A-Z OF RETRO AND 80S GAMING T-SHIRT IDEAS
Asteroids T-shirt
Asteroids is an arcade classic by Atari which was launched way back in 1979. Featuring cool vector graphics, the space shooter game became an instant hit in the arcades during the early 80s, and was widely emulated.
Atari T-shirt
Bomb Jack T-shirt
Anyone who lived through the 1980s 8-bit era will certainly remember Bomb Jack. Featuring exotic backdrops, this fast-paced platformer had the player in a panic as he/she desperately tried to defuse bombs - hopefully in the correct sequence!
Bubble Bobble T-shirt
Bubble Bobble is a popular arcade platformer was released into the arcades in 1986 by Japanese game developer Taito and, uniquely at the time, the game featured multiple endings. The popularity of the game led to it quickly being ported to home computers.
Centipede T-shirt
Commodore Amiga T-shirt
The Amiga eventually dominated the 16-bit market after seeing off the Atari ST, and it was an awesome gaming machine. The graphics and sound were phenomenal for a low-cost home computer, which led to a massive gaming market.
Commodore 64 T-shirt
The C64 was a hugely popular home computer that dominated the market throughout a good part of the 80s, and there were an estimated 20,000 games created for the machine. There are several cool retro designs relating to the C64 available, with prices starting at under £10.
Donkey Kong T-shirt
First launched in 1981, Donkey Kong is an action platformer game featured saw Mario take on an angry gorilla who had access to an unlimited supply of barrels! It would be another four years before Mario became Nintendo's flagship character in Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo Duck Hunt T-shirt
This classic shooter game Duck Hunt was first released for the NES video game console in the mid 80s. As the title of the game suggested, the idea was simple - shoot ducks with your light gun (Nes Zapper). A T-shirt would make a lovely gift for Nintendo retro gaming fans.
E.T. The Video Game T-shirt
This is widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever made and it was also one of the biggest commercial failures in the history of video gaming, causing heavy financial losses for Atari.
This T-shirt features the E.T game character and would be great fun to wear at a retro gaming event.
Frogger T-shirt
Frogger is the original road-crossing arcade game, and I have fond memories of playing it on my Atari 800XL back in the day, and it came on an instant-loading ROM cartridge. A T-shirt is the perfect way to celebrate those early gaming days.
Galaga T-shirt
The superior sequel to Galaxian first hit the arcades in 1981 and became highly successful for Namco, and it was one of the best space shooter games of the decade.
Ghosts 'N Goblins T-shirt
Ghosts 'N Goblins is a classic sideways scroller platform game from Capcom, which first hit the arcades in 1985, before becoming a classic on the NES and then the C64.
Hungry Horace T-shirt
Now, this is a real blast from the past. Anyone who enjoyed playing the Horace video game series of games back in the 1980s will recognise this character.
International Karate T-shirt
International Karate is a classic fighting game by System 3 became popular on the Atari 8-bits and C64 in 1986, and featured awesome background scenery and music by the legendary Rob Hubbard. Remind yourself of wasting too many hours playing the 8-bit game with a splendid T-shirt.
Joust T-shirt
Joust was a classic arcade platform game (1982) in which you controlled a knight flying on an ostrich. It's not quite as well known as some of the iconic games featured here, but Joust has a more geeky appeal.
Mario T-shirt
The most famous Italian plumber in the world first appeared in the 1981 platformer Donkey Kong. Since then, he has appeared in over 200 video games including the classic Super Mario Bros. There are numerous T-shirts available featuring the loveable video game character.
Manic Miner T-shirt
Manic Miner was the first ZX Spectrum game to feature music and it won a "Golden Joystick Award" from Computer & Video Games magazine in 1983. First launched by Bug Byte for the Speccy, the game was eventually ported to other home computers.
Mega Man T-shirt
This gaming character made his first appearance in 1987 on the NES and the complete series of games has now sold close to a whopping 30 million units!
Out Run T-shirt
This 3D racing by Sega (featuring a guy with his blonde girlfriend and Ferrari) was hugely successful when released into the arcades during 1986 and became the best-selling game of the year. I can still remember playing Out Run at Motorway service stations during the summer holidays.
Pac-Man T-shirt
Quite possibly the most recognised gaming character of the 80s, Pac-Man is a simple but highly addictive maze game captured the hearts of millions of gamers and is one of the most iconic video games from the era.
Pong T-shirt
Released into the arcades by Atari in 1972, Pong was the first commercially successful video game, and helped to launch the home video games market. There were numerous Pong games consoles created, too. Despite it's simplicity, here we are 44 years later and the game is still enjoyed by gamers, although mainly as an app.
Q*bert T-shirt
Q*bert was a quirky-looking, trumpet-nosed character, who first hit the arcades in 1982. The game was pretty unique at the time, featuring isometric graphics that gave a pseudo-3D look. It was quickly ported to 8-bit home computers, and I certainly remember playing this one on my Atari 800XL, and it was all too easy to jump the wrong way!
Sega Mega Drive T-shirt
If you yearn for the days when you played games on your Megadrive, then the next best thing is a T-shirt. Over 30 million units of the 16 bit, fourth generation console were sold worldwide, and it was known as the Genesis in North America.
Sonic The Hedgehog T-shirt
Born in the 90s, the most famous (and fastest!) hedgehog in the world was Mario's biggest rival and helped Sega grab a huge slice of the video gaming market. The Sonic series has now sold around 80 million units. There are many cool T-shirt designs available. View all Sonic T-shirts at;
Space Invaders T-shirt
Can there be anyone on this planet who hasn't heard of the iconic shooter game Space Invaders? This early shooter took the arcades by storm in the late 70s, and there are still countless clones being created to this day for modern devices.
Star Raiders T-shirt
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior T-shirt
This fantastic sequel from 1991 was superior to the original game in many ways and became much more popular. It was unique in that it allowed the player to choose a character, which gave more varied matches each character had a different fighting style.
The Last Ninja T-shirt
This action martial-arts game was originally released for the C64 back in 1987, before being ported to other systems. A very official-looking T-shirt which features the design from the cover art of the game box.
ZX Spectrum T-shirt
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a much-loved, British home computer became the C64's biggest rival and the gaming market was ginormous, with around 24,000 games programmed for the machine. There are many T-shirt designs available which will delight any speccy fan.
Retro T-shirt Ideas