What did you like about the arcade environment back-in-the-day?

[roland p]

The controllers? Ohh no. Home controllers were the most versatile and configurable and moddable things. I liked that I could use one controller across many cartridges, and I also wrote Atari that they should include DB-9 connectors so I could bring my own controllers to the arcade!

Have you ever tried Daytona USA?

[schuwalker]

I grew up in Carol Stream, IL which had the very large Galaxy World to play in. It was the place were I first experienced games like Zaxxon, Tron, Tempest. They also had older games like Warlords, which was a lot of fun. Only bad memory I have from that place is running out of money.

Very nice!

 

I lived in Carol Stream in the mid '70s.

 

Do you remember Mcdades of Rt 64? The Sears outlet store of Schmale Road?

 

We used to live in that apartment building by the hockey arena - can't recall the name????

Edited February 26, 2015 by schuwalker

[tep392]

Very nice!

 

I lived in Carol Stream in the mid '70s.

 

Do you remember Mcdades of Rt 64? The Sears outlet store of Schmale Road?

 

We used to live in that apartment building by the hockey arena - can't recall the name????

That's cool. We lived in the neighborhood across from the high school. We moved away soon after I graduated in 85.

I used to love browsing at McDades. It's where I bought my first watch, an Armitron LCD, and my first Sony walkman, one of those tiny ones the size of a casette case. I was also into HO trains and used to go to the EG home center to drool over the train section they had there.

 

I don't recall when the Galaxy World opened up. Was it open when you lived there?

[schuwalker]

That's cool. We lived in the neighborhood across from the high school. We moved away soon after I graduated in 85.

I used to love browsing at McDades. It's where I bought my first watch, an Armitron LCD, and my first Sony walkman, one of those tiny ones the size of a casette case. I was also into HO trains and used to go to the EG home center to drool over the train section they had there.

 

I don't recall when the Galaxy World opened up. Was it open when you lived there?

I forgot the shout out to the Kmart on Rt.64 as well.

 

We moved out of Carol Stream, I think around '78???

 

The first time I set foot into Galaxy World was in '87. I really don't recall seeing when we live in the city itself.

[NE146]

Everyone's seen this already years ago.. and I thought it was relatively lame at first, but now I have to admit yeah it does successfully give a feel of 80's arcade you might have walked into.

 

 

[Keatah]

The bass quality is good, there isn't too much mixing of too many games all at once. And there is 80's music. Quintessential Journey. I can't think of any other band that has so many hits made specifically for the arcade - or so I like to think.

 

I recall seeing this video in 2002 and thought it good then, and think it good now.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Keatah

[BillyHW]

Everyone's seen this already years ago.. and I thought it was relatively lame at first, but now I have to admit yeah it does successfully give a feel of 80's arcade you might have walked into.

 

 

 

Which game was it that spoke, "Run coward!"?

[Keatah]

Sinstar (1982 Williams)

[Iwantgames:)]

Best thing about Arcades, watching kids wait in line to play, then beat em up n take their quarters lol j/k I actually never got to go to a arcade as a kid since the small town I lived had none. First arcade I went to was in 2005

[Nebulon]

The atmosphere:

 

Screens glowing out of darkness. A thin strip of neon light outlining the edges of the labyrinth of crowded arcade machines. All to the sound track of classic rock, new wave, and progressive rock blended with hundreds of video game sounds and background chatter.

 

It all added up to an entrancing and immersive experience.

[Keatah]

At one time I believed the arcades to be the high-point of social sophistication.

[Nebulon]

Wouldn't surprise me then if those recordings are what I tried out before, since it sounds just like it.

 

Too bad someone wouldn't create a real arcade ambiance recording, which as I said, would especially be useful on the Xbox 360 matched up with something like the Game Room app.

Well, there is this:

 

http://www.coinopvideogames.com/sounds.php

 

As far as I know, these are the only authentic audio recordings of the original arcades that exist in the world. It reminds me that I should have tried to get photos of the arcades in my city before they disappeared.

