| Arcades; Official thread | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 21 2017, 12:40 AM (990 Views) | |
| strx10 | Jan 21 2017, 12:40 AM Post #1 |
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Sexy Beast
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So what memories do you have about arcades? What games were your favorites? Lets discuss it here. Lately I've been going to a somewhat local arcade and have been enjoying a multitude of games from yesteryear. This place really captures the experience and excitement you just can't get from anywhere else. Growing up I've had my share of gaming experiences in random hole in the wall businesses such as a Centipede cabaret cabinet at the donut shop (I think this may be the first arcade game I actually ever played) to playing stuff at the broken down arcade that offers a meat slicer as a prize. Arcade games in general seem to have gone the way of the dodo and it's unfortunate because this is truly a unique atmosphere that console games have not been able to replicate. Some games I dig: Robotron 2084, Smash TV, Area 51, Millipede, Centipede, Tac/Scan, Joust, Paperboy, Bubbles, Zoo Keeper, Satan's Hollow, Rampart, Tempest, Tapper, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Defender, Stargate. I think it's important to note that with the exception of maybe a few titles here, the unique joysticks and control schemes really make it hard to play these things on anything else but their original cabs. I'll throw some posts going in depth with some of these games later. I've also have been flirting with the idea of buying/collecting/restoring older cabs because with the way prices are for other retro games, it makes the recently inflated arcade market seem like a joke by comparison. I actually did buy a lemon of a Defender cabinet and I've just been having a bitch of a time restoring it. So far it's running with a Multi Williams board so I've been having a blast playing pretty much everything on it. I'll make a detailed post once the whole thing is more or less done. |
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| lizardmanlizardmanlizardman | Jan 21 2017, 12:45 AM Post #2 |
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Shitposter
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Gundam pods in Japan are my go to example of "what crazy video game thing would you buy with a ton of money. [doHTML]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WEvbhqbMrZ0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/doHTML] there are a ton of pod games or faux-VR games, but this is the real deal. |
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| shunshun | Jan 21 2017, 12:49 AM Post #3 |
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JERK
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When I was very young there was a Neo Geo arcade in the mall that me and my dad would go too, it was fun and I enjoyed trying to play the games but I was too small and had to stand on a stool to play. In the only other mall htere was a small private arcade but I dont know what it was, and I remember my babysitter taking me there because she worked there and playing Street fighter 2 and getting upset because i kept losing as E honda. Then we got a ruckers, but that didn't really have arcade games just more childish prize games until they got DDR and Marvel vs Capcom 2 years later, which was a lot of fun; they also had this shooting game which was like all these cartoon eggs which was also a tonne of fun and I'd go there just to play that, and then they also had House of the Dead which scared the shit out of me. Most of my experience and fun with arcade games I enjoy come from mame or this n64 cart I got which had a bunch of arcade games on it like Tapper and Robotron, I enjoyed Joust the most though and it was perhaps the last time I got my dad to play games with me as a kid was with Joust. |
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| DamienC | Jan 21 2017, 05:14 AM Post #4 |
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Shitposter
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I'd say the majority of the video games I'm obsessed with, especially the early NES games we got, were arcade ports. I always loved arcade games but the folks rarely ever gave me money to play any. When I was a kid, almost every department store and supermarket had a cabinet or two. I specifically remember the Ames in Paulsboro, NJ had Ms. Pac-Man, the Jamesway in Glassboro had a TMNT, and another Ames store had Trojan. Also my brother and I were soccer players, and the indoor arena near us had a ton of arcade games. At the indoor arena alone, I remember playing Konami Basketball, Star Force, Tiger Heli, Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Operation: Wolf, Ninja Gaiden, Jackal, and others. Of course living close to the Jersey Shore meant we could always