What was your local arcade machine as a kid?

[Barry Admin]

Just chatting with Beardfaceman and he raised a great nostalgia topic - the local arcade machine! What was yours? I'm struggling to remember now as I'm old enough that there were a few. Like I'd call into a pizza parlour at the top of the road to get to play... Mikie, I think? (Oh fuck, no, I remember now - it was that Kung Fu arcade game... Kung-Fu Master. Mikie and Crystal Castles necessitated a trip to the swimmers. Fucking Mikie man, tunes stuck in your head for days, knocking wee girls off their seats with your arse, eating full chickens like rudi on a sunny day. What a game.)

When visiting a friend or out on my bike, I could go near to Stormont to play Dragon Breed, a great horizontal shoot-em-up. I think it replaced R-Type.

There was a dimly remembered local youth club with Double Dragon and Yie Ar King Fu, which was amazing, as I had it on the C-64, so loved seeing all the differences.

[Twed]

The hydraulic sit-down Out Run:


I'd play others, but it was all about this for me. Nice and local, too. I have a strong memory of 20ps; it must have cost either 20 or 40p per go.

[shiftwork2]

A record shop next to the park called Spinner's Discs (great name).  A bit of a cheat as there was only one machine and my most vivid memory was of Track and Field.  Such a perfect game as it attracted a crowd around it and attendant 'fuck off you bastard!!' comments at loud volume as frustration and annoyance were pretty much guaranteed.  Another record shop had Scramble and Missile Command in the little basement.  Not so much fun.  Were arcade machines in record shops an early eighties thing only?

[TheWoodenSpoon]

Never had a local machine per se (fruit machine in the chip shop aside, what a load of rigged bollocks), although eventually there was a full-blown arcade in the high street which was only a 10 minute bus ride away. Cue countless after-school sessions of trying to blast though The House of the Dead, Time Crisis 2 (fucking amazing game in the day), and of course a trio of dumbshit schoolkids partaking in the inexplicable act of shovelling 50p coins into Gauntlet Legends, a game which was just a horrible greedy prick and forced you to feed more coins in no matter how good you were, because Gauntlet was a series created by some cunt who thought that having your energy slowly tick down for no fucking reason at all was good game design. Wanker.

Other games were:
- Operation: Thunderbolt (a bit shit and primitive compared to the other shooters on offer by this point)
- Rolling Thunder (hard as fuckin' nails, this one)
- Ninja Commando (fucking bizarre top-down time-travelling Godfrey Ho-inspired nonsense)
- and various other weird things

The local leisure centre had a good few cabinets too, but you were stumped for choice since every game there was either a vertical shoot-em-up or a horizontal shoot-em-up, and ridiculously difficult with it. I do remember them having a Street Fighter II cabinet at some point (one of the early editions), but that probably caused some real street fighting at some point since it was gone by the next week.

[BeardFaceMan]

Other than R-Type the only other one near me was Cabal. I had to wait until I went on holiday to Porthcawl and would then spend the entire holiday in the arcade. I was doing Twitch before Twitch, I'd spend all my cash and then just wander around all evening watching everyone else play. Bubble Bobble was my favorite there, it was right next to a Dragon's Lair game that nobody ever played because it was about a pound a turn 30 years ago, but it was so awe inspiring I could stand and watch the cut scenes all day. A controllable cartoon!? What will they think of next?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

When I was little, we'd go to the leisure centre for swimming lessons on Fridays and have our tea in the canteen afterwards. There were maybe four or five machines in there which, being stupid children, we'd crowd around and pretend to play, despite putting no money in. Track and Field was there, somewhat ironically (although, given the state of the food, the centre probably wasn't all that concerned with health after all) along with Pit Fighter, Hard Drivin, and a couple of others. Pit Fighter was probably the one that I spent the most time looking at - it felt mildly transgressive, like getting to watch a grown up action film.

[TheWoodenSpoon]

Pit Fighter was probably the one that I spent the most time looking at - it felt mildly transgressive, like getting to watch a grown up action film.

Utterly shit game though. Believe me when I say that watching it is far more fun than actually playing it.

[BeardFaceMan]

Was Pit Fighter the one that was made to look like the film Bloodsport? That did indeed look far better than it played.

[TheWoodenSpoon]

Was Pit Fighter the one that was made to look like the film Bloodsport? That did indeed look far better than it played.

