Memories of where and when you first played/saw this game

[retrorussell]

5 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

A much underrated game.  The one and only place I ever saw this was at a burger stand (now the Basecamp Dinette) in Burbank, CA that usually had three or four games crammed into its interior.  Pandora's Palace was sitting next to Roc 'N' Rope (another underrated Konami platformer), with the laserdisc game Galaxy Ranger rounding out the lineup.

Hmm... ROC 'N ROPE (1983 Konami)

I had never seen that one in arcade form.  I'd seen it on the early Konami compilations for PC/PS-whatever.  It's okay.  Fire a grappling hook to climb up to higher ledges to reach the top and grab the fabled Roc feather.  Little dinosaurs and cavemen menace you and can wiggle your grapple as you climb, making you fall to your death.  I wasn't crazy about it.

And I'd never heard of GALAXY RANGER at all.  Created by Bally/Midway and Sega.  Laserdisc title has the Spy Hunter aspect of free play for a certain timer, then you must earn extra lives to continue after a crash.  Some of the video was from a Japanese movie called MESSAGE FROM SPACE.  Plays kind of like BUCK ROGERS: PLANET OF ZOOM.

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, retrorussell said:

Hmm... ROC 'N ROPE (1983 Konami)

I had never seen that one in arcade form.  I'd seen it on the early Konami compilations for PC/PS-whatever.  It's okay.  Fire a grappling hook to climb up to higher ledges to reach the top and grab the fabled Roc feather.  Little dinosaurs and cavemen menace you and can wiggle your grapple as you climb, making you fall to your death.  I wasn't crazy about it.

 

There's a certain learning curve to it, definitely.  Once you get the hang of it it all sort of falls into place, but it's certainly not a platformer in the Donkey Kong vein.  Very understandable why it's something of an acquired taste.

 

Quote

And I'd never heard of GALAXY RANGER at all.  Created by Bally/Midway and Sega.  Laserdisc title has the Spy Hunter aspect of free play for a certain timer, then you must earn extra lives to continue after a crash.  Some of the video was from a Japanese movie called MESSAGE FROM SPACE.  Plays kind of like BUCK ROGERS: PLANET OF ZOOM.

 

There are certain similarities to Buck Rogers, but Astron Belt / Galaxy Ranger are way more on rails than Buck Rogers - and in all honesty, Buck Rogers is the more playable game.  Full credit to Astron Belt & Galaxy Ranger for being the first mass-production laserdisc arcade games, but they both feel almost more like working proofs of concept rather than fully-fleshed-out games.

 

Weird coincidences: 20 years later, I ended up owning the same Galaxy Ranger cabinet that I'd played at the burger stand.  Used it for both that game and Astron Belt so that I only needed to have the one cabinet at the house.

Edited November 16, 2020 by x=usr(1536)

[zzip]

15 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

There's a certain learning curve to it, definitely.  Once you get the hang of it it all sort of falls into place, but it's certainly not a platformer in the Donkey Kong vein.  Very understandable why it's something of an acquired taste.

I used to love Roc N Rope in the arcade.   I only ever saw it in one arcade, but the music and the concept made it stand out, I thought.

[schuwalker]

On 11/15/2020 at 5:40 PM, retrorussell said:

Hmm... ROC 'N ROPE (1983 Konami)

I had never seen that one in arcade form.  I'd seen it on the early Konami compilations for PC/PS-whatever.  It's okay.  Fire a grappling hook to climb up to higher ledges to reach the top and grab the fabled Roc feather.  Little dinosaurs and cavemen menace you and can wiggle your grapple as you climb, making you fall to your death.  I wasn't crazy about it.

And I'd never heard of GALAXY RANGER at all.  Created by Bally/Midway and Sega.  Laserdisc title has the Spy Hunter aspect of free play for a certain timer, then you must earn extra lives to continue after a crash.  Some of the video was from a Japanese movie called MESSAGE FROM SPACE.  Plays kind of like BUCK ROGERS: PLANET OF ZOOM.

 

I never saw Galaxy Ranger but did see a Astron Belt at a Aladdin's Castle.

