Arcades in the 1980's

Congo Bongo, Carnival, and UniWar S were three games that caught my attention for sure! These three games were very fun, and I had too much fun playing these classics…
Congo Bongo is an arcade game that is similar to a very well-known Nintendo game called Donkey Kong. Although the theme and layout of both games are very similar, the objective game Congo Bongo is different. Congo Bongo is about adventures of a safari hunter who tries to catch an ape (coincidence… I think not!). Gamers have to navigate through only four different levels and avoid countless enemies. Unlike other games, players have the choice to increase the intensity of this game to their liking. Only two players can play this game simultaneously. Like Donkey Kong, the player has to jump or sidestep everything that comes close to them. This game was released
in 1983 and was developed by Sega. 
The second game I played was Carnival. To me this was a really cute game because of all the carnival animals. The objective of this Sega created game is to shoot the carnival animals with a limited amount of ammo. This game was very distinct to other games in its time because it had a bonus round to it. The bonus round included a big bear that you could shoot at as many times as possible until it disappears off the screen. At the end of each round, the player receives points for all the unused ammo. Carnival ends when you run out of bullets, and sadly I ran out very fast. This game was released in 1980 by Sega in almost every arcade. In 1982, however, Carnival was released to ports like Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Intellivision. 
Now UniWar S was one that I enjoyed the most because the title reminded me of Star Wars and I am a huge fan of Star Wars. The objective of this awesome, well thought out game is to shoot the incoming enemies, or space soldi
ers. These space soldiers try to spear you from behind by trying to make it to the bottom of the screen where you are. Because the settings are so similar, this made me think of Star Wars even more. Considering the fact that the first Star Wars movie was made in 1977, maybe just maybe they based this game off of the movie… Like many games in it’s time, it has four stages of enemies to shoot. This game was released in 1980 by Irem and was a very popular game.
I loved all these games because like I have mentioned before I love old antique things. I really enjoyed this and let me tell you, these were not the only
classic games I was playing though…





All these images are from Wikipedia.

The Bride of Frankenstein

The Bride of Frankenstein is a film that was created in 1935 by Mary Shelley after her previous film Frankenstein. The actors in this classic movie were Elsa Lanschaster as the Frankenstein’s bride Mary Shelley, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein himself, Collin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Septimus Pretorius. The Bride of Frankenstein is an American romantic comedy and a science-fiction horror film. This creative film is about Dr. Pretorius curiously wanting to create new life once again. While the doctor is busy doing this, Frankenstein is constantly on the run trying to hide from society because they fear him and his lack of self-control. This groundbreaking film was nominated for an Oscar award and won two Saturn awards.

Although this film was made 83 years ago, it still lives on today. How you might ask? Well this movie has been reproduced as kid movies today. We can see this in the movie “Hotel Transylvania” as Kevin James plays the character of Frankenstein. Another common way that this movie is alive (pun intended) is Halloween night. On Halloween night, the famous Frankenstein is almost everyone’s go to costume.  With bolts coming out from both sides of his neck, who wouldn’t want to be Frankenstein? Obviously the way that kids dress as Frankenstein has become more modern, but the idea of the character still lives on. Many kids, including myself, have dressed up as these very old but famous characters on Halloween.

This was not my first time watching this movie but every time I watch it, I act like it’s my first time because that’s how much I enjoy it! One reason why I enjoyed and chose this movie was because it was in black and white and I am a fanatic about anything antique! If there was one thing that I could change was how she rejected poor Frankenstein. That scene broke my heart… Bit the way each scene transitioned to another was great considering that this movie was made in 1935. I am very thankful for Mary Shelley and her brilliant idea to create the Frankenstein series.