Sega Jet Rocket: The '70s arcade game with no computer or screen

Recently I discovered Sea Wolf, an arcade video game by Midway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBu5fGKKpE

Sea Wolf was an electronic update to Midway's electromechanical game Sea Devil, which in turn was inspired by Sega's Periscope, which itself competed with Torpedo Launcher, a similar game that was the first designed by Masaya Nakamura, founder of the NAkamura Manufacturing COmpany -- later, Namco.

Sea Wolf preserves some of the "practical effects" of its predecessors, despite being a microprocessor-based game with a video screen. Aiming and firing is done with a swivelable periscope that has a piece of reflective glass in it and a sight painted on for aiming. Explosions are indicated by lights which are reflected off the glass; reflected lights also indicate how many torpedoes you have left until you need to reload. For this reason, emulating Sea Wolf leaves a lot to be desired, even though the electronic bits are thoroughly emulated.

My dad used to tell me about going to the fair in California and playing an arcade game where you assumed the role of a gunner in like a B-17. Film footage of fighter aircraft in pursuit would roll, and you had to shoot them down. When a hit was registered, it would somehow switch to footage of the enemy aircraft crashing and burning.

There was also 'Sega Helishooter' from 1977, which was the first arcade game I played, it seemed a step backward to see the graphics of Space Invaders a year later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedSuvlFElo

Visit "Musée Méchanique" if this tickles your fancy! https://museemecanique.com/

Sega released another electromechanical stand-up, "Killer Shark," at about the same, and apparently using the same technology. Its cameo in Spielberg's Jaws fascinated me as much as anything else in that movie when I was a kid. There's a great write-up, including video of gameplay, here:

https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/15694/jaws-arcade-vid...

If you find the idea of electromechanical arcade games delightful (and why wouldn’t you?) and you’re in London then I’d highly recommend visiting Tim Hunkin’s Novelty Automation Arcade (https://www.novelty-automation.com/). They’re all hand made with a satirical sense of humour, just so much fun to see and play with. And check out Tim Hunkin’s YouTube channel for his Secret Life Of Arcade Machines series where he shows you how they work (https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1?si=fwjrx87fUwNAFJ29). and while you’re there his Secret Life Of Components and his classic Secret Life of Machines (his BBC TV series from the late 80s) are worth a watch too.

Very cool, reminds me a bit of two Tom Scott videos (these ones do use displays though, but combined with little model worlds)

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQifPHcMLE - 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlHDnbEIDA - Submarine simulator

I was following the explanation up until:

> This closed the aforementioned circuit, but only if the trigger was currently being pressed. As a result, the light in that zone would flare right as the target passed over it. The sound effect would also be triggered, plus five points would be added to the player's score.

How did they keep a score?

Reminds me of the mechanical flight simulators and other military simulators that were in use in the 60s and 70s.

The game looks neat and I would have been entranced by it back in the day, but I don’t think the writer knows the meaning of “flight simulator”, “first person shooter”, or “open world.”

I thought there was another 70's screen-free arcade game discussed on HN in the past year, but I've failed to pull it up. At first I thought this article must be about the same thing.

Can you help me remember?

Santa Cruz beachfront had one of these back in the mid 90s. Durban beachfront had one in the 70s.

Great game.

It was always broken.

2 things.

1. That is an amazing design and amazing engineering. I legitimately am astounded by the creativity and thought that went into that.

2. The writing style where the author feels the need to apologize for anything even remotely technical (like: Once again, just bear with us for a bit) comes across as either childish or condescending. What purpose does that serve? Anyone clicking a link about an old arcade game with no computer or screen obviously wants to know how it works. Why write like that?

That's a rip-off of International Mutoscope Corporation's "Atomic Bomber" of 1946.[1][2] Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk used to have one in their arcade.

[1] https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/atomic-bomber

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGL9G9y_yiI