Yeah, this big piece of shit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbJRD1UKf_Y

[Morrison Lard]

The beat-em ups of the mid to late 80s, starting with Punch Out!!!! and Yie Ar Kung-Fu
then Double Dragon,
and closing out the decade with the suitably titled Final Fight.

Probably my least favourite game genre nowadays, was fucking mental on them as a kid though.
Spent almost all my pocket money on those four bastards.

There was also one of those top-down table ones in the local chippy but the "fag-eaters" (bigger teenage kids)
used to hog it all the time so I'd steer well clear.

[madhair60]

Youth club up road had Metal Slug X which they later got rid of and replaced with Metal Slug 3. Halcyon days.

[checkoutgirl]

When I was about ten I remember Street Fighter being a big crowd pleaser. Not Street Fighter II but it's predecessor. The style of one-on-one battle and the way they had put it together felt revolutionary. It wasn't the first one-on-one battle game but it did introduce special moves like the fireball and the spinning kick and the six button set up with different strengths of punch and kick. That game was a smash hit. The cabinet was massive as well. It was real event arcade game action with challengers putting down their 10ps and people watching other people trying to finish the game.





Also Mortal Kombat was my joint a couple of years later. I remember that one causing a stir with it's fatalities and different style of play to Street Fighter. The late eighties and early nineties seem to be the era of one-on-one fighting games and I would have been 10 to 15 years old around that time.

By the time Mortal Kombat II came out it was all over for arcades for me. By that time the Super Nintendo was in full swing and it seemed stupid to go to the arcade when you had one of those at home. A year or two after that I would have been getting into drinking and the pub would have completely finished off what the Super Nintendo didn't.

Heady days.

[Barry Admin]

The beat-em ups of the mid to late 80s, starting with Punch Out!!!! and Yie Ar Kung-Fu
then Double Dragon,
and closing out the decade with the suitably titled Final Fight.

Probably my least favourite game genre nowadays, was fucking mental on them as a kid though.
Spent almost all my pocket money on those four bastards.

There was also one of those top-down table ones in the local chippy but the "fag-eaters" (bigger teenage kids)
used to hog it all the time so I'd steer well clear.

Oh fuck yeah, table-top machines, bloody hell. Galaga or some such at the leisure centre.

Remember Vigilante, another cracking sideways beat-em-up? I vividly remember not being allowed more money for the day when I was on a ferry to Holland or somewhere, as I adamantly refused to stop playing mid-game just to gather round the teacher with everyone else. They had that cracking 3D helicopter game as well. (Thunder... something?)

Possibly the same trip where I found a Street Fighter 1 machine with the punch pads.

Another chippy game was Rolling Thunder.

Going to the ice rink meant plenty of treats, chief amongst them Wonderboy in Monsterland, with all it's secrets. Super Mario Brothers arcade machine too, and Operation Wolf.

[Delete Delete Delete]

For me it was the many varations of Segas House Of The Dead series, Time Crisis, or Dancestage Euromix.

[NoSleep]

The first time I saw arcade machines were in pubs in the late 70's-early 80's. I can remember playing Breakout (and the follow-ups), Space Invaders, Galaxians, Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest, Pacman, Roc'n'Rope, Donkey Kong; went to the pub to play these games in the end, right up to the point when I got my first computer (Atari 400) to cut down the expense (buying Star Raiders, Donkey Kong and Miner 2049 cartridges for it) so me and my girlfriend could afford more booze. We still ended up going to the pub to see what was new.

[Morrison Lard]

Forgot to mention the Star Wars vector graphics game.
Was absolutely incredible,
especially the digitised audio "RED LEADER STANDING BY!"



Still gets me kinda giddy seeing this-

-------
Edit : A quick google says
"in 2005, Brandon Erickson set a world endurance record of 54 hours on a single credit (with a score of 283 million)"

Wow.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

the pub would have completely finished off what the Super Nintendo didn't.

Shirley you mean "what the Super Nintendon't"?

[BeardFaceMan]

So are there any good options for adults who want to play old school arcade games without feeling like a nonce? or am I gonna have to buy a cabinet myself and stick a MAME machine in it or something? Would fucking love a go on that Star Wars game again, it's not the same without sitting in the thing, even if it did have that lovely combo smell of piss, beer and fag smoke.

[NoSleep]

Isn't there that X-Box/USB add-on that is effectively an arcade style control panel? I don't know if they're still available but you might be able to find one on e-bay.