hit the arcades there on the boardwalks. One good one that used to be in Ocean City was great because they had 6-player X-Men, TMNT, Choplifter, After Burner, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Commando. I have vague memories of my Dad taking my brother and I to this place that had go-karts and arcade games, and I remember seeing Roadblasters and Donkey Kong for the first time. This had to have been 1986 or 1987 so I was extremely young. The mall near me in Deptford, NJ had a pretty good arcade all the way up until a year or two ago when it finally closed. They rotated some cabinets out, but the whole time they were there they had a few staple cabinets like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, The Simpsons, Raiden II, Raiden DX, Hang-On, and Pole Position II. I really miss arcades. If I ever hit the lottery, I'd open up a game shop/arcade right down the street as there are multiple vacant storefronts. So basically this will never happen. |
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| portnoyd | Jan 21 2017, 08:33 AM Post #5 |
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WET NOSE
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Arcades, good times. I've been in and out of them my whole life. One of my earliest memories is playing a DK cab at a pizza place down the shore on vacation with my family. I was basically just moving the stick and pressing buttons, but I was fascinated. Like Damien, I had a lot of exposure to arcades at the Jersey Shore. Vague memories of playing Altered Beast in Wildwood and then the arcade in Stone Harbor where we'd always go. That arcade was the best - I remember a wide selection of games - Wrestle War, Pit Fighter, Final Fight and a double screen Ninja Warriors blew my mind. Back home, there was the local arcade in the mall near my house. It was in walking distance but of course my mother would never let me just go over there and play. So my dad had to take me and most of the times I'd be in there and he'd be sitting on a mall bench doing nothing. I'm bad at memories but TMNT, Shinobi, Demolition Derby (4 player top down with steering wheels = A++++++++++), Double Dragon, Xenophobe, Rastan, Crime Fighters, Smash TV, Total Carnage, the original Street Fighter with the pressure buttons, Street Fighter II, Gladiator, Xmen vs Street Fighter and MK1-3 are all I can remember right now but there was so much more. That arcade did a great job of getting in new titles. As I got older, the mall started to die and then when I went to college, I came back and found the arcade on its last legs. They put in brighter lights (noooooo), it was dead every time I came in and it was falling into disrepair. It closed finally in 2002? but it was dead for a long time before that. The mall was and is a dead mall. Really sad, back when I would go to the arcade as a kid, it was packed. The other arcade was the venerable Fun N Games. I went here a lot less growing up because it was farther away and busier. But oh man, best times. When I was younger, they got in an early version of MK3. I member like 20-25 people standing around the machine waiting for their turn, watching each other and waiting to see something new. Great selection of pins and they got all the oversized cabs (like Daytona, T-Mek, F-Zero AX and Tokyo Wars) that were a treat. Probably the only arcade that I encountered that made dedicated Neo Geo fighter cabs. After I got out of college, I basically turned into an arcade rat before I had a proper job. I think I mentioned this in the Funco thread. Stop at Funco, go to arcade. I probably put a couple thousand dollars in quarters into their MvC2 machines. Even to the end, they stayed on top of maintenance too. Sadly, around 2007, the mall forced them out in a bizarre attempt to get rid of the proverbial riff raff, which wasn't going to work because half the people that come to that mall to shop are the people they don't want hanging around. Akin to what Damien experienced, there was a big amusement center place called Sportsworld up here. It had batting cages, bumper cars, a mini golf course, bowling alley, near infinite redeption machines and tons of cabs. I remember playing on a 3 player Alien Storm, Revolution X (yech), the only time I ever saw a Super SF2 Turbo machine and OMFG DACTYL FUCKING NIGHTMARE, preceeding PSVR and Oculus Rift by 20 years. Naturally, the place closed down while I was in college. A shame. Other odds and ends include a local bowling alley that got in a MK2 machine. My best friend and I would take a stack of GamePros and play it for hours pulling off fatalities we hadn't seen before. Various restaurant arcade experiences, primarily when I would tag along with my dad for dinner after his over 40 softball league games. Probably more anecdotes to offer but it's early and brain no work. These days, if I want arcade games, I have a modded original