DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

10 ARCADE GAMES AND THE MEMORIES THEY STIR UP

3/5/2017

36 Comments

 
Picture
Do you ever hear a song, or smell something, and are taken back to a specific time and a place? I find it fascinating how certain memories latch onto certain external sources, while others just fall away into an abyss of nothing.

Video games have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and the first games I ever played were in the arcades. I thought it'd be an interesting experiment to pick ten significant arcade games, and see what memories they trigger.

You might like to do the same.

Or you could just borrow my memories, and pass them off as your own. C'mon, daddy - let's go!
STAR WARS
Picture
Pretty much up until the age of 12 - the point at which Return of the Jedi was released - my life revolved around Star Wars. I know that's not unusual for a bloke of my years; there's a whole generation of us who had something profound unlocked by those first three movies. I own three Star Wars t-shirts in XL. Kill me now.

Arguably, Atari's iconic Star Wars arcade game had just as much impact on me as the movies.

I'd played Star Wars games before; the Atari VCS had The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi Arena. The former was decent enough, but the latter was risible. And neither really felt like Star Wars to me, no matter how much I squinted or wished or squeezed.

Atari's Star Wars arcade game was different. Released the same year as Jedi, it was the experience I'd wanted since 1977; to pilot Luke's X-Wing into battle. There were two versions of it, but the sit-down cabinet was where the action was really at. Then you could properly suspend the disbelief enough to overlook the fact that the TIE Fighters shot "fireballs". 

I don't remember where or when I originally played this, but it was the game I always played first in any seaside arcade. I'd go searching for it, for years after its release, overlooking newer, flashier games. Oddly, one of the most vivid memories for me is playing it in a stand-up cabinet covered in cigarette burns. Remember when people used to smoke indoors? Some arcade cabinets even had ashtrays built into them back then.

Oddly, though, it's the ZX Spectrum version which I'm most fond of. It was as close to arcade perfect as anything ever got on the Spectrum. Even though it did play at about a quarter the speed of the original.
RAMPAGE
Picture
They're making a Rampage movie, apparently. I just hope it has the same cartoonish characterisation and humour as the game it's based on, and doesn't go too dark and grown-up... or too far into ha-ha-wacky. At least Adam Sandler isn't in it.

I've strong memories of playing this on a school trip to Thorpe Park. I've not been to Thorpe Park in at least ten years, but I seemed to always be there as a kid, either with school or my parents. On one visit I walked into the arcade to find Rampage. I can recall being more interested in sinking my coins into the machine than I was riding any of the park's attractions. I had to play as each of the characters; I never had a favourite. I had to see more of the levels. It was a perfect blend of aesthetics and gameplay.

Also... I just remembered something else. My mum was a classroom assistant in a school for children with behaviour difficulties - they were called "maladjusted" back then. At the entrance to Thorpe Park is a large dome, inside of which are restaurants and shops. She once told me me of a disastrous trip with her class, where two of the kids decided to climb the dome and had to be retrieved by security.

Rampage indeed.

Apropos nothing, I also remember her telling me about a lesson which was disrupted by one of the pupils having a fit of giggles. When asked what he found so amusing, he replied: "I always laugh at cartoons..."

I visited the school one time, and did a talk about Turner the Worm, of all things.
DEFENDER
Picture
I found Defender unbelievably tough, but it reminds me of those seaside arcades. Up until the age of 12, all of our summer holidays were spent at caravan parks in places like Dimchurch or Scarborough (where I once got my head stuck in railings, like something out of The Beano). 

​The arcades would beckon inevitably - the penny falls machines always played with my nan and grandad... until Defender came along.

I'd enjoyed Space Invaders from time to time, but Defender really felt like something new. I kind of associate it with growing up, growing away from my grandparents. With a certain feeling of distancing myself and losing innocence. It wasn't a game you could play with someone else; it was just you alone with those sparse visuals.

I mean, I was rubbish at it, and I'd waste all my smartbombs pretty much straight away, but playing Defender felt like a first step towards establishing independence.

