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


retrorussell

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5 hours ago, retrorussell said:

Next:

STAR HAWK (1979)

B&W timed vector game created by Tim Skelly (RIP).  Move your crosshairs to destroy the various ships that appear for points as you fly through a trench Star Wars-style.  Try to pass 10,000 points to get a little extra time.  One ship will try to "zap" your score and dock you 800 points!  For its time it was okay.  I remember seeing this at the Washington Square Cinemas around Tigard, OR (long defunct), probably other nearby arcades like Malibu Gran Prix or Electric Palace in Beaverton, OR (both also long gone).

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Wow...total Ratatouille moment!  I remember playing this at a pizza shop near my cousins house.  

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7 hours ago, retrorussell said:

Next:

STAR HAWK (1979)

B&W timed vector game created by Tim Skelly (RIP).  Move your crosshairs to destroy the various ships that appear for points as you fly through a trench Star Wars-style.  Try to pass 10,000 points to get a little extra time.  One ship will try to "zap" your score and dock you 800 points!  For its time it was okay.  I remember seeing this at the Washington Square Cinemas around Tigard, OR (long defunct), probably other nearby arcades like Malibu Gran Prix or Electric Palace in Beaverton, OR (both also long gone).

 

First place I ever saw (and played) this game: Starcade, the arcade at Disneyland.  IIRC, it was on the upper level of the arcade at the time, and we're probably in about the 1980-1981 timeframe.

 

FWIW, it struck me as graphically-impressive, but not a game where I've ever been good with the controls - something about them just doesn't gel with me, and I find it hard to shoot down the attacking ships.  But I do like the game regardless; it probably helps that it's a vector, and a Cinematronics one at that.

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Star Hawk? We played the shit outa that game!   They had it at the department store across from my elementary school - Grand Central.  It was about 3 big blocks from my house.  That's the same store I bought my Atari at and my first Star Wars action figure!  It's funny,  times change, value of a dollar and all that, but, at the time I was Soooo annoyed I bought my Death Squad Commander figure at Grand Central for $2.49 when across town and unbeknownst to me, Labelle's had them for $2.18! 

 

Anyway,  back to Star Hawk, before we dropped by to give it a play, my friend had told me all about it in school...I was like,  You're flying in the Death Star trench?  Oh I gotta see this!!

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this is hard!

 

I have so many fond arcade memories, but it is hard to pinpoint which one I "first" saw some of these machines.

 

I miss the golden age of the arcades. I was 11 years old in 1980, perfect time for this age. We had them all over the place. So many arcades that had nothing else but walls of games. Then every movie theater and bowling alley was jammed with games.  On top of all that, any sub shop or convenience store on the block all up and down the street I lived on had one or two machines in it.  You could go anywhere.

 

Oh man Venture...I can't pinpoint the exact spot but I "think" it was a place called Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire.  This was our 'summer' place to game.  There was a bumper car track across the street, and a mile down the road was the lake strip lined with junk food and more arcade games. It's amazing to think there was a time when it was more fun to game away from the couch.

 

But, this beach was the ONLY place I ever saw and played Street Fighter.   Not Street Fighter II of course, but the original one.

Edited by Mik's Arcade
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VS. SUPER MARIO BROS, NINTENDO (1986)

 

I remember encountering this a few times in the wild.  This adaptation of the NES/Famicom Super Mario Bros. game was ramped up in difficulty so that players would drop more money and arcade operators would rake in more profits.  Basically, the number of power-ups, 1-Ups and warp zones were reduced; the enemies were increased; the unlimited 1-Up tricks on the home console versions were removed; and new levels were substituted to make the game much harder.

 

Think that sounds harsh?  Arcade operators could be even more vicious!  There were dip switch settings to start the player with only TWO lives instead of the standard three, the timer can be set to run down faster and the coins required for extra lives can be from 100 to 150, 200 or even 250(!).

