Top 10 Arcade Games Of The 1970s

Top 10 Arcade Games Of The 1970s

Believe it or not, these games were absolutely mind-blowing back in the day, and have since helped define video games in the public eye. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we countdown our picks for the Top 10 Arcade Games Of The 1970s. Subscribe►►http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=watchmojo Facebook►►http://www.Facebook.com/WatchMojo. Twitter►►http://www.Twitter.com/WatchMojo Suggestion Tool►►http://www.WatchMojo.com/suggest Channel Page►►http://www.youtube.com/watchmojo

For this list, we’re looking at the best games released to and played in arcades between 1970 and 1979. These are the games that made a significant impact on popular culture and the video gaming medium, helping to influence bigger, better games of the future.

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50 Comments

  1. Gordon Costa on December 27, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    How about Missile Command and Star Fire



  2. Randall Owens on December 27, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    is this an arcade room o not.haaa



  3. Irish Menace on December 27, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    I was hoping to see galaga but that was made in 81 🙁



  4. Hyper Sonic on December 27, 2020 at 11:44 pm

    4:11 Didn’t the Atari 2600 have color back in 1977? How is it then that arcade games didn’t goto color till 2 years later?



  5. Lindsey Mathews on December 27, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    No some the games bad so I say pac man Centipede mapping rally x defender super pac man pac man pal pac man 256 dig dug space invaders with the color



  6. oldbloke135 on December 27, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    I was an arcade engineer back then and my favourite machine was Asteroids. Not because the game was good, I just liked the vector graphics system. More interesting than the normal raster scan everything else had.



  7. Don Simon on December 27, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    Surely Mole Hunter by Data East should be here.



  8. oposoum on December 27, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    I was 13 and a small store opened near my home. It had pre-computer arcade games, before the first computer game, ping pong, appears. These games was in similar cabinets like the arcade computer games, but with real objects inside. There was a game where you drove a car with a steering wheel and you tried to avoid to crash with other cars. These cars was real miniatures and the game was mechanical. All the base of the game was in the hidden side, in the bottom of the box and you saw the cars and the whole thing through a mirror! A similar game was one with motorcycle race and some others with shooting. The first time I saw ping pong I was very impressed and I spend a lot of coins.



  9. Hanshin 1001 on December 27, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    なぜかコマネチポーズの30点インベーダー🙄



  10. vladimir volkhov on December 28, 2020 at 12:01 am

    Nothing like the feeling of walking into a dark arcade full of these vintage games, a very distinct and great memory from Generation X.



  11. Joe Kilian on December 28, 2020 at 12:03 am

    Who remembers Firetruck & Outlaw ?



  12. The New Gamer on December 28, 2020 at 12:04 am

    I think pac man is that in the 1970s or not



  13. guyverjedi on December 28, 2020 at 12:05 am

    these games were iconic in thier time/ i was born 1981 and i still like to play them…. todays games are worse…. at the end of the day games are supposed to be fun to play…. game of 2020 are boring… they are unskilled games… with boring storys… and no skill or gameplay…. i miss the old days



  14. epicrafter924 Boss on December 28, 2020 at 12:05 am

    Your parents childhood gaming 😀



  15. Benji Wayen on December 28, 2020 at 12:06 am

    Centipede and galaga are my favorite



  16. Omar on December 28, 2020 at 12:07 am

    Modern videogames: included story, politics, mythology, psychology and more.

    1970s videogames : *SPACEEEEE*



  17. PonchoClos on December 28, 2020 at 12:08 am

    One of my favorite 70s video games is Atari’s Starship 1. I like the game play and sounds and that two of the ships resembled starships from Star Trek.



  18. Don McGee on December 28, 2020 at 12:08 am

    Battlezone was released November 1980.



  19. Space Invader on December 28, 2020 at 12:09 am

    Coming through it outer space!



  20. Angela Myers on December 28, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Let’s be fair, We all knew that Space Invaders was gonna be #1



  21. Nathan Sharp on December 28, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Im trying to find a game I played in the 80s. It was a top view & In it your character went up the screen & the weapon you had looked like you were waving white handkerchief in front of you. If you missed the enemy it would stick to you & slow you down for a while. When you got to the ‘Big Boss’ at the end of the stage he was like this massive red buddah/demon looking guy who would fire down lightning bolts at you. Can anyone remember this?? Ive looked at all the ‘classic 80s Games’ clips on Youtube & its nowhere to be found.



  22. maha77 on December 28, 2020 at 12:11 am

    I’m glad Space Invaders was number one I remember playing it on my brand new Atari 2600 in 1977 for Christmas



  23. GraemeMurphy on December 28, 2020 at 12:12 am

    I must have spent over £300 in a few short months in 1977 on playing this machine in the North Seaton Hotel, Ashington, Northumberland, United Kingdom (commonly called the "White Elephant" because of the huge framed painting of such in the entrance foyer) and still felt like an amateur compared to some of the other college students that I shared those times with.