Xbox. I actually had friends over last night and we played through Sunset Riders which I forgot how fun that was. We have 3 cabs (a 60-in-1, 4 slot MVS and Capcom Bowling), which is down from a max of 20 ten years ago. If I got rid of these three, I wouldn't be broken up about it. PROTIP: Unless you are handy with electronics, only buy perfectly working cabs. When we moved into this house, we had whittled it down to the above 3, Xenophobe (not nearly as fun when you can just press a button for credits), Dragon Spirit (how did people play this with a 4 way), a Naomi cab (I wanted to modify it for six button and put in MvC2... not to be) and Rastan. As far as the local arcades, the closest one is Morristown Game Vault. Yeah, it's literally in a bank. The vault has cabs in it (including a Safecracker pin, ba dum tsh). When Bratwurst was out here, we went and had a good time. Of course, parking in Morristown is a goddamn joke, so I rushed us out the door sadly. Great selection - dedicated Satan's Hollow, Spy Hunter 2 (wild), a Dragon's Lair (nice to see but it's awful) and Ice Cold Beer, which is a hoot. strx10, Zoo Keeper is so much fun, but you definitely need a 4 way for it. The controls can be awkward enough as it is. Love the game though. |
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| Reverend Crush | Jan 21 2017, 10:28 AM Post #6 |
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BIG JERK
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Getting to go to the arcade was a rare treat growing up. I remember the most fun I had going to Six Flags as a kid was the first time I played Pac-Land. Yes, Pac-Land, I love that stupid game. That was also the first time I played Ghouls N' Ghosts... so playing Ghosts N' Goblins on NES felt like a major downgrade. Most places would have, and still have, the super commons like Ms. Pac Man and Galaga. I remember playing Bad Dudes and, well... that game didn't age well. The NES port was kind of a letdown, but I still played it as I had two different friends who owned it. TMNT was awesome, but I preferred The Simpsons... which I was only able to find once on a trip to Florida. Of course, I was really into fighters during the Street Fighter II boom. I'm not going to list every game I enjoyed in that genre, but I would play other games like Numan Athletics. That and just about any pinball game. I'd play those two if the line for the latest fighter was too long. |
I'M ON DRUGS!![]() let me be the first to say that whatever it is i am doing, it's definitely not trying. - Edsel | |
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| FlowingMindspin | Jan 21 2017, 10:40 AM Post #7 |
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BIG BUTT BABY
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Man, I never got to spend much time in arcades at all as a kid, or ever, really. For those who don't know I live in central PA... Like 30 miles away from Penn State's main campus. Middle of nowhere; we didn't even have a Taco Bell until last year. Anyway... My earliest memory of an arcade was when I was six years old and the family went to Hersheypark over the summer. We were hosting a fresh air kid and he and I were absolutely blown away by the amount of games under one roof at the park. I spent a LOT of time playing NES as a kid, but this was so much better (except that I had to put quarters into the machines to play them :P). I have vivid memories of my dad and my cousin getting to the Technodrome in the TMNT Arcade game on that trip but not being able to beat either Krang or Shredder and giving up. I remember how excited I was for the NES port to come out and then being immensely disappointed in how neutered it was (I guess as a kid I didn't understand why the NES couldn't do the same things the arcade cabinet did). According to my parents I used to go to Showbiz Pizza Place a lot when we lived in Florida, which means I was three or four years old. My dad was in the Air Force, we lived on base, and my grandparents would drive down from PA and stay with us when my dad would get shipped temporarily or something. I dunno. Showbiz was like a southern version of Chuck E. Cheese. Sadly, the only thing I remember was my grandparents always offering to take me there, eating the pizza, and watching Billy Bob and the other animatronic figured sing and dance. No arcade games... though I'm sure there were plenty (I do remember playing a LOT of skee-ball). But yeah... my arcade experiences were limited to amusement park visits until I was in high school, at which time a few friends got their drivers licenses and we could go over the mountain to State College (aka where Penn State is) and do pretty much whatever we wanted. They had a mall (which was and is shitty) that we used to hang out at, but it had no arcade. Then one of our friends told us that in an alley downtown there was an arcade over there, and we