Yo PacMan, you a good game, I dropped a couple dozen quarters in ya back in the day, and I'mma let you finish... but Space Invaders is the greatest arcade game of all time, OF ALL TIME!
props to Asteroids & Missile Command while I'm geekin' it.
I was 13-14 years old when these games came out. Perfect age to get hooked on the new technology. Pinball who? Foosball what?
Used to grab a slice or an Italian ice with my friends after school and play 'em at the pizza parlor -- or at the 7-11 when I finished my afternoon delivery of Newsday. My teen obsession with these games was fairly short-lived. Maybe two years. PacMan was late to the party for me, but a good one.
[1] I'm a bit younger than you, Sliced, so for me, it was Street Fighter 2, and to a lesser extent, Marvel vs Capcom. If I only had the fortune of quarters I put into those games . . .
Outside of touristy spots and the occasional nostalgia place (how I hope Schenectady's nickel arcade is still open!), are there even arcades anymore? And does any place outside of bars (and hotels) even have a couple of standalone machines (non-Golden Tee variety)? I can't recall the last pizza place I went to that had an arcade game.
[2] . A couple of places where my sons go for birthday parties have small arcades: the ice rink, the laser tag joint. But I haven't seen a fullblown arcade forever, and you're right,about the pizza places. None of the ones around me have games.
The sophistication of the home systems is probably what killed the arcades. We don't have one in our house. Putting it off until they're older.
I have a stand-up Chase HQ and Sky Shark in the warehouse where I sort books. There's something different about the big electronic beast. He is a fiercer foe than the consoles. You have something invested.
My game was the sit-down version of Spy Hunter. I could play for hours on one quarter.
[3] The dive bar around the corner from my house here in Portland, where I watched most of the WS, has a great little arcade. It includes Ms Pac-Man and Galaga from the old school. I must be lucky.
A very slight shift, but still relevant to the topic; wowzers, those Atari commercials from back in the day were bizarre for lack of a better word. I immediately thought of this one from my and my sister Terry's favorite from that era.
Then I saw this and thought about how this game (and the plethora of ads) might have changed my life at some point.
Atari admakers had a lot of... um... "experiments" going on during their brainstorm sessions, huh? I suggest spending a few minutes reminiscing with or "researching" (if you're too young to remember or have seen any) their ads (too many to list in this post, to be honest); what a way to pick up a dull day at work >;)
[0] Okay, Diane? That rap was actually on point! I had a classmate who was a fellow beatmaker at the time who made a really cool beat with the Pac-Man theme that was better than this one, actually, but this worked. I hope someone makes a mixtape of some game-based material.
Oh, at the end there are a couple of NSFW words thrown in the mix, so be careful who you show this to... >;)
[1] i'm a bit younger too (though i've got another damn birthday within weeks...). my fave game was Phoenix. my brother was all into Tempest, but i loved Phoenix. at 10 yrs old, all i really did was play phoenix and collect baseball cards. yes, i was drumming everyday, but not as seriously as i would in the coming years.
i used to do newspaper returns at the stationery store around the block and play the games in the back. i remember a cool arcade where some kids had birthday parties. by then, Mr. Do was out. where was that place? i think it was in Island Park, though it coulda been Rockville Center, for all i remember...
Yo PacMan, you a good game, I dropped a couple dozen quarters in ya back in the day, and I'mma let you finish... but Space Invaders is the greatest arcade game of all time, OF ALL TIME!
props to Asteroids & Missile Command while I'm geekin' it.
I was 13-14 years old when these games came out. Perfect age to get hooked on the new technology. Pinball who? Foosball what?
Used to grab a slice or an Italian ice with my friends after school and play 'em at the pizza parlor -- or at the 7-11 when I finished my afternoon delivery of Newsday. My teen obsession with these games was fairly short-lived. Maybe two years. PacMan was late to the party for me, but a good one.
[1] I'm a bit younger than you, Sliced, so for me, it was Street Fighter 2, and to a lesser extent, Marvel vs Capcom. If I only had the fortune of quarters I put into those games . . .
Outside of touristy spots and the occasional nostalgia place (how I hope Schenectady's nickel arcade is still open!), are there even arcades anymore? And does any place outside of bars (and hotels) even have a couple of standalone machines (non-Golden Tee variety)? I can't recall the last pizza place I went to that had an arcade game.
[2] . A couple of places where my sons go for birthday parties have small arcades: the ice rink, the laser tag joint. But I haven't seen a fullblown arcade forever, and you're right,about the pizza places. None of the ones around me have games.
The sophistication of the home systems is probably what killed the arcades. We don't have one in our house. Putting it off until they're older.
I have a stand-up Chase HQ and Sky Shark in the warehouse where I sort books. There's something different about the big electronic beast. He is a fiercer foe than the consoles. You have something invested.
My game was the sit-down version of Spy Hunter. I could play for hours on one quarter.
[3] The dive bar around the corner from my house here in Portland, where I watched most of the WS, has a great little arcade. It includes Ms Pac-Man and Galaga from the old school. I must be lucky.
A very slight shift, but still relevant to the topic; wowzers, those Atari commercials from back in the day were bizarre for lack of a better word. I immediately thought of this one from my and my sister Terry's favorite from that era.
Then I saw this and thought about how this game (and the plethora of ads) might have changed my life at some point.
Atari admakers had a lot of... um... "experiments" going on during their brainstorm sessions, huh? I suggest spending a few minutes reminiscing with or "researching" (if you're too young to remember or have seen any) their ads (too many to list in this post, to be honest); what a way to pick up a dull day at work >;)
[0] Okay, Diane? That rap was actually on point! I had a classmate who was a fellow beatmaker at the time who made a really cool beat with the Pac-Man theme that was better than this one, actually, but this worked. I hope someone makes a mixtape of some game-based material.
Oh, at the end there are a couple of NSFW words thrown in the mix, so be careful who you show this to... >;)
[7]
Sorry about the NSFW words .... :-(
[1] i'm a bit younger too (though i've got another damn birthday within weeks...). my fave game was Phoenix. my brother was all into Tempest, but i loved Phoenix. at 10 yrs old, all i really did was play phoenix and collect baseball cards. yes, i was drumming everyday, but not as seriously as i would in the coming years.
i used to do newspaper returns at the stationery store around the block and play the games in the back. i remember a cool arcade where some kids had birthday parties. by then, Mr. Do was out. where was that place? i think it was in Island Park, though it coulda been Rockville Center, for all i remember...