The player controls the Pacman that has to eat all the dots in the maze and avoid running into four “ghosts” known as Shadow, Speedy, Bashful and Pokey (or as Blinkey, Inkey, Pinkey and Clyde in some versions of the game.) In contact with any of the mentioned characters, the player loses a life.

Near the corners of the maze are found four larger dots called the power pellets which when eaten make the Pacman’s enemies vulnerable and can be eaten. However, they can be eaten only for a certain time period – as long as they remain blue. When the enemies are vulnerable, they also change direction and move more slowly. Before they become dangerous again they flash white but in later stages of the game they do not change color at all but their direction only.

Even if you were not born in the 1980′s, you most likely know the rules of Tetris. The objective of the game is to manipulate the tetrominoes, seven shapes that are composed of four blocks each. The tetrominoes fall down from the top of the screen in random positions and they need to be rotated and moved left and right so that you create a horizontal line without any gaps. When the line is created, it disappears and all the blocks above the line fall.

The game moves to a higher level when clearing ten lines. As the game progresses, the tetrominoes fall down faster. The game is over when the tetrominoes reach the top of the screen and prevent the new ones from falling down. Other fun games of the era include PacMan and Donkey Kong

Three versions of Duck Hunt were created. The first one known as One Duck requires shooting down ten ducks. One duck appears on the screen at a time and the player has three shots. The second model called Two Ducks is virtually the same as One Duck with the difference that two ducks appear on the screen at a time. The third model – Clay Shooting foresees shooting down 10 clay pigeons in each round.

One Duck was never released as an arcade game, while Clay Shooting in Vs. Duck Hunt is the second round. A dog appears in both One Duck and Two Ducks retrieving the hit ducks and laughing at the player if missing both ducks or failing to advance in the next level. The dog appears in Vs. Duck Hunt during the bonus stages distracting the player. If the dog is hit, the bonus round ends. Other shooting games of slightly different genre are Metal Slug and Raiden X.

Donkey Kong is an iconic arcade game that was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, and released by the Japanese corporation Nintendo in 1981. The game is one of the first examples of the platform genre, while Donkey Kong’s main characters later became Nintendo’s most recognizable characters. The game became a major success in North America despite the fact that the company’s American staff had doubts about it in the beginning.

The player controls the main character named Jumpman (the later Mario) who has to rescue the Lady (which later came to be known as Pauline) that was captured by a giant monkey named Donkey Kong. To rescue the Lady, you need to overcome obstacles, destroy various objects and collect items that belong to the Lady such as purses, hats and umbrellas. You have three lives and a bonus life for every 10,000 points.

Donkey Kong is divided into four different stages with each representing 25 meters of the structure that was climbed by Donkey Kong. The last screen therefore represents 100 meters. The game has a higher level of difficulty in compare to other classic arcade games, while rescuing the Lady (winning the game) requires proper timing of the Jumpman’s ascend as well as some patience. Other interesting classic games include Zelda and Galaga.

Street Fighter II follows the concept of its predecessor game but features several important improvements including the possibility to select between multiple characters each of which has its own fighting style.

The objective of Street Fighter II remains the same as of its predecessor game from 1987 – defeat the opponents in one-on-one combat in a series of two-out-of-three matches. In each round, you have to inflict as much damage to the opponent as possible and protect ourself from the enemy’s attack before running out of time.

If the time runs out and both fighters have the same amount of vitality left or if they knock each other out at the same time, a “draw game” follows which determines the winner of the match. In the original Street Fighter II, a match can last at most 10 rounds (in later versions up to 4 rounds only).

The main objective of Lunar Landing is to land a lunar landing module on the moon. However, the terrain is very rough and there are only few appropriate sites for landing. The player is awarded points when landing the lunar landing module successfully on the basis of landing technique as well as the difficulty of the landing area. The higher the difficulty of the landing site the higher the points awarded.

If you crash the lunar landing module you may still receive some points depending on severity of the crash and difficulty of the landing site but you can also get a fuel penalty. Either way, the game starts all over again with a different terrain and the remained amount of fuel. The game is over when you run out of fuel. The lunar landing module stops responding to the your commands and crashes on the surface of the moon.

Among the most exiting features of the game is the fact that it features gravity law which makes it a great simulation of the actual lunar landing.

The main objective of Kaboom is to catch the bombs dropped by the “Mad Bomber” from the top of the screen. The bombs are caught with a set of three buckets. The player gets points for every caught bomb and loses a bucket for every missed one. Every 1,000 points are awarded with extra buckets. The game has seven levels and as it progresses the bombs are dropped at higher speeds.

The concept of the game is very simple but the designer came up with few brilliant features that make it more fun to play. When the “Mad Bomber” drops the bomb he has an unhappy face and smiles when the player fails to catch the bomb which then explodes. However, when exceeding 10,000 points the “Mad Bomber” seems upset even if the player does not catch the bomb.

After the original release of Kaboom, the players who reached more than 3,000 points became members of the Activision Bucket Brigade and received a Bucket Brigade patch if they sent the company a photo of their screen proving that they scored over 3,000 points.

The main objective of Raiden is to fly the newly developed cutting-edge attack fighter and destroy as many alien warships as possible but you must also avoid getting hit by enemy’s projectiles both in the air and from the ground. Along the way you can collect powerups in form of bombs and missiles as well as collectable medals for which you receive a bonus score. When your fighter is destroyed, its fragments damage the enemy. At the same time the fighter drops its former weapon powers.

The game has eight stages and at the end of each stage you have to fight the “boss”. When the “boss” is defeated the game moves to a higher level. As the game advances, the enemies shoot faster and are more difficult to destroy.

The player has to shoot constantly to kill the enemies most of which are enemy soldiers. Along the way the player also encounters prisoners of war and receives bonuses in a form of various items and weapons, and an extra score bonus at the end of the level if freeing the hostages. At the end of the level, the game also reveals the names and ranks of freed prisoners of war, of course, if the player does not die before the end level.

In addition to fighting against enemy soldiers, the player in Metal Slug has to fight mechanized enemies including tanks, aircraft, artillery, etc. and at the end of the level the boss who is more difficult to kill. Along the way can be picked up various special weapons and “Metal Slug” tanks which inflict a maximum damage to the enemy.

The player controls the snake constantly moving around the bordered area and picking up food and some other items. The objective of the game is to pick up as many items as possible and avoiding hitting the “wall” surrounding the playing area as well as the snake’s own tail. However, the more the snake eats the longer it becomes and increases the speed which in turn increases the difficulty of the game as it advances.

You can control the snake’s head by directing it left, right, upwards and downwards. The snake cannot be stopped from moving nor to go reverse while the game is in progress. On the other hand, the game was released in several different versions since the mid-1970′s and the rules may vary from one game to another. But in most versions of Snake, the game is over when hitting the wall or the snake’s own tail.