finally located it after a lot of searching... it was called Playland. This was in like 2000 or 2001 or so. Playland had probably 50 or so cabs in it, plus some pinball machines, in two different rooms. One had newer and more modern stuff (Tekken 3, Virtua Fighter something or other, some FPS that was eight player), the other had a lot of classics (old Atari stuff, some Neo Geo cabs with baseball games on them, etc.). My friends and I spent a lot of time in the "classic" section. I actually won a Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo tournament there one weekend when they were having a lot of tournaments, and took third in a Tekken 3 tournament where no one was allowed to use Eddy. I was saddened to discover a year or so after we found the place that they were closing. They auctioned off all the cabinets and that was that. My friends and I tried to get enough money together to get SOMETHING from the place, but the cheapest ones went for like $400 or so. Sadness. Honestly that about rounds out my experiences that are worth noting. I see stuff about free play arcades where you pay a flat fee to get in and it sounds amazing... but we have nothing like that nearby that I know of. $10 to go in and game for hours and chill sounds fucking awesome and I'd be there a lot if I had the opportunity. Side note: the "arcades" at the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach were underwhelming the couple times I've gone with the wife. I've never been much of a beach person (I burn in 5 minutes, can't swim, afraid of water) so I never went with my family on beach trips... the boardwalk itself was a fun experience for me since it was new, but the arcades are all claw games, stacker games, and other ticket-dispensing madness. I also made a trip with the wife to Chambersburg (getting close to the Maryland border, still in PA) to her college to develop some photos a few weeks back and she mentioned that the nearby mall had an arcade. We had to wait for pics to dry so we made the fifteen minute drive and found that the place was open, but it was 90% ticket games and had three games I had any interest in playing... Ms. Pac Man, Virtua Fighter 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom. The first two were out of service, and when I started playing Marvel vs. Capcom I noticed that I couldn't crouch (the down input on player 1's controls did not work at all), and thus couldn't throw hadokens. I lost. I told the employee who was there (playing a whack a crocodile game and ignoring a little girl and her mother at the counter who wanted to trade in tickets), and he shrugged and said nothing. Fucker. OK I'm done now. That got a lot more long-winded than I anticipated. ![]() EDIT: forgot to mention that we had a department store downtown that closed in like 1993 or so that I went do all the time with my parents called G. C. Murphy Co. (or "Murphy's" as we called it) that I discovered in 1992 had a Street Fighter 2 machine waaaaay in the back by the customer service desk, which I had never gone near as a kid. Oh man, what a treat that was. But the douchebags who ran the place would kick me out after a few games since I didn't intend to actually BUY anything. Even nine year old me knew I was BUYING plays of their arcade game. But it was no use. Fuckers. Also the local Pizza Hut (which was of the old brown roof sit down restaurant variety that served beer and did not deliver until a couple years ago) had a Cowboys of Moo Mesa arcade cabinet in the foyer as you entered the restaurant. I wonder what happened to it when they moved to the shopping plaza up the road... hm. I should ask sometime. ALSO I forgot about going to the skating rink that is right up the street from where I live now as a kid. They had a few pinball machines (Addams Family, Fish Tales... I consider them the two best pinball games ever, though my knowledge is limited), and at one point had Daytona USA with four cabs linked which was a fucking blast. Other games I remember were a racing game called Exhaust Note, Cruisin' USA, SF Rush, and they had the original Virtua Fighter for awhile (which since I owned it on the 32X I could clear in one credit to the amazement of all). We just had Darian's 13th birthday party up there in November... they only have some deer hunting and other shooting type games now... no racing games, no pins. Sadness. OK I'm really done now. Maybe. |
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| clawx | Jan 21 2017, 12:00 PM Post #8 |
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Administrator
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lol cowboys of moo mesa |
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| FlowingMindspin | Jan 21 2017, 03:00 PM Post #9 |
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BIG BUTT BABY
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Yeah that's a blast from the past, huh?
