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What was your local arcade machine as a kid?

Started by Barry Admin, May 18, 2017, 05:30:20 PM

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Captain Poodle Basher

Ah Boot Hill, I'd completely forgotten about that. I'm from the early computer games era so played mostly wire frame stuff. There was Atari's Battlezone but I was shit at it while I fared much better at their Red Baron game. The one I spent most of my pocket money on was an electro-mechanical U Boat simulator, I can still smell the plastic of the periscope viewer and remember the tension of trying to launch my torpedo at the right moment - all the while knowing that my brother might come along and deliberately jog my elbow to put me off.

In my late teens, I hung around a city centre arcade, more to meet my mates and to avoid the elements - putting money that could otherwise be spent on records or drink into a machine was a mug's game as far as I was concerned so I never bothered. Hence me getting barred repeatedly for taking up valuable punter space - especially when the place was crowded. I learned to feign playing a game by acting as a 'Spotter' on the likes of Phoenix and Defender so I could claim to be playing the game in tandem with whoever was actually playing it.

The arcade was all slot machines downstairs with a clientèle to match so you had to run the gauntlet to get up the narrow stairs or be called outside for a fight or be threatened to hand over your cash to some loser so they could continue their losing streak. The upstairs arcade was mostly computer games with some forlorn old electro-mechanical ones at the top of the stairs - a grabber machine and a pair of rifle range games that hardly anyone bothered with. There was a Centipede table top game right in the middle of the room and many a person bruised themselves tripping over it as it was set at sitting down height.

cptspalding

Rollerworld in Derby (very early 90's) kept amongst others a Midnight Resistance and a weird arcade cab which was basically a NES with multiple games that you could select from.  Cross referencing the pre-Internet tricks thread, this was a machine that me and a friend managed to persuade to accept lower denomination coins as higher ones.  Think we basically put 2x old 2ps in at the same time and it took it as an old 10p or something,

I vaguely remember trying to skate there too.

Nearby was the UCI cinema with Turtles 4-player, a Final Fight and the memorable smell of popcorn.

dmillburn

#62
There was so many games I loved as I kid - earliest memories are playing all the classics in the Civic Centre with my mum and nan, starting with Space Invaders, Breakout and then Scramble, Battlezone, Galaxians  etc. They only had a 2 or 3 machines at any one time, so when they got swapped out it was a big deal. A few years later and the early eighties opened up a lot more choice as arcade machines were everywhere - pubs, chip shops etc.  Aylesbury bus station had Karate Champ (I remember being amazed by the "begin!" speech synthesis), Pole Position, then later on Tron and Star Wars ("Red 5 standing by")so I'd spend my school dinner money on them instead of lunch. Later that year I ventured into the Crown Cafe for the first time, which was the closest thing Aylesbury had to an arcade as it had about 12 machines out the back, which would change on a semi-regular basis. I spent hours in here initially playing the likes of Donkey Kong, the original Marios Bros (I spent hours knocking lobsters off pipes), Bagman, Bombjack and then later on Track and Field, Hyper Sports, Shinobi, R-Type etc.

This was combined with visits to Blackpool twice a year with the family, which was pure heaven - I'd pretty much the whole weekend in the arcades, shovelling 10ps into the machines as fast as I could. I can still remember seeing Dragon's Lair for the first time in Coral Island when it had just come out, and the constant big crowds around the machines despite it costing an unprecedented 20p a go, and for some reason I really loved all those laserdisc games (Space Ace, Firefox, Astron Belt, MACH 3 and that brilliant looking Williams Star Rider sit down machine) even though they were pretty unfulfilling to play. My absolute favourite was Universal's Super Don Quixote, which was in the Dragon's Lair/Space Ace mould but for some reason was only 10p a go when all the rest were 20p, plus it had guided on screen prompts which meant I actually got pretty good at it and could last a fair old time on a single credit.

I'm off to that arcade in Bury in June for a stag do I'm going on and can't wait. I also can't believe I've managed to persuade everyone to spend the day there on a stag on, but to be fair we are all getting old and the groom loves his games, so spending an afternoon playing the classics we grew up with is more appealing that just getting wankered in a pub (which we'll have plenty of time to do in the evening anyway).