With hindsight, that's a bit depressing really.
OUTRUN
Picture
There was an Outrun machine on the ferry en route to a school holiday in Holland. I had to wait for the naughty boys to stop hogging it before I got my go. It was probably the first time I ever got my hands on an actual steering wheel, barring the few times my dad let me drive his car out of the garage. Somehow, that never ended in disaster.

The soundtrack remains one of the most iconic in gaming, but it was the visuals which really spoke to me. Specifically, being able to drive through surf, or in wide-open landscapes with big skies, while listening to those sublime choons.

Though I didn't learn to drive until I was 30, once I did I knew I wanted to one day do a road trip in the States, with the radio on. Basically, I wanted to do Outrun for real. I managed it in 2009, with my dad, even renting a convertible. Alas, the convertible was far too small for our luggage, and we had the top down for all of five minutes, because it was too hot and he was worried about burning his bald.

Other than that... it was incredible. Love those deserts. Even though I somehow got scarlet fever and had to get an injection in my buttocks, at a tiny Navajo medical centre. 
DRAGON'S LAIR
Picture
Once a year, during May half term, my town would put on a show. You know the sorts of thing; big vegetable competitions, fairground rides, dog agility displays, tombola stands. My dad was involved, because he was in the territorial army, and they would rock up with some of their vehicles so that kids could climb on them and sit in the driver's seat.

What the kids didn't know is that I'd once pooed myself in the back of one of those trucks. But that's another story.

One year there was an arcade tent, and in that arcade tent was Dragon's Lair. It blew my mind. It cost four times as much as the other games, but the tombola would have to wait for another year. Even though there was a nice old man manning the stall, who made me feel sorry for him and sad, because he was trying to be all down with the kids... and I couldn't stop thinking "He'll be dead soon."

When I wasn't playing Dragon's Lair, I just stood and watched. And when I played it, I played it until my money ran out.

It never mattered back then that Dragon's Lair was scarcely interactive. Nobody had seen anything remotely like it. It also helped that Don Bluth's animation was so bloody gorgeous. 

Hey: remember when they tried releasing Dragon's Lair games for home computers and consoles? Remember the Super NES version, which they turned into a platformer? That was rubbish. The ZX Spectrum version at least tried to evoke the original gameplay, but was even worse.
GALAGA
Picture
This has a very particular place in my heart. Most of my half term and Easter holidays were spent in a little town called Golspie, on the East coast of Scotland. My best friend's family had moved up there and opened a chip shop. In that chip shop one year they had Galaga... and we had the keys to the front of the machine. This meant we could rack up free credits, and play the game as long as we liked when the shop wasn't open.

I was surprised at how easy this was; just inside the coin slot was a thin, sprung, metal arm, which registered every time a coin flicked it. Adding credits was as simple as opening up the machine, and repeatedly flicking the arm. 

I remember switching the machine on at the plug, watching it go through its booting-up sequence - a grid flashing up on screen as the indication that it was coming to life. Normally, as gamers, we don't get to see this stuff.

​And, man, we spent hours playing that game.
TRACK & FIELD
Picture
My experience with Track & Field was somewhat ironic.

You see, I mostly played it in the foyer of my local leisure centre after PE lessons. In the last couple of years at high school, we could choose which activities to take. I was hopeless at most sports, but I picked badminton - because it was basically slow-motion tennis - and judo.

The latter I was surprisingly good at, for two reasons.

Firstly, I was bigger than most of the others, and could use that to my advantage by simply laying on people, or holding onto them while I fell over. Secondly, our instructor taught a few of us a couple of illegal - but undetectable moves - one of which was to make a fist, and place it under your opponent's kidneys when you'd pinned them to the mat. This would be painful and uncomfortable, and make it very hard for them to break out of your hold.

Unfortunately, while I was pretty alright at judo - I won a silver medal in a schools competition, the only sporting achievement of my life - I remained awful at mostly every other sport, being very short-sighted and having zero hand/eye co-ordination... 

I liked video games, however, but was distraught upon learning that I was as bad at Track & Field as I was at real track & field. After PE lessons, the boys would gather round the machine and have play-offs, and I'd always be knocked-out in the first round.