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| DamienC | Jan 21 2017, 06:37 PM Post #10 |
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Shitposter
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Reading FM's post reminded me that the Dave & Buster's in Philadelphia used to have 8-player Daytona USA and that was a blast. We went for my one friend's birthday one year and we pissed off all the 10 year olds by 3 of us intentionally boxing them in and going slow. I went back there in my 20s for a company Christmas party, but since I hated most of the people I worked with I just got sloshed on gin & tonics and played Donkey Kong all night. Also another weird thing that happened that is a sorta long but interesting story: In my junior year of high school, my poor south Jersey Catholic high school had record low attendance and super high maintenance costs so the diocese decided to close it. Everyone was all weepy, but then the faculty & staff started literally not giving a fuck about anything. Teachers just let us randomly have study hall instead of learning. My religion teacher stopped teaching at all, which was great, because I spent that whole class ogling these two girls in my class who used to bend over all the time for whatever reason. ANYWAY. Arcade stuff. So the school just says "fuck it" and rents us arcade cabinets for the cafeteria. We had Cruisin' USA, Area 51, and Raiden II. Holy shit did we have fun trying to beat each other's scores in those games. I actually got pretty good at Cruisin and Raiden, but I'd mostly just waste two quarters at a time trying to show off with both pistols in Area 51. Catholic schoolgirls were definitely not lining up at my locker to suck my dick that year. Good times. |
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| strx10 | Jan 21 2017, 06:50 PM Post #11 |
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Sexy Beast
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^Best post of the thread. port - I think the one I've played has a 4 way joystick. Such an under appreciated gem. Man glad to see you guys weighing in and noticing how we all pretty much have had the same experiences with arcades growing up. Reading your guys experiences actually reminded me of a few more arcade memories. Growing up my older brother played a lot of hockey and the rink itself had several games that I remember occasionally playing and often game over button mashing. Damien's comment of Road Blaster reminded me of this and I'm actually ashamed I forgot about this game. This was at the rink and is one of my favorite arcade games ever made so how the hell did I miss it? They also had the T2 with the uzi controls (I was waaaaaay too short to reach that), a SF 2 Champ, and of course a Neo Geo. They had a Popeye at one point, but by then my brother had ended his hockey career so I only saw it briefly. I went back recently and sadly the games are now all gone. There were other rinks we went to that all had games and i can remember stuff like Twin Cobra, Smash TV, Snow Bros. and others. This is what gave me the most exposure to the arcade gaming overall. Speaking of Smash TV, I tried to buy one yesterday, but the cocksucker on Craigslist only left an email address and of course never replied. Ad is still up too. Hate that shit. There's also a DK cocktail I was considering getting until i remembered Nintendo cocktails have the stupidest control panel setup. Seriously, why the fuck is everything just kind of plastered on the side panel like that? I'm still contemplating buying the thing and modding the control panel, but god that's a horrendous design. |
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| portnoyd | Jan 21 2017, 07:07 PM Post #12 |
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WET NOSE
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Yeah, I remember that being a staple of D&Bs. Maybe it still is? Also, 15 years ago, the closest D&B had Battletech pods. Amazeballs being half in the bag and blowing each other up. A shame they ripped those out. Which is really all you need to know about D&Bs now. What a waste of a place. Maybe not if you want to play the latest Fast & The Furious Cruisin the USA rip off.
That's amazing. Quoted for how amazing it is. strx10, Craigslist is horseshit. Utter horseshit. It should be put out back and shot. You are literally getting what you pay for. |
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| strx10 | Jan 21 2017, 07:34 PM Post #13 |
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Sexy Beast
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You guys basically confirmed everything I thought about D&B without going into one. Thank you all very much. I'll continue avoiding them like the plague. Port - Eh... Craigslist has been good to me over the years for selling off bulky ass music gear and finding some most excellent bargains/jobs so I do appreciate the idea. When I was doing the pro musician thing for a while it quite literally put food on the table for me with some really excellent gigs. The only thing that blows is the layout & structuring which are in dire dire need of an overhaul. It feels like it was coded in 2001 and you still get varied results each time you run a search. It reminds me a lot of using MSN to do searches back in 2000 with how utterly broken and random it is. |
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| Danihel | Jan 21 2017, 08:15 PM Post #14 |
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Newbie
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Track shooters like area 51, time crisis and house of the dead were my jam. Raiden and Metal Slug were also really fun. The closest arcade to my house in the states is this shitty arcade in which all the games are barely functional and the prizes include weird cast iron figures, mugs branded with some company name and the top prize is a used meatslicer from a restaurant. |
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| strx10 | Jan 21 2017, 08:19 PM Post #15 |
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Sexy Beast
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^ Learn 2 read nub. I addressed that already in the first post. Also we can't forget the womens underwear, electric toothbrush heads, rubber page turner, and thousands of boxes of holy water. Fuck that place has amazing prizes |
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2:15 AM Jul 11