24 replies to this topic

[retrorussell]

Hey guys and gals.
What dreams did you have, long ago or recently, that involved arcade games or arcades?  They can be fairly normal or off-the-wall weird.

I remember one where I was playing games in a big arcade, and I'd turn around and some of the games were gone.  I'd look around where I knew other games were and they were gone too!  Soon there were no games in the arcade, just empty, and I was the only person left there.  Scary!

Edited by retrorussell, Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:23 AM.

[Random Terrain]

I think all of my game-related dreams were about finding cool-looking Atari 2600 games that don't exist in real life. They always had realistic box art and were totally believable with screenshots on the back and everything you'd expect to see on a box, but I could never remember the game names or the details when I woke up.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I've had two arcade dreams that drive me crazy because I think these might have been real games but I can't prove it.

In either dream I am in one of the arcades of my youth. I pass by a machine and I say "Wow! I remember this game!" and I love playing it again.

Then I wake up and can't figure out what game I was playing.

Maybe someone here can identify some possible titles?

The first game was orange and black (I guess a B&W monitor with an orange overlay) and the view was stretched back, like the way the opening titles work in Star Wars, and the landscape is flying toward you (so really, Star Wars direction in reverse). You control either a ship at the bottom of the screen or maybe you don't see your ship and I was thinking of the edge of the cabinet, I can't remember, but basically you use the joystick to target buildings and fighters that come past the screen.

The second game was Black & White. I think I saw a color vector game on a Starcade episode once that triggered me remembering this dream but I can't for the life of me remember what episode now nor what the game was called. The one from Starcade was like you were flying through arches, almost like Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom but it was defintiely a vector game and much simpler graphics. Anyway, my point is the game in my dream was sort of similar to that vector game, but definitely older and definitely Black & White. I even remember the cabinet from my dream, it looked a lot like Gotcha. Heck, maybe it actually was Gotcha but I can't tell because I have never seen gameplay for that game.

[Cynicaster]

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:34 PM, said:

Maybe someone here can identify some possible titles?

The first game was orange and black (I guess a B&W monitor with an orange overlay) and the view was stretched back, like the way the opening titles work in Star Wars, and the landscape is flying toward you (so really, Star Wars direction in reverse). You control either a ship at the bottom of the screen or maybe you don't see your ship and I was thinking of the edge of the cabinet, I can't remember, but basically you use the joystick to target buildings and fighters that come past the screen.

Sounds like Sky Raider, we just played this in the Arcade/MAME high score club.    

http://www.arcade-mu...hp?game_id=9573

[ComputerSpaceFan]

 Cynicaster, on Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:05 AM, said:

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:34 PM, said:

Maybe someone here can identify some possible titles?

The first game was orange and black (I guess a B&W monitor with an orange overlay) and the view was stretched back, like the way the opening titles work in Star Wars, and the landscape is flying toward you (so really, Star Wars direction in reverse). You control either a ship at the bottom of the screen or maybe you don't see your ship and I was thinking of the edge of the cabinet, I can't remember, but basically you use the joystick to target buildings and fighters that come past the screen.

Sounds like Sky Raider, we just played this in the Arcade/MAME high score club.    

http://www.arcade-mu...hp?game_id=9573

That was it!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!! I am totally going to run that one in MAME tonight! It's been killing me to remember the game.

Now if I could just figure out the second game. Could it have been Gotcha? I hear that was more Pac-man-like though, not Buck Rogers like.

[Keatah]

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:34 PM, said:

The second game was Black & White. I think I saw a color vector game on a Starcade episode once that triggered me remembering this dream but I can't for the life of me remember what episode now nor what the game was called. The one from Starcade was like you were flying through arches, almost like Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom but it was defintiely a vector game and much simpler graphics. Anyway, my point is the game in my dream was sort of similar to that vector game, but definitely older and definitely Black & White. I even remember the cabinet from my dream, it looked a lot like Gotcha. Heck, maybe it actually was Gotcha but I can't tell because I have never seen gameplay for that game.

Might it be this?
http://www.rotheblog...ctor-prototype/


whupps i guess not..

Edited by Keatah, Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:26 AM.

[Keatah]

I had a dream one time where I played the 2600 all backwards. What I mean by that is it was the CARTRIDGE that had the switches and connectors and RF cable connecting it to the TV set; while the actual full-size 2600 console was the game. We'd swap consoles (and not carts) out to play different games. The cartridge sat on the floor and the 2600 would plug into it at a funky angle, sometimes partly embedding itself into carpet or something.

I also had a dream of a 2600 console made in 1976 with a bicentennial theme. With electric sparklers emanating from underneath, like those lights on lowriders.

And of course. I dreamed of a diamond suitcase with exotic alien circuitry (yet to be invented) that was capable of playing arcade games from 500 years ago all the way up to thousands of years from the future. It had a Coke soda can on the side that would spin up and form a black hole creating a time-warp of a sort. This computer thing box could send parts of itself into the future, and as it caught up with itself it had the most impossibly complex programs already executed and awaiting display on a thin glass monitor.