[Keatah]

I've got a load of photos of the arcades of chicago and suburbs. thanks for the reminder!!

[7800fan]

One thing I forgot that I liked about back then: any game was one quarter and a good player can make that one quarter last for a long time. Today's game costs upward of $1 or more and they won't let one play more than a few minutes nonstop without feeding more. It's impossible to reproduce a level 256 glitch type play (which can take around 5 hours) on a single quarter.

[BillyHW]

One thing I forgot that I liked about back then: any game was one quarter and a good player can make that one quarter last for a long time. Today's game costs upward of $1 or more and they won't let one play more than a few minutes nonstop without feeding more. It's impossible to reproduce a level 256 glitch type play (which can take around 5 hours) on a single quarter.

 

Amen, one of the biggest problems with arcades in the 90s was the increased cost/play, especially for the "deluxe" cabinets. You didn't even get a chance to learn how to play the game before you blew all your money. So these games never got played, never got a following, and there was never a crowd around them. Example: Silent Scope. Sure looked cool, but I die so fast before even getting a chance to look around with the scope. There goes a dollar. Phuck that.

 

I really felt that games would get a better following if you actually gave people a chance to learn the game and become skilled at it. And being able to extend a game on one quarter

 

Anyhow, as a multiplayer game, SFII was pure genius financially, just one quarter to continue and someone is guaranteed to lose and put in another quarter, and the skilled player gets rewarded by letting him stay on the machine. And even the loser totally felt he got his money's worth, even though the match was short, because it was just one quarter anyhow, and the game was lots of fun. If SFII was a buck per play, I don't think it would have been half as popular as it was.

[AAA177]

I'll basically echo what everyone has already said, but for me, I started with Asteroids, probably because of Empire Strikes Back, can't really remember whether I played that game before or after the film. I remember the games fascinating me to a huge degree. I then fell in love with the colors on the screen and the graphics on the cabinets. Eventually, I started to be wowed by what actually went into making the games...the coding.

 

No, this isn't going to segue into a story of how I became a programmer. Don't have the programming gene, unfortunately. Always wanted to learn assembly, with the dream being to one day make my own Atari 2600 cartridge. (Not in the context of today's homebrewing, but in the context of back then; in other words, after reading that famous article with David Crane where they talk about how unique programming was at the time and how the description of a castle in one of the games went something like HS2626etc., remember that? I wonder if I have the beginning of that correct.) I could never get past programming anything beyond simple graphic things in Atari BASIC. A JD Casten I'll never be.

 

But I loved the arcade. Wish there were more of them around, there has to be a market for them. Every mall should have a classic arcade. Maybe it uses the gym membership model...you pay monthly and go in and use the machines like exercise equipment. I wonder if there ever was an arcade like that, since usually no idea is original. I am definitely the kind of person who looks at that arcade video with the Eddie Money song and nearly breaks down in teary-eyed nostalgia...I do want to go back.

 

Didn't get a chance to read through the whole thread, so like I say, I probably am repeating what everyone else has mentioned.

[Giltygear]

I liked that every time I went into an arcade there was always something new.

 

Buy arcade cabinets. Were all at a point in our lives where we've earned the right to own at least 1.

[Nebulon]

Everyone's seen this already years ago.. and I thought it was relatively lame at first, but now I have to admit yeah it does successfully give a feel of 80's arcade you might have walked into.

 

 

The great thing about something like this is that it can always be re-rendered using a few more of the time-consuming options. The models already exist.

 

E.g.) Depth of field and some enhanced lighting options could be enabled. Ease-in and ease-out on the camera moves to avoid the sudden stops and starts, maybe re-sampling the audio from higher bit-resolution sources, and a bit of tweaking to the audio mix and it would be pretty amazing.

 

As it is, it's not bad at all.