 

Vs. SMB was the inspiration for the NES Lost Levels game.  Ironically, some parts of this game can be harder than the Lost Levels.  Take World 6-3; like the Lost Levels, you have to bounce off a Koopa Troopa to make a jump.  This is even harder to pull off than in The Lost Levels because Mario does not get nearly as much extra height from a bounce as he does in that game, requiring near-perfect accuracy!

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7 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

VS. SUPER MARIO BROS, NINTENDO (1986)

At the time, I thought the arcade game and home game were identical! I also thought the arcade game preceded the home version. Really interesting, and kind of sneaky. Removing power-ups and especially changing how much height you can get from a bounce — it just seems kind of like a dirty trick! The dream at the time was to have home games close enough to the arcade versions that you could practice at home, and then demonstrate how much better you had become in the arcade. I imagine a lot of kids walked away from the coin-op with a sort of kicked-in-the-groin feeling after trying that. Arigato, Nintendo...

 

I remember seeing this in the lobby of a grocery store in what's now called the Charlotte Square Shopping Center in Nashville.

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8 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

VS. SUPER MARIO BROS, NINTENDO (1986)

Heh, this is an interesting one for me.

 

Some background: growing up in Ireland, the NES had zero presence in the Irish market until about 1989.  Nintendo simply decided to not sell it there, and, once they eventually did, it had no real impact whatsoever in a market where 8- and 16-bit computers ruled the roost.  As a result, the NES version of Super Mario Bros. would end up being a footnote for gamers of the time in that part of the world.

 

Having said that, arcade gaming was still fairly strong at the time.  There weren't a exactly ton of arcades (particularly outside of the larger cities), but just about every town would have a chip shop or similar with a game or two in it.  Most games were either generic cabinet conversions, or, more likely, bootlegs.  You would see original cabinets, but generally only in the bigger arcades.

 

Vs. Super Mario Bros. was widely bootlegged throughout the country.  Because of this, it's not really possible for me to say where I first played it, but I do remember seeing it in a large number of places.  Dublin Airport even had a bootleg version at one point.

 

FWIW, family in the UK gave me a NES in 1987.  Trying to play Super Mario Bros. on it was an exercise in frustration: everything I knew about the levels was wrong, and it didn't feel like control was quite the same as on the arcade version.  In retrospect its obvious why these changes were made, but for a kid coming to it from the arcade game as opposed to the other way around, it was really frustrating.

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38 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Heh, this is an interesting one for me.

 

Some background: growing up in Ireland, the NES had zero presence in the Irish market until about 1989.  Nintendo simply decided to not sell it there, and, once they eventually did, it had no real impact whatsoever in a market where 8- and 16-bit computers ruled the roost.  As a result, the NES version of Super Mario Bros. would end up being a footnote for gamers of the time in that part of the world.

 

Having said that, arcade gaming was still fairly strong at the time.  There weren't a exactly ton of arcades (particularly outside of the larger cities), but just about every town would have a chip shop or similar with a game or two in it.  Most games were either generic cabinet conversions, or, more likely, bootlegs.  You would see original cabinets, but generally only in the bigger arcades.

 

Vs. Super Mario Bros. was widely bootlegged throughout the country.  Because of this, it's not really possible for me to say where I first played it, but I do remember seeing it in a large number of places.  Dublin Airport even had a bootleg version at one point.

 

FWIW, family in the UK gave me a NES in 1987.  Trying to play Super Mario Bros. on it was an exercise in frustration: everything I knew about the levels was wrong, and it didn't feel like control was quite the same as on the arcade version.  In retrospect its obvious why these changes were made, but for a kid coming to it from the arcade game as opposed to the other way around, it was really frustrating.

 

That doesn't surprise me.  I know that in the UK, the NES never really caught on.  While the Sega Master System had a limited success, much of the British Isles were dominated by cheaper home computers like the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, etc.

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I don't remember the very first place I saw VSMB but shortly afterwards I would regularly see it at a big entertainment center that had a bowling alley, roller skating rink AND an arcade in Federal Way, WA (I think it was called SKATE WORLD).  I played it a lot there, along with Mr. Do!.  It also appeared at my dad's bowling alley in Milwaukie, OR.

