Thebumwhowalks
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I partook in a thread like this elsewhere and it was a pretty good, nostalgic read.
I don't know what the state of Arcade games are nowadays, i guess they don't make as many as they used to natch, since folks have arcade quality games in the home now. So, this environment might even be a litle alien to some of today's gamers.
But, back in the day, the arcade was the place to be, you were onstage when you played, with groups of people either watching you in silent respect at your skills, laughing at your ineptitude, or your pals were trying to take the piss out of you just when you get to a hard bit.
I had many computers and consoles back in the day, ZX Spectrum, Commodore amiga, Atari St, Sega Master system(and played my nephew's Snes, N64 and Gamecube all the time years later)...but none of them had the graphic bite and slickness of the arcade games back then, so we all hung out at the arcade every weekend, I'm talking about 1985-89.
So, if anyone wants to share their memories of the arcade, their favourite games, how good they were at them, please do. I will rattle through a few i recall, some favs...
Double Dragon: A revelation at the time, the first two player beat em up. I loved the crunchy feel of the punches , headlocks, kicks, the fact you could pick up your enemie's weapons and throw around parts of the background environment was also a revelation, and i loved the big hulk type mutant guys who burst through the walls.
When playing with one of my pals, i could basically get to the end of the game on my first coin credit, unless I got smashed by those moving walls that shot out at you, whioch took you out near the end in one go. I used to play it a lot. the versions for the Sega master system and Amiga were not nearly good enough.
I never watched the movie, but have it here on vhs my pal gave me, lol.
R-Type: Probably my fav arcade shoot em up.
My fav memory of playing R-Type was when i went to visit my bro in London, we used to always get kebabs when he lived in Glasgow, and so went to the kebab shop on my 1st night in london. they had an R-Type machine in the shop, so i had a go while waiting on the kebab. A lot of the local kids, who were a little older than me, i would have been about 12 i guess, gathered round me to watch. Knowing i was a new face they assumed i was a kebaber, not a gamer, and was just playing this random game to pass the time. So they had a 'let's see how the kid does' kind of attitude, not nasty, just not expecting much.
So on i went slickly dodging all the bullets and enemies from all angles, playing like a frickin meastro, through the first level on my first life, they liked that, through the second level on my 1st, started getting respect, through the third level on my 1st life, all the way to the forth level without getting killed once,...they started giving me serious silent awe, punctuated by some praise, 'he's good.' 'whoa' etc, i was feeling it, lol, but then the fourth level, forget about it. I could get to the fourth level on my first credit, but after that I knew that you would have had to spend a lot of coin to figure out the patterns of all the enemies coming towards you in that one, it was just relentless and v fast from the off with them coming in at awkward angles, so I never progressed past that level. Maybe someday i will buy a machine and get past it, lol.
but, it was a good laugh for myself, knowing i was going to be good at the game, and all those guys scoffing away, so off i went scoffing away on my kebab, the mysterious r-type stranger riding out of of town never to be seen again, but only spoke of in whispers by the local kebab gang as they sat round campfires toasting their pitta bead.
OutRun: My fav racing game. i loved that you could choose different music for playing in the car, and liked all the tunes, and the revelation about this racer was that for the first time you could choose to go on very different tracks each level. Just a very cool game.
I could get to the last level on my first credit, but i think i only ever completed the whole game once, as far as i recall anyway.
I always remember one weekend this very old man, looked a wee bit trampish, walked into the arcade and stood at the Outrun machine while we all played, he kept looking at it in disbelief, as if it was a time machine or a spaceship, blinking in disbelief, very funny, always remember that.
Yie Ar Kung-Fu: Loved this beat em up, lots of different styled opponents with different martial arts weaponary, ok, about twelve of them, but they were all v enjoyable to fight, and it was a cool cartoon style.
They ran a carnival near our way every year, and the Yie Ar Kung Fu machine was the place to be. Why? Because there was this guy who came to the carnival every year and was a genuis at this machine, no exageration, his guy was the Bruce Lee of YAKF. Huge crowds would gather round the machine as he ploughed through the levels for hours on end, the opponents would just get faster and more difficult every time you went round, but it made no difference to this Barry Allenesque joystick twisting freak of nature. He was very cool with it as well, he would never react to the praise or awe that peopole gave him, he had no mates with him, ever, just a lone gunslinger, who would turn away from the screen and look around at the carnival nonchalantly between sets, when his points were racking up, never ever looking at his crowd of admirers. Playing it co-ool. He would play by himself when it was quiet during the day, getting the big crowds in the evening, only speaking to people if they asked him anything. Man, he was....da best!