 

Our local arcade had a Roc n Rope cab. My understanding it was a kit-only game; he had his in a Stern cabinet. This is one of those games I still can't get into no matter what kinda similar to Bagman. Couldn't get into even bitd much less now.

 

On 11/10/2020 at 9:19 PM, retrorussell said:

Next:

PANDORA'S PALACE (1984 Konami/Interlogic)

Fun little Donkey Kong knockoff where you try to guide a man in ancient Rome (with toga and olive wreath) to the bottom-right of the screen.  Various skulls, gargoyles and stone heads menace him as he also contends with collapsing platforms, spring platforms, Greek fire, etc.  Collecting grapes turns him into a centurion and lets him jump on and squish enemies (they otherwise knock you backwards, often into fire or off a ledge).

I saw this first at a 7-11 where I'd meet a friend from school.  I had to ride my bike quite a ways!  I later saw one at a nickel arcade, and those were the only places I saw it.

 

This game was and still is great. For a while, my buddy Jason had this kit in a Thief cabinet. The one thing I didn't know is how many secrets/bonuses were integrated in the gameplay. Kinda off a rare game even back then...

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 hours ago, schuwalker said:

Our local arcade had a Roc n Rope cab. My understanding it was a kit-only game; he had his in a Stern cabinet.

 

I believe you're correct that these were only sold as conversions.  Over the space of a year or so at the time this game was at the burger stand, there was a weird little glut of Konami games in the area: games would rotate from location to location as new ones were swapped in.  One week you could go to one place and play Time Pilot, Circus Charlie, and Pandora's Palace; a couple of weeks later Time Pilot and Circus Charlie would be at a different location and Roc & Rope and Track & Field would have replaced them.  We were tracking the games by cabinet / control panel damage at one point

 

2 hours ago, schuwalker said:

This is one of those games I still can't get into no matter what kinda similar to Bagman. Couldn't get into even bitd much less now.

 

Agreed.  I've always wanted to like Bagman, but it's just too. Damn. Difficult.  My hat's off to anyone who is really good at it; I just don't have the skillz for that game.

 

2 hours ago, schuwalker said:

This game was and still is great. For a while, my buddy Jason had this kit in a Thief cabinet. The one thing I didn't know is how many secrets/bonuses were integrated in the gameplay. Kinda off a rare game even back then...

 

Ooooh...  Thief.  One of my all-time favourite games.  Sure, it's basically Pac-Man with cars, but the soundtrack on the tape is what really makes it for me.

 

Pacific Novelty made a handful of interesting games.  Always liked The Amazing Adventures of Mr. F. Lea as well.

[7800Knight]

Looking back at entries here that I missed...

 

Kangaroo - I played this at the game room in Bear Mountain in New York and was addicted; I dropped three dollars worth of quarters on this one.

 

Pengo - Came across this one in Italy years ago.  Very cute!

 

Kicker - Played this in Take Ten, a long-gone video arcade in Eden Mall of Eden, North Carolina.  Nothing extraordinary but it was nice to not die after one hit.

 

Donkey Kong - This was also in a now gone video arcade, South Beach Arcade in Staten Island, NY.  I loved the "How high can you get" screen and did very well, getting through all three levels but never seeing that conveyor belt screen.

[retrorussell]

Oh, yeah-- I also enjoyed THIEF (Pacific Novelty Inc., 1981):

Pac-Man knockoff with you controlling a getaway car (making you the antagonist) being pursued by 4 cop cars.  Collect all the dollar bills to advance.  Some of the bills have dollar signs ($) which act as energizers and allow you to turn the tables on the cops for a limited time.  I guess most cabinets had a looped tape that played police banter on it which adds to the fun.  I loved the crashing noises and the rank they gave you when you advanced further in the game (based on felonies). 

My sister and I played the hell out of this one at Malibu Grand Prix when it was brand new.  It did not have the tape of police banter in it but we still liked it.  That was the only place I remember seeing Thief off the top of my head so I didn't get to play a cabinet with the tape.  I enjoyed collecting money in games if I couldn't actually own much myself.  Ah, Reaganomics!