  24. vladimir volkhov on December 28, 2020 at 12:12 am

    Don’t forget berzerk and Battlezone



  25. Squarp on December 28, 2020 at 12:13 am

    Good rewind



  26. Mason Clark on December 28, 2020 at 12:15 am

    Space invaders is almost a boring game



  27. GUY HALL on December 28, 2020 at 12:15 am

    1970s: "Death Race should be banned due to possible psychological impact"
    .
    .
    2010s: Call Of Duty



  28. Kevin Mohan on December 28, 2020 at 12:21 am

    I preferred galaxian, but I think the 2 best games of the 70s were space invaders or asteroids.  asteroids I felt was much harder than the other 2. played all these games in my dads pub



  29. D R on December 28, 2020 at 12:22 am

    Kmart had Pac-Man roller skates on sale in 1982, LOL! I had Coleco-Vision in 85.



  30. Diek us on December 28, 2020 at 12:22 am

    I played a few of those in the 80s. "Death Race" surprised me, seems the precursor of the mythical Carmaggedon.



  31. Steve Williams on December 28, 2020 at 12:22 am

    Is there a way to play / get these games to play on just a Samsung Tablet please ?



  32. IronSalamander8 on December 28, 2020 at 12:23 am

    Pretty solid list really! I was there for the later parts of the 70s as I was too young to play until at least 76 or so, but this brings back memories!



  33. troll epik on December 28, 2020 at 12:23 am

    Space invaders is still fun



  34. J Polar on December 28, 2020 at 12:23 am

    Who remembers when the video games at the mall in the video arcade had built in cup holders and cigarette ashtrays on them.



  35. Anne Scholey on December 28, 2020 at 12:24 am

    In Galaxian you blew up when you ran out of gas…



  36. rcard53762 on December 28, 2020 at 12:26 am

    Atari Football with the big trackballs to make the X and O move.



  37. Priscilla The Piglet on December 28, 2020 at 12:26 am

    Tank does seem very fun



  38. robertebarberiii on December 28, 2020 at 12:26 am

    Galaxian and Asteroids were awesome. Put many a quarter into those machines. Asteroids looks easy, but the controls were not tightly coupled to the ship. It felt like you were never quite in control of the action. We knew games like Pong were lame. Pong was better than nothing (barely), but nobody was like, "Wow! What a miracle somebody invented Pong." The first games came after cultural milestones like lunar landing, Beatles career, Wizard of Oz, Star Trek, color TV, instant replay in sports, ad infinitum. The first games weren’t impressive by comparison.



  39. Brayan Hernandez on December 28, 2020 at 12:28 am

    Me and my yong brother like space invaders



  40. Bernhard Wall on December 28, 2020 at 12:28 am

    The first video game I remember playing in the 70s was Stratovox.



  41. David Moore on December 28, 2020 at 12:30 am

    I remember walking miles to get to the chip shop with the first space invaders in it .



  42. Neil Vance on December 28, 2020 at 12:30 am

    Galaxian was so advanced in 1979, I think it was the 1st true RGB pixel arcade game. It was fluid and each ‘galaxian’ gave you a sense of ‘AI’ and personality. Even at the time, there was still black and white games being made with colour gels taped over the screen, Even for several years later some colour arcade games were not RGB pixel and had blocky non-fluid movements. In the UK video games cost 10 pence per play. Galaxian was mostly the very first game to be double the price (20 pence) as it really was so advanced almost out of this world at the time.



  43. Donnie Sleh on December 28, 2020 at 12:32 am

    Fuck those games



  44. TheBrianp1 on December 28, 2020 at 12:32 am

    Without pong there would have been something else to start the video game era.

    Part of me misses the arcades but it was a horrible money suck and at today’s rates a quarter would be a buck and I would never have spent that sort of money today on a game. I guess when you are a kid you don’t consider such things.



  45. Sam Reese on December 28, 2020 at 12:37 am

    I have never stopped playing since pong. I’m 62. I’m now gaming with my grandson



  46. Remag37 DeadLee37 on December 28, 2020 at 12:37 am

    Pac man is 40 this year



  47. Edward Bliss on December 28, 2020 at 12:37 am

    How about the baseball game where the silver ball rolls towards you from under a flap?



  48. james fisher on December 28, 2020 at 12:39 am

    To be honest with you i am only 10 years old but i absolutely love these games !



  49. riproar11 on December 28, 2020 at 12:40 am

    When Galaga came out you could no longer play Galaxian because it was too plain and boring. There’s a retro arcade machine at my company and no one plays it, because those games are now boring.



  50. David X on December 28, 2020 at 12:41 am

    ‘Man, I feel old now’