It's not going to be a patch on Bury, but there is another retro arcade in the Midlands near Brum, Fletchers in Rednal,  which has a decent amount of original classic machines (Space Invaders, Defender, Daytona etc) as well as old arcade memorabilia and signs etc. There's a fair few lots and pintables too, and if you like pinball you could maybe combine it with a visit to the brilliant Tilt in the city centre, a pinball cafe with loads of both new and classic retro tables to play, as well as decent coffee, ales and cakes.

http://www.fletchersarcade.co.uk/

http://tiltbrum.com/#/pinball/

The weird thing is that despite being obsessed by arcade games right from the late 70's to mid 90's (Sega Rally, Club GTi etc) I don't play anything modern these days, and the last console I had was the N64 (although I did quite enjoy the odd game on my daughters 3DS until some scroat stole it from our car). I keep thinking I should knock some sort of mame machine together at some point but never quite get around to it.

Hollow

Great posts all round in this thread...I've really enjoyed reading them.

Hollow

I've told my kids that it's the law of the land that they must play the classics, seriously.

They love the Capcom beat em ups, so I get the sweet sounds of things like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs sweeping through my house...it's pretty cool...at the moment my three year old is playing Ninja Kids (Taito)...which does involve Satan and cutting people in half...I AM NOT A BAD PARENT...lol.

NoSleep

Quote from: NoSleep on May 19, 2017, 12:05:58 PM
Are there any places like Arcade Club nearer London? There's not really much info about arcades in the UK anywhere online (at least without spending time looking further than a quick DuckDuckGo search). The only list I found, and one thread in another forum didn't mention Arcade Club either. The last time I saw a load of classic (playable for free, too) arcade machines was at an exhibition at the Barbican around ten years ago.

Heart of Gaming, which has moved to Croydon as of last month. Looks like they specialise in fighting games, though. Might be worth a (£10 entry, free games) punt. Can't find a list of what games they actually have there.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: dmillburn on May 26, 2017, 10:22:35 AM
I'm off to that arcade in Bury in June for a stag do I'm going on and can't wait. I also can't believe I've managed to persuade everyone to spend the day there on a stag on, but to be fair we are all getting old and the groom loves his games, so spending an afternoon playing the classics we grew up with is more appealing that just getting wankered in a pub (which we'll have plenty of time to do in the evening anyway).

Please tell me you aren't staying in Bury for the evening of the stag do. I can't imagine a less exciting stag do than a night out in Bury.

dmillburn

Ha, no way - we're off to see 808 State in Manchester in the evening, just getting the train to Arcade Club in the morning for a few hours mainly to stop us drinking from 11am. Although there's a bar at Arcade Club so not entirely sure how that will work.

Glebe

As much as they thrilled and excited me, did anyone else find arcades a little bit scary as a kid? All the noise and that, and there was always some game machine that made loud monster noises or summit... I remember coming across this old horror novelty thing, probably from the '50s or something but it looked to me as if it were from the Victorian era... anyway, it was this glass case and you put a coin in and these horrible little figures moved, chopping off heads and stuff.

There was this really disturbing game one of my mates used to play were you had to destroy tiles or something, 'titillating' you by by gradually uncovering a sexy lady... a sexy lady that was all rotted like a zombie. Oh those crazy Japanese!

Hollow

Quote from: Glebe on May 26, 2017, 07:45:23 PM
As much as they thrilled and excited me, did anyone else find arcades a little bit scary as a kid? All the noise and that, and there was always some game machine that made loud monster noises or summit... I remember coming across this old horror novelty thing, probably from the '50s or something but it looked to me as if it were from the Victorian era... anyway, it was this glass case and you put a coin in and these horrible little figures moved, chopping off heads and stuff.

There was this really disturbing game one of my mates used to play were you had to destroy tiles or something, 'titillating' you by by gradually uncovering a sexy lady... a sexy lady that was all rotted like a zombie. Oh those crazy Japanese!

Nah...I've always like to walk on the wild side.

The only thing that scared me were the 16-17 year olds demanding your 'last life' or your 'last bar of energy'...what was all that about?

That game sounds familiar...it's probably emulated under the adult section of MAME, you should find it....my favourite 'porn' game was Miss World '96...an utterly barking mad Korean/Chinese effort with...oh you just have to play it...'My body, your body, everybody move your body'...'EVERYBODY MOVE YOUR BODY!'

