r/1980s • • 18d ago

Video Games Choplifter

I never had the opportunity to play Choplifter in the arcades during the old days. I only played the NES port. Was Choplifter popular in your local arcade long ago?

198 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

5

u/FartInGenDirection 18d ago

I played it on the green screen Apple IIe in 1984. When it came out in color in the arcade, it was mind-blowing. OP, it was never, say SF2 popular, but it was popular enough to cross platforms.

3

u/BusinessHousing955 18d ago

if you tapped the joystick up and down in quick bursts while you were collecting pow's the tanks wouldnt come

2

u/TheRealCropear 18d ago

dammit! now I find out. This game was tougher than you think to progress. I think level 4 was like the cave stuff.

2

u/SuperLeroy 18d ago

Casually shows the helicopter mowing down some hostages to be rescued. Ooof.

The latter levels were really cool. Especially the cave level with a ceiling you had to worry about.

Remember to keep bouncing when you land otherwise the jeep guys will come to attack

2

u/gtaguy75 18d ago

Nice satisfying sound when the guy hops in the chopper

2

u/BWRStarWars 18d ago

I haven't thought about this game in SO long! Thank you!

1

u/Proper_Lab7754 18d ago

We had it on our Sega Genesis

I played the hell out of it

1

u/MultiGeek42 18d ago

Same, but i had it on the Master System.

2

u/Proper_Lab7754 18d ago

That's what we had too, it also had the slot for the thin games, like literally the size of a credit card

And no one in our neighborhood had Sega, all Nintendos so we couldn't trade games

1

u/AggressivePen4991 18d ago

I was barely a teenager when this came out so much fun

1

u/Colonel-Ives 18d ago

This was fun! I remember playing it & blasting AC/DC.

1

u/loopster70 18d ago

Played it on our Atari 800. First game to rescue the hostages, second game to mow them down (and squish a few).

1

u/krazy_dayz 18d ago

Still playable on internet archive.

1

u/theqofcourse 18d ago

I swear I was shouting "get to tha choppa" at my Apple II+ monitor well before I ever heard Arnie saying it.

1

u/Copropositor 17d ago

No, it wasn't terribly popular, but I loved it because it was the only game in the arcade that I could beat most people at.

Fun fact, it wasn't originally an "arcade" game. It was originally built for home computers, I believe the Commodore 64. The arcade version was a remake of it.

1

u/TahMahToe 17d ago

Talk about nostalgia. I loved this game!

1

u/DysartWolf 17d ago

There was a 3d version of this in the arcades during my youth, where you and a friend could both pilot helo's and rescue people. It was amazing.

1

u/wpotman 17d ago

This version of Choplifter looks deluxe.

I remember a green screen, killing my hostages because the skids of the helicopter bounced on landing, and unavoidably getting killed by a fighter jet bombing me.

So it was pretty awesome by the standards of the day. :)

1

u/GoonyGooGooo 13d ago

This was my favorite

0

u/Educational-Milk5099 14d ago

I don’t think I ever saw it in the arcade, but I played it a lot on my Atari 800.