Hawaii Star Wars Arcade Games

Do you folks remember the Star Wars arcade games from the 80s?

I'm talking about the two vector machines -- Star Wars, and Empire Strikes Back, and also the raster Return of the Jedi.

Where was your favorite place to play these games, and what is your fondest memories of them?

I used to frequent Tilt in Haleiwa and always drop some major coin on these games. The best thing about them -- fully digitized speech! Even if it was hissy and low-fi, to hear Obi-Wan proclaim "The Force will be with you, always," or to hear Artoo scream after you lost your last shield, it was amazing for the time!

There were also several arcade games that came more than a decade later, but that's for another time.

-- Kynn-Ji

 

Tilt was a great place for arcade games back in the day. I believe that there was an original Star Wars game at Game World in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center we used to play. I can still remember the commercial jingle.

"Game World... dares you... to accept the challenge."

Pac-El

 

Kynn-Ji, Was it you & I that were having that conversation about, "If people made the wire-frame graphics Star Wars game today, it would probably take 5 minutes to program"? I had a good laugh at that.

I love that game, though. Great memories. I loved the audio samples of Luke, Han & Obi-Wan's voices. I have no idea if they are the actual actors' voices, though. Played the stand-up version a lot as a kid at Fun Factory in Kalihi.

Played the Empire one time to time but nowhere near as much as I played the Star Wars one.

And the Jedi one, despite it being based on my favorite movie, I played very little. The Zaxxon-style wallpaper stage with the speeder bikes that was hard to play because of the odd perspective.

 

Yes! The voices are what made the game for me, and I believe they were the original voices. I think they just pulled samples from the movie. I also remember that the music was quite accurate, even if it was programmed, and not digitally recorded.

I think fewer arcade had 'Empire.' I do remember that Fun Factory in Pearlridge had an enclosed sit-down cabinet that made you feel like you were in the cockpit.

I'm with you on the Jedi game. That perspective was pretty hard to manage. Especially since the Speeder Bike portions were really fast. It was too easy to smash into a tree. Plus, when you blew up the Death Star's core, you had to get back out of the thing before the explosion caught up to you. Talk about pressure!

Good times all around, though. Arcades these days just aren't the same.

-- Kynn-Ji