Gulftastic

This beauty that was in the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds. My Mum had a Sunday morning job in the snack bar, and I used to go down with her and pump my pocket money into the thing,



Got it on an emulator a few years back, but still get stuck around level 6. My trigger speed is just not good enough.

LanceUppercut

Yea this thread has reinforced me to sort my shift out and get to the arcade club in Bury, sounds like arcade heaven there, pity none of my friends want to go getting passed and playing games on my own doesn't sound as much fun.

Captain Poodle Basher

Quote from: Captain Poodle Basher on May 23, 2017, 10:14:19 AM

The arcade was all slot machines downstairs with a clientèle to match so you had to run the gauntlet to get up the narrow stairs or be called outside for a fight or be threatened to hand over your cash to some loser so they could continue their losing streak. The upstairs arcade was mostly computer games with some forlorn old electro-mechanical ones at the top of the stairs - a grabber machine and a pair of rifle range games that hardly anyone bothered with. There was a Centipede table top game right in the middle of the room and many a person bruised themselves tripping over it as it was set at sitting down height.


I went out of my way the other day and passed by where the arcade was to find that it's still going. Only, the whole building now seems to be given over to gambling. No name above the door - blacked out windows and the foot of the stairs blocked by a hefty security door so presumably a casino affair upstairs. The place gave off a "Nothing to see here, move along" vibe.

Shay Chaise

I'm off to the Arcade Club in Bury tomorrow so I'll try to take some photos.

batwings

Missile Command at Strode swimming pool was the nearest to me. There was also a cafe with a Gorf.

Never found arcades anything but magical. As a child, any family trip to Weymouth or Weston Super Mare, all I wanted to do was spend as much time inside the arcades as I could.

dmillburn

So then, Arcade Club - what a place, completely exceeded all my expectations when we visited at the weekend and pretty much all my favourites from my childhood were there. Certainly all the major titles you'd expect were there (200 or so of them including Zaxxon, Gorf, Mr Do!, Ridge Racer, Enduro Racer, Gauntlet, Bomb Jack etc) as well as loads more besides. The 2nd floor was fun too, enjoyed dicking about on the VR stuff and there's a decent pinball selection too. There's always going to be some of your favourite games that they don't have (I'm accepted that I'm unlikely to ever see more obscure titles like Bagman, Eyes or Discs of Tron again anywhere so MAME will be as close as I get now) but the selection they do have is incredibly impressive. There was a fair few titles that I had either never played as they'd somehow passed me by (Total Carnage for example) or not played a lot (the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade from 1998, which I'd only ever seen at Blackpool Pleasure Beach), and it was great to spend time on them as well as the ones I knew well.

It's a top day out, if you are thinking of going but not sure if it's worth the drive then do it. I'm already planning a second visit and for the first time ever and much to her surprise I've suggest to my wife we go and visit her mother, who only live 20 mins away in Bolton. I'll drop her off there and then me and my daughter will zip over and spend the day at Bury.

There was certainly something magical about walking into a proper dimly lit arcade and seeing rows and rows of games, especially as all the actual surviving arcades I used to visit as kid only actually have a handful of actual games these days. I was impressed with the staff there too, really friendly and happy to talk about the games and put anything you want on the pcs and consoles if you ask them. Even the food and drink was reasonably, 50p for a can of coke and £2.50 for a bottle of Peroni.

It was a bit depressing at how shit I was at everything I played though. Even games I'd been particularly good at back then, like Kung Fu Master, Star Wars and Double Dragon, were a nightmare and I struggled to even get past the first level on Kung Fu Master. With Star Wars I used to breeze through wave after wave without losing a shield and was able to 'use the force' (ie do the trench run without firing a shot for the bonus) without problem even on the later waves, but at the weekend I really struggled to get anywhere with it. It was noticeable how hard all the games were in general too, everything was very unforgiving back then and it's no wonder I used to get through a lot of 10ps.

bushwick

Quote from: Hollow on May 26, 2017, 08:59:03 PM
That game sounds familiar...it's probably emulated under the adult section of MAME, you should find it....my favourite 'porn' game was Miss World '96...an utterly barking mad Korean/Chinese effort with...oh you just have to play it...'My body, your body, everybody move your body'...'EVERYBODY MOVE YOUR BODY!'

Jeeeez just checked this on MAME, I never bother with the saucy games but this one is berserk. I recognise some of the lasses from 90s jazz mags but had never seen any of them turn into freddy kruegers and shit before.

