The Almost Complete Guide to Video Arcade Games in Movies

by Mark Jenison


This contains all the contributions and history of the list.

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5/8/12: A few more updates:

6/27/11: Watched Gamer and was blindsided by a scene with classic arcade games (didn't see that coming). BTW, trying to determine arcade games on streaming video is harder than DVD.

4/30/11: More submissions built up:

12/17/09: Forced myself to watch Toys. It has an arcade scene with a game called "Tank Gunner", but couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe a mockup or a modified version of a real game? There were also some real games in the arcade, but my harddrive crashed and I lost the entries. Someone please rent this on Netflix and check it out.

05/25/09: Finally built up a few submissions:

04/04/07: Click had a few games I saw, and Teresa F submitted Puberty Blues.

10/15/06: I caught The Benchwarmers and it had a few games in it. It's been slow lately.

11/15/04: I caught The Great Outdoors on TV, and Darin says we can finally green dot Nightmares.

4/14/04: Oops, missed one from way back. Rune K verifies both Donnie Darko and Replacement Killers. Help out with green dots by verifying some of these movies. Thanks!

3/27/04: Over a year since my last update! Shame on me! I've been letting the entries pile up. Here's a bunch of new additions:

3/17/03: Added Comic Book Villains, and need help identifying the game in Behind Enemy Lines.

2/22/03: Added Van Wilder.

12/16/02: Bradford H confirms Color of Money

12/02/02: Eric B. adds a few more updates to Running Scarred, Midnight Madness, Robocop 2, and a few new entries. And I think I finally have Fast Times at Ridgemont High nailed down.

8/22/02: Misc updates to Joysticks.

4/01/02: Eric B. pulls out the magnifying glass and adds some updates to previous entries of Midnight Madness and Jekyll & Hyde...Together Again

12/09/01: Troy A contributes Eddie Macon's Run

11/24/01: Eric B contributes a ton of entries; some new ones: End of the Line, Private School, The Heavenly Kid, Something Wild, as well as numerous updates to existing entries. Thanks Eric!

10/16/01: Sara M. reminds me of a fine movie, Don't Tell Her It's Me, and Eric B. contributes more to Midnight Madness, and the blockbuster hit Jekyll & Hyde... Together Again.

08/10/01: Lots of Virtua Fighter sightings lately: Things to do in Denver when you're Dead and Clockers.

06/28/01: Edenzz reminded me that a video game was how they found the witness in the movie The Accused.

06/21/01: Mark L. contributes with Hollywood Zap and the Tech Knight mentions The Doom Generation. Keep 'em comin' folks!

06/15/01: DVD slow mo of Fast Times at Ridgemont High confirmed the games listed.

02/20/01: A few updates from some e-mails I got. Updates to Footloose, added Grifters, and removed Pee Wee's Big Adventure because I could never find the Asteroids in there.

12/15/00: I saw Dude, where's my car?, and the climax of the movie happens in an arcade. All kinds of games! I just recorded the ones I could remember.

12/04/00: Steve Piozet gives input to Footloose, Running Scared, Teen Wolf, and Seargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I saw Blue Velvet this weekend, and appart from it being a really screwed up movie, there was a video game in it where you could only see the screen. Based on that, I took a wild guess :-)

11/27/00: Brian Kruzynski verified War Games via DVD. Those movies have been added to the list. I decided to add a marker to show which games needed to be verified, and moved the credits/changes to another page by itself.

10/4/00: Added a bunch of updates from e-mails I received. I rented Tron on DVD, but the arcade is still too dark to tell what other games are in there.

8/21/00: Steve Piozet sent me a few additions for the list, including Suburnban Commando, The Wizard, Species, Nightmares, Double Dragon, Bean, Next of Kin, Ghostbusters, and Arthur

7/10/00: Kurt Koller sent me an older list of mine that he had been updating. I have merged in his entries. Thanks Kurt!

2/23/00: Al Backiel sent me a large list of movies with games in them that he had noted over the years. I'm off to the video store to check some of them out! Thanks Al!


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