How far would you travel before considering MAME?

[Keatah]

How far would you travel before considering doing MAME? Like how far would you drive monthly to play your single most favorite Arcade game before giving into the darkside and playing via MAME?

 

Some of us are total purists and wouldn't even touch MAME with a zero-lag controller. So perhaps the question may not apply to you. But..

 

Back in the day as a kid, I could usually con a ride out of the parents or grandparents as far as 15 miles away. Today we all have cars and the funds to fly cross-country if needed. But having done some of that I don't care to repeat any of it. And today I wouldn't go further than a walk down the block. And even then I'd be too lazy and still do MAME.

 

I did a few drives to Galloping Ghost and Underground Retrocade and found the experience just ok. Not like it was back in the 80's. Back in the 80's it was an Adventure! An adventure into a virtual world. Today it felt like going into a warehouse.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Keatah

[youxia]

I don't think anybody is seriously that obsessed as to jet around the country/world just to find that one still-working cab. At least I hope so Especially seeing as most arcades are extinct (maybe it's different in USA and you guys still can find some)

 

With the help of some plywood, a good CPU, a CRT and decent controlers you can have about as close experience as possible to the original, at least when it comes to most of 2D games.

 

When I was a kid, it was a different story, I made my first unsupervised journey by train as a 7 year old to a far-away city just to peek at/try to play Battlezone.

[+GoldLeader]

My friend and I went to the 1 Up and to Hyperspace in Denver...

 

So 106 miles!

 

Even though we both have arcade games and both have MAME cabs and my friend owns an arcade 45 miles from here...And provides pinballs and games for our local Ice hockey/bumper car/ mini golf place ..

 

Does the fact that we both have MAME cabs mess up this info? When we went to the 1Up it was after a Voivod concert, and when we went to Hyperspace it was before a Ghost concert...But it was all part of the day and we'd been talking about going down just for the arcades...

 

http://www.hyperspace80s.com/

Edited November 2, 2018 by GoldLeader

[+GoldLeader]

I also went to that Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas...But it wasn't the sole reason I was in Vegas.

 

 

OK I just re-read your premise and saw the word "monthly"....I'm really not answering this one very well am I?

 

 

 

I'll shut up in just a sec...Let me at least say...Yes MAME is easier! But visiting arcades if possible is still fun.

[AtariLeaf]

It would be nice to bump into an original arcade cabinet of an 80's game but nowadays it's just the newer multi-game machines that you see in the mall or movie theater lobbies. To find and play an original Mr. Do or Bosconian or Phoenix or Food Fight would be awesome but I can't see that happening. I'm quite happy and satisfied with mame for those games and they play fairly well on the NES classic that it scratches my itch sufficiently.

[Flojomojo]

That's a false choice.

 

It's fun to play arcade games on the real hardware, with the original controls, in public, with your clothes on.

 

It's also fun to play at home on your computer, with controls of your choice, in your underwear.

 

The real thing is preferable, but inconvenient. Convenience wins for most people, most of the time, but I think you're setting up an unrealistic straw man argument by suggesting that anyone would travel great distances before even considering soiling themselves with evil, awful emulation. Might as well ask, "how much do you really enjoy body odor and greasy controls?"

[accousticguitar]

I drove 120 miles round trip 3 times last summer to play arcade games, and they didn't even have Missile Command.

[AtariLeaf]

 

 

It's fun to play arcade games on the real hardware, with the original controls, in public, with your clothes on.

 

It's also fun to play at home on your computer, with controls of your choice, in your underwear.

 

 

I gotta believe that sometime in the 80's in some part of the world, there was a nudist colony with an arcade.

[Keatah]

Does the fact that we both have MAME cabs mess up this info?

 

Having a MAME cab doesn't mess anything up.

 

 

OK I just re-read your premise and saw the word "monthly"....I'm really not answering this one very well am I?

Monthly..weekly..bi-annually.. it's an arbitrary time frame I pulled outa my ass.

Back in the early 80's I visited a local arcade about once every 2-3 weeks while going to school. And about once per week when on summer break. Usually when it was too windy to do Estes model rockets or RC planes, or when we got tired of home video games or something like that.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Keatah

[racerx]

I mean...I've got my favorite arcade games. I've also got the Ghost, Underground, and the Garcade an hour or less away. I've never had a reason to invest the time or money into a mame rig.

 

I've also never really wanted one. I've played some very nice setups, but much like your "warehouse" experience, the massive screens, generic controls, endless menu choices, and subwoofer sound systems have never given me the "classic arcade" feel.

[Keatah]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

[racerx]

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

 

Can't stress that one enough. After the crash, when the new releases were few and the conversions started becoming more prevalent, I was done.

 

Once I could tell the cab used to be something else, the magic was gone. It just felt cheap. I wasn't much more than a casual observer for the beat 'em up and fighting eras.

[+GoldLeader]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

 

 

How do you know I don't have all that stuff?