Somehow, even among the gaming nerds I was an underachiever.
TRON
Picture
On a day trip to Calais with my parents I'd spotted an arcade a few doors down from the cafe we'd chosen for lunch. I rushed through my food, and asked if I could go to the arcade. It was small, dark - and at the back there was a machine which stood out from all the others. The Tron cabinet was unique - it glowed. Literally, via some clever internal lighting and a black light effect.

I'll never forget the impact of seeing that machine. It was a proper Aladdin's Cave moment - almost cinematic, working my way through the forest of arcade cabinets, to see this shining, neon, jewel at the back.

​What a shame the actual game wasn't very good.
R-TYPE
Picture
There used to be a pub near me which was well known for serving drinks to underage kids. For most of the people I knew, it was the first pub we ever had a drink in. It tended to be, until we were all 18 and got ID, that I'd be sent into the pub before everyone else, because I looked the oldest. Despite being the youngest. More than once I'd end up sitting there with a pint, while everyone else nursed a Coke.

We never had that issue with The Alma. They didn't care. Well, until the day it got shut down for serving alcohol to kids...

Best of all, The Alma had an R-Type cabinet. The year after I left school, I walked up there one weekday evening to see who was in there, and the place was heaving with people I'd been to school with. 

Patrick Frieze was someone I'd briefly been best friends with one summer - I seemed to have a lot of one-summer best friendships - but we'd drifted apart. That night he was playing R-Type, and we bonded after he told me that you couldn't get anywhere in the game unless you had "Full power-ups". I spent most of the evening watching him play, marvelling at his - and I quote from the man himself - "silky skills".

Another thing I remember about Patrick Frieze is that he had an older brother who had a habit of making a ring with his thumb and forefinger, wrapping it around his nose, and saying "Ba-hootay".
GALAXIAN 3
Picture
The biggest arcade game ever - at least in terms of physical dimensions - Galaxian 3 was essentially a small cinema. They had one at the Trocadero in London's Picadilly Circus, where Mr Hairs and I would  go to do the arcade reviews for Digitiser.

They'd give us £20 a week from petty cash to do this, even long after we stopped doing the arcade reviews. On occasion, that £20 would feed my family. Sorry about that.

It was genuinely a golden time in my life; we never took Digitiser for granted. We knew exactly how lucky we were to be playing video games for a living, and there were countless times in the first year or two of Digitiser's existence where we would look at one another, slack-jawed and stunned. Furthermore, games seemed to be barrelling forwards, and we knew we were at the centre of something exciting.

Every time we visited the Trocadero, there'd be some new innovation in gaming, be it Namco's Ridge Racer - which used a full-size car - or Virtual Reality, or... Galaxian's 3. I mean, it was a pretty average, on-rails, shooter, but there was something special about sitting down with five other people to play it.

​Good times...

Man, I still get sad thinking about the old bloke on the tombola stand.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
10 VINTAGE MECHANICAL ARCADE GAMES
​
A TRIBUTE TO STEVE JOBS
THE GREAT GAMING CAKE-OFF: A GALLERY OF VIDEO GAME BAKERY ABOMINATIONS

36 Comments
Seeking Doctor Bum
3/5/2017 11:32:50 am

I still have an egg stuck up my rectum, and am still seeking a bum doctor. Calling Doctor Bum!

Reply
Comment Friend Sidney
3/5/2017 04:18:15 pm

Is this the ultimate Digi comment?

Reply
Nick
3/5/2017 12:08:12 pm

Great memories, I lived in New Brighton (although nothing much was new about it). Lots of old pool halls with arcade Machines at back, can remember bunking off A-level maths to go play nemesis in the afternoon and hyper sports. Can smell the chips and stale candy floss as I type

Reply
Gosunkugi
3/5/2017 12:26:15 pm

I have similar memories, my childhood is a series of postcards, but instead of your usual seaside/scenic nonsense, they feature stills from arcade games.

