Arcade Games That Use The Pepper’s Ghost Effect

Ever since I got into arcades, I saw that many collectors had an affinity for niches of particular tech that was mostly unique to arcades. Think vector games or “Laser Games” (LaserDisc-powered games). Often, these are so beloved that will get their own sections at collector gatherings like California Extreme or within private collections.

However, there’s one entire class of games within arcades that is quite unique in entertainment, as reproducing it at home is rather cumbersome, impractical, and prohibitively expensive in terms of both cost and space(especially if you were to try and do a big screen version). It also is almost completely ignored by various arcade game databases, where they might rarely mention as an aside that the game uses “an image off of reflected glass.” I think it is just as valid a designation as vector, raster, or LaserDisc games, and that is those that use The Pepper’s Ghost Effect (PGE).

The PGE is a classic illusion that makes objects appear as though they are floating, by bouncing an image off of a clear piece of glass. It has been used in many Electro-Mechanical (EM) games throughout the 20th century (seems to be mostly have started in the ’60s and and onwards), and as you can see from the chart below, many video games. Some of those include the biggest arcade hits ever, such as Space Invaders. Taito in particular would embrace this more than any other company, but to my surprise, many others would use the trick to the point that I found many more games that use it than I had expected.

As arcade game databases do not indicate which games use this, and I’ve never seen such a curated list, here are all of the games that use the effect on some level. I scoured through flyers, game databases, and videos to come up with this, but I’m not claiming it as a final-final list, as I did not look at every single video arcade game in existence, but did look over archives of every major and many minor manufacturers. If you know of something that I missed, please drop a line.

What is also neat about this illusion is that there are a lot of creative ways that you can use it. Types of PGE that can be used:

A simple reflection off of glass to save on cabinet space (most use it this way)
Used with special mirrors (Starblade, Holosseum, Crazy Tower)
Integrated into the controller (Sea Wolf)
To create a a wider image(Darius, Rastan III)
Blending it with artwork or special lighting effects(Space Invaders, Asteroids Deluxe)
Overlapping two monitors together to create a unique 3D parallax(Wyvern F-0, Alan-1’s MirrorFX)

The first point is “phoned in” compared to the others; the last point is the rarest of the bunch, while the strangest might be those instances like with Hard Drivin’ compact and Solvalou where they put the monitor into the top of the cabinet, making it rather top heavy. I think an argument can be made that this was the first instance of “Mixed Reality,” as in cases like Space Invaders, you are mixing physical with the digital. There are plenty of creative ways this can still be used, Adrenaline’s Crazy Tower was certainly one that took the idea in a very unexpected direction.

Again, this list is to the best-of-my-knowledge and probably missing a few games, although with what looks to be 130 titles (assuming I counted right), this should make it comprehensive. Note that it’s missing EM games, as that becomes more of an “EM gun & driving games” list since so many of those used it. I do include Pinball 2000 games as those are basically half-video, half-pinball machines (or maybe 1/4th video, 3/4ths pinball).

There are a few I’m not sure about, namely Inferno by Meadows (the flyer shows it with it and there used to a be a video on YouTube showing that model, but now the only video shows it without); Shooting Gallery by Zaccaria, and Gun Hard/Locked & Loaded by Data East. The shape of the dedicated cabinet on the latter looks like it could be, but no one has a video of that one, just conversion kits into normal cabs.

Enjoy!