 

[+GoldLeader]

It would be nice to bump into an original arcade cabinet of an 80's game but nowadays it's just the newer multi-game machines that you see in the mall or movie theater lobbies. To find and play an original Mr. Do or Bosconian or Phoenix or Food Fight would be awesome but I can't see that happening. I'm quite happy and satisfied with mame for those games and they play fairly well on the NES classic that it scratches my itch sufficiently.

 

I owned a Food Fight cab until last year when I was without job...And money was getting difficult to come by...So, I sold it for $1500 ! (I think I paid $250 for it a long time ago...about 1988)

 

Also I should point out my MAME cab is definitely junior leagues...More of a bartop multicade MAME type dealio and I'm beginning to be a bit disappointed in some things about it (Certain games don't seem so authentic to me) and it's a closed system built by someone else so only a limited number of games and many faves are missing, screen angle isn't perfect, It's hard to get it to just the right height etc.,...I'd actually love a full sized MAME machine done right, but I digress...

 

Also very cool you mentioned Mr. Do! as I consider it a favorite! I got into it on Coleco and went from there...I don't know that I ever saw it in an arcade back in the day,...I think I may have played it once when I was out of town or something, though I did see and try out some of the sequels...

 

Anyhow, when I got Mr. Do! for SNES I really got into it, then played it a lot on my MAME machine,...Those 2 are different as patterns can be made on the SNES version that won't work or won't always work on MAME...However 2 years ago I played the Actual arcade game at a Pinball tournament in Denver and guess what? It's different than the SNES version And it's different than the MAME version. The AI for the enemies is just so random in the actual arcade game! I think I made it to level 13 or 17 in MAME....Only got to level 8 in the arcade game! I'd like to own that cab as it is a different experience...

[+GoldLeader]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

I enjoyed the above post a lot...Some things are hard to put into words, but I always find others who can do it better than I...

 

 

Your point is well taken here.

 

Certainly when you revisit the idea....Let's say you visit an arcade now...It's not the same, (The games might be the same but the experience is different for all the reasons you mentioned) just as hearing a song from the '80s Now is not the same as it was hearing it in the 80's....Seeing Goonies Now on DISH or a DVD or Netflix is not the same as when I saw it in the theater either...It's not even the same as when I watched a VHS dub copy over and over, where the colors looked a bit washed out as they'd lost a generation in dubbing. And I daresay if I could borrow a red '72 Mach I Mustang with black stripes, Exactly like the one I had in high school (Which means don't trust the emergency brake and my door panels really need replacing, but the stereo is loud as balls) that would also be different...I'm older too hahaa...

 

But, on the other hand, did you check out the Games list for Hyperspace in the link??

 

Dude, they have Space Wars, Asteroids Deluxe, Rip Off, Phoenix, Super Cobra, Scramble, Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon and Star Castle!!!

 

 

(Maybe ya can go back!...Jus sayin')...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.. Maybe the whole experience is not exactly the same...But it can still be Fun as Hell!

[atarilovesyou]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

You forgot to add the tv dinners!!!

[AtariLeaf]

 

I owned a Food Fight cab until last year when I was without job...And money was getting difficult to come by...So, I sold it for $1500 ! (I think I paid $250 for it a long time ago...about 1988)

 

Also I should point out my MAME cab is definitely junior leagues...More of a bartop multicade MAME type dealio and I'm beginning to be a bit disappointed in some things about it (Certain games don't seem so authentic to me) and it's a closed system built by someone else so only a limited number of games and many faves are missing, screen angle isn't perfect, It's hard to get it to just the right height etc.,...I'd actually love a full sized MAME machine done right, but I digress...

 

Also very cool you mentioned Mr. Do! as I consider it a favorite! I got into it on Coleco and went from there...I don't know that I ever saw it in an arcade back in the day,...I think I may have played it once when I was out of town or something, though I did see and try out some of the sequels...

 

Anyhow, when I got Mr. Do! for SNES I really got into it, then played it a lot on my MAME machine,...Those 2 are different as patterns can be made on the SNES version that won't work or won't always work on MAME...However 2 years ago I played the Actual arcade game at a Pinball tournament in Denver and guess what? It's different than the SNES version And it's different than the MAME version. The AI for the enemies is just so random in the actual arcade game! I think I made it to level 13 or 17 in MAME....Only got to level 8 in the arcade game! I'd like to own that cab as it is a different experience...

 

Wow congrats on the money made for Food Fight. That's awesome but at the same time depressing if that's the going rate for one. I play it on the NES classic and the analog stick of a Wii Classic controller does a pretty good job of the controller, what is it, 32 directions or something? Love that game and the 7800 port.

 

As for Mr Do it's also a favorite of mine and if you haven't tried it I recommend the gameboy port. Also a blast to play. And yea the arcade game is a lot harder, the enemies really come after you.