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, retrorussell said:

It did not have the tape of police banter in it but we still liked it.

 

IIRC, they all had the tape player (which was an automotive unit), but it was possible to disable playback of the tape.  I think it was just a case of either unplugging power to the tape unit, pressing its stop button, or ejecting the cassette entirely.

 

It's also been about 15 years since I owned one, so am definitely dredging the back of my mind for the correct method.

[retrorussell]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

 

IIRC, they all had the tape player (which was an automotive unit), but it was possible to disable playback of the tape.  I think it was just a case of either unplugging power to the tape unit, pressing its stop button, or ejecting the cassette entirely.

 

It's also been about 15 years since I owned one, so am definitely dredging the back of my mind for the correct method.

You may be right.  I found it odd that the banter sometimes mocked you even if you did really well on the game.

[retrorussell]

Dusting off this topic for:

 

GOLDEN AXE (1989 Sega)

I actually didn't see this in arcades too often.  Once you get used to how to manipulate the concept of attacking an area just as enemies arrive there (I did a jump attack just as enemies were arriving at the same latitude as me) the game is generally EASY.  Also, learn not to leave a whole lot of space when between enemies-- they'll do a running attack.  Played plenty of this on the Genesis and Sega CD (Sega Greatest Hits type of collection, with Super Monaco GP/Columns/etc.).  I first saw the arcade cabinet at an Oregon coast arcade, and I can't remember where else I saw it BITD (seen it at classic arcades in more recent years).

[zzip]

12 hours ago, retrorussell said:

Dusting off this topic for:

 

GOLDEN AXE (1989 Sega)

There was a brand new mega-mall that opened in 1989 about 30 min from me,  and this was in their arcade.  That's my first memory of it.   I've seen it in a bunch of other places later, so not rare in my area

[pacman000]

On 7/21/2019 at 7:32 AM, schuwalker said:

I first saw a Omega Race at a Ben Franklin store (those still around)? They also had a Sega/Gremlin Pulsar - another game I love! They had the upright version w/ the cool blacklight effects. It was later replaced w/ a Atari Battlezone.

 

Interesting to hear Omega Races were a rare sight in other parts. I reside in the Chicagoland area, I saw my share of them on location. But I also wonder if it's due to the faux design of the game itself. The game used batteries and were mounted above the boardset. Overtime, these batteries would leak and due to the location, would take a toll on the board itself.

 

I almost bought the cocktail version in the mid '90s. That model seems so blah w/out the blacklight so I passed. I played the cockpit version at Galloping Ghost, really didn't do anything for me compared to a standup Discs of Tron to a Environmental version. Probably also has to due I have a lot of nostalgia for the upright version.

There were still about 100 Bed Franklins left last year. The company went bankrupt in the mid-90's, but most of their stores were franchises, so a lot of them remained open & have gradually faded away as time went on. I think the name was recently bought by a small Hawaiian company which owns a few Ben Franklin's franchises, & some Ace Hardware stores. 

[retrorussell]

I may not have shown this one yet.  Did some backtracking and it doesn't look like I did...

 

GALAXIAN (1979, Namco)

Licensed in the US to Midway in 1980.  The first in a long and successful series of shooters.  The yellow flagship made cameo appearances in several other Namco games.  What a classic!  It took Space Invaders and gave a whole lot more mobility to the aliens, allowing them to break from formation and fly down at you in swooping patterns.  You only get one shot at a time, so make it count!  You don't get to score many points in this game so try to destroy the flagship AFTER you pick off its buddies flying with it for the maximum 800 points.  Also, if there's at least somewhere around 6-8 enemies remaining when you shoot a flying flagship, the enemies upon returning to formation will stop flying for about 5 seconds, giving you time to pick them off.

Oh man, did I play the HELL out of this at my dad's bowling alley on his Monday league nights after school when it first appeared there (either there or a 7-11 where I first saw it).  I would use my allowance money for soda and candy and the arcade games they had there.  I used to LOVE Boston Baked Beans and SweetTarts.

[+GoldLeader]

Oh Yeah!  