I remember:

Space Invaders/Burger Time.
A Bed and Breakfast we stayed at in Blackpool had this pair in the lounge. Cocktail table versions. I never wanted to leave. I know my mind never did. Spiritually I'm still there to this day.

Ms. Pacman. There was a corner shop at the bottom of my street and I used to beg my gran for the odd 10p to run down and play. I remember this one mainly because I peed myself massively while playing. Before you judge, bear in mind that 10p was a lot of money back then, and I still had some lives to spare, I simply didn't want to waste the experience. I can't imagine that the gentleman who owned the place wasn't wise to the fact that it was me who left a puddle on the floor. In either case, I never went into the shop again. Good times. (This happened last week.)

Return of the Jedi.
Because I was so, so awful at it. The process went 1) insert coin 2) Marvel at the synthesised speech 3) Die immediately by running into the first tree. This is still the case today when I play it on Mame, I have no idea why my brain is unable to grasp this game in particular.

Silkworm.
I used to deliberately miss the bus to school in the mornings so I can hide in the nearby shop and play this for hours. Sorry dad.

Golden Tee Golf.
The first pub my friends and I ever drank at had this in the corner. We only played it the once. It comes to mind because on the night in question, my friend Chris chose to rest his pint on the right hand side while he vigorously slapped the trackball to facilitate a power shot. His hand slid off the ball and went wide, the glass shattered. Half embedded itself in his phalanges, the rest was flung against the wall of the pub. The contents of the pint naturally went into the machine. Amazingly we never got into trouble for this. Nobody batted an eye, we just sat down, Chris ordered another pint and we pretended it never happened.

Reply
Leigh
3/5/2017 12:42:26 pm

Love this. I'd started writing a similar thing myself on a much bigger scale. One day I will finish it. ONE DAY.

Also, the arcade on Swansea Marina was the only place to be for all your quality Rampage action, with Paperboy a few cabinets down and OutRun and Thunder Blade just around the corner.

Reply
Nick (the other one)
3/5/2017 12:43:34 pm

I remember finding the Star Wars machine in the back of an arcade in Hunstanton in 1990. It was the sit down cabinet and I was just transported into the film. It cost 20p a go and was undoubtedly the best 20p you could ever spend.

My wife and I were visiting my father in hospital in Boston last year and between the two visiting periods we decided to go to Skegness and check out the arcades. They were more depressing than the hospital we had just left. Hardly any video games at all just row after row of slot machines, penny fall and the grabby things. Skeggy was crap as well.

Reply
Alberto
3/5/2017 02:27:10 pm

Oh that's so sad!
I used to stay with my grandparents in Skeggy during the early 90s and I recall it being arcade after arcade of Double Dragon, street fighter 2 and 4 player Konami games.

I was considering a trip up there in the summer but I don't think I'll bother.

Reply
Monkeymanbob
3/5/2017 12:49:31 pm

First off, do you mean Dymchurch?

Ah, the memories of arcades with some rough kid offering to show you how to beat a boss, level or win on the fruity as long as you ponied up the cash.
My first arcade experience would have been on Folkestone (just up the road from Dymchurch) andbup until then I'd only experienced Space Invaders in the room all children are consigned to in ale houses. But Folkestone had 7 arcades, it was a sensory overload hopping from one to another, discovering Beserk, Pac-Man, Amidar, Moon Patrol, Gorf and Jump Bug which electrocuted you when you put your 10p in.
We eventually moved to the area and every available coin was spent in one of those places, each week revealing a new experience - Spy Hunter, Wonderboy, Sinistar, Gauntlet, Side Arms, Karate Champ and so on.
When Star Wars finally arrivee there was a queue half way down the street of people waiting to play and I have the memory of my Dad patiently waiting with me to get a very brief go.
Ah nostalgia...

Reply
wyse
3/5/2017 12:55:10 pm

My home town was woefully ill-equipped, arcade wise, so all this sort of thing passed me by. Seaside trips almost always focussed on anything BUT the arcades on offer, and I didn't know any better to pester my rents. I feel like the real arcade heydey was slightly before my time.