I suppose the closest thing today is mame on a laptop. But still pretty cool back then!

Another one was where I kept screeming Bzzztherrkktthceeeez! over and over again while these little green men scrolled off the screen and out of the monitor itself! They formed a moving and swaying carpet-like wave of ant things on the floor. I quickly found out that I could control this "carpet wave" of green men at breakneck speeds and started crowd surfing up and down the street. I got a pit-stop at some fat-lady's house and driving controller upgrade. This allowed even higher rates of speeds.

Edited by Keatah, Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:24 AM.

[retrorussell]

I remember once dreaming I was playing Dig Dug, and the Pookas and Fygars were actually anthropomorphic animals, like squirrels and rabbits.  Weird..

[retrorussell]

Also had a dream long ago that Berzerk was hacked and released as a game called "Camel Warz".  Instead of humanoids and robots you were bedouins, somehow shooting lasers at each other in a maze.  I didn't do drugs back then, honest!

Edited by retrorussell, Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:24 PM.

[Keatah]

I had a another strange dream where the entire videogame escaped from the console and began playing itself in the middle of the basement. I think we had Slot Racers and Missile Command going. There might have been a circular spherical shaped object with Video Chess running on it.

[retrorussell]

 Keatah, on Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:12 PM, said:

I had a another strange dream where the entire videogame escaped from the console and began playing itself in the middle of the basement. I think we had Slot Racers and Missile Command going. There might have been a circular spherical shaped object with Video Chess running on it.

I probably had that kind of dream at one point or another.
I also had a dream that all the games in an arcade I was at were terrible half-assed ripoffs of real games, and there were some handheld games there too (also really piss-poor).  Ugh, wake me up already!

[Melissa Melville]

I typically have dreams where I find a sweet NES stash somewhere.  I may be at a flea market or a store, but the theme is always the same.  I stumble upon a sweet, sweet stash of NES goodness.

I have had them since I was a kid, it's a little more embarrassing now that I have them as an adult

[Jr. Pac]

I had a dream I went to a HUUUUUUGE Goodwill, and there was a box with one NES game. I took out that NES game, and more and more and more came out... With pink, red, yellow, etc. colored carts too, and some of the labels were made of Origami psper. The last one... Was a Nintendo World Championships 1990! I've had much odder dreams, but that was one of the few I remember. I had the same dreams, Retrorussel (the first one) and RT!

[Austin]

I tend to have dreams every now and then where I discover a massive, intricately-designed arcade. I usually go apeshit in said dreams, too. I think it's due to the lack of arcades in my area, and the fact that I wish we had some around here (I could live in an arcade, haha)!

Edited by Austin, Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:02 PM.

[the.golden.ax]

Just had a dream about an arcade due to this thread. I'm not kidding, full on REM sleep. Was feeling sick so I took a nap and just got up. I'd see the thread in the line-up but not clicked prior to sleeping. I don't dream about arcades often, so I assume that the title coupled with Star Trek on netflix was the cause. I was on the second floor of Brookfield Square mall in Wisconsin just outside the Boston Store, circa 1992. There was a real video game kiosk set up there at that time. I went and played some Nintendo. Then realized that the store next to the Boston Store was an Arcade. Went in and it was the bridge of STNG Enterprise, with cabs all around it. Captain Picard and Riker were there showing me the arcades, and telling me how I had just time traveled, and the technicals behind what had just happened. Then my kids and dogs started messing around in real life and woke me up

AX

[NBC]

I would dream about arcades. I would get the same feeling as when I played Segas Wrestle War. I love that game. Most of the time it was a rare wrestling game I never herd of. I love Wrestling arcade games. The arcades would be real tall. long screens. And sometimes controls like the game Punch Out. The 2 sticks and the scope you look in.

[retrorussell]

I used to dream I could play them on a theater screen.  I think I might have dreamed I could play them on the sky once.  Got that from seeing it in a 2600 commercial!

[ComputerSpaceFan]

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:28 PM, said:

 Cynicaster, on Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:05 AM, said:

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:34 PM, said:

Maybe someone here can identify some possible titles?

The first game was orange and black (I guess a B&W monitor with an orange overlay) and the view was stretched back, like the way the opening titles work in Star Wars, and the landscape is flying toward you (so really, Star Wars direction in reverse). You control either a ship at the bottom of the screen or maybe you don't see your ship and I was thinking of the edge of the cabinet, I can't remember, but basically you use the joystick to target buildings and fighters that come past the screen

The second game was Black & White. I think I saw a color vector game on a Starcade episode once that triggered me remembering this dream but I can't for the life of me remember what episode now nor what the game was called. The one from Starcade was like you were flying through arches, almost like Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom but it was defintiely a vector game and much simpler graphics. Anyway, my point is the game in my dream was sort of similar to that vector game, but definitely older and definitely Black & White. I even remember the cabinet from my dream, it looked a lot like Gotcha. Heck, maybe it actually was Gotcha but I can't tell because I have never seen gameplay for that game.

