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Sad day...

VanTammenVanTammen
edited January 2008 in Chit chat
I've been working near a shopping mall for the past 3 years, and it used to be the biggest shopping mall in lisbon.

well I guess it was pretty much the same 10 years ago, and you could find arcade places everywhere..

but in portugal nowadays it's nearly impossible to find any...(I don't know, do they still manufacture new machines? i know the new consoles look the same and in some cases better, but there is nothing like playing a nice arcade race or shoot them up)

but back to the story! in that shopping mall there used to be a Arcade place where I used to go with my friends back when I was in high school and when I started working near it I would often stop by at lunch for a bit of sega rally, sillent scope, virtua tennis or my favourite jumbo safari (very fun and adictive game, a real surprise to me how it was never converted).

the owner was a very old man, nice and funny, in his 80's but that new all about arcade games.

today I stopped by and noticed that the old man wasn't there, and worst, most of the machines where gone (specially the shoot em up machines...)

I talked to the guy in the store in front and he told me that they are probably going to close...

it made me really sad, it's like one of the last arcade places resisting... a part of my childhood and now it's gone...
Post edited by VanTammen on

Comments

  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited January 2008
    I know Sega are still committed to making arcade machines, how often I don't know though.
    Every night is curry night!
  • ewgfewgf
    edited January 2008
    VanTammen wrote: »
    ...
    well I guess it was pretty much the same 10 years ago, and you could find arcade places everywhere..

    but in portugal nowadays it's nearly impossible to find any...

    To be honest, it's gotta be ten years or more since I've seen an arcade, at least one with video games in there, there are two "arcades" in town but they both have nothing but gambling machines in.

    It doesn't bother me too much, as I'd rather play a game in the comfort of my own home, but it is sad that such a fun, if short lived, part of our childhoods are now more or less obsolete.
  • ZnorXmanZnorXman
    edited January 2008
    I've only seen arcade machines in the lobby at the movies. The last arcade here in town disappeared in 2001 :-(
  • Ian HamiltonIan Hamilton
    edited January 2008
    A lot of the arcades in Tramore are still open and they still have lots of games. Not nearly as many as they had in the 80s though. Sadly, they mostly consist of the more recent generic driving and shooting games. There are a couple of classics hidden among them though. I was playing Outrun 2 there last year (or was it 2006? I can't remember) and I also found an ancient and battered Operation Thunderbolt hidden away in a corner. :)

    Necros.
  • zx1zx1
    edited January 2008
    There aren'y many arcades left in Scotland, at least not in my area. Most seem to be full of fruit machines nowadays. I did find one in Saltcoats in 2004 with Outrun hidden away at the back. And i still couldn't reach stage 3! Ahhh the memories......
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • VincentACVincentAC
    edited January 2008
    There was an arcade here a few years back. Well, it could've been 8 or 9 years ago.

    They had one of the Time Crisis games.

    Dunno if that place still exists. Haven't been down that street for a long time. It never seemed to be that busy so it's probably long gone.
    Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
    I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
    --Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)

    https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited January 2008
    The coast near where I used to live had millions of them at one time, I went there summer 2006, because my wife wanted to see St Mary's Lighthouse, and I was surprised that none of them were open anymore and half of that nasty pikey stinkpit "The Spanish City" has been knocked down (which is probably a good thing). Whitley Bay is still a shithole though, I don't know how the property value is so high with all the skanks wandering around the place.

    There used to be a few arcades around Dekh's neck of the woods as I remember. One of the ones or maybe the only one that had video games used to have Splatterhouse in there, cos' I used to play it years ago. It was around the corner from a sweet shop, Candy Man I think it's called, been there for about 3 million years it has.

    Went for a drive down the coast in about 2004, funnily enough looking for some coastal style "fish n' chips" (one of my mates was pissed and thought it would be a good idea), we ended up at Cullercoats, and the arcade there had no games at all now just those table things that you drop the coins into, and fruit machines. All the chippies were closed as well, and even though it was the height of summer everywhere else it was foggy and freezing there :lol:
    Every night is curry night!
  • VincentACVincentAC
    edited January 2008
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    One of the ones or maybe the only one that had video games used to have Splatterhouse in there, cos' I used to play it years ago.

    Oh yeah. There was another arcade round here in the 80s/early 90s that had Splatterhouse.

    Sioux and her boyfriend at that time used to go in there at least once a week to play it. He'd finished it, but Sioux'd only got to the final level. They went in one weekend and it was gone :mad:

    The bugger said that it wasn't making money anymore. Strange because that was usually the most popular one in there :-?

    That place hasn't shut, but it's all just bandits/quiz things in there now.

    She's now got it on the Virtual Console (dissapointingly it's not as good as the arcade version) and she still can't finish it :lol:

    --edit--
    I remember being on a school trip in the early 90s up in Aberdeen somewhere. A load of us skipped off when we saw the arcades though :-D

    Spent ages playing Street Fighter and god knows what else. I think it was the same place I'd played Gauntlet years before.
    Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
    I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
    --Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)

    https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited January 2008
    If she can't finish the Arcade verion of Splatterhouse, tell her to try the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 version, it's every bit as good as the arcade but slightly more digest on player.

    I'll be honest though I did finish Splatterhouse and the ending is a bit of a jip, but I can't get past the big fleshless teddy bear thing on the second last level now.

    It just proves as new games progress they just get easier and easier, and old games become bloody impossible :D
    Every night is curry night!
  • ZagrebZagreb
    edited January 2008
    Last time I remember going into an arcade and playing loads of coin-op games was in Glasgow in July of 1997 as a brief part of a mate's birthday night out. Since then, don't think I've come across any "proper" video arcades. They're all full of gambling machines now and the only time I've seen coin-op machines is when there's a couple in cinema foyers and the like.

    It's an inevitable process, really. The whole point of the arcade games was they were running on hardware that was far and above better than anything you could own at home. The '90s changed things with the arrival of the Playstation and the like and the arcades were forced to get more and more impressive to compete. The XBox/PS2 pretty-much caused arcade manufactuers to give-up beyond teasing a few pounds out of boozy people in pubs or bored kids waiting to see Shrek.
  • VincentACVincentAC
    edited January 2008
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    If she can't finish the Arcade verion of Splatterhouse, tell her to try the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 version, it's every bit as good as the arcade but slightly more digest on player.

    That's the version she's been playing on the Virtual Console :lol:
    It just proves as new games progress they just get easier and easier, and old games become bloody impossible :D

    :lol:

    Have to agree with you there.
    Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
    I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
    --Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)

    https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
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