most arcades have closed near me, but there is still an arcade zone in Lisbon Zoo, hopefully, it will last a long long time...
I've been totally adicted to 2 games, one of fishing and the other one a class act of a game, very adictive called Jumbo Safari... only arcade game I ever finished! don't know why they never made it in to a console game...
then we have the bikes and car games! whatever you say, there is no console that can give you the thrill of playing daytona or sega rally on an arcade!(not to mention the brilliant after burner II, the coolest arcade ever!)
Man, old arcade time stories ... those were the days indeed.
Still remember when I was maybe 12, didn't go to school one day and decided to hang around at the local mall instead. In those days there were a lot of arcade machines dotted around the mall (nowadays there are f*ck all), some inside shops, some outside in the hallways ... there was this guy of maybe 17 and I was watching him play Hyper Sports, or was it called Hyper Olympic in that version? Then he offered me to help him, he'd bash the buttons to build up speed and I would press the other one for breathing/jumping ... was great fun.
There was also a cinema that had Phoenix, Bomb Jack and a few others, and Track and Field. Anyone remember those cabinets with a circle made up of a dozen LEDs at the top - with one LED being highlighted and slowly changing it's position. When you inserted a coin the LEDs would be like a roulette, slowing down and stopping at one LED, if you hit the right one you got a free extra credit. Memory is hazy, but I think we soon figured out the moment you'd have to insert the coin to get the extra credit too.
There were often some turks hanging around asking if they should get you an extra life, which was their scheme to just con a free game out of you so they could play instead, therefore we usually declined their "help".
Man, in those days I was addicted ... I remember scrounging up for 1 DM (cost of a credit then) in small coins, then exchanging it at a shop and getting on my bike to cycle 2 miles to some pub which had a Dig Dug machine. I think that must have been 1983 or so when we only had a crappy Atari 2600 at home.
The only time I got to go to an arcade, was when we went to the sea-side, Coral Island Blackpool, was like Mecca, last time I went about 10 years ago, It was a sad and sorry day.
i remember me and my mate pumping all our money into a two player tmht game. i think we got as far as beebop and rocksteady. there was this other lad who used to reckon he knew the owner so he'd get him to press the credit button loads of time for him so he could play as much as he wanted to. funnily enough the bloke was never there when he came with us. uncle ronnies it was called, a peado title if i ever did hear one. it was full of bad lads playing the gambling machines.
Dunno, maybe I've told these stories on WOS before ... there was this arcade with a Donkey Kong machine and a really fat girl who also had a short temper. She kicked the machine with her elephant's legs and magically, a credit was added. So imagine half a dozen of kids camping around the thing for hours after we kicked it up to 99 credits (if memory serves). The owner couldn't see it cos it was out his view too.
I think there was also a trick involving electricity. Like having a Zippo lighter, you would somehow augment the thing by fitting a long cable onto it, then introducing the cable into the coin shaft of the arcade machine and doing that 'click' to get a credit. I can't remember well, but I think some people got that to work.
What did not work so well was drilling a hole into a coin and attaching a long string. I tried that only once, and couldn't pull out the string after the coin was inside, so I just finished my game quickly and pissed off ;-)
What did not work so well was drilling a hole into a coin and attaching a long string. I tried that only once, and couldn't pull out the string after the coin was inside, so I just finished my game quickly and pissed off ;-)
I think there was also a trick involving electricity. Like having a Zippo lighter, you would somehow augment the thing by fitting a long cable onto it, then introducing the cable into the coin shaft of the arcade machine and doing that 'click' to get a credit. I can't remember well, but I think some people got that to work.
I remember that trick too... Not with a Zippo, but those clicky things you use to light an oven hob!!
I remeber going on holiday to some camp site (we used to borrow my grandads caravan) in Pevensey Bay. It was was my first introduction to an 'Arcade' was probably about 6 or 7 - my dad gave me a 30p! 3 whole games!!! I played kung fu master and Asteroids - was totally hooked from then on in. (do you remember the wooden crates - so you could actually be tall enough to play the machine?)
I was in a pub in brighton about a year ago and they had a really old style arcade game - Galaga?? it had three buttons left, right and fire. I Impressed my mates with the 'cross hand' style and I was playing for ages. They had a go and were rubbish. It was like being the big kid in the Arcade of old, the ring master, the gamer delux - the Messiah.........which is pretty sad seeing as im nearly 31 now!
