Game nostalgia strategy quiz:
In Donkey Kong, did you bother getting the hammer to smash the barrels, or just head for the top?
In Galaga, did you try to get the double fighter?
Gyruss: double bullets? Or not bother?
Did you keep feeding in coins in Moon Patrol, to try and get to the end?
Pacman: save the power pills for when you can get multiple ghosts, or just clean up the board ASAP?
Who was your favourite character to play in Gauntlet?
In Popeye did you favour the top, or bottom of the screen waiting for the hearts?
Space Invaders: start shooting the sides, the middle, or in rows starting from the bottom?
Scramble: Try and shoot the fuel tanks ahead, or bomb them from above? Make it to the end?
Answering my own quiz…
Donkey Kong: headed straight for the top.
Galaga: sometimes, especially before a challenge stage.
Gyruss: always double bullets.
Moon Patrol: for a while I was hooked, and kept feeding in coins.
Pacman: never mastered it, but tried to get multiple ghosts.
Gauntlet: I don’t remember!
Popeye: Preferably pick up the hearts at the top, but I’d inevitably end up at the bottom.
Space Invaders: The sides
Scramble: Bomb the tanks (like THAT ever made sense…). Yeah, I made it to the end.
Donkey Kong: headed straight for the top.
Galaga: most of the time.
Gyruss: always double bullets.
Moon Patrol: I didn’t play at the arcades (there wasn’t one in the one-horse town I grew up in). And my C64 didn’t take coins!
Pacman: Didn’t play much.
Gauntlet: I don’t remember either. But it was a fun game.
Popeye: Didn’t play at all.
Space Invaders: In rows
Scramble: Didn’t play.
Donkey Kong: headed straight for the top.
Galaga: always
Gyruss: always
Moon Patrol: Couldn’t afford to keep feeding it when I played it so I played it from the start again each time (filled in more time you see!)
Pacman: followed “the pattern”
Gauntlet: Elf
Popeye: gave up on the top and used to hang around the bottom
Space Invaders: Shot out the middle and then went by rows using the gap for cover
Scramble: shoot the tanks and made it to the end
A pretty sad comment on my life is that I can remember all of that clearly – just don’t ask me about my current work!
I can also clearly remember all the C64 games I used to play…. sad indeed!
Donkey Kong: generally straight for the top. Hammers were annoying.
Galaga, Gyruss, Moon Patrol: – shock, horror – never played!
Pac Man: – tried to save up for the big 4.
Gauntlet: Usually hacked ‘n’ slashed with the warrior, sometimes tried the wizard. I thought the elf and valkyrie were not well skilled in anything. Occasionally played the little blue woman, but, shhh, don’t tell anyone…
Popeye: Never played – saw it but not played it. It almost appeared on one of my early computers, but didn’t.
Space Invaders: try to shoot bottom row, with aliens approaching.
Scramble: Never played
PS my favourite Pac Man clone on my Atari computer was Ghost Hunter. It had at least 20 different maze layouts, and you could play 2 players head to head. You could block your opponent, you had momentary invisible mode. Nice. (Not bad for the 80s anyway). It took an age to load from tape, though.