 

Always loved Galaxian!  I think the first place I saw it was at a department store called Grand Central.  It was right across from my elementary school and about 3 blocks from my house.  (FWIW, Next door was an Albertson's and across a tiny street from there was a Montgomery Wards).  They started with a few machines placed in front of the store (B/W stuff like Biplanes, Football, and Stunt Cycle), and eventually had a small arcade set up against the wall away from the sunlight as you first came in.  I used to go there to play video games as they had stuff like War Hawk,  Sprint, Asteroids, and Defender etc. and inside the store I'd buy Atari cartridges, KISS records, model kits, Hot Wheels, Dinosaurs, blank cassettes, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors, and Star Wars figures.  I used to love that place!

 

Pretty sure I remember telling someone about Galaxian and how it was even more impressive than Space Invaders.

[schuwalker]

On 2/12/2021 at 1:40 PM, pacman000 said:

There were still about 100 Bed Franklins left last year. The company went bankrupt in the mid-90's, but most of their stores were franchises, so a lot of them remained open & have gradually faded away as time went on. I think the name was recently bought by a small Hawaiian company which owns a few Ben Franklin's franchises, & some Ace Hardware stores. 

Ben Franklins were a staple of many of midwest towns and cities I visited. If they didn't have one, they had a Coast to Coast store location.

 

The one Ben Franklin store I remember the most had a killer selection of arcade games in the storefront and one helluva model section. Many, upon many, WW2 models were purchased at that store. Damn, I miss that store.

[retrorussell]

Next:

RALLY-X (Namco/Midway 1980)

Yet another Namco uber-classic.  This may have been the first scrolling maze game.  In a large maze several screens worth you steer a race car around, trying to avoid enemy cars (eject smokescreen to deter them) and scoop up all the flags in the maze to advance.  Challenge stages add to the fun.  Difficult to begin with but gets easier when you learn how to look between the action and the radar screen quickly.  The "Special" flag (which doubles the value of subsequent flags picked up in a maze) makes a cameo in countless other Namco games.

 

I think I may have first seen this at a pizza place called Engine House Pizza, when it briefly appeared in the Washington Square Mall parking lot in Tigard, OR.  My sister and I each had pizza parties there after our basketball games.  Right around the same time I also saw it at a convenience store in Bremerton, WA when I visited my cousin.

[retrorussell]

Next:

SPACE FIREBIRD (1980 Nintendo/Sega/Gremlin)

Okay space shooter with birds as the antagonists, I believe predating PHOENIX by a few months or so.  Nothing terribly special other than you have limited abilities to make your ship invincible and push up the screen before it returns at the bottom; the edges "wrap upwards" as you move to the far left or right, and some birds require extra shots to kill.  Also, a counter shows how many birds are left and a bomb explodes shrapnel when shot (like one of the bees in another Nintendo game, DONKEY KONG 3).

I first saw this in I think Engine House Pizza (a fire station-themed pizza place) in the Washington Square parking lot-- I was thinking the game screen had a blueish hue; maybe not-- or maybe I first saw it at Rico's Red Lion Pizza (now Round Table).  The former was the Gremlin/Sega cabinet usually seen in the US, and the latter was a Nintendo original cocktail.

[+wongojack]

In a perhaps random coincidence, I saw this go by in my feed today:


https://senkel64.itch.io/space-firehawk

[retrorussell]

^Cool!  It took me a moment to see for sure it was based on Space Firebird but then I saw the bomb and I knew for sure.  If I ever make a series of videos on the C64 I will definitely give that a look.

[+GoldLeader]

I think both of our main arcades (Time out and LeMans), and many others, had Rally X.  And I remember for certain Time Out (in the mall) had Space Firebird.   It was one of many shooters at the time because they also had Galaxian, Space Invaders (and later Space Invaders Deluxe), Astro Blaster, Phoenix, Moon Cresta, New York, New York, and Zero Hour.