Commando: holy moses, this was addictive, and in actual fact, this is the one arcade game i preferred on my 8 bit Zx Spectrum to the arcade game, the arcade one had better graphics, but the Spectrum one was somehow slicker, faster, you had more manuverability, and it kept all the same obstacles as the arcade game.
Star Wars/empire strikes back/Rotj: Who can forget this one, fantastic idea to use the vector graphics, similar to looking through Luke's target computer in the X-Wing. Makes that cameo appearance in Gremlins of course.
that return of the Jedi arcade game was pretty good too, but i think i would have preferred them to try a first person with the speeder bikes, they did that later with one of the Nintendo gamecube sw games.
Shinobi: loved this ninja game, I was not that great on it, maybe could get to the third level or something, can't recall, but it was most enjoyable indeed.
Gauntlet: I always went the elf, always.
Dragon-ninja: One of the two player beat em up games that came out in the wake of Double Dragon, this was also very enjoyable indeed, you could this superpowered type flame fist punch, kind of like Iron-Fist. I don't recall much about this nowadays, apart from fighting on moving trucks etc, v good game though.
Wonderboy/Wonderboy II: Two very different games, both just as good as each other in their own ways, I loved the second one's text adventure aspect though, that maybe pushed it to being my fav, going into the little shops for info and weapons, that was pretty new at the time. I was the kind of person who always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but not with dice and cards and using your imagination for the illusioon that would be broken as soon as the Dungeon master had to go to the toilet and all that crap, i wanted to play it like this. It is just as well i am not a kid nowadays, i would probably be one of those kids whose dependancy on those WoW games has meant the sharp rise in nappy shares in the market.
Operation Wolf: Very enjoyable first person shooter that had the distinction of it being a big Uzi you used.
Paperboy: how could i forget this one, amazing game. Using bike handlebars to guide your paperboy through town dodging all the neighbours, traffic, dogs, etc, so good, i could get through Monday to Saturday on my first credit. Man, if i ever had an arcade game in my house, i might choose this one due to the unique selling point of the bike handlebars.
ok, if i recall any others i will type them up.
I don't know what the state of Arcade games are nowadays, i guess they don't make as many as they used to natch, since folks have arcade quality games in the home now. So, this environment might even be a litle alien to some of today's gamers.
But, back in the day, the arcade was the place to be, you were onstage when you played, with groups of people either watching you in silent respect at your skills, laughing at your ineptitude, or your pals were trying to take the piss out of you just when you get to a hard bit.
I had many computers and consoles back in the day, ZX Spectrum, Commodore amiga, Atari St, Sega Master system(and played my nephew's Snes, N64 and Gamecube all the time years later)...but none of them had the graphic bite and slickness of the arcade games back then, so we all hung out at the arcade every weekend, I'm talking about 1985-89.
So, if anyone wants to share their memories of the arcade, their favourite games, how good they were at them, please do. I will rattle through a few i recall, some favs...
Double Dragon: A revelation at the time, the first two player beat em up. I loved the crunchy feel of the punches , headlocks, kicks, the fact you could pick up your enemie's weapons and throw around parts of the background environment was also a revelation, and i loved the big hulk type mutant guys who burst through the walls.
When playing with one of my pals, i could basically get to the end of the game on my first coin credit, unless I got smashed by those moving walls that shot out at you, whioch took you out near the end in one go. I used to play it a lot. the versions for the Sega master system and Amiga were not nearly good enough.
I never watched the movie, but have it here on vhs my pal gave me, lol.
R-Type: Probably my fav arcade shoot em up.
My fav memory of playing R-Type was when i went to visit my bro in London, we used to always get kebabs when he lived in Glasgow, and so went to the kebab shop on my 1st night in london. they had an R-Type machine in the shop, so i had a go while waiting on the kebab. A lot of the local kids, who were a little older than me, i would have been about 12 i guess, gathered round me to watch. Knowing i was a new face they assumed i was a kebaber, not a gamer, and was just playing this random game to pass the time. So they had a 'let's see how the kid does' kind of attitude, not nasty, just not expecting much.