Oh, I remembered more... I think there was also a trick involving electricity...
Heh, I do remember walking up and down the length of a filthy, sticky carpet for some time, hoping to build up enough of a static charge to then just touch a coin slot to give me credits! Never mind, but I did have to look up Gauntlet in the WOS archive to remember what the fuss was about... nice
I remember that trick too... Not with a Zippo, but those clicky things you use to light an oven hob!!
I remember those things being all the rage at school as electric shock devises....many of us then nicked our moms oven lighters and broke out the 'generator' with the convienient length of plastic encased wire....
Ideal for giving a shock to the person sitting in front of you during class. Electric lighters were also good for a mini version.
One of my first jobs was working in a bingo hall when i was 16, they had a problem with the old style 50p pieces. Someone was making ice 50p pieces and the machines were accepting them!!!!
One of my first jobs was working in a bingo hall when i was 16, they had a problem with the old style 50p pieces. Someone was making ice 50p pieces and the machines were accepting them!!!!
I went to Booths arcade in Glasgow with my brother a couple of years ago, i used to go years ago when it had all the latest games such as Daytona and Sega Rally. Now all it had was fruit machines. I wasn't wasting money on them. A real shame.
The arcades as we knew 'em are gone :(
But ya never know what new technology is around the corner and they may resurface in another form.
But yeah they're never gonna be the same and tbh that makes me sad!
It's funny cos I was in Hornsea yesterday (the most drab east yorkshire resort ever) and one of the arcades I remembered as a kid was still open.
They still had the very same Afterburner which a mid-80s me was wowed by.
Aside from that though it was just bandits, Time Crisis and some racer or other and the place was empty save for some kids at the pool table and an old woman on the penny falls.
And I don't mind saying I was overcome with nostalgia and a little sadness.
The place looked so pathetic and anachronistic stuck there and I got the feeling that it will probs disappear very soon and so I took a pic to remember it by.
I was born at just the right time (1970) to appreciate them and watched them evolve right from day one and it does pain me to see them like this :(
Man, this dingy little dive was where I first played Commando, Nemesis, Golden Axe and many other greats.
Every time I see what looks like an arcade I have to go in and see if they have an OutRun or Ghosts & Goblins machine. I know both of those games like the back of my hand but sadly it's so rare to find any nowadays - and even rarer to find an OutRun machine with a working steering wheel!
One of my saddest days was walking into an arcade in Blackpool at the end of the nineties and seeing virtually nothing I'd consider playing.
i remember me and my mate pumping all our money into a two player tmht game. i think we got as far as beebop and rocksteady. there was this other lad who used to reckon he knew the owner so he'd get him to press the credit button loads of time for him so he could play as much as he wanted to.
There was a trick on that machine if you dropped enough for a couple of credits in the machine and kept pressing at least two of the player buttons the lives would keep being added to the players tally but not decremented from the remaining credit counter. The side effect was by the time two or three of you had pumped up the 99 credits max you where too knackered to enjoy the game.
I think there was also a trick involving electricity. Like having a Zippo lighter, you would somehow augment the thing by fitting a long cable onto it, then introducing the cable into the coin shaft of the arcade machine and doing that 'click' to get a credit. I can't remember well, but I think some people got that to work.
I was retelling a story the other day about a friend of my old mans who used to do this at the petrol station. That's a Darwin Award waiting to happen but apparently the old neon tubed (nixie?) petrol pumps reset pretty easily meaning you could fill up your mark 2 Cortina for a quid :)
What did not work so well was drilling a hole into a coin and attaching a long string. I tried that only once, and couldn't pull out the string after the coin was inside, so I just finished my game quickly and pissed off ;-)
The trick was to keep pulling the coin up high enough to trigger another credit when it dropped and then snapping the cotton. A skilled skave would use a bit of super glue to attach the cotton to a coin in exactly the right way so it left minimal evidence of the crime in the coin box. The guy in my circle of friends who did this had a Grammar School education which must have made his parents so proud.
aren't there arcades in america springing up, with all the old retro machines for older blokes to play with.
I spotted a load of them down in Florida when me and the wife were there last year, but they were all crumbling buildings and really shady looking. One even had a bunch of G's outside tossing dice with each other and drinking 40's.