I used to love going down the arcades, grew up in a seaside town so we were down there all the time. Loads of 'characters' around. Used to smoke fags and skate and go down the arcades. Used to nick a quid from my mum's purse, buy 10 B & H and a box of matches and spend the 10p change on a credit on Gunsmoke in Silver City. Other favourites over the years were Midnight Resistance (completed), Splatterhouse (completed), Star Force (was 10p when all other games were 20), Toki, Pang, Darius (with the 3 screens), Spy Hunter, Road Blasters and remember being blown away by Karnov when I found it in Butlins.

Remember finding a single cabinet of Rabio Lepus in a shop in Carlisle once when I was a lad - it used to be great randomly finding strange Japanese games like that in shops and takeaways.

I also remember there was a cafe/fruit machine place that had a few arcade machines at the back. We went in there once and they had forgotten to lock the coinboxes on the arcade machines - they were actually hanging open, full of 10ps. Rather than nick the money and spend it on fags, we put dozens of credits into Salamander and got really far (was well impressed, first time I'd seen that game, so much cooler than Nemesis..."SHOOT IT IN THE EYE")

Roark

By the time I was 10, family holidays in the UK became less about sandcastles and rock pools and more about arcades. How many there were, what games they had. We had a Spectrum +3 at home, so the yearly trips to these places to play games way more advanced was a treat.

Seaside towns in Devon and Cornwall would always have plenty of places to play. I remember having a routine in one arcade

Dragon Ninja
Altered Beast
Ninja Turtles
Simpsons
Final Fight

We'd do a circuit, playing each one once. Then repeat until the money ran out.

Then 1991 rolled round, and the rota became

Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
and
Street Fighter II

Arcades left their coastal habitats and started migrating into the inner city, taking root in takeaways, video shops, cash & carries. By 1993 there were no less than eight SFII cabinets within 15 minutes' walk from my school.

We'd run down to the chip shop to get our daily grease, then join the throng. People going mad about SFII. Bringing in magazines that were going mad about SFII. Incredible excitement.

I remember:

Not knowing anything, picking the green monster.
Asking why people were picking blue Ken instead of red Ken and being told to "shut up."
Being gravely warned that Ken & Ryu's fireball/dragon punch trap was "method", and not to be performed at any cost.
Unofficial hacked versions (Rainbow Edition, Black Belt) -- with crazy physics, gravity, mid-match character swaps and teleportation.

It's Street Fighter II.

Roark

If time travel ever gets invented I'm going right back to that video shop and explaining once and for all that it's not "method", it's a perfectly viable tactic, deliberately intended by the designers. There's enough time to jump over a fireball and punish it before the thrower recovers, and besides if you've let yourself be boxed into the corner then it's your own fault anyway so THERE.

George White

Quote from: Glebe on May 19, 2017, 12:03:06 PM
It was the arcades on Bray seafront, Co. Wicklow, for me. There were Sunday family outings, where I'd be begging my parents for extra 10/20ps, then later bunks off school with me mates. All the usual suspects... Super Mario, Bubble Bobble, New Zealand Story, Rastan, Karnov, Warden... I had a mate who was a bloody legend, think he won Golden Axe.
I remember Dawson's, and the smell of rust and dust and scenes of junked machines lying astray in corridors. And Harry Ramsden's next door.
I was more interested in the mechanical games. I did frequent Star a lot, and the Bray Bowl, disappointed to see they got shat of their Star Wars cabinet.

Glebe

Quote from: George White on July 09, 2017, 11:33:57 AMI was more interested in the mechanical games. I did frequent Star a lot, and the Bray Bowl, disappointed to see they got shat of their Star Wars cabinet.

Is that gone? Walked past Bray Bowl the other week, but I haven't been in it in yonks.

George White

The arcade is still there, but with fewer machines. The diner is gone, replaced by a few vending machines. Hi-jinks, the play area and venue for myriad childhood birthday parties was gutted and is now a dance studio.

Bazooka

Planning to go to The Arcade Club in Bury this weekend on my way to The Big Grill UK.

Blinder Data

Going to this place soon.

Will report back if it's any good.

Craft beers and arcade games is a potentially fatal cocktail of hipsteritis but fuck it, I'm looking forward to it.

Blinder Data

Well, Super Bario in Glasgow is fun.

