What Arcade Era Do You Identify With The Most?

[opt2not]

Perhaps if game developers did more drugs nowadays, they'd come up with new crazy ideas nobody in the right state of mind would.

Who says they still don't?

In all seriousness though, it's not the lack of devs not putting out crazy ideas, it's the abundance of publishers and share-holders squashing those creative expressions mostly because of sales - basically what sells the most, what markets best mentality.
That was the beauty of the old school gaming era, you could put out any wacked out idea and it would be in the hands of the audience without any problem - the industry was still fresh. The amount of red-tape you need to go through to get a game through the regulated channels now-a-days is ridiculous. It's extremely hard to get a new original IP game published today...unless of course you've got the money for marketing and publishing yourself.  

[TOK]

I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that either side was ever arguing "my era was better than yours".  I pretty much said the whole time that I thought both eras were great for those who identified most with them, and that one shoudln't need to disparage another game/era to enjoy their own.  I also mentioned how the original thread topic was even 'what do you identify with most' not 'which era is the best'.  And while I did think there was some cutting down of the fighting game genre (mistakenly or not), I don't think they were trying to argue that point either.  It was more about how people percieve the genre/the effect it had on arcade culture.

I'd like to just take a moment to say how fantastic all this discussion is and how much I've learned from it.


I'd like to, but unfortunately I can't since its actually horrible.

[Epyx]

In all seriousness though, it's not the lack of devs not putting out crazy ideas, it's the abundance of publishers and share-holders squashing those creative expressions mostly because of sales - basically what sells the most, what markets best mentality.

Bang on...that is the main reason companies like EA bring out the same dredge season after season (sports games using only slight variations from the late 90s core game engines) or year after year.

EA has abandoned the original spirit that Trip Hawkins envisioned in the early 80s...that EA would be a community of electronic artists and art is always subjective and that is what makes so many of those early games so unique:

M.U.L.E
Archon
Seven Cities of Gold
Bard's Tale

That is the EA I remember...the one I worked at in the late 90s went to hell in a handbasket for exactly the reasons Opt2not pointed out.  Their first hint at a creative downfall was the plundering of Origin Systems (System Shock/Ultima Underworld).

Thankfully their are still creative companies...its just a matter of finding them through the dredge...Stardock (Galciv2 etc), From Software, Firaxis, Rockstar etc

[Gorotsuki]

Then came along 90's EA....
SWORD OF SODAN on Sega Genesis.
I've not looked at their games since.
I actually beat that piece of crap,
I was a really bored kid.

[manman]

I'd like to just take a moment to say how fantastic all this discussion is and how much I've learned from it.


I'd like to, but unfortunately I can't since its actually horrible.

and yet somehow the world keeps spinning.  Imagine that...

not sure how that even relates to or changes anything you quoted, but ok... I'll try harder to drop a wisdom filled jewel like you just did next time

[Havok]

Don't mind TOK - he just likes to post so he can have a higher post count...

[RayB]

It used to be, me and a couple (or few) friends would go "arcade hopping" (sometimes combining it with bar-hopping, for a better experience  ). We'd walk into an arcade... there'd be a good variety of games, some old, some new... we play a few oldies, but mainly try to get at the new ones.... then.... came fighting games. It was cool at first, but then the arcade-hopping experience became: Go into arcade; See all the new games are fighting variants; Yawn really loudly and then leave after spending a lot less time and money than we used to.

A lot of people, A LOT, reacted like this. Especially chicks. (bye bye 49% of your potential customer base).

[saint]

It used to be, me and a couple (or few) friends would go "arcade hopping" (sometimes combining it with bar-hopping, for a better experience  ). We'd walk into an arcade... there'd be a good variety of games, some old, some new... we play a few oldies, but mainly try to get at the new ones.... then.... came fighting games. It was cool at first, but then the arcade-hopping experience became: Go into arcade; See all the new games are fighting variants; Yawn really loudly and then leave after spending a lot less time and money than we used to.

A lot of people, A LOT, reacted like this. Especially chicks. (bye bye 49% of your potential customer base).

+1!

I don't mind fighting games for other folks, but they're not my cup of tea. When they crowded out the older games is when the arcades died for me. I don't have a basis to say if they helped or hindered arcades in general, but that's when arcades stopped getting my money.

