Top ten arcade games of the 1980's

My father loved bowling and I was glad for that fact. Not because I liked bowling, but it meant that every Friday night between 1982 and 1985 he would go bowling and I would go with him. The bowling alley was in a shopping center that had all of my needs. They had a Sound Waves record store, a Hallmark bookstore with a great comic book selection and an arcade. The arcade was called Blazing Flippers because it was opened in the mid 70's when pinball machines were still king. My father would give me a few dollars and I was off for the evening. On a Friday night in the early to mid 1980's the arcade was packed and I was overwhelmed by all the games. I loved the bright screens and all of the sounds of the games. After about a year of going, I got wise and realized that instead of playing a bunch of different games that if I focused on just a few then I would get better and get to play longer. That's what I did and my quarters lasted longer. In 1985 my father switched shifts and he couldn't bowl anymore because of his shift so my trips to the arcade ended. Around 85-86 arcade games were becoming a little less popular than in the early 80's and I believe Blazing Flippers went out of business around 88 or 89. I probably should have been spending my time doing better things, but I enjoyed it then and I think that I needed to get out and do something because I did not get many chances to do that.
Here are my top ten favorite arcade games of the 1980's. It's arcade only so no home games like River Raid or Pitfall. Also they have to have been made in the 1980's so that eliminates games like Asteroids and Galaxian because they were made in 1979 even though you may remember having played them in the early 1980's. So here they are and feel free to add your favorites in the comments.

10)Defender-A cool left to right shooting game with a lot of bright colors and nice explosions.

9)Pole Position 2- I am picking the sequel over the original because you got to choose from different race tracks. The sit-down version was better than the stand-up version.

8)Xevious-Shooting game only you are looking down at the ship and you get to shoot blast and drop bombs. The sound effects and music were a big plus here.

7)Dragon's Lair- In 1983 everyone thought this was the future of video games. It looked great and that's why it's a top ten. However it didn't require as much skill as some other games.

6)Robotron 2084- Odd game where you are a robot who tries to save people while all kinds of crazy creatures try to run into you. I love the frantic pace of this game.

5)Pac Man-Maybe two years after it came out it was old, but it deserves a top five slot just for the impact it made. This game was huge and it's popularity caused a lot of companies to start making video games.

4)Star Wars the arcade game-In 1983 this was considered 3-d gaming at it's best. It was a lot of line drawings, but it was challenging and it looked really cool for the time.

3)Galaga-Space Invaders inspired Galaxian and this was the sequel to Galaxian. I think this is the best of the those kind of games. Being able to have your ship captured and then get it back and have a duel shooter was a big plus for me.

2)Joust-You fly on an ostrich while trying to pick up eggs, land on top of other jousters while avoiding a big buzzard and the pit down below. Strange concept, but a challenging and fun game.

1)Donkey Kong-Having characters that have personalities can be a big draw and I think that both Mario and the title character had personalities. I found it to be fun and enjoyable and never really grew tired of it.

If you like or did like arcade games then check this site out.
http://www.klov.com/index.php
It lists arcade games and you look up games by title and see pictures of ones that you may remember and read information about them. The sad part though was that I looked up some games that I remember as having good graphics and now they look like drawings done by first graders.

***On Tuesday I will be reviewing Judas Priest's Defenders of the faith as Eight days of the 80's continues.