80'S Arcade Soundtrack

OK, I am old. I fondly remember the early to mid 80's arcades and the many wasted hours spent. My favorite one gave 8 tokens for a dollar, essentially doubling the gaming power of my limited money supply. Along with my memories goes a soundtrack of tunes that they used to play while gamers played.

Something like this:

Don't Stop Believin - Journey
Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Rock the Casbah - The Clash
Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears
Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder
I Melt With You - Modern English
Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions
Jump - Van Halen
I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Billy Jean - Michael Jackson
Photograph - Def Leppard
Rio - Duran Duran
Don't Stand So Close to Me - The Police
I Ran- Flock of Seagulls
Reach the Beach - The Fixx
Hot for Teacher - Van Halen


The list could go on and on. One thing I love about some of the Intellivision and Activision compilations is the inclusion of classic 80's hits.

I wish the Atari and Midway compilations could have been done as well as those two.

Great List!! I would only add to mine the various arcade sounds playing in the background.

I do not miss stepping on the gum and soda pop spilled on the floors .
But I miss those sounds and the quarters plunking down on the cabinets.

Your young sloan. When I think of those Pong machines and Space Invaders cabinets its ABBA, CCR -Creedence Clearwater Revival and Steppenwolf.

Now I feel old!

That is one of the things I really like about the Activision compilation! It has all of this 80's music to enjoy while playing!

By the way, has anyone gotten the Arcade Ambiance CD's? They have four of them, for 1981, 1983, 1986, 1992. Good Deal Games sells the CD's.

Hadn't heard about those. Thanks TrekMD!

You're welcome. They are sounds from arcades from those years. So, it is like being in an arcade!

Without young kids spilling their drinks or gum sticking to your shoes.

onthinice wrote: Without young kids spilling their drinks or gum sticking to your shoes.

Which makes for a cleaner arcade experience!

That it does. I think I will go check them out.

TrekMD wrote:That is one of the things I really like about the Activision compilation! It has all of this 80's music to enjoy while playing!

By the way, has anyone gotten the Arcade Ambiance CD's? They have four of them, for 1981, 1983, 1986, 1992. Good Deal Games sells the CD's.

Sweet. I will have to search these out.

Also, I believe that one of the Williams or Namco compilations for Gamecube has classic rock tunes playing while you peruse the "arcade" in game. I have the game, but haven't played it in so long I forgot that actual title.

Some more good tunes from the arcades of that era that come to mind:

Heat of the Moment - Asia
Lonely is the Night - Billy Squier
Whip It - Devo
Mr. Roboto - Styx
She Blinded Me with Science - Thomas Dolby
Abacab - Genesis
Obsession - Animotion
Riding on the Metro - Berlin
There's No One Like You - Scorpions
Breakin the Law - Judas Priest
Walk of Life - Dire Straits
Separate Ways - Journey
Eyes Without a face - Billy Idol

Give me time, I'll think of some more from that golden era of gaming and music...

Would have been cool it they had allowed you to load or download songs to a memory card or the hard drive. Then change out the play list for Activision and Intellivision discs.

Great lists so far sloan!

Checked on the CD's and they are priced well. When I thought of Good Deal Games it was always those unreleased Sega CD games that came to mind.

Thanks again TrekMD!

You're welcome!

If you come across any more info like this please let us know?

onthinice wrote:If you come across any more info like this please let us know?

Sure thing! Until recently I was only aware of the 1986 CD. Now I know of all of them. Do you also know about the Pac-Man Fever CD?

Is it a new re-release? If so probably not.

onthinice wrote:Is it a new re-release? If so probably not.

y

Yes it is. Completely redone and in 2 versions - with and without commentary.

Do you know what the commentary is like?

onthinice wrote:Do you know what the commentary is like?

There are interviews at the beginning and end of the CD along with commentary for each song (the CD has the normal version and one with commentary for each song). I just got them recently and I have not heard the commentary yet. I had never even heard the entire regular CD until now!

Great songs guys! :beautiful:

Got to listen to the Pac-Man Fever CD with commentary. The commentary is cool because it gives a little bit of story of the song, who plays it, how well received the song was, etc. Nice touch while the music is playing in the background. There is also an intro by Jerry Buckner and interview with Gary Garcia at the end. Gary passed away, so the CD is dedicated to his memory.

Sounds Good!

I'd have to add

The Tide Is High - Blondie
One Night In Bangkok - Murray Head
Opportunities - Pet Shop Boys
Romeos - Alphaville
It's My Life - Talk Talk
Pop Muzic - M
Pure Energy - Information Society
Mexican Radio - Wall Of Voodoo
You Spin Me Round - Dead Or Alive
Blue Monday - New Order  (For some reason the local arcade/video rental place/pizza place would play this whenever I sat down at their Atari to play Chopper Command.  Yes, I could always take the game to it's freezing but how is that song fitting?)

TrekMD wrote:By the way, has anyone gotten the Arcade Ambiance CD's?  They have four of them, for 1981, 1983, 1986, 1992.  Good Deal Games sells the CD's.

Yes, I have all four of them.  I love having one for the appropriate year playing in a CD player while I have 80s music streaming on a another device, all connected to a mixer.

Of course I often go with the 1981 CD and blast Separate Ways followed by Sweet Dreams, to capture that scene from Tron Legacy.

That's cool! Hadn't thought of doing that!