I spotted a load of them down in Florida when me and the wife were there last year, but they were all crumbling buildings and really shady looking. One even had a bunch of G's outside tossing dice with each other and drinking 40's.
aren't there arcades in america springing up, with all the old retro machines for older blokes to play with.
I remember reading in Edge a couple of years back when retro was really "in", about a guy who started one up but I can't remember if it was here or in the US. It fell on its arse big time.
One of my first jobs was working in a bingo hall when i was 16, they had a problem with the old style 50p pieces. Someone was making ice 50p pieces and the machines were accepting them!!!!
Oh crap! that reminds me...hehe. We used to make 10p peices in Metal Work at school by pushign it into a bit of cuttle fish and then pouring aluminium in the 'mold'. Worked on some machines but not others...too light I guess for some.
Oh crap! that reminds me...hehe. We used to make 10p peices in Metal Work at school by pushign it into a bit of cuttle fish and then pouring aluminium in the 'mold'. Worked on some machines but not others...too light I guess for some.
Quality! reminds me of our school, we had a vacuum molding machine at school, we used to make remote control car bodys using it - then sell them for a sky high profit to the local RC car club - aah happy days!
I think an old school 50p made of Ice was just the right weight, I would empty the cash tray and it would be full of water.
Comments
I've been totally adicted to 2 games, one of fishing and the other one a class act of a game, very adictive called Jumbo Safari... only arcade game I ever finished! don't know why they never made it in to a console game...
then we have the bikes and car games! whatever you say, there is no console that can give you the thrill of playing daytona or sega rally on an arcade!(not to mention the brilliant after burner II, the coolest arcade ever!)
Seconded! Especially if it's the sit down cabinet that tilts you upside down and stuff, the motion sickness came as standard :D
Still remember when I was maybe 12, didn't go to school one day and decided to hang around at the local mall instead. In those days there were a lot of arcade machines dotted around the mall (nowadays there are f*ck all), some inside shops, some outside in the hallways ... there was this guy of maybe 17 and I was watching him play Hyper Sports, or was it called Hyper Olympic in that version? Then he offered me to help him, he'd bash the buttons to build up speed and I would press the other one for breathing/jumping ... was great fun.
There was also a cinema that had Phoenix, Bomb Jack and a few others, and Track and Field. Anyone remember those cabinets with a circle made up of a dozen LEDs at the top - with one LED being highlighted and slowly changing it's position. When you inserted a coin the LEDs would be like a roulette, slowing down and stopping at one LED, if you hit the right one you got a free extra credit. Memory is hazy, but I think we soon figured out the moment you'd have to insert the coin to get the extra credit too.
There were often some turks hanging around asking if they should get you an extra life, which was their scheme to just con a free game out of you so they could play instead, therefore we usually declined their "help".
Man, in those days I was addicted ... I remember scrounging up for 1 DM (cost of a credit then) in small coins, then exchanging it at a shop and getting on my bike to cycle 2 miles to some pub which had a Dig Dug machine. I think that must have been 1983 or so when we only had a crappy Atari 2600 at home.
Dunno, maybe I've told these stories on WOS before ... there was this arcade with a Donkey Kong machine and a really fat girl who also had a short temper. She kicked the machine with her elephant's legs and magically, a credit was added. So imagine half a dozen of kids camping around the thing for hours after we kicked it up to 99 credits (if memory serves). The owner couldn't see it cos it was out his view too.
I think there was also a trick involving electricity. Like having a Zippo lighter, you would somehow augment the thing by fitting a long cable onto it, then introducing the cable into the coin shaft of the arcade machine and doing that 'click' to get a credit. I can't remember well, but I think some people got that to work.
What did not work so well was drilling a hole into a coin and attaching a long string. I tried that only once, and couldn't pull out the string after the coin was inside, so I just finished my game quickly and pissed off ;-)
ha ha like top cat.
I remember that trick too... Not with a Zippo, but those clicky things you use to light an oven hob!!
I remeber going on holiday to some camp site (we used to borrow my grandads caravan) in Pevensey Bay. It was was my first introduction to an 'Arcade' was probably about 6 or 7 - my dad gave me a 30p! 3 whole games!!! I played kung fu master and Asteroids - was totally hooked from then on in. (do you remember the wooden crates - so you could actually be tall enough to play the machine?)
