Arcades

[SalixIncendium]

I was a kid before video game consoles in home were really a thing, and even with the ones available, graphics on arcade games were much better, so I found myself spending a fair amount of my free time at the arcade.

Among my favorite arcade games in high school were:

• Tempest
• Donkey Kong
• Galaga
• Space Invaders
• Frogger (a very educational game that helped me later in life when I worked delivering Amazon packages)
• Star Castle
• Donkey Kong Jr

How much time have you spend in an arcade? What were your favorite games?

 

[ChristineM]

I spent very little time in arcades. When i went to visit my grandparents i did spend a little time playing arcade games. They lived in a seaside town with several amusement centres.
So perhaps 3 or 4 hours a week when i stayed with them 3 or 4 times a year.

Favourite games?

Asteroids
Defender
Pac man
There was a wireframe tank game that i liked but don't remember the name

 

[ImmortalFlame]

Arcades weren't really a thing over here in the UK much, so any arcade games I got to play were usually in bowling alleys and public swimming pools. I remember playing a lot of Street Fighter II at a pool when I was very young; might be one of my earliest gaming memories.

However, a few years ago a private arcade game collector with a fair bit of money to spare just so happened to open Europe's largest free-play arcade in Bury, Greater Manchester. It's effectively a four-floor warehouse with every floor filled with a mix of classic, modern and imported arcade machines (also, VR and other current-gen consoles), all rigged to play for free. You just pay to enter. Been there a couple of times, and loved it every time.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I used to be really good at some pinball games. A quarter, inflation adjusted that would be a dollar today, use to often last a half an hour. Inflation and not keeping up on games is probably why I have lost almost all interest. Though I still feel a tug when it comes to a well designed pinball game. In a proper game there are a series of goals that you have to accomplish to earn even more points. And then, some genius invented the multiball. When you have to let go of conscientious thought and work on an almost instinctive level. Okay, calm down. I could not find an arcade today if I wanted to and they do not have very many of my favorite dinosaurs any longer

 

[ChristineM]

Arcades weren't really a thing over here in the UK much, so any arcade games I got to play were usually in bowling alleys and public swimming pools. I remember playing a lot of Street Fighter II at a pool when I was very young; might be one of my earliest gaming memories.

However, a few years ago a private arcade game collector with a fair bit of money to spare just so happened to open Europe's largest free-play arcade in Bury, Greater Manchester. It's effectively a four-floor warehouse with every floor filled with a mix of classic, modern and imported arcade machines (also, VR and other current-gen consoles), all rigged to play for free. You just pay to enter. Been there a couple of times, and loved it every time.

You're from Bury? We used to go to the market there now and again. I was born and dragged up in Ribchester

 

[ImmortalFlame]

You're from Bury? We used to go to the market there now and again. I was born and dragged up in Ribchester

I'm from Manchester, but I've been up there a few times. Went to the arcade very recently, in fact. Used to go the market every once in a while, primarily for black pudding.

 

[ChristineM]

I'm from Manchester, but I've been up there a few times. Went to the arcade very recently, in fact. Used to go the market every once in a while, primarily for black pudding.

Black pudding, yum

 

[Regiomontanus]

I spent very little time in arcades. When i went to visit my grandparents i did spend a little time playing arcade games. They lived in a seaside town with several amusement centres.
So perhaps 3 or 4 hours a week when i stayed with them 3 or 4 times a year.

Favourite games?

Asteroids
Defender
Pac man
There was a wireframe tank game that i liked but don't remember the name

ahh, Battlezone.

Play it now:

Battlezone (DOS) - online game | RetroGames.cz

Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor. Due to its novel gameplay and lo...

www.retrogames.cz

 

[ChristineM]

ahh, Battlezone.

Play it now:

Battlezone (DOS) - online game | RetroGames.cz

Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor. Due to its novel gameplay and lo...

www.retrogames.cz

Similar though i seem to remember a black background with green wire frame
Maybe a knockoff clone

 

[Regiomontanus]

Similar though i seem to remember a black background with green wire frame
Maybe a knockoff clone

Yeah, only similar. Here is another

Play Battlezone online | BestOldGames.net

www.bestoldgames.net

 

[ChristineM]

Yeah, only similar. Here is another

Play Battlezone online | BestOldGames.net

www.bestoldgames.net

I don't have an F1 key on my phone ;-).

Edit : just looked on Google images and most pics are green vector graphics as i remember so it probably was Battlezone

 

[exchemist]

I was a kid before video game consoles in home were really a thing, and even with the ones available, graphics on arcade games were much better, so I found myself spending a fair amount of my free time at the arcade.

Among my favorite arcade games in high school were:

• Tempest
• Donkey Kong
• Galaga
• Space Invaders
• Frogger (a very educational game that helped me later in life when I worked delivering Amazon packages)
• Star Castle
• Donkey Kong Jr

How much time have you spend in an arcade? What were your favorite games?

None. At university I played Pacman and Space Invaders in the pub a few times. But this was in the 1970s. I'm not sure arcades were even a thing then.

 

[libre]

Dragon's Lair was rather novel after I wasted several dollars figuring out how it worked.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Dragon's Lair was rather novel after I wasted several dollars figuring out how it worked.

That game was newer right before I graduated. I never played, but I watched people wasting several dollars figuring out how it worked.

 

[Regiomontanus]

None. At university I played Pacman and Space Invaders in the pub a few times. But this was in the 1970s. I'm not sure arcades were even a thing then.

They were a thing in the mid to late 70s, at least here in the states.

 

[SalixIncendium]

They were a thing in the mid to late 70s, at least here in the states.

All I remember being in bars in the mid to late 70s were pinball machines and Shuffle Alley (which I mastered).

 

[Regiomontanus]

All I remember being in bars in the mid to late 70s were pinball machines and Shuffle Alley (which I mastered).

Pong, asteroids, pinball machines, pac man, ...

 

[SalixIncendium]

Pong, asteroids, pinball machines, pac man, ...

My step-father took me to sucky bars then.

 

[Regiomontanus]

My step-father took me to sucky bars then.

The roller-skating rink near where I lived, the place all the cool kids hung out at, had a bunch of such games.

 

[Secret Chief]

None. At university I played Pacman and Space Invaders in the pub a few times. But this was in the 1970s. I'm not sure arcades were even a thing then.

The remnants of my grant that wasn't spent on beer went on Asteroids. One time in the hall of residence bar I started a game just as my mates went off to see Man City. When they got back I was still playing the same game