Every depiction I've ever seen of arcade culture seems to have a certain magic to it. Sorry I missed out, really.

Reply
ILoveHorses
3/5/2017 12:56:38 pm

Mine's got to be Streetfighter 2. The common room in my sixth form college had a couple of machines, and there were some that were popular (WWF Wrestlemania, 1942, Sunset Riders) but none compared to SF2. I've never achieved such mastery with any game since. Eventually I was able to complete it, with perfects pretty much every round, on 20p. Great way to fill a lunch time.

The two player fights were always epic and there used to be a long line of 20ps across the screen as people queued up. There were rumours of a Chinese stranger in our town who knew some secret moves, and would take you on if you managed to find him in the local Blockbuster.

Reply
fatnick link
3/5/2017 01:21:04 pm

We'd always stop at a service station on the way to visit my grandparents in the early 90's. It wasn't the biggest arcade, but looking back it was pretty well equipped. From Virtual Racing to Mortal Kombat II, they always seemed to have the next big game just before it was going to take off.

Of course, it's all crappy gambling machines now. Sob.

Reply
Keith
3/5/2017 01:31:06 pm

Grim story - the street fighter 2 machine in the kebab shop near me was what I used to play, and for about six months I got targeted by a local lad who would wait til I put my money in and then shove me out of the way of the controls so I died. And it's a weird thing to know this person by because he was later murdered in prison by a racist in a famous case, so it's quite hard to refer to this incident without it seeming like I feel that one follows the other (which, y'know, it doesnt)

Reply
Picston Shottle
3/5/2017 02:31:10 pm

I have a convertible and I am a bald and I can attest to the fact that driving a convertible, with the top down, in the sun can result in severe burns. But, ya know, you get used to it and your head turns brown and leathery. i don't see the point in having a convertible if you drive around with the roof up, except when it's raining.

Also, my ex's cousin, or uncle or something, had Hangon - the one with the motorbike you sat on - and an air hockey table in his garden. When we went around for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and what other parties he'd throw, I'd spend the whole time playing Hangon rather than interacting with my semi redneck almost in-laws.

Reply
Biscos
3/5/2017 04:10:26 pm

Outside like in a shed or just exposed to the elements?

Reply
Picston Shottle
3/5/2017 05:12:53 pm

Well, it's Southern California, so other than warm and sunny there aren't really any other elements to contend with; he had them on a huge covered deck/patio, which at least had a roof, and he covered them with tarps when they weren't being used. He had a PacMan table too, but that was inside in his "den".

Biscuits
4/5/2017 07:51:54 am

Always nice to hear about tarp deployment

John
3/5/2017 02:32:26 pm

Outrun was the only game I 'completed' in the arcade. I'd played it to death while on holiday for about 3 years running and only ever got to about stage 3. Then one evening, having paid for 3 goes (50 pence would you believe!), I was just in the zone and drove straight to the finish line without a single mistake. With two credits left, I turned to the stunned younger kid that had been watching, laughed, and walked off leaving him to play for free.

Years later I was waiting in a taxi rank, worse for wear after a night out, and spotted an old Outrun cabinet. In went a quid (pissing inflation for you) and, while fairly rat arsed, got through to near the end. Only then did I realise how easy the game is... Kind of cast a shadow on the only vaguely cool thing I've ever done really.

Reply
Im Not Here
3/5/2017 02:35:40 pm

Being poor, and living in a village 8 miles from town (that might have had maybe 1 tiny arcade at some point anyway), arcades dont hold much nostalgia for me.

Played the occasional one when we got to go on holiday to Scarborough but that is about it.

I do remember some of the newer arcade games pretty well though once I was older; Virtua Cop, Daytona, House of the Dead and others.
The one that actually has a memory attached seems pretty random though, I remember spending quite some time playing one of the Jurassic Park light gun shooters (possibly lost world) in an arcade with my brother - together we completed it. It wasnt even that great a game, but we had fun and actually finished it in one go.

