Why I'm jaded about video arcades

[yendi]

PVP, as always, is right on the money:




Time to visit http://www.klov.com/ for some real video games.

Comments

[fornorald.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think the last time I spent money in an arcade was about 3 years ago, at Dave and Buster's. It was lots of fun, but I was spending someone else's money, which helped.

My buddy Tim collects old games, so if I ever have a yen to play I can go visit him. He's got something along the order of 20 games, with 6 currently setup in his apartment. Hooray for having your own mini-arcade.

And MAME (http://www.mame.net) is our friend.

[yendi]

Mame is nice, but nothing beats the feel of playing one of those old games. I need to win the lottery so I can start my own collection. :-)

[xforge.livejournal.com]

If you have Tempest, Galaga, the vector tank game and oh what was it called, that oval-track spaceship race... why would you ever need to replace them?? Oh yeah, to make more money, that's why. I haven't put money in a video game in years. Sigh.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Some of the games go for under $500, you don't need the lottery.

[yendi]

Maybe not for the games, but certainly for the bigger house to store them. :-)

[yendi]

The depressing part, of course, is that Atari and Namco released "updated' versions of Tempest and Galaga some years ago. Both were leagues below the originals.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, there is that. Once we get full employment in this house again, we'll have to figure out where a pinball machine goes. There's space here, we just have to figure out how to arrange stuff so the pinball doesn't have to live in the garage.

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

A bit of trivia to let you look like a god: on Galaga's attract mode (the original and the 20th Anniversary edition), when the mothership comes down to tractorbeam the player's ship, take the controls and shoot the mothership. You'll then have control over the attract mode for a little while. Eventually the machine will realize that something has gone terribly wrong, and it'll crash and reset and be back to normal within a few seconds.

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

DisneyQuest (the last surviving DQ, here at Walt Disney World) is a terrific arcade. Burgertime! Joust! Spy Hunter! Berzerk! Discs of Tron! (But not the 'environmental' version, alas.) Donkey Kong Jr.! Mr. Do! Robotron 2084! Defender! Lunar Lander! Asteroids! Moon Patrol! And lots lots more, all free for the price of admission. I go there whenever I feel like being nostalgic. :)

[yendi]

Any particlar pinball game? I've got a lot of fond pinball memories.

[yendi]

*nod* Every time I've been to Disney Quest, I've wasted a lot of time in the arcade section. :-)

[yendi]

Nifty! I'll have to try that!

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I know this wasn't addressed at me, but I'm going to answer it anyway. My favorites were "Taxi", "Black Knight 2000", "Police Force", "Getaway" and "Pinbot".

I would just about kill for a nice clean "Taxi" machine. Got the space for it, too, but not the cash. :)

cheers,
Phil

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

oh what was it called, that oval-track spaceship race...

Sounds like "Omega Race" from the description.

cheers,
Phil

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

That one's up there with the famous "make the bugs stop shooting" trick. I used the latter to let me rack up a nice six-digit score on Galaga one day in college when I was bored and had some time to kill. :)

cheers,
Phil

[yendi]

I remember Black Knight 2000 (and the original), as well as Pinbot (which, along with Cyclone, devoured endless quarters when I was young). Don't remember the others, I'm afraid.

[tbrents.livejournal.com]

I have a Flash Gordon pinball machine in my basement just waiting to be played.

Re: Real Video Games

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

If I could get Major Havoc, Karate Champ, and Rolling Thunder for the house I'd be very happy. I'm not sure where they'd go but still. Crossbow and Area 51 wouldn't be so bad but don't have the appeal of the first three.

Rolling Thunder was probably my favorite. It was good that I was able to use all the reflexes from Elevator Action to play it too...

Re: Real Video Games

[yendi]

I love all of those games! Not to mention Assault and Rampart.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

sounds like "battle mission"? "mission blaster"? (?) argh now I can't remember the name either...

Re: Real Video Games

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

"Elevator Action" was my all-time fave
... I"m not sure why either.

Re: Real Video Games

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I waited and waited and waited for MAME to emulate Assault, which I would play for hours on end when it was in arcades. Then I discovered that once it WAS emulated, there was no real way to emulate the controls so they worked the way the arcade did. (I mean, really, two four-way joysticks with two buttons on each stick? I should have seen that coming). :)

cheers,
Phil

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

I'm still a Rush 2049 junkie. :)

Re: Real Video Games

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

I play it with a Playstation-style gamepad... up/down joypad under one thumb, up/down buttons under the other thumb, and L1/R1 are the stick buttons. It plays great!

Re: Real Video Games

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Oo. Y'know, since my old gamepad died and I got a new one, I now have a Playstation-style gamepad as well, and I haven't tried playing Assault with that. Can you send me your config file for Assault? Email it to me : direwolf at speedfactory dot net. Even if you don't, thanks a million for the suggestion. :)

cheers,
Phil

Re: Real Video Games

[gladstone.livejournal.com]

Weird! Mine, too! That one, and Food Fight.

Re: Real Video Games

[foxmagic.livejournal.com]

I just hit Tab and go to the 'Input (this game)' section and define my joystick controls there. This is on MacMAME, by the way... I don't know whether the config files are cross-platform.

Re: Real Video Games

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Good point. I was hoping not to have to reset the whole damn set of controls for it, considering the various alternate control schemes which it supports (some of which I turned on, some I turned off, and others I just edited). I think I will just delete the config and start from scratch. Thanks again :)

cheers,
Phil

Re:

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Ah, glad I didn't see them then. I'd kill to have a full-on coin-operated Tempest with a good flywheel and bearings in it. Mebbe someday...

Re:

[xforge.livejournal.com]

That's it!! I had "Omega Race" floating around behind my eyes someplace but didn't wanna say it in case I was wrong. And the other of course is Battle Zone.

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Visit http://www.klov.com/ (the Killer List of Video Games) for all the info that you could ever want about many many arcade games. It often helps with identification. :)

cheers,
Phil