The 10 Greatest Arcade Games of 1977

Sprint 8 – Atari

Following up from Sprint 2 and Sprint 4 arcade games was Atari’s Sprint 8, titled this way (like the prequels) because of how many players it could support! The original Sprint game was actually an evolution of another Atari game – Gran Trak 10, which was the very first top down racer, a genre that has been hugely popular over the years with games like Micro Machines, Super Off Road, Skidmarks and Band Bang Racing.

The biggest differences between Sprint 8 and the games that came before it was not just the number of players though, it also had the addition of a microprocessor and also colour graphics for the first time. Sprint 8 was hugely popular in the arcades and was followed up by numerous sequels including Super Sprint, Championship Sprint and Badlands. As well as the many clones there were also some great official conversions of these games to home systems too.

Guided Missile – Taito

Before there was Space Invaders Taito unleashed another popular shoot ‘em up onto arcade audiences in Guided Missile. The name kind of explains the game completely, you launch missiles from your silo and then have to guide them into the targets by holding left or right.

Each game is timed at 90 seconds but it was possible to extend this if you were good enough. There are six different targets you can hit: trucks, boats, helicopters, tanks, planes and submarines. Each one is worth different amount of points with subs having the lowest value and planes the highest as they are faster and smaller, so harder to hit. Guided Missile represents one of the very first titles that could be enjoyed equally by one or two players, with the latter seeing you compete simultaneously for both the high score and all-important bragging rights.

Canyon Bomber – Atari

Cannon Bomber is a simple but incredibly fun 1977 coin-op from Atari that now, while now largely forgotten, inspired hundreds of different clones. The game sees either zeppelins or bi-planes flying over a canyon full of numbered rocks. From your aircraft you can from bombs to destroy these rocks and you are awarded a score based on the numbers that appear on these boulders. The object of the game is to get a higher score than your opponent. The skill comes in the timing of your rocks to maximize the score and also, once many rocks are cleared, making sure you don’t miss, because if you do you lose a life. Lose all three of your lives and it’s game over.

While the game was popular in the arcades it’s probably better known for the full colour Atari 2600 port, that also featured several different game modes. Most recently it appeared on Atari’s own Flashback Collection Volume 3 for Xbox One and PS4 as well as the Nintendo Switch compilation.

Star Hawk – Cinematronics

The 1977 release of Star Wars sure had a lot to answer for when it came to the world of video games. One of the very first titles to be inspired by George Lucas’ box office smash was Star Hawk from 3D vector game specialists Cinematronics.

The game copies the famous trench run from the film almost exactly with you flying your craft into the screen shooting down enemy ships. These craft will also seem very familiar to anyone who’s watched the film, especially the Tie Fighters. You don’t have any movement over your own ship, instead you just move a crosshair around the screen to shoot down the enemies. Nowadays it’s hard to believe they got away with something so blatant. It’s also worth noting that Star Hawk got an extremely impressive home conversion to the similarly vector based MB Vectrex console.

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