Reply
Biscuits
3/5/2017 03:30:40 pm

I grew up near Yarmouth and have never stopped going to arcades, through they are a bit shit these days (this isn't just old man whinging - a few years ago they started making massive versions of mobile games -Crossy Road etc.-in place of stand alone arcade games. Even the original ones they make are all gimmick-laden ride n' guns that blow air at you or shock you or something).

Recent faves include Pac Man air hockey and Time Crisis 5. Back in the day it was all about House of the Dead, Metal Slug and some gimmicky stuff on a friday night like Prop Cycle or Top Skater. I'm really up for a visit again. My mum gamely played House of the Dead 4 last time we were in the area, and beat me

Reply
Kelvin Green link
3/5/2017 06:52:28 pm

Porthcawl - Golden Axe. Could never get past the skeletons on one of the later levels. No, I don't want to do anything else. I just want to beat these skeletons.

Oakwood Theme Park - School trip. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four player cabinet. No, that's okay, Sir, we'll stay here until it's time to get on the bus.

Some hotel in Italy - Double Dragon. No thanks, Mum, I'll not bother with the beach or the pool today, I want to beat up some 80's street thugs.

Kebab shop, Uckfield - Street Fighter II. Player two's controls were broken, so it was a case of playing the single-player game and seeing how far you could get with your mates -- and the kebab shop owner -- jeering at you to put you off. Kebabs optional.

Reply
Gosunkugi
3/5/2017 08:59:34 pm

Porthcawl! The Hi-Tide used to be THE place. Even after the arcades started to decline that place kept us entertained. Upstairs with those ropey Robocop and Hand On cabinets, bliss. I remember as teens we'd start at the car park near the 'Tide and work our way down checking out all the dingy dives for something new.

Reply
Leigh
3/5/2017 10:59:50 pm

Oh shit son! I grew up down the road from Porthcawl so I was at the arcades any chance I could get. I still stay at Trecco Bay with the kids now and again when visiting the family, so I was back at the Hi-Tide last year. Still there! Obviously not quite the same, but still there...

Gosunkugi
3/5/2017 09:03:22 pm

I also played that same TMHT in Oakwood, must have been... ooh 1990? Same exact experience. We beat the game but got reamed by the teacher for wasting so much time.

Reply
Kelvin Green link
3/5/2017 09:52:06 pm

Good gravy! You're not me, are you?

Gosunkugi
3/5/2017 10:12:53 pm

Ships in the night for sure.

Kara Van Park
3/5/2017 07:33:27 pm

Remember when tens of people would crowd around an arcade machine to watch someone play Double Dragon? How easily impressed we were back then.

Reply
Im Not Here
10/5/2017 10:33:45 pm

People used to watch other people play games . . . I am not sure we have moved on as far as you seem to think!!

Reply
ChorltonWheelie
3/5/2017 08:12:56 pm

I used to be able to get into Manchester Poly Students Union bar from being 14 onwards.
They had a Star Wars sit down cabinet that most of us had mastered. Somehow they had 'a man' come out and turn the difficulty (probably just speed) up to nosebleed.
Mastered that too.

I also used to be top of the Defender high scores from Talacre beach to Piccadilly gardens. Like a zen'd out cat.
I had the chance to have a go at an old Defender stander upper recently. After 45 frustrating seconds I went for a pint instead. Defo still not got it...

Reply
Leigh
3/5/2017 11:09:52 pm

Good old R-Type. I played the elusive R-Type Leo in a tiny arcade in Edinburgh once - they had the volume on it cranked up so loud it made the walls vibrate - and never saw the damn thing anywhere else again.

Also, I got the train from Wales to London when Street Fighter II: Champion Edition came out purely so I could spend all day in the Trocadero playing as Sagat.

WE ALL TURNED OUT ALRIGHT IN THE END THOUGH DIDN'T WE

Reply
Adam
4/5/2017 12:43:47 am

It's funny how some games simply passed me by altogether. I'd always be straight down to the arcades every day on my annual family seaside holiday in the 80s, but I never saw, or even heard of, Rampage until i saw it on a few retro Playstation compilations. It even appeared at the beginning of an episode of Supernatural recently.

