In light of the newly released Indiana Jones video game: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I recently took a trip down memory lane. Back to the 80s, when Atari released the very first. After the hit movie came out, the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade game was released in 1985.

The game was first developed for the Atari System 1 cabinet. It was later ported to various platforms including the Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Apple II. My greatest memories of playing this game come from many, many hours (and quarters) spent at the arcade.

Remember when you’d die or run out of time and you’d have to frantically rummage through your pocket (or fanny pack) to find another quarter to insert before the countdown to continue hit zero? Man, those were stressful times.

Gameplay includes navigating Indiana Jones through 3 different stages based on different scenes from the movie. In the first stage you’d rescue children from the mines, using your whip to knock locks off cages. The whip is so iconic here! Using it to jump gaps in the ground and also to kill your enemies. The second stage was a wild mine cart escape. And the third was recovering a Sankara stone from the sacrificial temple.

As a bonus for the player, the game included VO sound clips of Harrison Ford and original music from the movie. Which at the time, was a huge deal for game publishers to obtain licensing agreements for movies and artists.

You can check out the shortest clip of gameplay I could find online. But even to scroll through quickly brings back so many memories of this game!

There have been so many installments of Indiana Jones games over the years. One of the most fun of I’d have to say is Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures that came out back in 2008. The gameplay follows the first three movies with a fun twist of the Lego world.

Going down memory lane, back to the arcade as a kid (for me, in the early 90s), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was one game that has truly been fun to look back on. If I were a true fangirl, I might go buy a cabinet just so I can play at home. It’s amazing to see how many cabinets are actually for sale today, whether original or retrofitted.

Although I have not yet checked out Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, for nostalgia’s sake, I do hope Bethesda knocked it out of the park. If you’ve checked it out, let us know!