The first video game that I remember playing, as must be the case for many, many people, is Pong. It wouldn't have been in 1974, mind you, but I do have a strong memory of playing at my parents' friends' house at a Christmas visit. Maybe New Year's. My guess is that I was around five years old, and the crazy thing is that them having a Home Pong system was still a really big deal when this game had already been doing gangbusters in the arcades and at home for years.
It's easy to find an emulator to play:
Yeah, that's me taking down the CPU 10-6. Actually, it was a little tense as I fell behind early. That site is here: https://www.ponggame.org
Meanwhile, number one at the arcades, at least according to the data I was able to find, were two games that I simply cannot easily find a way to play.
First is a Dealer's Choice pinball game, which is one I'll keep in the back of my mind whenever I find myself in an arcade bar. If it ever turns up, I'd love to play it and check it off the list.
The other is Wild Gunman:
Now, I'm familiar with the later version from the NES, but I didn't know much about the game's cabinet origins. I have a feeling that this thing isn't kicking around in any retro arcades - but again, I'll keep my eyes peeled. I also figured if you can't play 'em - watch 'em, so I found a couple of gameplay/history videos.
This one is informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n85S0zwHN-s (and includes a salacious tidbit thrown in at the end about another Nintendo arcade game called Fascination).
This one, though, is a fever dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgBwG0svJWI&t=29s
It's the type of thing that Video Aces would have accidentally used to make a video of The Blender Childen's "Mr. MX-7" and been hailed as visionaries (see the movie Tapeheads for reference).
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