Sounds like Sky Raider, we just played this in the Arcade/MAME high score club.

http://www.arcade-mu...hp?game_id=9573

That was it!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!! I am totally going to run that one in MAME tonight! It's been killing me to remember the game.

Now if I could just figure out the second game. Could it have been Gotcha? I hear that was more Pac-man-like though, not Buck Rogers like.

Okay I finally figured out the Black&White game I am thinking of.

Blaster

Was there a Black&White version? As per my original point below, Blaster looks a lot like the game I am thinking of.

 ComputerSpaceFan, on Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:34 PM, said:

Anyway, my point is the game in my dream was sort of similar to that vector game (Blaster), but definitely older and definitely Black & White. I even remember the cabinet from my dream, it looked a lot like Gotcha. Heck, maybe it actually was Gotcha but I can't tell because I have never seen gameplay for that game.

[simbalion]

I've often had dreams about finding old arcades still around and playing games in them. Sometimes the games are normal, other times they are literally mash-ups of many games put together. There are some dreams I wish were true because I miss the arcades. I have some games myself, but nothing beat wandering into a classic arcade. Haven't had an arcade dream in a while though.

[atarilovesyou]

Just last night!  I dream about arcades all the time, and have for years.  Lots of times, it's about some killer find of TONS of Atari stuff, Coleco...and always it the same thing, ya wake up and realize it was all a dream...DAMN.  LOL, funny though, because it's not like I don't own a bunch of retro gear, but I think it lingers from a time I didn't.

The arcade dreams of mine are always massive places, with games that NEVER exist in real-life...lol, and more often than not, I can't play them for whatever reason!  But they're always these fantastic looking arcades (last night's was two floors!)...some are dark, neon filled places, others are like open air Carnival arcades...which made no sense, "What if it rains!?!?!"...I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who dreams about arcades!

I really gotta go check out Funstop or something...

[retrorussell]

I once dreamed that some games were rated "R" like movies, for violence, maybe sex and what-not.  This was way before Mortal Kombat made gory violence popular in video games (and incidentally, before Chiller even).  I dreamed that Naughty Boy was rated "R", but I can't remember what parts made it "R" (though with the word Naughty in the title, you'd think sex or nudity.. I'll never know for sure).

I also dreamed of a game like Taito's Indian Battle (though I'd never seen or played Indian Battle until recently!) called "Nativ" and it was by Taito.

I once dreamed there was a sequel to Berzerk, and this was before Frenzy came out.  You controlled Evil Otto, on the run from a vengeful humanoid!  You could bounce out of the maze through an exit, or out of the screen towards the actual player, in 3-D!  WTF!

[Waterborn]

Just came here to post a similar thread and saw this topic. I woke up this morning after having a dream that my car broke down. I was walking in the rain and came across this old, run-down thrift store all Rocky Horro Picture Show like. When I went inside, they have dozens of arcade games, all on sale for $50 (rare stuff like a cockpit Sinistar, EDOT, Computer Space, etc), every home console known to man (and some that I had never seen before) and chests full of game carts. Wish I could find such a place in RL.

[Brian D. Deuel]

I would have dreams of finding coin-op prototypes or nonexistent games in the strangest places. One of the places was a castle-like campus with a library, although I can't say if it was a college or not (you know how it goes with dreams). There was an arcade in one of the giant rooms with a tons of prototypes of black and white Atari arcade games. The one game that I distinctly remember was similar to Lunar Lander, with black raster graphics on a grey screen (a la Sprint), where the player would fly around and collect objects in order, avoiding walls and enemies. The cabinet was similar to a Midway Lo-Boy, with lights on the bezel and control panel that simulated a real cockpit. The gameplay is similar to a Playstation game I played called Mystery Planet, in a Japanese collection called Serofans (70s and 80s arcade game simulations; a great collection if you can find it). I'll never forget that dream. I even wrote a PC port of the game in my dream, with the graphics as best as I could remember them, but lost the code years ago. Maybe I'll write a Dreamcast port someday...

Info about the Serofans collection here: INFO

Edited by Brian D. Deuel, Thu Feb 9, 2012 11:56 PM.

[retrorussell]

I once long ago had a dream there was a Pac-Man game that took place in outer space, perhaps on the moon.  Pac-Man had a jet pack on and was flying high above the surface.  I don't remember ghosts or dots figuring into the game.  Just him floating in air, and Ms. Pac-Man on the ground watching him.  I was playing this and I let Pac-Man crash on the ground in a mushy heap, and Ms. Pac-Man bawled her eyes out at the sight of her (very) dead husband.  Yuck!

[NBC]

Have you ever dreamed about finding arcades for a dollar. I'm talking hundreds for 1 dollar. Not a piece. That would be cool. like if the American Pickers found a barn full of them.