A little over five years ago I published an article titled “The Video Games of Ready Player One” where I went through the video games that played a major role in the book — -not the movie… big difference — -and told you some of the options on where you could play these games today.
https://geekdad.com/2018/04/the-video-games-of-ready-player-one/
A lot can change in five years. I recently published an article here on GeekDad explaining how I had recently discovered Black Tiger had come out on Nintendo Switch.
https://geekdad.com/2023/09/searching-for-the-black-tiger-80s-arcade-game/
But since this wasn’t the only update, I figured I would revisit the original article and point out more recent offerings of these great games. I am not going to revisit why these games were important to the plot of the book or go into any background, so reference the original article for that information.
Joust
The biggest update on Joust is that you can now buy a 3/4 scale home arcade and play Joust at home just like you could in the arcade back in the ’80s. Arcade1UP has released a couple of different 3/4 home arcade cabinets that have Joust as part of the game offering. The version I highly recommend (because I bought it myself) is the Joust 14-in-1 Midway Legacy Edition Arcade with Licensed Riser from Arcade1UP (which is available from Amazon for about $450).
The ostrich art on the Joust cabinet is just awesome (Image by Skip Owens)
But you can also buy the Mortal Kombat Midway Legacy edition, and it has the same games available except with Mortal Kombat cabinet art. We have covered Arcade1UP cabinets here on GeekDad before, so take a look at those reviews if you want a more detailed look at what you get with an Arcade1UP home arcade cabinet. Overall I’ve been very happy with mine. It was pretty easy to assemble and the quality of the screen and controls is about what I expected from Arcade1UP (perfectly acceptable and playable but not super high quality). It is a home-quality arcade unit and it looks absolutely amazing. If you are a Joust fan I highly recommend it.
Black Tiger
It’s a far cry from an ’80s arcade but you can’t beat the portability! (Image by Skip Owens)
The big update on Black Tiger is that it is now available to play on Nintendo Switch! I’ll refer you to my recent article for all of the gory details, but to just cut to the chase you can download the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium collection for free from the Nintendo eShop and then individually buy games. Black Tiger is one of the games you can buy and Black Tiger is only $1.99. (Just scroll down in the eShop menu and towards the bottom of the screen, and it will list out all the individual games for sale.)
Dungeons of Daggorath
I don’t have a lot of updates on where to play Dungeons of Daggorath. It is still not available on most modern gaming platforms, but it is available on a new emulator for your web browser. A few years after my original article in April of 2020 at the Virtual Color Computer “CoCoFest” ( an annual event hosted by the Glenside Color Computer Club), it was announced that there is a new recreation of the TRS-80 version of the game available to play here.
Pac-Man
Similar to Joust, we have several new home arcade options for you die-hard Pac-Man fans. The first option has been available for several years and that is the Arcade1Up Pac-Man Deluxe, which you can order online at Amazon for around $485.
Similar to the Joust home arcade, this is also a 3/4 scale and comes with a total of 14 games. But most recently Arcade1UP has just released an XL version of Pac-Man, which is a full-size arcade unit. You can pick up the Pac-Man XL version from Costco for about $630.
Arcade1UP also offers a 3rd option, which is smaller than the first two. There is a Pac-Man Partycade edition, which comes with the same 17” screen that is in the 3/4 scale arcade, but the overall form factor is much smaller. The Partycade is designed to sit on a tabletop, be attached to a wall, or hang on the back side of a door. The Pac-Man Partycade is no longer available directly from Arcade1UP, but some of their distributors still have a few left. Walmart is currently selling one for $280.
Zork
With Zork being a text-based game, it has for the most part not made its way to modern gaming platforms. As I mentioned in my original article, the easiest way to play Zork for free is to download the free iOS app called Frotz on the App Store.
Tempest
A lot has changed with respect to options to play Tempest at home since my original article. First off, New Wave Toys released their mini arcade version (12” tall) and I did a review of it here on GeekDad. Unfortunately, if you haven’t already purchased one they are difficult to find. New Wave Toys works off of pre-orders, and when their initial run is sold out they are gone. So you can still find one on places like eBay, but they are pricey.
The next new option to play Tempest at home is that it was released on the relatively recent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration game that was released on multiple modern gaming platforms (including Nintendo Switch, which is what I bought it for). The bonus with the Atari 50 edition is that it also has Tempest 2000 available to play.
But the really exciting home option is the 3/4 home arcade version from Arcade1UP. The Arcade1Up Tempest Atari Legacy Edition runs about $450 and is available from Amazon. I bought this one for my home to go alongside my Joust cabinet.
My Tempest cabinet setup for play in my basement (Image by Skip Owens)
I can’t say enough about how good the Tempest gameplay is on this cabinet. The spinner is spot on, in my opinion. You simply can’t play Tempest without a full-sized spinner, and just like with the Joust cabinet, this one comes with additional games as well (12 in all). I know there are reviews out there that say the spinner needs to rotate more freely, but I have not found that to be the case. Both the spinner and the trackball I have found to be fantastic in this unit. If you are a fan of Tempest, this is a must-have!
Adventure
Not much to update here other than there is yet another modern game option to play the original Adventure game, and that is the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration game. Adventure is one of the many games that is available as part of that collection.
Bonus
There is also one other product related to some of the games above that I couldn’t leave out, and that is the new Atari 50 arcade cabinet that was recently announced by Arcade1UP. This 3/4 scale home arcade cabinet is made with the theme of the recent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration game, so the cabinet art features the art from the new Atari game/collection and the arcade itself contains 64 classic Atari games (a mix of arcade games and original Atari 2600 games). I won’t list all 64 games, but both Tempest and Adventure from my list above are included in this single arcade unit. You can pre-order the Arcade1UP Atari 50th Anniversary Deluxe from Costco for around $500.
The new Atari 50 home arcade cabinet from Arcade1UP (Image from Arcade1UP)
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