Released in the arcades in april 1974, Basketball was a landmark title, notable for several firsts in video gaming. It was the first basketball video game, the first video game to use sprites, and the first to represent human characters. It is also the first known Japanese-developed game to be released in North America.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is a skateboarding sports game played from a third-person view across a set of urban environments. Players control professional or fictional skaters and chain together tricks such as grinds, grabs, flips, and lip tricks, using manuals to link combos into longer scoring runs. The career mode tasks players with completing level objectives and competitions to earn cash, which is used to unlock new levels and characters and to improve a skater's stats and equipment. It also includes free skate and single session modes, several competitive multiplayer games, and a level editor for building custom parks. It is the second entry in the Tony Hawk's series.
Simulator / Sport / Arcade / Action
Pong is a table tennis-themed twitch arcade video game with simple two-dimensional graphics. It was the first sports arcade video game and one of the earliest arcade video games in history, helping to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that closely mimicked its gameplay.
Shadow Fighter is a computer game for the Commodore Amiga, and Amiga CD32 developed by NA.P.S. team and published by Gremlin Interactive in 1994, and became one of the Amiga's best fighting game offerings during its final years, competing at the time with the likes of Acclaim's impressive home console ports of Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise, and Team 17's Body Blows.
A side scrolling 2D platformer and first entry in the Super Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros. follows Italian plumber Mario as he treks across many levels of platforming challenges featuring hostile enemies to rescue Princess Peach from the evil king Bowser.
NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game published and developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series. The main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell. Midway had previously released such sports games as Arch Rivals in 1989, High Impact in 1990, and Super High Impact in 1991. The gameplay of NBA Jam is based on Arch Rivals, another 2-on-2 basketball video game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam that brought mainstream success to the genre. The game became exceptionally popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release, creating revenue of $1 billion in quarters. In early 1994, the Amusement & Music Operators Association reported that NBA Jam had become the highest-earning arcade game of all time. The release of NBA Jam gave rise to a new genre of sports games which were based around fast, action-packed gameplay and exaggerated realism, a formula which Midway would also later apply to the sports of football (NFL Blitz), and hockey (2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge).
Fighting / Sport / Arcade / Action / Horror
Darkstalkers 3 is the second sequel in the Darkstalkers series of fighting games by Capcom, originally released for the arcades in 1997. The game was originally planned to be released as Darkstalkers: Jedah's Damnation in the United States, but this title was only used in the arcade version. New characters added in this version are Donovan, Huitzil (Phobos in Japan), and Pyron, with hidden characters of Dark Talbain and Oboro Bishamon .
Racing / Simulator / Sport / Action
Forget about those other flying games. This is the ultimate flight experience! Pilotwings 64 carries you off into a vast three-dimensional environment. Pilot several different vehicles and take in breathtaking sights. Successfully complete flight tests to earn your flight badge. Get a high enough score, and you’ll get a chance at bonus games such as Cannonball and Sky Diving! Soar into a wild blue yonder with Pilotwings 64!