So on i went slickly dodging all the bullets and enemies from all angles, playing like a frickin meastro, through the first level on my first life, they liked that, through the second level on my 1st, started getting respect, through the third level on my 1st life, all the way to the forth level without getting killed once,...they started giving me serious silent awe, punctuated by some praise, 'he's good.' 'whoa' etc, i was feeling it, lol, but then the fourth level, forget about it. I could get to the fourth level on my first credit, but after that I knew that you would have had to spend a lot of coin to figure out the patterns of all the enemies coming towards you in that one, it was just relentless and v fast from the off with them coming in at awkward angles, so I never progressed past that level. Maybe someday i will buy a machine and get past it, lol.
but, it was a good laugh for myself, knowing i was going to be good at the game, and all those guys scoffing away, so off i went scoffing away on my kebab, the mysterious r-type stranger riding out of of town never to be seen again, but only spoke of in whispers by the local kebab gang as they sat round campfires toasting their pitta bead.
OutRun: My fav racing game. i loved that you could choose different music for playing in the car, and liked all the tunes, and the revelation about this racer was that for the first time you could choose to go on very different tracks each level. Just a very cool game.
I could get to the last level on my first credit, but i think i only ever completed the whole game once, as far as i recall anyway.
I always remember one weekend this very old man, looked a wee bit trampish, walked into the arcade and stood at the Outrun machine while we all played, he kept looking at it in disbelief, as if it was a time machine or a spaceship, blinking in disbelief, very funny, always remember that.
Yie Ar Kung-Fu: Loved this beat em up, lots of different styled opponents with different martial arts weaponary, ok, about twelve of them, but they were all v enjoyable to fight, and it was a cool cartoon style.
They ran a carnival near our way every year, and the Yie Ar Kung Fu machine was the place to be. Why? Because there was this guy who came to the carnival every year and was a genuis at this machine, no exageration, his guy was the Bruce Lee of YAKF. Huge crowds would gather round the machine as he ploughed through the levels for hours on end, the opponents would just get faster and more difficult every time you went round, but it made no difference to this Barry Allenesque joystick twisting freak of nature. He was very cool with it as well, he would never react to the praise or awe that peopole gave him, he had no mates with him, ever, just a lone gunslinger, who would turn away from the screen and look around at the carnival nonchalantly between sets, when his points were racking up, never ever looking at his crowd of admirers. Playing it co-ool. He would play by himself when it was quiet during the day, getting the big crowds in the evening, only speaking to people if they asked him anything. Man, he was....da best!
Commando: holy moses, this was addictive, and in actual fact, this is the one arcade game i preferred on my 8 bit Zx Spectrum to the arcade game, the arcade one had better graphics, but the Spectrum one was somehow slicker, faster, you had more manuverability, and it kept all the same obstacles as the arcade game.
Star Wars/empire strikes back/Rotj: Who can forget this one, fantastic idea to use the vector graphics, similar to looking through Luke's target computer in the X-Wing. Makes that cameo appearance in Gremlins of course.
that return of the Jedi arcade game was pretty good too, but i think i would have preferred them to try a first person with the speeder bikes, they did that later with one of the Nintendo gamecube sw games.
Shinobi: loved this ninja game, I was not that great on it, maybe could get to the third level or something, can't recall, but it was most enjoyable indeed.
Gauntlet: I always went the elf, always.
Dragon-ninja: One of the two player beat em up games that came out in the wake of Double Dragon, this was also very enjoyable indeed, you could this superpowered type flame fist punch, kind of like Iron-Fist. I don't recall much about this nowadays, apart from fighting on moving trucks etc, v good game though.
Wonderboy/Wonderboy II: Two very different games, both just as good as each other in their own ways, I loved the second one's text adventure aspect though, that maybe pushed it to being my fav, going into the little shops for info and weapons, that was pretty new at the time. I was the kind of person who always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but not with dice and cards and using your imagination for the illusioon that would be broken as soon as the Dungeon master had to go to the toilet and all that crap, i wanted to play it like this. It is just as well i am not a kid nowadays, i would probably be one of those kids whose dependancy on those WoW games has meant the sharp rise in nappy shares in the market.
Operation Wolf: Very enjoyable first person shooter that had the distinction of it being a big Uzi you used.
Paperboy: how could i forget this one, amazing game. Using bike handlebars to guide your paperboy through town dodging all the neighbours, traffic, dogs, etc, so good, i could get through Monday to Saturday on my first credit. Man, if i ever had an arcade game in my house, i might choose this one due to the unique selling point of the bike handlebars.
ok, if i recall any others i will type them up.
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