[manman]

someone before said that virtually every public venue had arcade games back in the golden era- how many different kinds of places did you actually find a lot of games?  I probably started playing arcade games around 86 or so where I mostly found them in pizza places and movie theaters until I actually found arcades.  I never saw many girls though, wish we could have kept THAT trend around  

[opt2not]

someone before said that virtually every public venue had arcade games back in the golden era- how many different kinds of places did you actually find a lot of games?  I probably started playing arcade games around 86 or so where I mostly found them in pizza places and movie theaters until I actually found arcades.  I never saw many girls though, wish we could have kept THAT trend around  

I remember convenience stores, and malls had them scattered around the common areas.  I also remember restaurants (mostly family ones) putting them in the lobby/foyer areas, those were mostly cabarets though.

Roller rinks too...though I didn't hang out there much because they were ridden with drug dealers that my folks warned me about. Funny enough, the actual arcade & billiards I went to when I was young was pretty good at keeping it clean of dealers and the like.
 

[Havok]

someone before said that virtually every public venue had arcade games back in the golden era- how many different kinds of places did you actually find a lot of games?  I probably started playing arcade games around 86 or so where I mostly found them in pizza places and movie theaters until I actually found arcades.  I never saw many girls though, wish we could have kept THAT trend around  

That was me - and yes, they were everywhere! Every hotel would have them, in addition to the places already mentioned, and of course every bar. In fact back in the late 70's and early 80's I used to go on Saturday with my Dad to his work (he owned his own business) and I would go across the street and play the arcade games at the bar. They had four plus a pin. They always chuckled when I came in at around noon and asked for quarters to play the games. My Dad would give me money to spend some time there. That's where I played Space Invaders when it was first released and me and my Dad also played Missile Command together when he was done for the day. I got to the point where a five would last me a few hours.

[RayB]

*EVERY WHERE*
Every convenience store, even the small dingy ones had 1 or 2 machines in them. Restaurants, bowling alleys, ice rinks, hockey arenas, movie theatres, malls, department stores (usually by an entrance), gas stations, ... basically anywhere that today you might find either a vending machine or "Stacker" prize machine, back in the day there'd be a video game or two.  This was especially true when PacMan was big as everybody who owned a business heard these machines could "print money".

[ahofle]

I think what killed the arcade experience for me was the fighting games...no not because it was putting money in to continue ...it was that the learning curve to play the game even competently was so high.  So you kept feeding quarters into the machine just to learn to play.  Golden age games had a minimal learning curve Take pac man, you move up, down, left, right ..eat the pellets...avoid teh ghosts.  The person doing this is just as equipped to finish the game as the person who had done it before.  By contrast with the MK SF games ...there were all these pecial moves that required you to simultaneously press up and left press three buttons, stick out your tongue and put your left big toe in your right ear...you need these moves to survive even a short time and there is no instruction on unlocking those moves.  Yes, to be really good at a golden age game, you needed to learn a pattern or gain experience, but there was no requireement to learn anything to play the game.  Heck you can get really far on pac man or DK without knowing any patterns..you're just not going to break the record.

This is a very astute observation.  I always disliked that about fighters as well.  You basically had to put in your time to learn the special moves/combos.  Before the innerwebs and search engines, that equated to lots of quarters.  To me, that was the element of those games that was completely skill-lacking.  And without them, you would be ripped to shreds in 1v1 play.  It's similar to why I don't care for MORPGs.  The people who spend 12 hours a day get better 'stuff' than you, making it more of a test of patience than skill.

On a side note, I find it interesting that the mid to late eighties has such a large number of (silent) followers, almost as many as the 90s!  I always thought the games of that era were heavily underrated simply because of the 'crash'.   I don't recall enjoy those games any less than during the golden age.  Some of my favorite arcade games are from that era, particularly the Atari System 1 and 2 games.  Marble Madness, 720, APB, Paperboy, etc -- such creativity and originality in some of those games.

[TOK]

Don't mind TOK - he just likes to post so he can have a higher post count...

Uh, I've been here longer than you and have 900 less posts. Just sayin'.

The back and forth over this just wore me down. Should have just ignored it. Sorry.

[Havok]

Don't mind TOK - he just likes to post so he can have a higher post count...

Uh, I've been here longer than you and have 900 less posts. Just sayin'.

You've been here a whopping 6 days longer than me. Is that really enough to brag on how you've been here longer than me?

Anyways, I was just kidding around with you - don't read into it.

Post whore.