I was in a pub in brighton about a year ago and they had a really old style arcade game - Galaga?? it had three buttons left, right and fire. I Impressed my mates with the 'cross hand' style and I was playing for ages. They had a go and were rubbish. It was like being the big kid in the Arcade of old, the ring master, the gamer delux - the Messiah.........which is pretty sad seeing as im nearly 31 now!
yeah thats what i would have though, they produce an electric sparke rather than a fire spark, which is just a bit of hot flint??
Heh, I do remember walking up and down the length of a filthy, sticky carpet for some time, hoping to build up enough of a static charge to then just touch a coin slot to give me credits! Never mind, but I did have to look up Gauntlet in the WOS archive to remember what the fuss was about... nice
I remember those things being all the rage at school as electric shock devises....many of us then nicked our moms oven lighters and broke out the 'generator' with the convienient length of plastic encased wire....
Ideal for giving a shock to the person sitting in front of you during class. Electric lighters were also good for a mini version.
ZUB!
Sweet that beats foileys hands down :D
But ya never know what new technology is around the corner and they may resurface in another form.
But yeah they're never gonna be the same and tbh that makes me sad!
It's funny cos I was in Hornsea yesterday (the most drab east yorkshire resort ever) and one of the arcades I remembered as a kid was still open.
They still had the very same Afterburner which a mid-80s me was wowed by.
Aside from that though it was just bandits, Time Crisis and some racer or other and the place was empty save for some kids at the pool table and an old woman on the penny falls.
And I don't mind saying I was overcome with nostalgia and a little sadness.
The place looked so pathetic and anachronistic stuck there and I got the feeling that it will probs disappear very soon and so I took a pic to remember it by.
I was born at just the right time (1970) to appreciate them and watched them evolve right from day one and it does pain me to see them like this :(
Man, this dingy little dive was where I first played Commando, Nemesis, Golden Axe and many other greats.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/nodarkthings/insight.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/nodarkthings/the-very-machine.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a394/nodarkthings/the-penny-drops.jpg
One of my saddest days was walking into an arcade in Blackpool at the end of the nineties and seeing virtually nothing I'd consider playing.
I felt the same. There were a few at that time I did like though (Point Blank, Area 51), but not many.
EDIT: And Prop Cycle... that was a great game!!
There was a trick on that machine if you dropped enough for a couple of credits in the machine and kept pressing at least two of the player buttons the lives would keep being added to the players tally but not decremented from the remaining credit counter. The side effect was by the time two or three of you had pumped up the 99 credits max you where too knackered to enjoy the game.
I was retelling a story the other day about a friend of my old mans who used to do this at the petrol station. That's a Darwin Award waiting to happen but apparently the old neon tubed (nixie?) petrol pumps reset pretty easily meaning you could fill up your mark 2 Cortina for a quid :)
The trick was to keep pulling the coin up high enough to trigger another credit when it dropped and then snapping the cotton. A skilled skave would use a bit of super glue to attach the cotton to a coin in exactly the right way so it left minimal evidence of the crime in the coin box. The guy in my circle of friends who did this had a Grammar School education which must have made his parents so proud.
I spotted a load of them down in Florida when me and the wife were there last year, but they were all crumbling buildings and really shady looking. One even had a bunch of G's outside tossing dice with each other and drinking 40's.
Please enlighten me. What are:
G's
40's
?
G's you are on your own but a 40 is a 40oz bottle of cheap booze.
Rock the 40oz - Leftover Crack
Gangsters, or should that be Gangstaz?
like al capone?
No, like Ice-T or 2-Pac. :grin:
I remember reading in Edge a couple of years back when retro was really "in", about a guy who started one up but I can't remember if it was here or in the US. It fell on its arse big time.
Oh crap! that reminds me...hehe. We used to make 10p peices in Metal Work at school by pushign it into a bit of cuttle fish and then pouring aluminium in the 'mold'. Worked on some machines but not others...too light I guess for some.
Quality! reminds me of our school, we had a vacuum molding machine at school, we used to make remote control car bodys using it - then sell them for a sky high profit to the local RC car club - aah happy days!
I think an old school 50p made of Ice was just the right weight, I would empty the cash tray and it would be full of water.