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8 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

That doesn't surprise me.  I know that in the UK, the NES never really caught on.

Yep.  The SNES was their first real seller in that market, but the PS1 is where consoles really came into their own in that part of the world.

8 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

While the Sega Master System had a limited success, much of the British Isles were dominated by cheaper home computers like the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, etc.

The SMS did reasonably well in the UK market (for a console - computers still outsold it by a massive amount), and the MegaDrive did even better.  Sega's advertising helped with that: it was aimed at a slightly more adult audience than Nintendo's was, and it was reflected in the difference in the userbases for their respective consoles.

 

One thing I'll mention in relation to the BBC Micro: it was definitely not a low-cost machine.  The Acorn Electron was the attempt at that, but in some ways the best analogy for it would be that it was Acorn's Commodore C16.  The BBC (and the Master) were pretty much always at the upper end of what people could reasonably afford, which put them into Atari 8-bit territory at times - people did buy them, but the ZX Spectrum and C64 were the low-cost mass-market winners.  The BBC succeeded by virtue of being the preferred machine for computer literacy education in the UK at the time; there was uptake in the home market, but certainly not in the Commodore / Sinclair numbers.

 

FWIW, the Irish market was not 100% reflective of the UK market.  There're a lot of differences that I've brought up elsewhere; just don't want to derail this thread any further ?

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New game:

SPACE INVADERS PART II aka SPACE INVADERS DELUXE (Taito/Midway 1979)

Sequel to one of the biggest hits in arcade history.  The gameplay is similar apart from some invaders that split into two when shot.  Also, the UFO flashes when it appears and your shots may go through it.  It may replenish some invaders when their numbers are low.

 

I think I first saw this at an Oregon coast arcade called FUN LAND (still there, after all these years!).  This was way back when they had a shooting gallery and Skee Ball with wooden balls-- 9 for 10 cents!  This was the stand-up version, though I think I have seen the cocktail one a few times.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

New one:

COMMANDO (1985 Capcom)

This also had a Data East license.  Classic hard-as-nails Capcom game, with a vertically-scrolling military theme.  Move your commando up the screen, shooting and grenading enemies that pop up from EVERYWHERE to take shots at you-- fortunately the shots don't travel terribly fast but it does get tough to avoid from all angles.  Extra grenades can be picked up from collected gold bars.  Enemy vehicles enter the fray starting on the 2nd level.  "Boss" fights with usually just enemy soldiers pour out for a while at the end of a stage.  The NES port is damn brilliant.

 

I saw this first at a 7-11 by my house in the Garden Home district of Portland, OR.  Played it, and really sucked at it.  Currently, I'm making a video for it on YouTube for my 1985 arcade series.

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On 11/2/2021 at 2:14 PM, retrorussell said:

New game:

SPACE INVADERS PART II aka SPACE INVADERS DELUXE (Taito/Midway 1979)

Sequel to one of the biggest hits in arcade history.  The gameplay is similar apart from some invaders that split into two when shot.  Also, the UFO flashes when it appears and your shots may go through it.  It may replenish some invaders when their numbers are low.

 

I think I first saw this at an Oregon coast arcade called FUN LAND (still there, after all these years!).  This was way back when they had a shooting gallery and Skee Ball with wooden balls-- 9 for 10 cents!  This was the stand-up version, though I think I have seen the cocktail one a few times.

 

118124217197.jpg

space-invaders-part-ii-1.png

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=41987

My favorite local pizza shop swapped out Space Invaders for Space Invaders Part II.  They also had Asteroids and Phoenix in their rotation for a while.  Had enough room for 3-4 coin-ops side by side. 

 

@retrorussellWas talking with my best friend (known him since I was 13) recently and reminded him about Star Hawk.  We spent the next ten minutes talking about that game.?

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For Space Invaders Deluxe,  our old stand by TIME OUT in the Frontier Mall (Cheyenne's only mall, really, not including a handful of shops downtown with a shared hallway that called themselves "a mall" before that).  They'd had Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe,  then Space Invaders and Space Invaders Deluxe...That was some of the Best times to be in the arcade IMO.  So many classics were still there, and everything was fresh and new and I only went a handful of times making all the more special.  And it was before they started replacing some of my favorite games with newer ones which would piss me off more and more as time went on...