[Smeghead]

[DeLuSioNal29]

Do you know what really got ruined?  Not the golden arcades by fighters, but the original topic that was posted... by all this arguing crap.

The back and forth over this just wore me down. Should have just ignored it. Sorry.

+1 on this last comment.  It was one of the best things said here.

Can't we all just get along and appreciate each other's stories?  Sheesh.

DeLuSioNaL29

[RayB]

One time, at band camp... I ...

You know what else related to fighters killed it for "us regular folk"? You'd find a free machine, try to play, and some punk comes up sticks his quarter in and then "challenges" you. Then kicks your ass (usually using the "cheapest" character available). I couldn't stand that. I wasn't there to play some kid who spends every day in the arcade.

[Havok]

That's true - I never did like that. Ask me first if you want to challenge me, don't just jump in and ruin my game...

[manman]

Oh yeah, I do remember seeing them in some of the places you mentioned still during the mid-late 80's and early 90's- bowling alleys, convenient stores, etc, and some restaurants, but probably a lot fewer.  Never saw them in department stores though.

It's interesting the things that some people dislike about the 90's era are the same things that some specifically liked about it.  Things like the more involved inputs/learning curve before internet was as widespread were fun for me because it got people talking to eachother etc.  It was fun (for me at least) to learn from people and share information, and build a community of friends who were interested in the same thing as me.  Of course, some people were jerks and wouldn't want to help anyone else etc, but that's just the way it goes I guess.  It is a lot to have to go through to play a game competently though, I can see how if you don't care about all that and just want to drop in a quarter and have fun for a while it would be a turn off..
I also welcomed any punks that wanted to drop in a quarter during my game (partly because I don't think playing the cpu in fighting games is all that interesting), but also because it just gave me a chance to test my skills and see if I was improving.  One point of pride I hear from people who played during the golden age is "I could put in one quarter and last x amount of time".  That was a similar point of pride for a lot of people who played fighting games I think. To see how long you could hold your spot on a machine with just one quarter.

[shateredsoul]

I remember in 3rd.. grade everyone would go to the local convenience store to play street fighter II.  I don't remember girls being at arcades, other than chuckee cheese.  I also remember the huge arcade in the mall where I would get to play teenage mutant ninja turtles II.  After street fighter II king of the fighters, puzzle bobble, and other games came around.  I remember World Heroes.. but mostly console.

I actually remember playing arcade games more often when my family would go visit Mexico.  I experienced Snow Bros. Jr., Street fighter 1, Outrun, many snk fighters, and capcom fighters here.  All the kids played arcades over there.

I also remember The local donut shop was another good place in LA and the local pizza place had a Bubble Bobble machine which I loved but my parents never let me play for too long.  They still have a Ms. pacman speed hack machine at the donut shop to this day (not sure if it's the same one).

Most games since then I've seen at amuzement parks. I was more of a console kid (and have owned one or more from every generation).

[RayB]

VIDEO FOOTAGE!!

Games at a 7-11:


Central Park arcade in Mountain View California:

Look how many duplicates they have! (anyone else think pedobear shot this??  )

And there's a Teeter Torture by Exidy in the background (no side-art):

[RayB]

Spaceport arcade chain training videos!

[Benevolance]

Man, that kid in the green shirt sucks at Defender. I hope he brought lots of quarters.

[Darren01274]

The Golden Age upwards for me lol. I remember most of them. I also loved Kung Fu Master when it came out first played it in good old Blackpool haha great times. 

[leapinlew]

I love playing the classics: Galaga, Pengo, Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman are my standbys but I also enjoy the quirkier titles of the day such as Marble Madness, Crystal Castles, and Crazy Climber. These are all solo games. My fondest memories come from the golden era, but I had a blast playing 2 player games such as SmashTV, Total Carnage, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2. The learning curve was too drastic to try and keep up with all the revisions of both franchises.

We'd play fighting games until someone got mad. We would travel around to different arcades to challenge new players. As soon as SFII was on the super nintendo, we didn't visit an arcade again.

[I/O]

Central Park Arcade video:

That first kid, classic Defender first-timer syndrome.

I was sort of wondering whether the Asian teen was going to whup some kung fu on the camera person.

What was that shoe shot of the Asian girl and her mom? Perhaps a 'yeah, this is what kind of shoes they used to wear' sort of archival moment??

And what were the game in the back they kept showing, and the game at the end?