Double Up

"A Gambling Game that brings reality to the Arcades"

I know this game could be seen as something as an 'Oldie' but by no stretch of the imagination should this classic gem be forgotten.

The game, released in the early 80's was an Arcade classic that I would frequently spend my pocket money on during the weekend. Coming from Britain, there was a lack of Gambling arcade games to enjoy.

From the insert coin screen you can tell that you're going to get your moneys worth, I remember it took a 10 pence piece and you would begin with a budget of 100 pounds (This was the UK Pal Release).

With this 100 pounds you were released into a modern day casino, the aim of the game was to rack up as much money as you could with the starting funds. The game would last for roughly 20 - 30 minutes, or until the 100 pound funds were lost. If you made enough money as the game ended you would be prompted to insert additional coins.

The 3 games that you could play were Blackjack, Roulette, and Poker. The graphics, which now may seem dated, may have only consisted of blue and green but this didn't affect the playability of the game. I found this to be a fantastic change from the black and white arcade games of the time.

The sounds were perhaps the drawback of this game, being an Arcade game I guess your attention would be more focused on the game play rather then the sounds, but I did find myself rather disappointed at the lackluster sounds. Extreme repetition and no real imagination.

Game play was the highlight of this game. Very rewarding and great value for money, you could play this game for hours on a very tiny budget. Im sure this is the reason for the games ultimate demise. The cards could be customised from a choice of various options such as Triangle and Circle cards to give that extra push of playability, you also had options to choose the difficultly level of the computer. The only thing I would have recommended at the time would have been a 2 player option for the game.

All in all I give this game a 9 out of 10, I own an arcade box of this game, and I still play it every know and then, just to remember what it was like to be a young boy in the 1980's.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06