[hookem]

The darkness, the lights and sound, and the sensory overload. It was as close as a kid could get to being in a casino or dance club.

 

And, like many things back then, it was easy to get "lost" in the atmosphere. If someone wanted to find you, they'd have to look pretty hard. No cell phones, no idea what time it was or whether it was light or dark outside, just a total immersive atmosphere -- didn't matter where on the planet you were, what the weather was, or who anyone was. The experience was the same everywhere.

[Keatah]

Yes that too. I'm of the opinion that for anyone to recreate the 80's arcade experience they must have been there, got lost in the music, played the games, competed for a hi-score.

 

Only those people are qualified to own and operate a real arcade. These upstart businesses and all this capitalization and marketing.. pfaggghh!! The fact that we call and label todays establishments "retro" ruins the experience. The old arcades were not like that. We didn't see cutesy pac-man mascots plastered all over the wall and holding things for sale. There were minimal or no merchandising counters.

 

Only the original arcade goers have a clue, and thats assuming they have a good memory and attention to detail. Attention to detail folks! These are the only folks qualified to architect and operate a real 80's arcade.

[Keatah]

I stopped going to arcades when they became predominately filled with fighting and racing games.

 

Arcade games used to look better than console games. They stopped pushing the technology. In the 90s the games should have been at higher resolutions than 640x480 (and a lot of games where still at 320x200) - it was totally possible as I'd bought a 19" Sony monitor that I later discovered could be run at 2048x1536! In the noughties the games should have been at even higher resolutions.

 

Yes. I dislike fighting games like the plague.

 

I was totally confused as to why the arcades weren't pushing the tech like they did in 1979-1983. Then in the that bastardized dotcom era I began to understand business. I realized it was all about profit, get the most money from your customers for the least amount product. The arcade lost its appeal real fast. I was already slowing down my visits in the mid 1990's though.

 

 

I grew up in Carol Stream, IL which had the very large Galaxy World to play in. It was the place were I first experienced games like Zaxxon, Tron, Tempest. They also had older games like Warlords, which was a lot of fun. Only bad memory I have from that place is running out of money.

 

My magnetic-mount CB antenna was stolen there! Fuckers...

 

 

 

What I liked the best back then were the crowd who cheered on and all and the sheer number of cabs (easily over 100).

 

Ohh hellyah!! When I had a crowd gathering behind me at Missile Command or Assault or especially Gyruss I just absolutely swelled up and felt like the lightning bolt attack force. A rush better than a 2 lines! I was strong enough to break all the machines at the gym.

 

All they had to do was play Alan Parsons' Prime Time or Styx' Renegade. I was T-O-T-A-L-L-Y U-N-S-T-O-P-P-A-B-L-E!! Clearing level after level. Doing my Slurpee. Spinning around, in-game and in front of the cabinet. Once I knew I had a level cleared I'd close my eyes, slither off to the side, and give the crowd that tch'gotcha look. Warp to the next level. It was a blast! I couldn't get out of my skin fast enough before the onslaught began again. But I had it in the bag. I was God. I knew it. Other people knew it. The operator came over. Security came over. The whole crowd clamoring, surging, to get a look. Paramedics standing by. All in amazement at the greatness that was me and the machine melded as one. A guy was on the horn with the power company asking for more. News crews, helicopters, a flying demonstration team.. Bagghhh.. I was used to that happening.

 

These were the best of times without question. Only at the Arrrrrrr-cade!

Edited March 29, 2015 by Keatah

[BydoEmpire]

One thing I forgot that I liked about back then: any game was one quarter and a good player can make that one quarter last for a long time. Today's game costs upward of $1 or more and they won't let one play more than a few minutes nonstop without feeding more. It's impossible to reproduce a level 256 glitch type play (which can take around 5 hours) on a single quarter.