Most of the games are free to play, some require a quid (but you get more than one credit).

Games included:
- Metal Slug (not sure which one, infinite lives - much more boring than how I remembered as a kid)
- Pac Man
- Marvel vs Street Fighter
- Aliens
- Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles
- Some ports mix including v diffcult to control footie and basketball games, plus a fun air hockey-frisbee thing
- Sega Rally and another racer I can't remember

Then House of the Dead, and Simpsons and Baywatch pinball machines which you had to pay for.

It was top. The games rotate (I don't know how often). Apparently they've had Michael Jackson's Moonwalker!

I will be back.

kngen

Quote from: Blinder Data on September 11, 2017, 05:23:45 PM
a fun air hockey-frisbee thing

I need to know more about this - I fucking love air hockey.

Were their any wee muckers hinging off your shoulder asking for your last life? Or the weirdy monotone bingo caller who sounded like a robot but was actually a real woman like in Treasure Island on Union St? Seems like it wouldn't be a proper Glasgow arcade experience without those things. Also, junkies.

Blinder Data

Quote from: kngen on September 13, 2017, 01:57:21 PM
I need to know more about this - I fucking love air hockey.

Were their any wee muckers hinging off your shoulder asking for your last life? Or the weirdy monotone bingo caller who sounded like a robot but was actually a real woman like in Treasure Island on Union St? Seems like it wouldn't be a proper Glasgow arcade experience without those things. Also, junkies.

I just googled it - apparently called Windjammers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windjammers_(video_game)

This place served craft beers and played hip hop. Some hipster brought in a chihuahua that ran about the place. Glasgow jakies need not apply.

Barry Admin

Shufflepuck Cafe was wicked back in the Amiga days: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shufflepuck_Café

Seems like there's browser versions available.

I'm looking at setting up MAME for the cheapest cost, until I can save up for a cheap laptop or PC. Just need to get a mini HDMI cable in a couple of days and I should be set. I got GameEx but it's maybe a bit much. MAME standalone seems good, grabbed that and a rom for Kangaroo and plonked them on my tablet. I have a USB converter already, so I'll plug my arcade stick in, and I should be good to go! See how it runs on the tablet until I can afford to hook it up to my telly. Then I'll grab a load of early Capcom games, and will be happy as a pig in shite!

I had been thinking, ohhh, maybe I can get a Raspberry Pi setup for 40 quid or something, but probably no need, my tablet and arcade stick will do the job lovely.

Barry Admin

Seems like a goer!! Tried Ghouls 'n Ghosts as a bit of a more modem test, refresh rate is a bit flickery but maybe I can optimise it. Forgot all about that magician that turns Arthur into a duck.

Look at this too: https://archive.org/details/consolelivingroom

I highly recommend looking at the arcade archive sites just to see the marquee images and flyers, absolutely beautiful stuff. This is the main one I've been using: https://www.arcade-museum.com

Goldentony

Locally I don't think we had many. Mal's video shop 'MOVIE MADNESS' got some shite racing game that involved a load of old 50's style motors driving about that we stopped playing once we realised we couldn't crash into barriers and stuff. I think there was one before that because some kid we all called Waxy because of his ears became famous for getting top scores on one of the footie arcade games. But it wasn't fair because he lived down the road in a shop so he was loaded and his da would give him loads of 10p's.

The shitter arcade at the holiday park I spent basically every summer at between 4 and 13 had the best arcade machines and they basically never changed in all that time. The back wall had Double Dragon, WWF Superstars, Wonder Boy, Bubble Bobble and International Track & Field. I was alright at Superstars and you'd spend fucking ages trying to get to Andre The Giant only to get totally fucked in seconds. Double Dragon was good with two but too much for my small mind alone. Wonder Boy was amazing and two of the three arcades there had a cabinet. Used to love Track & Field but you'd get roared at for going apeshit on the buttons. Everything else in there was a fruity.

Down the road the bigger slightly better arcades had Lucky & Wild which was fucking amazing, but they got rid of it one year for a fucking claw machine. They used to have Killer Instinct and WWF Wrestlefest but got rid, and then the most fun I ever had on an arcade machine round the corner in the form of Revolution X which was there for years. Had the high score, the lot. Again though, got rid. Went back for the first time in about 14 odd years the other week and there's fuck all arcade machines left. Fruitys, games that spew tickets or bingo. Shabite.