Time Rift Arcade

10/11/2026

New arrival at Time Rift Arcade! 🦖

Jurassic Park the Arcade is officially on the floor. Climb into the enclosed cab, grab a partner, and blast your way off the island before the T-Rex finds you.

Bring a friend, bring your nerve, and see how far you make it.

📍 Bedford, TX

10/09/2026

🎮 ARCADE SPOTLIGHT: TEMPEST (1981) 🎮

Before 3D graphics, before polygons, and long before modern gaming, Atari was making arcade games that looked like they came straight out of the future. One of the best examples? Tempest! 🚀

Released in 1981, Tempest was designed by Dave Theurer and used glowing vector graphics to create a wireframe world unlike anything most players had ever seen. Instead of moving a ship around a traditional screen, you control a shooter traveling around the rim of a geometric tunnel, blasting enemies before they reach you!

And that control? The spinner is everything. 🎯 You need quick reflexes and precise movements to zip around the playfield, line up your shots, and survive increasingly frantic waves of enemies.

🔥 Here are a few cool facts:
🕹️ Tempest was one of the first arcade games to let players choose their starting level, depending on how far they'd progressed previously.
👾 It features a variety of bizarre enemies, including Flippers, Spikers, Fuseballs, and Pulsars.
🌈 The game uses color vector graphics, giving everything that unmistakable glowing, neon look.
🏆 It became one of Atari's signature arcade hits and remains a favorite among classic arcade fans.

There's something incredibly satisfying about mastering that spinner and clearing a screen full of enemies. It's easy to pick up, but surviving the later levels is a whole different story! 😎

👇 Who's a Tempest fan? Did you play it back in the day, or will this be your first time taking it for a spin? And what's your favorite classic Atari arcade game?

The 8-Bit Guy

10/02/2026

You could look like a millionaire or somethin'.

10/02/2026

Today’s spotlight: Assault.

If you’ve never played Assault, this is one of those arcade games that really needs to be experienced on the original controls.

Released by Namco in 1988, Assault puts you in control of a futuristic tank using TWO joysticks. Push them together and you move normally. Push them in different directions and you can perform evasive maneuvers—including the absolutely ridiculous-looking Rapid Roll! 🤣

The technology behind this game was pretty impressive for 1988, too. The battlefield rotates and scales around your tank, creating a 360°-style perspective years before this kind of effect became commonplace in home consoles.

A fun bit of arcade history: the game was developed by Namco in Japan but distributed in the United States by Atari Games. Only a little over 1,000 dedicated U.S. cabinets were produced.

And ours has something a little special: we have the updated ROM set that adds music and additional features from Assault Plus! So you’re not necessarily playing exactly the same version that was sitting in an arcade back in 1988. 😎

If you grew up playing Assault, you probably remember those two joysticks immediately. If you’ve never played it, come give it a try—you’ll understand why those controls are so much fun.

👇 Did you ever play Assault back in the day? What other obscure arcade games should we put in the spotlight?

09/29/2026

We have to warn you about what's hiding in our arcade. 😱

Zombies. Xenomorphs. A Demogorgon. Giant monster gods that eat their own worshippers. We rounded up the scariest games at Time Rift Arcade so you know exactly what you're walking into this October.

👉

The Time Rift Arcade is a family owned and operated arcade located in Bedford Texas. Arcade Games. B**r. Pizza. Fun!

09/24/2026

Mike here… Welcome to another edition of “Arcade Games Based on Movies We Were Definitely Too Young to Watch.”

The Terminator franchise began in 1984 with a dark, violent, R-rated science-fiction horror movie about an unstoppable killing machine from the future. Naturally, kids thought it was awesome.

The game behind me is Terminator Salvation, released by Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix in 2010. This two-player shooter arms you with heavy recoiling ri**es and a unique clip-action reload system as you battle T-600s, flying drones, and seemingly every other machine Skynet can send your way.

As you can see from the picture, it’s a quiet, restrained gaming experience.

Grab both guns, join the Resistance, and come play Terminator Salvation at Time Rift.

Come with me if you want to play..... at the Time Rift!

09/22/2026

👻 Halloween is BACK at Time Rift Arcade! 🎃

We've transformed the building for the season. We've added some cool new animatronics, and a few of your old favorites have crawled back out of storage to haunt the place.

09/18/2026

Hot take: Aliens (1990) is the most underrated cabinet in our building and most of you walk right past it.

I put it at #3 on my current top 5. The whole list is on the blog now, including the machine that knocked everything else out of the #1 spot.

Come tell me I'm wrong in the comments. :-)

The Time Rift Arcade is a family owned and operated arcade located in Bedford Texas. Arcade Games. B**r. Pizza. Fun!

09/17/2026

Mike here… Welcome to another edition of “Arcade Games Based on Movies We Were Definitely Too Young to Watch.”

Next up is Aliens. The 1986 movie gave an entire generation nightmares involving facehuggers and chestbursters. Naturally, Konami decided this would make a perfect arcade game.

Released in 1990, Aliens is a two-player run-and-gun shooter that combines side-scrolling action with third-person shooting stages. You’ll fight your way through swarms of Xenomorphs using smart guns, flamethrowers, and gr***de launchers before facing the Alien Queen herself. The game also introduced several strange new Alien creatures that never appeared in the movie.

Grab a friend and come play Aliens at the Time Rift.

Game over, man? Not at Time Rift Arcade.