Yup, absolutely. To me, that was a big factor in the appeal of the classic arcade games, and the appeal was largely killed when your play time was so obviously restricted. The psychological reward of "maybe if I'm good I can get to one more level than last time" was just so strong. When game design changed to lock that down it made me think twice about spending money in an arcade (do I want to spend $1 for 2 minutes?). I was never very good at many arcade games, so it wasn't like I was playing two hours on a single quarter, but the thought that I *could* be kept me playing and paying. Lost lesson, imho. Of course, a lot of late 80s and early 90s games were super successful and fun games, but a lot of the magic was lost.

Edited March 30, 2015 by BydoEmpire

[Keatah]

What do you think of the games that let you continue at your current level for another credit/quarter? Myself, I'd pay the quarter for the first play, and typically purchase 3 continues. After that it was a point of diminishing returns. I was as good as I was gonna get. I sucked at too many games.

 

There have been a few rare times I might have put 4 or 5 bucks into a machine if I was really pissed off and almost done completing the game. On average I'd stop after the $1.00 mark.

 

The games I kicked ass on were:

Missile Command

Tac/Scan

Gyruss

Assault

Star Jacker

Earth Friend Mission

And maybe RoadBlasters and S.T.U.N. Runner - but I ran into the situation of paying a quarter a level too often. So it was in my best interest to finish them ASAP and be done with it. Or just not play them. It really pissed me off that I finished RB and was told to send the secret code to Atari. I did that and they responded that the contest was over. That was such a turn off. I never played the game again till MAME.

 

Games I liked, but sucked on were:

Discs of Tron

I, Robot

Centipede

Tempest

Star Wars

Zaxxon

Pole Position

 

I hated Pole Position's continue model. You never really knew if you did well enough to continue to the next level. There were times, however, you know you did bad and playing from that point forward was just make-play. It was pointless and you know you'd be paying the full $0.50 to start again when the timer ran out.

 

I prefer games you can play with the full possibility of recovering from being behind the curve, like a high level in Tempest where you use your SuperZapper at the very beginning and just lost your 2nd to last C-shooter.. If you are really really really good you can live another level and regain your men. In Pole position if you don't "qualify" or maintain a minimum time you're dead - no matter how hard you try. So fuck that!

[Keatah]

Whether good or bad or dated.. I consider it a classic video for several reasons.

 

1- While the locale in the video is nondescript it creates the right atmosphere.

2- It has correct 80's music.

3- It is darkly lit in comparison to the mall.

4- It has a grand entrance. Reminds me of the celebration given me when everyone lined up and saluted.

5- The slow motion fountain is evocative. And it helps set the mood for timelessness.

6- Games are period correct.

7- M.A.C.H. 3 was cool like hell yeah!! I didn't play it often, but when I did I played it flamboyantly.

8- The quarters lining up on Tempest. Ohh so cool, yes?

9- Pick-a-Prize was nice touch, every arcade has a few token mechanical games. No pun intended!

10- There is no brand marketing going on like in today’s arcades. No forced or re-imagined “retroness”.

 

Next post I will tell you a little story.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Keatah

[Keatah]

Most of all I recall going to an arcade, not far from Sleepy Hollow, in the mid-80's and ogling over the women. Leery eyed, lecherously and rudely. Creepy. I was a slobby, smelly, acne-laden teen. I laid eyes on the most gorgeous hottie on the whole damned planet. The whole damned Solar System. Pants so tight I swear an emergency tailor was nearby. Metal leather. 80's big hair and all that. She was playing DOT environmental - one of my more favorite immersive sitdowns. I was never any good at it, and it was darker than the already-dark arcade. I liked that. It was also close to where they pumped Oxygen into the place. I was intoxicated. All my 80’s movie crushes dissipated instantly.

 

In the many times I went there I saw her on occasion. And finally one day they had a metal grating across the entrance. I was devastated. On several occasions I came this close >|< to asking her to get something at the snack bar. Now that would never happen..