[AtariLeaf]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

 

So to sum it up, we need one of these:

 

[AtariLeaf]

Don't forget it's also not a genuine 80's arcade experience unless the joystick is covered in pizza grease and boogers ( I went to a lot of arcades with a buddy and his younger brother who always seemed to have a cold)

Edited November 3, 2018 by AtariLeaf

[+GoldLeader]

Don't forget it's also not a genuine 80's arcade experience unless the joystick is covered in pizza grease and boogers ( I went to a lot of arcades with a buddy and his younger brother who always seemed to have a cold)

 

 

I seem to be pretty lucky that I don't recall this part of the experience...

[+GoldLeader]

 

Wow congrats on the money made for Food Fight. That's awesome but at the same time depressing if that's the going rate for one. I play it on the NES classic and the analog stick of a Wii Classic controller does a pretty good job of the controller, what is it, 32 directions or something? Love that game and the 7800 port.

 

As for Mr Do it's also a favorite of mine and if you haven't tried it I recommend the gameboy port. Also a blast to play. And yea the arcade game is a lot harder, the enemies really come after you.

 

Yeah Food Fight had a 360 degree joystick...Mine still needed a new rubber gasket to make it center properly when I sold it...

 

I'll have to check out the Game Boy port of Mr. Do!...Hmmm I may have that one on a Multicart, the more I think about it...

[NE146]

I don't think there's a single classic gamer, including arcade purists, who don't have MAME set up on their computer. It's zero cost so why wouldn't they? You can think it's totally inferior to a real cab (which in many cases, it is) and still have an entire Mame romset on your desktop.

 

Regarding the question.. it depends on the game. A good number of early games had certain hardware aspects that distinguish them from any emulated effort.. e.g. Star Wars, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Battlezone, Tron, a lot of the B&W games like Atari Football, Seawolf, etc. etc. etc. However once you start getting to the JAMMA age, it becomes a little more generic, and for most people you can pretty much swap out the real cabinet with a mame experience and there isn't much of a marked difference in the experience. e.g. Final Fight, Raiden, Street Fighter 2, and what have you.

Edited November 3, 2018 by NE146

[MrMaddog]

Well back in 2000/2001, I would drive about 30 miles to an arcade in State College or Philly PA when I had extra money & time. It was also easier to buy 8/16-bit carts even though I was using emulators at the time.

 

Nowadays, everything seems to be more rare to find. I know being in a real arcade or even playing on a classic console is an "expereince" but it's not always feasable. Hence why I'm trying to at least replicate the feel by using actual controlers like arcade sticks since I don't have room for a MAMEcade in my house.

[Cynicaster]

I always visit "retro arcades" when I get the chance, which is usually when I'm traveling out of town for work and they happen to have one nearby.

 

I fully agree that it is not the same "feeling" as the old days, but I never expected it to be. I'm fully cognizant of the fact that I'm a grown man with responsibilities who is playing games on decades-old machines that hardly anybody cares about. To me, the games are still fun, and the novelty of playing on real machines is still there because I can't just do it any time.

 

One of the biggest obstacles to me truly enjoying the experience of going to retro arcades is not the inability to recreate a picture perfect image of 80s innocence, but, rather, the very practical issue of machines that always seem to be so hit and miss in their upkeep at those places. I'd much rather play DK at home on my MAME cabinet with a clean display and functioning joystick than play on a real cabinet with a glitchy monitor and a joystick that only registers "up" commands 1 out of every 3 tries. I understand the machines are old and it's hard to stay on top of all repairs, but it is disappointing nonetheless, because it's "so close yet so far away." It's kind of like being hungry and taking a big bite of a nice juicy steak, chewing on it a bit, but not being able to swallow it.

[+GoldLeader]

I always visit "retro arcades" when I get the chance, which is usually when I'm traveling out of town for work and they happen to have one nearby.

 

I fully agree that it is not the same "feeling" as the old days, but I never expected it to be. I'm fully cognizant of the fact that I'm a grown man with responsibilities who is playing games on decades-old machines that hardly anybody cares about. To me, the games are still fun, and the novelty of playing on real machines is still there because I can't just do it any time.

 

One of the biggest obstacles to me truly enjoying the experience of going to retro arcades is not the inability to recreate a picture perfect image of 80s innocence, but, rather, the very practical issue of machines that always seem to be so hit and miss in their upkeep at those places. I'd much rather play DK at home on my MAME cabinet with a clean display and functioning joystick than play on a real cabinet with a glitchy monitor and a joystick that only registers "up" commands 1 out of every 3 tries. I understand the machines are old and it's hard to stay on top of all repairs, but it is disappointing nonetheless, because it's "so close yet so far away." It's kind of like being hungry and taking a big bite of a nice juicy steak, chewing on it a bit, but not being able to swallow it.

 

This is so very true!

 

The Denver arcades are all about upkeep, but here in Cheyenne we have a barcade called Flippers. I have lots of friends who hate them, but they're nice employees and they serve beer (at good prices even)...However...Evey time a game breaks they just buy a new one (another one I should say)...

 

I've seen so many awesome games in there and been heartbroken that they don't take care of them...Atari Video Pinball, Red Baron, various other vector games that used to work...Someone told me they have an ad looking for a repairman...**sigh**

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/flippers-family-arcade-cheyenne