 

As for Commando, Time Out probably had it, but for sure it seemed like one of the games Le Mans had.  Le Mans became our preferred arcade as time went on and the place we'd go once we were old enough to drive etc.  I don't remember exactly what happened with the mall, but I do remember a shift to being "family friendly" and a remodel that took away the red/orange paint and minimal warm light and darkness we so craved and replaced it with pastel purples and florescent lights...At that point we almost Never went there anymore...

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  • 5 months later...

Wow, been half a year since I posted something here.

Here's one I am currently working on:

CHASE H.Q. (Taito, 1988)

 

REALLY tough racing game in which you are a pair of cops trying to catch various criminals, one at a time, by catching up to their vehicle and SLAMMING INTO IT until their vehicle stops!  You get 3 turbo boosts and since the timer is strict, your car can easily crash (losing you precious time), and the criminal can easily get away-- use them all!  Also, there will be forks in the road, and you ABSOLUTELY need to know which way to go, since the wrong way will be the longer way to get to the perpetrator.  I love the story cutscenes, like the dispatcher Nancy telling you your mission over a Ham radio frequency, and the dialogue from the cops is pretty awesome.  I think I saw this in numerous arcades, the first might have been a nickel arcade in either a Tigard OR location or NE Portland location.

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On 10/30/2021 at 9:22 AM, Zoyous said:

[..]

The dream at the time was to have home games close enough to the arcade versions that you could practice at home, and then demonstrate how much better you had become in the arcade. I imagine a lot of kids walked away from the coin-op with a sort of kicked-in-the-groin feeling after trying that.

[..]

I was an avid arcade goer from the late 70's through the mid-1990's, but dropping off during the 90's nonetheless. Because of closures. Because of PC games. Because of growing up.

 

I was typically frustrated with the over-the-top difficulty settings on most cabs. The skills learned at home tended to stay at home because gameplay mechanics differed too much. Often preferred the home versions for those reasons. Missile Command. Asteroids, and Space Invaders, all on the 2600, being prime examples where the home version was so much better and even easier on the eyes.

 

There were unique games like Liberator, I'Robot, Assault, Time Pilot '84 that weren't ported to home, and I spent the better portion of "arcade funds" on those. Conversely there were tons of games at home (on Apple II and other computers) that never really made it to the arcade. Anyhow it all added up to the arcades being a limited-time (but still long-lasting) fad.

 

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11 hours ago, retrorussell said:

CHASE H.Q. (Taito, 1988)

I think I first saw it in the lobby at the Fountain Square 14 cinemas in Nashville. Really cool twist on racing games, and the first (that I know of) of Taito's scaling arcade games. I always wanted a home version - much later on, I was amazed to hear that a port did come to the Sega Master System eventually, but only in Europe. Unfortunately, it is one of the few titles that will be glitchy on a North American Master System. I've also since learned that there were at least two more arcade sequels to Chase H.Q., but I've never seen any of them in the wild.

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On 10/30/2021 at 1:15 AM, 7800Knight said:

VS. SUPER MARIO BROS, NINTENDO (1986)

 

 

In my senior year of HS, I used to skip school and hang out at a hot dog restaurant/arcade that was around the corner from where I lived. One day when I went in, they had this machine and I was immediately taken in by it. I watched some guy playing the game, and he explained that there were powerups and lots of hidden secrets. The game had my focus for months.

 

I was in AIT in the Army when I learned that the NES had the game as a pack-in (albeit a similar version)...so I bought the NES so my friends and I could play on the TV in the dayroom. Such good times from just that one game.

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On 11/28/2021 at 2:45 AM, retrorussell said:

New one:

COMMANDO (1985 Capcom)

 

We had this game in a local bowling alley, and although I did play the game, I found it to be a bit tedious. The graphics and sound were fine, and the controls were pretty good, but the overhead view seemed to make the game a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Other games that used the same formula were much better.

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