EDIT:

[Penfold]

Growing up in a small Scottish town there was nothing. Moved to Blackpool and there was too much but remember one summer going to south pier and playing a lot of Tekken 3.

Nowadays there is Arcade Club in Bury which has everything ever but I haven't got round to getting the bus there yet.

[Shay Chaise]

I'm sure I said as much a few months back but if you can be arsed, get down to the Arcade Club in Bury. It's fucking brilliant. I had a go on that original hydraulic OutRun and couldn't stop grinning. Just a marvellous day and evening out and I can't wait to go back.

[BeardFaceMan]

Those arcade sticks are nice but I want the full cabinet experience again. That place in Bury looks fucking ace, just the kind of place I was looking for, if a bit far away. I miss standing up to play games, or sitting in a car or something.  I can take care of the smells myself.

[NoSleep]

That just prompted me to see if there was anything like Arcade Club nearby to me and there's a place called The Arcade in Brighton. I'm going to have to take a look over there this summer, maybe go down there with my nephew & niece.

EDIT: Brighton, Michigan - d'oh!

[jamiefairlie]

playing Breakout (and the follow-ups), Space Invaders, Galaxians, Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest, Pacman, Roc'n'Rope, Donkey Kong

Yup, add the previously mentioned Scramble and Track & Field/Hyper Sports and you have the classic early 80s arcade line up. I'd also throw Joust in there too.

We had a cool little game called Space Chaser, which I loved. It was kind of an embryonic Pacman.

[the]

Never had a local arcade as a kid (more's the pity), though I think the first arcade machine (and possibly first video game) I ever laid eyes on was Space Invaders, as a toddler. I think the cabinet was in the youth club up the road.

If you wanted to play arcade games you had to go to the seaside basically.

Barry, is now the right time to put in a request for a Retro Gaming child board?, no ah alright then.

[biggytitbo]

Let us go mr driver

[maett]

I was a paperboy from 1981-1985 and the shop had Space Invaders II for a while and then Asteroids.   When Asteroids was switched on it would give you a free credit and I'd always use it, got pretty good to the point where the Terry the sweet shop man would have to say 'Come on, get those papers delivered'
There was also a couple of arcades down the High Street where Defender and later Shinobi were my games of choice. Ah bollocks wasn't Shinobi, but it was a similar game a few years before, can't remember the name. Platformer with various bosses at the end of each round.

Kung Fu Master

[Barry Admin]

Talk of free credits has taken me back, way back, back into time.

Okay so I'm at the shopping centre with my Ma, it's Wednesday, she's doing the big shop. I'm visiting the computer shop and buying C-64 games like "Kwah!" so I must have been about 10 years old. I also bought/ was given a compilation of Midway games featuring Spy Hunter and Tapper. Life was good, life was damn good. 

There's a pokey little area next to the computer shop with some arcade games, and some hard lads. They initiate me. They show me how you can take a piece of wire, heat it up with a lighter until its red hot, and then shove it in the coin slot. Wiggle it about a bit and - boom - free mother-fucking credits! I could never get it to work.

I also used to try taking the top off a clicky thing for lighting gas cookers, and see if I could short the machine to get free plays by sparking it near the metal coin slot - must have read it somewhere!

Fucking way back for that memory lads, might never have remembered that stuff again if not for this thread.

Also brought up another memory of going to the local newsagents to dig through the box of Mastertronic etc games he stashed behind the counter, like porn. £1.99 for Psycho, or for Tau Ceti, so I could type "fuck" and crash my computer? Yes please good sir.

[Bazooka]

I'm sure I said as much a few months back but if you can be arsed, get down to the Arcade Club in Bury. It's fucking brilliant. I had a go on that original hydraulic OutRun and couldn't stop grinning. Just a marvellous day and evening out and I can't wait to go back.

Cheers Chaise didn't know about that place,it has X-Files pinball for Christs sake!

[Sebastian Cobb]

There's a pokey little area next to the computer shop with some arcade games, and some hard lads. They initiate me. They show me how you can take a piece of wire, heat it up with a lighter until its red hot, and then shove it in the coin slot. Wiggle it about a bit and - boom - free mother-fucking credits! I could never get it to work.

I'm told that used to work on the old prepay meters, the ones where tokens were a piece of card with a magnetic strip.