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What Arcade Era Do You Identify With The Most?
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opt2not:
I picked Golden Age, because that's where I started this gaming addiction. "you never forget your first" -- Asteriods and Galaga were my entry drugs, I progressed onto other game addictions throughout most of the arcade era's -- shoot, practically all the arcade era's except the current one (DDR games blow - thank god for SF4). But galaga and asteroids were the catalysts.
Though, home consoles soaked up a lot of my time in the mid-to-late 80's. During that time, the arcade games out there weren't doing it for me, there were a few that got me hooked, but and you could get a lot of ports on your Atari or NES. late-80's arcade and console games were getting closer in gaming quality at that time...though I've been eating my words lately with mame. Been finding a lot of games from that time I actually enjoy! Perhaps I'm in a different state of mind now.



--- Quote from: manman on May 21, 2010, 03:37:14 pm ---
--- Quote from: Havok on May 21, 2010, 03:01:50 pm ---Ahhh the Golden Age. I stopped going to the arcade regularly when the fighter drivel came out. That was the beginning of the end...

--- End quote ---

lol, I can't hate on the golden age, but I think you are crazy before the fighting game boom, arcades had already been seeing the end for a while, they were totally dying.  Fighting games weren't the beginning of the end, they were the new beginning that brought arcade culture back!  I know that what people like is mostly just naustalgia but for my money it doesn't get better than fighting games for real 2 player competition.  Fast paced strategy where you have to be able to read the other person and react on a dime... plus the games had depth where you had to learn specific matchups, and character play could be innovated for years...  3rd strike came out in like 1999 or something and 10 years later people were still discovering things...

--- End quote ---
I wouldn't say it brought it back... well at least, not the same culture.
I was really happy when SFII came out, and pseudo revived the arcade fever. I put in a lot of time playing/fighting in a "king in the court" style play at our local arcade, it was a lot of fun! The learning new combos, the strats, the match-ups...but it wasn't the same as the golden age era of games. Fighting games only bought a different type of gamer to the arcade, it didn't bring the masses back. It didn't bring back the people that played Golden era games, the gamers that were used to cpu-pattern-based difficulty, rather than 1v1 "mind-game" difficulty. It didn't bring back the people that were looking for amusement entertainment rather than competitive fighting. It didn't bring back the family and the girlfriends, fighting games turned out to be a boy's-club thing - men only...

Don't get me wrong, I love fighting games and I'm a pretty formidable competitor at most of them, but I don't equate it the same as the golden era of arcade culture. There was something less aggressive, less "me vs. you" and more "me vs. it (the game)" in those days.
manman:
I don't know what terminology you want to use, but arcades were definitely dying out, and fighting games brought in a resurgence that led to another 'boom' in arcade going.  Not just for fighting games, but side scrollers, shooters, etc.

I can't argue with you about the culture though- I wasn't really there in the "golden age".  There might have well been a change in culture, I didn't mean to say it brought everybody that used to play back.  I don't know that you'd even expect that... Just like with the 90's resurgence, eventually the players from that era get older and life takes over....  Like I said though, what people like is going to be mostly based on their own nostalgia.  For me, 'cpu pattern based difficulty' is not nearly as stimulating or fun as challenging another human mind, and I really liked that 'me vs. you' as opposed to me vs. the cpu mentality.  But you're right, it was a pretty narrow demographic, and mainly only brought in that audience.  I didn't know the 'golden age' had such a varied audience, I figured it was mainly the same...teenage dudes, haha.
Ginsu Victim:

--- Quote from: manman on May 21, 2010, 07:00:51 pm ---I didn't know the 'golden age' had such a varied audience, I figured it was mainly the same...teenage dudes, haha.

--- End quote ---

My mom was big into Centipede, Ms Pac-man, and pinball, so at least if we went to the arcade, she had games she could play. I mean, looking back, she was only in her late-twenties then anyway.
Havok:

--- Quote from: manman on May 21, 2010, 07:00:51 pm ---I don't know what terminology you want to use, but arcades were definitely dying out, and fighting games brought in a resurgence that led to another 'boom' in arcade going.  Not just for fighting games, but side scrollers, shooters, etc.
--- End quote ---

You can always tell the guys that weren't around for the golden age. Back then, you walked into any public establishment and there were some arcade games. Always at least one, usually more. You just didn't see that in the fighter days. Yes, there were a lot of people playing the fighter games, but there were less people playing arcade games by that time, and the ones that did were clumped into actual arcades, not spread out everywhere.  Opt2not nailed it; you had an entirely different culture at that point - it wasn't everyone playing, just the same type of teenage boys. Not a resurgence, just a bunch of dudes.
VespaGuy:
Golden Age for me. Born in '71.

I have fond memories of being dropped off at the mall with freinds. My faves were Ms. Pacman, Frogger, Congo Bongo, and Star Wars.  My local skating rink had Donkey Kong Jr, Bagman, and a few pinball machines.

What I loved about the golden age was that the whole idea of video games was so new (and the technology was so limited) that there were tons of original games. There were no genres - developers just had to make the games fun and addictive or people wouldn't play them.
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