall 1980 A vector catcher where the cup has a polarity and a wrong catch burns one of your five cells.
• Vael I: The Grand Underground Empire 1980 An open field, a boarded house, a trapdoor under the rug. Below lies a whole kingdom of treasure, trolls and a thief who wants what you carry. The classic underground adventure, renamed and running as it did in 1980.
• Vael II: The Wizard's Realm 1981 Deeper in the kingdom a wizard plays tricks on every visitor. A riddle door, a spinning room, a dragon, a princess and a bank vault stand between you and his tower.
• Vael III: The Endless Stair 1982 At the bottom of the endless stair an old man watches you. The last part of the trilogy is a test of character more than treasure: seven points, every one of them earned.
• Stardust Slingshot 1984 Slingshot a probe past pink planets to collect stardust. Three shots a sky, twelve skies, and a dotted aim trail that gets shorter as you go.
• Mole Mallet 1985 Four 60-second shifts at a nine-hole mole patch, with helmets, golden moles and bombs in the mix.
• Nickel Pinball 1985 A one-screen table with three pop bumpers, two slingshots, three side targets and a bonus gate.
• Rescue Lift 1985 Fly a little helicopter to hikers stranded on the cliffs, hover till the rope lifts them in, and land them on the base pad before dark. Dodge birds, gusts and lightning.
• Hollowmere 1993 Halloween night, 1993. A dare sends you up the hill to Hollowmere, a manor empty for a hundred years, where a stage magician's ghost is still waiting to finish his vanishing act. Find his cape, wand, top hat and a very suspicious rabbit, light the little theatre and bring him back for one last bow.
• Orbit Nine 1999 Your first shift as relief caretaker on a tiny space station, and nothing works. The power is out, Biscuit the cat is missing, a supply ship is waiting to dock, and MABEL, the kind station computer, has mislaid half her memory and keeps calling you Gary. Put it all right.
• Marble Mile 2000 Tilt a floating course under a glass marble. Ramps pick it up, ice lets it run, narrow ledges punish a heavy hand. Flags add time, falling costs three seconds, and the mile is five hundred tiles long.
• Postmark Panic 2001 Sort letters off a speeding belt into four bins before one reaches the line. Three mistakes end it.
• Five Dice Farm 2002 Three rolls a turn, five dice, twelve fields on the farm card. Hold what you like, roll the rest, then write the result in Seeds, Coop, Farmhouse, Row or any open field. Fill the card to harvest. Points only.
• Slice Orchard 2010 Fruit flies up from the grass at dusk. Drag across it to slice, and cut several in one sweep for a combo. Beehives are not fruit. Five hearts, and a dropped fruit costs one.
• Cellar Crawl 2016 Six floors of a damp cellar, one step at a time. Bump to attack, drink potions, find a sharper blade and a shield, and take the stairs down to the Cellar Lord.
• Turf Tag 2016 Paint your patch, then dash out and loop back to claim everything inside. Touch a rival's trail and they snap home. Your paint fades unless you keep walking it.
• Crown Swipe 2017 A small kingdom, a very odd court and four meters to keep balanced: crown, folk, faith and coin. Swipe each troublesome card left or right and rule for as many years as you can.
• Gulp Hollow 2017 You are a hole in a toy town. Swallow whatever fits, grow, and dodge the bigger holes before the two minutes run out. Each day brings a shopping list for bonus points.
• Lantern Lake 2017 One quiet evening on a jetty. Cast, wait for the bobber to dip, then keep the marker on the fish while you reel. Thirty fish to find in a journal, and lantern upgrades to buy with what you catch.
• Spire Drop 2017 A ball bounces down a tower of rings. Turn the tower so it drops through the gaps, steer clear of red, and string three drops together to smash the next ring.
• Shrink Ring 2020 Ten round blobs on a floating disc that keeps shrinking. Charge a dash, bump the others into the water, grab the pick-ups, and be the last one on.
• Ember Horde 2021 Walk a lantern-bearer through eight minutes of shadow-moths. Your fire fires itself; pick one of three upgrades at each level-up. Your light is your health.
• Kite Clash 2022 A gentle festival fight in a wide sky. Fly your kite so your string sweeps across another one, hold PULL, and the line frays until that kite drifts off. Last kite aloft wins the round.
• Curator's Quiz 2024 Seven questions about the history on the Eracade Museum pages. Pick the right answer, then read the line from the museum and follow the link to the hall it came from.
• Signal Lost 2024 You find a phone on a park bench after a storm. 23% battery, a lock screen full of messages, and a friend's dog missing somewhere in the park. Crack the passcode, read the chats, choose your replies and find Pickle before the battery dies.
• Daily Caper 2025 Something has gone missing from Great-Aunt Clem's birthday tea. Five guests, one house, one fibber. Search the rooms, hear every story, compare the clues, then make your one accusation. A new case every day, the same for everyone.