Super Doubles Tennis

Super Doubles Tennis is an arcade tennis game released by Data East in 1983, and the name announces its specialty: doubles play. At a time when most sports cabinets offered nothing beyond one-on-one duels, this one puts four figures on the court at once. For 1983 that was an ambitious move — more players meant more motion on screen and a heavier load on the hardware of the day.

Data East was a fixture of the golden arcade era, and sports titles were a natural part of its output. Tennis suited coin-op machines beautifully. Everyone knows the rules, a rally lasts seconds, and victory hangs on reflexes — precisely the kind of play that keeps a queue of coins waiting at a cabinet.

The side-on view of the court, noted in this record too, was the standard solution for early tennis games. It showed the net, the bounce of the ball and the players' positions clearly, without demanding any perspective trickery. Control came down to movement and the timing of the swing, a foundation solid enough that it still works four decades later.

Sports cabinets of the early eighties tend to sit in the shadow of shooters and platformers, yet they laid the groundwork for what is now one of gaming's best-selling genres. Super Doubles Tennis is one of those rarely mentioned building blocks.

On OldGame.cz you can serve up this 1983 doubles match right in your browser, no quarters required.