 

Also, when I was a kid I went out to eat with my parents at the Village Inn.  And they had one lone game up front across from the check out counter where you paid (and bought candy bars).  I asked my mom if could have a quarter to go play a game, and she said I had to figure out my order first, then gave me a quarter.  I stepped up to the woodgrain cabinet thinking it almost looked too classy, but fit in with the decor;  I seem to remember dim lighting, fake plants everywhere, stone fronts between the tuck and roll booths and there it was:  Space Firebird.

[retrorussell]

^Thanks for mentioning this one!

 

ZERO HOUR (1980, Universal)

 

Odd little entry in the "Cosmic Series" of Universal games, which included Cosmic Avenger, Cosmic Alien, Space Panic, Magical Spot, and many other space-themed games.  Shoot down missile-dropping enemies and asteroids.  Bonus points for time remaining and the game includes docking sequences.  Has never worked properly in MAME (no sound, colors are wrong, maybe missing graphics).

I only saw this oddity once at a grocery store I think in the Vancouver, WA area back in the mid eighties.

[retrorussell]

I normally try to just make this a once-a-week thing but I'm cool with subverting the rules on occasion, so here's another:

SPACE ODYSSEY (1981 Sega)

 

Rather meh version of SCRAMBLE with choppy movement.  Multiple stages; some scroll vertically and some horizontally.  Covering enough distance warps you to the next stage.  Some special bonuses may be accrued by certain means.

 

I either saw this first at a five and dime (remember those?) a couple miles from my house in Portland or at a Chuck E Cheese in Vancouver, WA.  I remember seeing it in my book HOW TO MASTER THE VIDEO GAMES by Tom Hirschfeld, which supposedly covered the 30 most popular video games-- I did not see this one being very popular.

[+GoldLeader]

OH man!  I LOVED Space Odyssey!!  It had lots of variety as I recall, a lot of different stages for back then.  I dug those alien ships where you had to blast out the middle and fly through even as the top and bottom were still shooting at you.  Now,  Maybe it's nostalgia talking here.  The only place I ever saw it was Casa Bonita, (Denver, CO)...Usually we'd gone to Elitch's or Lakeside Amusement Park during the day, (sometimes Celebrity Sports Center or Malibu Grand Prix) then to Casa Bonita.   So after Mexican Food, in the mines/caves or at the cliffs, then watching cliff divers, and seeing the guy in a gorilla suit swing across the place, walking the village-like streets, Mariachi bands, seeing the puppet show, and Black Bart's cave with its goofy looking dragon...You went upstairs to the ARCADE and played some SPACE ODYSSEY!!

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by GoldLeader
Added some pics.

[retrorussell]

Cool!  Casa Bonita was nowhere near my neck of the woods and I only heard of it from a South Park episode.

 

I just didn't think much of Space Odyssey.. I did like that there were bonus points given for flying through the center of the enemies but there were more interesting and plentiful bonuses in Sega's Astro Blaster.  Maybe it's just because Scramble was so much more polished that most copycats were pale in comparison.

 

Strangely enough, last I checked Space Odyssey's sound samples in MAME are pretty much the same as Sega's 005.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 3/10/2021 at 11:36 PM, retrorussell said:

I normally try to just make this a once-a-week thing but I'm cool with subverting the rules on occasion, so here's another:

SPACE ODYSSEY (1981 Sega)

 

Rather meh version of SCRAMBLE with choppy movement.  Multiple stages; some scroll vertically and some horizontally.  Covering enough distance warps you to the next stage.  Some special bonuses may be accrued by certain means.

 

I either saw this first at a five and dime (remember those?) a couple miles from my house in Portland or at a Chuck E Cheese in Vancouver, WA.  I remember seeing it in my book HOW TO MASTER THE VIDEO GAMES by Tom Hirschfeld, which supposedly covered the 30 most popular video games-- I did not see this one being very popular.

Oh, you've just picked one of my absolute favourite games from the time.  Only ever saw it at one location: a liquor / convenience store a couple of spots over from my grandfather's VW shop.  Played the hell out of it for a month or so, and then it was gone.

 

The black hole graphics on the vertical stages are still really clear in my mind (no MAME needed for those).  Had a love/hate relationship with them for looking cool but also sucking me in and almost always causing me to lose a life.