Arcade days

[HarryK]

Being the old geezer that I’m in 1981 was my first arcade temple called Aladdin’s Castle. These were the days of quarters before token distribution. Pinballs like Paragon, Future Spa, Playboy, Space Invaders and Silverball Mania were works of art. SpaceWars, Asteroids, Defender, Missile Command, Galaxian, and of course Pac-Man fever along with an explosion of other cabinet classics. These were the days of Atari, Coleco, and intellivision which were vastly inferior. This was when Dragon’s Lair was the first laser disk machine that cost a buck a play.

Six years later one of my first mall rat job was Park Place Arcade when you’re talking about Gauntlet, John Elway’s qb, the 1st Street Fighter, Crystal Castles, Xevious, Final lap, Outrun, After Burner. Pinballs evolved into Carnival, Haunted House, The Getaway just to name a few. Namco was on the rise and bought out the rights to Pac-man and all of it’s various spin-offs. That’s when Tekken, Soulcalibur and the classic fighter games came to supremacy.

No I know I’ve left a ton of games out there like Tron, Wizards of war, centipede, bezerk, Robotron and any many more.

So you old geezers, what memories do you have for non-game system cabinet games that got you hooked and blew a ton of tokens and or quarters on.

Bonus who remembers Zookeeper?

[SuburbanFarmer]

I didn't get to spend much time in actual arcades as a kid - they were already getting scummy and weird by then - but I did blow plenty of quarters on an old Golden Axe machine at the grocery store.

I actually 'discovered' all of the old arcade stuff on my Xbox, and through game documentaries like King of Kong. I've played almost all of the classics that you named, and particularly love Missile Command.

[C-Mag]

@ Harry K


You just took me back to my teenage years.

I wasn't a great gamer, didn't waste enough quarters I guess. But I could hold my own with Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, Joust, Star Wars and Karate Champ.

Games like Dragons Lair, Pffft, I wasted my dollar in like 30 seconds. I was never great at Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. Just didn't work for me.

Good memories.

[HarryK]

@ Harry K


You just took me back to my teenage years.

I wasn't a great gamer, didn't waste enough quarters I guess. But I could hold my own with Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, Joust, Star Wars and Karate Champ.

Games like Dragons Lair, Pffft, I wasted my dollar in like 30 seconds. I was never great at Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. Just didn't work for me.

Good memories.

Karate champ rocked, whether it was the fighting or the bonus round breaking blocks or punching the bull.

Dig dug was cool and unique. I was horrible at Joust. Star Wars had the best yoke system for it’s time. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr was all about the patterns. Galaga I could easily made it to level 50 on a quarter.

@Surburbanfarmer - Golden Axe was one of my faves as well. It started that type of play that evolved to the Simpsons, X-men and those type of screen roll formats. A bit of a quarter eater, but to summon the power for utter destruction and betting the crap out of the gnomes for jars of power brings back the old memories.


I know Xbox has all of the retro classics, however being the “champ” at the arcade has it’s own street cred.

And as a bonus story that will blow your minds. Keep in mind this was the late 80’s. I used to rack up the high scores in pinball. So after finishing the Saturday day shift I went into the back office area to catch some zzzz’s before we all went out. I woke up to this louder than normal commotion and I kid you not, Mike Tyson (earned the heavyweight champ in 86, he was training in Glens Falls,NY) was killing it. There had to been about 75-100 kids and adults wide-eyed seeing this man play pinball like a god. Every time he lost a ball he’d sign a couple of autographs and resume playing. So I checking out the scene, kinda pushed people back so god forbid he’s gets pissed and the arcade and punches someone out for good. By closing time he wiped out 4 of my high scores.

After that he hit the big time and we never saw him again. As opposed to the mall tossing out Deion Sanders and his posse within 30 minutes before he’d found “Jesus”.

[Montegriffo]

You all pretending to be to young to remember Pong?

[HarryK]

You all pretending to be to young to remember Pong?

Pong in the US was a TV consul game you attached to the tele. But certainly one of the 1st gen b/w video games. It vanished from the arcades that I knew of as a kid. Kinda of like the old shooting galleries that projected light at the targets.

[Montegriffo]

Was the first video game I ever saw. On a cross channel ferry aged about 12.
Someone discovered that if you pulled the plug, when you reconnected the power you got a free credit. Kids were queueing up to wait their turn.
The purser must have thought ''these new fangled video games are a real winner''. Right up to the point he emptied the cash box.

[HarryK]

Was the first video game I ever saw. On a cross channel ferry aged about 12.
Someone discovered that if you pulled the plug, when you reconnected the power you got a free credit. Kids were queueing up to wait their turn.
The purser must have thought ''these new fangled video games are a real winner''. Right up to the point he emptied the cash box.

In America that was this kids funzone called Chuckie Chesse where you could get more bang for the buck in tokens compared to the arcade. The tokens were the same size and weight. So in essence we lost business to a rat no less.

[Fife]

I got really good at Polybius. Then one day I woke up and it was 1995.

[clubgop]

I got really good at Polybius. Then one day I woke up and it was 1995.