Some other games I only ever saw in one or two arcades - Roc'N'Rope, Crystal Castles and The Empire Strikes Back spring to mind.

And here's a possible article for you to write Mr Biffo - what's the most famous game you've never played? Strangely, i've still never played either Q*Bert or Joust. Seems a bit too late now...

Reply
Legooooooolas
6/5/2017 12:57:42 am

Never too late!

Reply
Chris
4/5/2017 10:30:35 am

I remmeber playing Pole Position a lot when visiting my cousin. also I remember playing a really terrible ASCII racing game in an arcade once, and then seeing Bombjack on the way out and wishing I hadn't splurged my only 10p (or whatever) on something awful.

There's an "alternative arcade" on Southwold Pier (www.underthepier.com), it's somewhat off-topic but worth visiting if you're in the area.

Also: There's a Rampage board game. Although they were forced to rename it for "legal reasons".

Reply
alb
4/5/2017 11:29:57 am

I had a friend who was so obsessed with Track and Field that he would put insulating tape around his fingers to protect them from the pounding they would get. By the end he'd walk into the bar, hold his insulated fingers aloft, get a cheer, then play the bloody machine for about three hours.

Reply
Raybies
5/5/2017 09:30:05 pm

Because I lived slightly in the middle of nowhere, arcade visits were few and far between. My big brother took me to one in the big city (Dublin, stop sniggering at the back!), and there were a few trips to a fun park in Meath (which used to be a Butlins, and is now a camp for asylum seekers) which had loads of separate arcades. I also went to one when we were visiting my dad's mate, and the kids there tried to dissuade me from coming by claiming all the games were Return of the Jedi, because I was weird and they were assholes.

Because of the time period, I got to play or watch a fantastic selection of games spanning a golden era of arcades in very few visits.

Street fighter II AND Champion Edition! On the same day! Mortal Kombat 2, R type, Golden Axe, Bubble Bobble, Tiki, Knights of the Round, TMNT, The Simpsons, Xmen, 1942?, Gauntlet, After Burner 2 with the rotating cabinet,, I could go on and on but I have drinking to do.

The drinking is unrelated to the arcades.

Reply
Chris Wyatt
11/5/2017 08:55:17 pm

As I'm 29, I only just about experienced the end of the 80's. I discovered most of the classic arcade games when I discovered MAME.

But some highlights of my youth:

* Playing on the arcade machines at Calloose Caravan park. I went back maybe about 12 years ago? And it was nice to see they still had a few old machines. I wonder if they are still there now? I think they might have had Bomb Jack?

* Dave and Busters in Bristol! They briefly opened a few stores in the UK, but they weren't around for long. I had a friend with very generous parents who gave us loads of money to spend. The place was huge and packed with arcade machines! It's still probably the biggest arcade I've ever been to, and an experience that I'm not likely to have again.

* Megabowl in Bristol - Lots of machines; bowling; a huge indoor play area / ball pit - I used to love going there. It's closed now, and for quite a while it was a boring sports bar full of drunken students. Shame.

* I've been to a few seaside ones. I used to go to Cornwall quite a bit as a kid. I remember going in some proper little arcades, but my parents usually didn't want to stop long, and wouldn't give me much money for the machines, so I never got to hang around them very long. I remember playing an arm wrestling game, but we were too young for it; the arm was far too strong, even with my cousin helping me out.

* Welsh Bicknor - We went there on a school trip and they had a Xevious cabinet and an Eagle (Moon Cresta clone) tabletop. I got very good at Eagle very quickly, and it was only 20p a pop! It took me a while to locate the game on the internet several years later. I ended up discovering Phoenix on my pursuit to find Eagle.

* A takeaway that my mum used to take me to in Bristol - I remember they had a Street Fighter cabinet. I can't remember the last time I saw an arcade machine in a takeaway.

Reply
creative arcades link
20/2/2023 09:31:00 am

Tabletop arcades are compact, portable arcade game machines that sit on a table or desk. They typically feature a range of classic arcade games, such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders, and provide a nostalgic gaming experience for both adults and children.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