Friends, while we haven’t gotten around to tackling the classic 1982 Xevious on the Diary of An Arcade Employee Podcast as of yet – I can assure you that it is definitely on the list. For what it might be worth this was an arcade title I first experienced at the Showbiz Pizza of my youth – in addition though I also saw it played quite a bit on the Starcade television series. It was one of those games that seemed to also pop up at the local gas stations and grocery stores with the likes of Dig Dug, BurgerTime, Pac-Man, and Galaga. Furthermore while not every arcade game was talked about during class at school, I can honestly say that Xevious was one that many of us young video game fans chatted about – it might have had something to do with the fact that the game had secret flags and towers to uncover while playing?
While I certainly remember seeing Xevious pop up on the Starcade game show quite a bit – I’ve read online that supposedly the game didn’t do as well here in the States as in Japan. I obviously cannot say off the top of my head if that is true or not – I can however point out that since most of us were not arcade game distributors there was no way we could have seen this awesome 1982 Xevious promotional video back in the day. One that adds a whole lot more to the science fiction backstory of the game than even the flyer that was sent out by Atari. That particular flyer has this description before laying out the key features that are sure to make the game popular at the arcades:
“Many eons ago, and advanced technologically oriented civilization was forced to evacuate the Earth prior to the Ice Age. Now, these Xevious people are returning to reclaim their heritage through conquest.”
I should point out that you didn’t find that information on the arcade game itself – so take a few minutes and enjoy this 1982 Xevious promotional video that adds just a little more to the story by way of a sales pitch.
Where did you happen to first play Xevious – was it at the arcade or did you experience it on a home console or computer port?
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