There are a few old arcade games that I played in the 70s that I can't remember the name of. both were gun games. One had a speargun on the cab and you shot at sharks and octopi (no its not the game that you see in Jaws). The other had an army theme and you sot at tanks, planes and skull and crossbones. Any ideas anyone?
The one I always half-remember is a giant glass cabinet with one of those counter-balanced helicopters on an arm inside. You were supposed to aim a beam of light from the front of the helicopter onto aliens that would pop out of surrounding buildings, but it all looked a bit improbably difficult, and I don't think I ever saw anyone ever playing one.
I have got a mini helicopter toy at home, and it genuinely generates its own lift at the end of the arm; you tilt it forward or backward to make it move around. It certainly takes some skill to control it properly.
I had a mini helicopter, the nephews and nieces destroyed it after about 3 seconds of it being in the garden....little f**kers. It was good fun as well. Still appear to have the controller for it, but I think the chopper is long gone :(
I bought a radio-controllled helicopter about 10 years ago - one that cheats and uses a fan at the back to lift the tail to make it fly forward. Rotation was controlled not by a sideways-facing tail fan but by balancing out two counter-rotating main rotors. All that meant it would turn very sharply, but move forward quite slowly - which was all a bit irritating.
I have another tiny one that's a simple two-channel IR control, rotor power and rotation. You add a small stick-on counter-weight to the nose to tip it down and make it fly forward. Though it can't stop, it's more fun to fly indoors.
Could this possibly be the second game? I just google 70's arcade machines with guns and this was one of the first images to pop up.
Bingo on Blue Shark Boozy!!
As for the army one I seem to remember that the distance to from the gun to the screen was about the same as a fairground shooting galley (about 6 feet) it was quite a big machine iirc but then I was only about 5 at the time (it was my brothers that played it).
I just remembered another game from your electromechanical examples!!! :-):-):-) It was that WWI game you some weird tommygun like gun and you shot biplane projections and mechanical little men on the inside of a kind of duckshooting gallery and when you scored a hit there was a red light coming up in the little doll (taito's borderline?). I also remember it being a rip off since it was timed, you had no one actually shooting you...
I just remembered another game from your electromechanical examples!!! :-):-):-) It was that WWI game you some weird tommygun like gun and you shot biplane projections and mechanical little men on the inside of a kind of duckshooting gallery and when you scored a hit there was a red light coming up in the little doll (taito's borderline?). I also remember it being a rip off since it was timed, you had no one actually shooting you...
I too remember seeing a version this in the 70's(about 72-74 I believe) at an arcade in Gt Yarmouth,I think it was one of the Red Baron clones that existed then.
I recall that you had to shoot at the pilot to score a hit not the aircraft and after so many hits a bonus light came on and extended play ensued.
I remember this one, and would love to own one. The fun fair that came to the field at the bottom of my garden had this and it was the one to play, but it was more expensive than the rest. It was 50p per go, the others were 10p.
An electro-mechanical machine that I recall was a sit-down one, either a plane or helicopter game and had a ground projected on a screen and you had to shoot the red buildings to score.
I also remember they had roulette machines that took 2p. The options were not numbers but colors, Blue = 2p, Red = 4p, Green = 8p, Yellow 12p and white 24p. or something like that. I was really good at the ones at Barry Island and if I started with about 20p and hour later I would be still on it but with approximately 2pounds of profit.
The only things I'll still play in my local arcades here in Scarborough! The horse racing one is now 10p but we still have a few 2p roulette machines. I can usually manage around 20-25 minutes play on 30p on those :)
I remember once as a kid, we found a broken horse racing machine that paid out the £1.80 "jackpot" every third or fourth race. We'd have cleaned it out if I wasn't so loud about it being broken and the owner came and turned it off :))
On a side note, you can kind of relive those days on your home PC right now with "New Retro Arcade: Neon" that you can pick up on Steam. It even works in VR if you've got that set up! My PC just isn't upto the task of running it with any games, but it looks like great fun :)
Still got one of these derby horse racing machines at Swansea pier, along with others I remember were there back in the day.
An electro-mechanical machine that I recall was a sit-down one, either a plane or helicopter game and had a ground projected on a screen and you had to shoot the red buildings to score.
Sorry guys theres something wrong i cannot edit my posts :-( but jimmo above are two youtubes on the jet rocket. Pretty simple game but nice effects. Was this it?
Well, after I got some time I managed to work on my first Arcade joystick. I am proud of it, since its my first:
The whole box and piece and hole positioning was designed by me in inkscape and then laser cut for precise fits. Currently is not painted and im not sure if i will paint it with the button set i have. This is all metal fixation, there is no glue at all.
Lessons for future:
Nails are hazardous in small MDF parts
Pay attention to button color when buying them :-D
Leave ample straight line path for pcb usb connection (this one holds the xinmo usb inside, only the cable comes out)
I guess i will do better next time. :-) Comments welcome and happy holidays everyone
Comments
Isn't it? :-) :-) :-)
Could this be the shark one?
Could this possibly be the second game? I just google 70's arcade machines with guns and this was one of the first images to pop up.
Speaking of Crap games. When I was growing up the arcades often had one of these in the corner looking neglected, abused but underused.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/29/8f/61/298f612fe27602ac50ade75b54b32472.jpg
I have got a mini helicopter toy at home, and it genuinely generates its own lift at the end of the arm; you tilt it forward or backward to make it move around. It certainly takes some skill to control it properly.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
I have another tiny one that's a simple two-channel IR control, rotor power and rotation. You add a small stick-on counter-weight to the nose to tip it down and make it fly forward. Though it can't stop, it's more fun to fly indoors.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Yeah i remember those... My favorite arcade ended up using this cabinet for ian's off road... How they managed to do that is beyond me
Bingo on Blue Shark Boozy!!
As for the army one I seem to remember that the distance to from the gun to the screen was about the same as a fairground shooting galley (about 6 feet) it was quite a big machine iirc but then I was only about 5 at the time (it was my brothers that played it).
I too remember seeing a version this in the 70's(about 72-74 I believe) at an arcade in Gt Yarmouth,I think it was one of the Red Baron clones that existed then.
I recall that you had to shoot at the pilot to score a hit not the aircraft and after so many hits a bonus light came on and extended play ensued.
http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/cabinet-white-top.jpg
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
Still got one of these derby horse racing machines at Swansea pier, along with others I remember were there back in the day.
You mean Jet Rocket?
The whole box and piece and hole positioning was designed by me in inkscape and then laser cut for precise fits. Currently is not painted and im not sure if i will paint it with the button set i have. This is all metal fixation, there is no glue at all.
Lessons for future:
Nails are hazardous in small MDF parts
Pay attention to button color when buying them :-D
Leave ample straight line path for pcb usb connection (this one holds the xinmo usb inside, only the cable comes out)
I guess i will do better next time. :-) Comments welcome and happy holidays everyone