{"id":2675,"date":"2025-12-23T15:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/?p=2675"},"modified":"2025-12-25T09:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:20:38","slug":"taitos-arkanoid-ii-revenge-of-doh-was-the-very-first-computer-game-i-ever-bought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/12\/23\/taitos-arkanoid-ii-revenge-of-doh-was-the-very-first-computer-game-i-ever-bought\/","title":{"rendered":"Taito’s Arkanoid II: Revenge of DoH was the very first computer game I ever bought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh for MS-DOS, Taito\/Nova Logic (1987)<\/strong>
When Dad bought the family our first computer, a 286 AT computer back in the summer of ’89, I bought a simplistic, 2-button analogue computer joystick. It came loaded with a bunch of crappy shareware games, most of which used colored ASCII characters. But the first real game I bought for that computer was Arkanoid II: The Revenge of Doh for MS-DOS. It came on a big 5.25″ floppy disk, yeah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:\\>arkanoid.exe<\/strong> was the command that ran it. I’d switch to the A: floppy drive and type “arkanoid” to run the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to calibrate the joystick every time I played the game, going from the top right position, click the button, go to the bottom left position, click the button, and then center and click again. That analogue joystick provided decent control for this game, which of course used a knob in the arcades to control. Later we bought a mouse for our computer, but for some reason the paddle in the game didn’t move as fluidly as it did with the joystick for some reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arkanoid II was ported to MS-DOS by Nova Logic and it let you customize your own levels. Later when I got a Thunderboard (Soundblaster clone) to upgrade the sound, I ended up playing it to death all over again to experience the game with proper sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another Taito game I bought for MS-DOS was Qix. I somehow do not remember ever encountering Qix in the arcades as a kid, and I would have loved playing it since it sort of reminds me of Tron. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year for Christmas I also got Sky Shark, the famous Toaplan shmup distributed by Taito, also ported to DOS. The cover art for this game (as well as the NES version) prominently featured Flying Tigers-inspired artwork of a P-40 Warhawk attacking battleships, and Mom knew I was really into the Flying Tigers at that time. However, that didn’t survive for long because I had once left it in the disk drive by accident. When Dad booted the computer he realized a disk was in the drive, and mindlessly he took it out while the floppy was reading the disk, which ruined the data on the game. The other Taito games I had were Operation Wolf (which worked great with a 2-button mouse) and Rambo III, which was a sort of Metal Gear-inspired stealth-focused game.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Arkanoid II: Revenge of Doh for MS-DOS, Taito\/Nova Logic (1987)When Dad bought the family our first computer, a 286 AT computer back in the summer of ’89, I bought a simplistic, 2-button analogue computer joystick. It came loaded with a bunch of crappy shareware games, most of which used colored ASCII characters. But the first … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Taito’s Arkanoid II: Revenge of DoH was the very first computer game I ever bought”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[345,10,346,12,347],"class_list":["post-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-video-games","tag-arkanoid","tag-gaming","tag-ms-dos","tag-retrogaming","tag-taito"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":610,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/10\/18\/a-couple-of-clever-80s-game-arcade-memes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":0},"title":"A couple of clever ’80s game arcade memes","date":"2022-10-18","format":false,"excerpt":"The first time I visited Japan was in 1998, and at that time all I saw were sit-down cabinets like the Sega Astro City, Taito Egret, Namco Cyberlead, etc. So, I was unaware that game centers here in Japan once had standing cabinets like America did until talking with my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "humor"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/your-childhood.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1448,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2024\/04\/28\/famicom-gachapon-at-mandai\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":1},"title":"Famicom gachapon at Mandai","date":"2024-04-28","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mandai Shoten store in Maebashi has a Famicom gachapon machine. For 200 yen, you can receive a random Famicom game. You never know what you will get! How exciting! What could it be? Pac Man? 1943? Arkanoid? Dragon Quest? Tetris? ZANAC? My friend Lou got Derby Stallion, the boring-as-hell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/KIMG2068-rotated.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2254,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/06\/04\/taito-game-station-in-lirica-mall-maebashi\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":2},"title":"Taito Game Station in Lirica Mall, Maebashi","date":"2025-06-04","format":false,"excerpt":"These are pictures I took a few months ago in the Taito Game Station arcade in Lirica Mall. From left to right: the sign in front, a vending machine, and Space Invaders Frenzy.","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Taito1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2933,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2026\/03\/07\/i-installed-bazzite-linux-on-a-dell-optiplex-3000-and-made-it-a-steam-machine\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":3},"title":"I installed Bazzite Linux on a Dell Optiplex 3000 and made it a Steam machine","date":"2026-03-07","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what my new Bazzite desktop looks like, with the girls from Bubblegum Crisis. My friend Lou is visiting Japan and gave me a Dell Optiplex mini computer (Intel Core i5) he rescued from the trash at his work after his company was bought out by a smaller competitor of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-Bazzite-desktop-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":461,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/09\/26\/andro-dunos-ii-another-fantastic-retro-style-shmup-on-steam\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":4},"title":"Andro Dunos II, another fantastic retro-style shmup on Steam!","date":"2022-09-26","format":false,"excerpt":"I've probably spent too much money on Steam games this past two years or more. I never liked the idea of buying games I did not have physical copies for, and I haven't cared about gaming on the PC since the '90s. But Steam offers a way to enjoy the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220914073342_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1373,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2024\/03\/14\/space-invaders-frenzy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2675,"position":5},"title":"Space Invaders Frenzy","date":"2024-03-14","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfortunately, game centers in Japan have become increasingly boring due to the lack of actual games. Even the Purikura (\"Print Club\") photo booths are boring as while 20 years ago they were a fun way for friends to have pictures taken together, they are apparently now targeted at young girls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Space-Invaders-Frenzy1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}