Game Name	Manufacturer	Release Date
Sea Wolf	Midway	April 1976
Cops ‘N Robbers	Atari	July 1976
Tornado Baseball	Midway	July 1976
Rock’n Bark	Sega	August 1976
Attack	Taito	September 1976
Bazooka	Project Support Engineering	October 1976
Tracer	Sega	November 1976
Target B-29	Universal	? 1977
Datsun 280-ZZZAP	Midway	February 1977
Missile-X	Taito	March 1977
Boot Hill	Midway	April 1977
Double Play	Midway	April 1977
Road Champion	Taito	April 1977
Triple Hunt	Atari	April 1977
Desert Gun	Midway	June 1977
M-79 Ambush	Ramtek	June 1977
Guided Missile	Midway	July 1977
Safari	Taito	July 1977
Starship I	Atari	July 1977
Cross Fire	Taito	August 1977
Two Game Module	Atari	September 1977
Destroyer	Atari	October 1977
Gunman	Taito	October 1977
Laguna Racer	Midway	October 1977
Super High-Way [280 Zzzap license]	Midway / Taito (JP only)	October 1977
Desert Patrol	Project Support Engineering	November 1977
Safari	Gremlin	November 1977
M-4	Midway	November 1977
Inferno [maybe 1^st run?]	Meadows Games	December 1977
Sub Hunter [Depth Hunter license]	Gremlin / Taito (JP only)	December 1977
Clay Buster	Model Racing	? 1978
Super Road Champions	Model Racing	? 1978
Acrobat TV [Circus license]	Exidy / Taito (JP only)	January 1978
3-D Bowling	Meadows Games	March 1978
Extra Inning	Midway	March 1978
Game Tree	Project Support Engineering	March 1978
Sky Raider	Atari	March 1978
Sea Wolf II	Midway	May 1978
Cosmic War	Sega	June 1978
Space Invaders	Taito / Midway	June / October 1978
Gypsy Juggler [JP license only]	Meadows / Taito	June 1978
Top Bowler	Taito	June 1978
Trampoline [Trapeze license]	Exidy / Taito (JP only)	July 1978
Secret Base	Sega	August 1978
Blue Shark	Taito / Midway	September 1978 / May 1979
Dog Patch	Midway	September 1978
Frogs	Gremlin	October 1978
Castling	Sega	December 1978
Senkai Yamato / Space Fighter	Sega	December 1978
Super Shot	Model Racing	? 1979
Space Attack	Sega	February 1979
Video Pinball	Atari	February 1979
Fortress	Sega	March 1979
Triple Attack	Sega	June 1979
Warrior	Vectorbeam	October 1979
Lunar Rescue	Taito	November 1979
Space Invaders Part II / Deluxe	Taito / Midway	September / November 1979
Clay Champ / Shoot	Allied Leisure	November 1979
Balloon Bomber [JP only]	Taito	March 1980
Steel Worker [JP only]	Taito	March 1980
Extra Bases	Midway	April 1980
Astro Zone	Taito	May 1980
Tora Tora	Game Plan	June 1980
Space Tactics	Sega	October 1980
Asteroids Deluxe	Atari	March 1981
Warlords [Upright only]	Atari	April 1981
Omega Race	Midway	July 1981
Solar Quest	Cinematronics	October 1981
Kick Man	Midway	December 1981
Solar Fox	Midway	August 1982
Subroc 3-D	Sega	September 1982
Dark Planet in 3D	Stern Electronics	November 1982
Mazer Blazer	Stern Electronics	April 1983
Kozmik Krooz’r	Midway	May 1983
Discs Of Tron	Midway	September 1983
Shooting Gallery [? uncertain]	Zaccaria	? 1984
Great Guns	Stern Electronics	January 1984
Turkey Shoot	Williams	July 1984
Wyvern F-0	Taito	June 1985
Shooting Master	Sega	November 1985
Darius	Taito	February 1987
Exzisus [rare conversion for Wyvern F-0]	Taito	August 1987
The Ninjawarriors	Taito	February 1988
Gang Hunter [EU model only]	Tecmo / Segasa	July 1988
Hard Drivin’ [Compact model]	Atari Games	June 1989
Beast Busters	SNK	November 1989
Line Of Fire	Sega	December 1989
Battle Shark	Taito	March 1990
Space Gun	Taito	October 1990
Laser Ghost	Sega	November 1990
Race Drivin’ [Compact model]	Atari Games	December 1990
Steel Gunner	Namco	March 1991
Golly! Ghost!	Namco	June 1991
Starblade	Namco	September 1991
Time Traveler	Sega	September 1991
Terminator 2 – Judgment Day	Midway	November 1991
Solvalou	Namco	December 1991
Steel Gunner 2	Namco	March 1992
X-MEN [6-player model]	Konami	April 1992
Warrior Blade – Rastan Saga III	Taito	May 1992
Bubble Trouble Golly! Ghost!	Namco	June 1992
Gunbuster	Taito	August 1992
Lethal Enforcers	Konami	October 1992
Holosseum	Sega	November 1992
Alien 3: The Gun	Sega	September 1993
Under Fire	Taito	February 1994
Lethal Enforcers II	Konami	March 1994
Revolution X	Midway	June 1994
Operation Wolf 3	Taito	September 1994
Virtua Cop	Sega	September 1994
Gun Bullet / Point Blank	Namco	October 1994
Virtua Cop 2	Sega	September 1995
Time Crisis [SD version]	Namco	December 1995
The Lost World: Jurassic Park [SD version]	Sega	July 1997
Total Vice [dedicated]	Konami	July 1997
Teraburst [27” upright]	Konami	February 1998
Beast Busters: Second Nightmare	SNK	September 1998
The House of the Dead 2 [SD Upright]	Sega	November 1998
Revenge From Mars (Hybrid video pin)	Williams	January 1999
Gunbarl / Point Blank 2	Namco	February 1999
Star Wars: Episode I (Hybrid video pin)	Williams	June 1999
Crisis Zone [SD version]	Namco	October 22^nd 1999
Ninja Assault [SD version]	Namco	November 6^th, 2000
Gunbalina / Point Blank 3	Namco	December 2000
Warzaid	Konami	? 2002
Lethal Enforcers 3	Konami	April 2005
Akuma Mortis Immortal	Gamewax	? 2006
Dariusburst: Another Chronicle	Taito	December 2010[JP]/Dec. 2011[WLD]
Crazy Tower	Adrenaline Amusements	November 2016
Breakout: Recharged	Atari / Alan-1	June 2026
Caverns of Mars: Recharged	Atari / Alan-1	June 2026
Yars Recharged	Atari / Alan-1	June 2026