Here's an easter egg in the new Lego Batman that I think all of you will REALLY appreciate. It's so good, I had to make a video.

In this house we remember Hustle; we remember the Gremlin Girls. Part of a promotional series run throughout 1977, the Gremlin Girls showed their skills across the US and Europe by challenging people to Gremlin's games with $100 on the line.

June 4, 1977: “Held Over” signs are appearing nationwide on marquees promoting some space opera film movie (it was called "War of Stars" iirc) We’re headed back to the mythic 70’s arcade to listen to the #AT40 and play a new game called Hustle.

PONG: 11-4

We also make a concerted effort to contact some service departments of companies that may not exist anymore.

CUC International kept just beating estimates until Henry Silverman saw the books and uncovered fraud built on phantom subscriptions and merger money games. That scandal helped push its software division into Vivendi's orbit. TCW259: www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1k5... #AccountingFraud #Vivendi

May 29, 1971: Doing some final due diligence, the New York Times readies its publication of the Pentagon Papers. But we don’t know shit about all that yet, and we’re headed to the arcade to listen to this week’s #AT40 and play pinball. (Commercial video games don’t exist yet, sorry.)

A very special episode of Dating Arcade Games begins in one hour

The PLATO can produce mind-boggling effects.

May 20, 1972: Other than occasional domestic terrorist bombs blowing up washrooms in the Pentagon, not much is happening this month We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 & play the one and only mass-produced video game available—Computer Space (and we’re kinda getting sick of it tbh)

if you wrote "Reminiscing" today, the line about Glen Miller's band would be about Guns N' Roses or INXS #AT40

The good name of Bubsy has been sullied

went on a walk made a friend

The paradox: 1) I see LLMs as a technology as useful and transformative as cars or the Internet, and 2) I am happy with these results, as I can imagine how much better the state of cars and the Internet might be today if they’d been greeted with the vicious distrust they both in retrospect deserved.

Checkers!

Walter Forbes turned a phone-in shopping club into CUC International, spent $1.7B on software companies, then merged with HFS to form Cendant. How was this company always just barely beating estimates? 🎙️ TCW258: www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW... #VideoGameHistory #CorporateScandal #Cendant

my sweet summer children

Saw some guy trying to pitch a psychological trick to clearing out your backlog of videogames and making rules and all this stuff and man I do not want to take playing videogames that seriously. It’s okay if you bought Bubsy and don’t play it, Bubsy don’t care.

Arcade heads: Here is your weekend long read. This will, of course, be on the test.

May 5, 1973: A legit fun day: Secretariat is going to win the Kentucky Derby later today, and Zeppelin will play in front of a record-sized crowd in Tampa. We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 where Pong ball-and-paddle games are fresh and new.

Update: good progress was made.

It's a big night for us—we're about to establish that Space Invaders was released before Frogs! Party starts in under an hour—come along, bring snacks!

I will be presenting at The Strong at the end of July for the Save the Games event! This will be my first time at the museum and meeting many people I've known for years online. Get a look at what I'm presenting (along with many others) here!

May 3, 1975: Just a few days after the fall of Saigon, and the only thing messier than world politics is the popular music industry. We’re headed to the arcade to play a new racing game called Wheels and listen to the #AT40. *slaps hood* you can fit SO MUCH disappointment in this bad boy!

Nine cartridges, a Sears rebrand, and clever sprite tricks that pushed a new console to its limits. The Atari VCS launch titles were modest, but their fingerprints are everywhere. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcws... #AtariVCS #Atari2600 #RetroGaming #VideoGameHistory

Today's Atari Archive focuses on Riddle of the Sphinx and Fire Fighter, a pair of August 1982 releases from Imagic that really exemplify two very different approaches to game design: an ambitious, puzzle-solving adventure game and a graphically impressive but very simple action title.

For those that couldn't catch us at Midwest Gaming Classic, I made sure to get the panel up quickly! youtu.be/SDnNTQWcc68 Headed by @katewillaert.bsky.social, @theycreateworlds.bsky.social, @nathaniellockhart.bsky.social, and myself talk about the important early arcade games of the 1970s.

Editor: You get those photos of middle-aged jukebox execs dressed in bee costumes?

telling my kids this is the band Eagles

Apr. 20, 1974: It’s 4-20 Moreover it’s 1974—which means the music industry’s finally shed the leftovers of the 1960s & now has no idea what it wants to be We’re headed to the arcade to listen to this week’s #AT40 & play any one of the 79 variants of Pong Gonna be a total mess; join us, won’t you

A selection of floor burgers from various beat 'em up games.

RETVRN .----. _.'__ `. .--(#)(##)--/#\ .' @ /###\ : , ##### `-..__.-' _.-\###/ `;_: `"' .'"""""`. /, JOE ,\ // COOL! \\ `-._______.-' ___`. | .'___ (______|______)

12 Monkeys

I’ve always wanted to hold a small pinball tournament where the only rule was that you’re not allowed to move Meatloaf.

good morning

Apr. 17, 1971: The US is stumbling into “ping-pong diplomacy” with China We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 from that week Please don’t blow your cover as a time traveller saying you don’t recognize these songs. Even if you lived through this time, you remember half of them at best

office chair curling, the world's most anticipated office chair game of the year, is HERE! Features: - breathtaking realism - office chairs - a broom to sweep the ground - that's it. 🏢🪑🥌 play.date/games/office-chair-curling/

Tweakbod has uncovered an incredible piece of footage from circa 1975 showing off TTL arcade games! www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZKh... My favorite is finally getting a look at Ramtek's Baseball in motion - which confirms its similarities to Tornado baseball, sans player animation.

Bob Jacob wanted to put Hollywood into a game box and nearly pulled it off. Defender of the Crown, Wings, Rocket Ranger, and a football game that quietly inspired EA Sports, all from a studio that lasted five years. youtu.be/EN43CmoJpyc #Cinemaware #DefenderOfTheCrown #RetroGaming #GamingHistory

help wanted getting more Japanese arcade history to archive! 3 Taito pricelists from the 1970s and one from Esco Trading are up. Can you help us acquire these rarities so they can be scanned and shared on @archive.org? pinballnovice.blogspot.com/2026/04/help... #eremeka #retroarcade #japan #pinball

Is this anything?

April 7, 1979: Just this week, three former world leaders—Bhutton (Pakistan), Hoveyda (Iran), & Idi Amin (Uganda)—will be executed. The American hegemony responds with its greatest cultural weapon: Disco! We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 and play the brand-new game Space Invaders

It's one hundred and fifty three seconds long and you might not be able to handle it!

Rally-X was a better video game than Pac-Man

The search is over. We've found the prefect pinball table.

Apr. 2, 1977: Sure the world’s “hot spots” from Africa to the Middle East are flaring up—but in America we’re still talking about how Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar (over Network & Taxi Driver, if you can imagine). We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 and play this new Blockade game

Happy 50th to the "shot heard 'round the world"!

BUBSY 3D but I actually finished it and gotta say it was kinda not as bad as its reputation was

This is probably the best presentation of these 3D scans to date