The Top 5 Arcade Games from 1981

[okiban]

1981 was a year of Heavy Hitters for sure. Donkey Kong was the second arcade game I ever played. Ms. Pac-Man I still play to this day. Both were my favorites!

[PolyhedralVideo]

FROGGER was one of the first games I played in a mall arcade. Later, we had the Atari 2600 version from Parker Brothers.

[Mr-Mystery]

Galaga was my favorite. I learned to button mash on the bonus stages.

[dingalingmasterpiecetheater]

1981 was a great year for games. Probably give the edge to Frogger since I still have my tabletop version.

[Treeplanter]

Tempest is the bomb for me, love it so much I bought the A1up. Love playing it.

[favoritemustard]

Good golly, I would have a hard time deciding which of these to plunk my tokens/25¢ into, but if forced, Galaga.
To answer your question, I was gonna say Joust, but it's from `82 😅

[joeypeanut]

Tempest was such a killer game!! Then the PSONE version hit, and it has remained my absolute favorite game of all time!! The music is AMAZING!

[romanverdugo]

Hey bro I live in Arizona but I stumbled upon your channel and im really excited for your arcade! I'm gonna plan a trip with me and my family to come check it out!!!

[zombee]

I played them all when those were new...favorite one was Galaga I played that thing alot. Once I was able to score 600, 000 points without dying .

[justafanofnerdculture]

1981 is a very, very special year for me. I was 7/8 years old then and that was the year that I played my very first video game (Asteroids, for the Atari 2600). Ms.Pac-man will always have a special place in my heart for the sounds and visuals alone. Donkey Kong was my favorite at this point though!! I absolutely fell in love with everything about it. I was even more excited during the holiday season of '83. Reason being, my brother came home for a couple of weeks from the military and he brought his Colecovision with him and gave it to me! It included four games: Gorf, Zaxxon, Donkey Kong Jr and, of course, Donkey Kong!! I played that Colecovision for countless hours back then. What an exciting, epic time to be a kid.

[constantinestamos]

All solid games that hold up well, even today!

[LukasBradley]

I would have put all my money on it being Ms Pac-Man

[Cplayz]

I love donkey kong, there's an arcade near me and every time I go I have to play it.

[baseball_rocks]

Galaga all day every day brother! Must play my Arcade1up Galaga cab 3-4 a week.

[iProxymoron]

I had no idea that's what Tempest was about. I was super young so it makes sense I didn't read the text. But that's still pretty cool, thanks!

[johndaut]

Galaga was one of my favs, ms pac man as well! I’d like to see you do one on my fav at a bowling alley “Off Road” love the content 🫶

[mindlessdroid]

Tempest was my favorite game for a long time.

[j.l.]

I liked all those games but I have to give it to Tempest with Donkey Kong a close second.

[john-spjk]

Donkey Kong is my all-time favorite arcade game!🕹️ That's why i love Nintendo so much! 🕹️🎮🕹️

[russell]

Hell yeah I remember all of them of course! Arcade staples from back in the day. I have memories of Ice Skating at the plaza of the Americas downtown Dallas and they had all of these in their Arcade. I sucked at all but Galaga lol. Long live the 80’s🤘🏻🕹️👾