My wife is convinced I am insane - Arcade Experience

[tbombaci]

Okay, it is a bit extreme...but...tonight, after putting our son to bed, my wife called her mother and chatted for hours. I found this a perfect opportunity to play a few games. In the middle of a Galaga game, I wanted to hear Subdivisions by RUSH.  It dawned on me at that point. I wanted to 'hear' an arcade. A quick search for "Ambient Arcade Sounds" on Google turned up This!!

80MB of music to my ears.

I rigged up my PC speakers to point towards the mame machine and let 'er rip. Subdivisions on the juke and an arcade in our front room.

The Piece de Resistance was the black light we use to seek out cat wiz. I mounted it to my shelving unit and it was a go.

About 30mins into my "experience", I caught Kristy out of the corner of my eye, starring at me in disbelief. It was very cool!!


-Tom

[Tailgunner]

I know what you mean, and from Andy's site what he was going for when creating these tracks. The general din of a packed golden age arcade is one of those "you had to be there" experiences.

[DAmnb]

Thanks for the tip, both tracks are d/l to my comp as I type this.  

[Lilwolf]

Sure, if you where watching porn to 70's disco... everything is fine!

but play an arcade in the right enviorment.... well... now we are instane.

[ntjedi]

What a sweet find.  Great idea!  

I wonder if I will get the same type of response from my significant other?    Oh Well!

[Apollo]

That just totally rules. Thanks for the link. He he that's gonna make my wife mental!

[b3atmania]

Sound great! Can anyone mirror the site? The site the topic starter mentions has been down the last couple of days...

[Nailz]

Very cool!!!  I think the only thing that would make it even better would be to have some button mashing going on in the background as well, and the occasional "clink" of a quarter hitting the bottom of a machine.  

And yes, like a few of you, my wife thinks I am a huge frickin' dork for thinking this is awesome.

[Tailgunner]

Needs some crowd noise as well. As I remember the arcades of that era were usually packed with people making noise while they played the machines.

[MUKid]

Now this is what the internet is all about.  Long live broadband.  

[seaner]

Wow, that's pretty cool!
When I had some guys from work over to play, we remarked that there was no ambient background 80s hair rock to go with it

I can understand that one couldn't legally distribute something similar but with a kickass 80s rock playlist in the foreground of that noise.

Can anyone suggest a good playlist to assemble and mix-down with those ambient tracks?

I could be conned into creating a new track for everyone's enjoyment including the ambients plus some slayer, iron maiden, etc. =)

Protools, here I come!

[seaner]

It dawned on me at that point. I wanted to 'hear' an arcade.

All that's missing now is an ashtray with some smoldering cigarettes in it (remember the ones that attached to the machines?), and some flashing lights in the periphery  Perhaps you should also spill a coke right about where you normally stand to play!

Ah, memories!!

[Wienerdog]

I love hearing the Sinistar at the beginning.  There are a few that really bring back memories.  Sinistar and Tron are two that really stand out in my mind.  

[MameMaster!]

..... that nearly brought tears to my eyes....  

.....to think that we have to have "ambient" sound tracks to enjoy the arcade experience of days gone by......

...I almost pity the kids out there who are being raised on XBox, Sony etc. alone.

Fact it....Dave and Busters and placed like it are just not the same. Nothing like a stinky dark old style arcade...and I assure you...growing up in Coney Island I went into them all....and most were smelly, dark, and even a little scary.

Sigh...oh the memories!

The MameMaster!  

[creatine28]

Ahh yes the old days!!!

 I remember riding my Mongoose bike to the local Mountain Mikes Pizza place to play some Defender, Donkey Kong and Pacman!  Those were the days!!!  And yes, my wife also thinks I'm crazy! hahahaha !  

[soslo]

Mongoose bikes...

<sniffle>

Mountain Mike's Pizza...

<sniffle>

[soslo]

I just got an email back from the creator of the two tracks, and he said he may have plans for an 86 remix!! woo woo

[dphirschler]

I gotta say, I thought it would be cheesy.  Well it is, but it is also COOL!  I guess I am the cheesy one!  hehe... Now if we could only make a 5.1 version.


Darryl

[DjinniMan]

This music really makes a HUGE difference in the whole "retro" arcade feel.  With this in the background, it really feels like it did 20 or so years ago.

Now, how to mix in some songs from the era?  Can anyone recommend some software?

DJ

[RetroJames]

What about that funny smell that came out of the back room where the coin changer kid hung out?  What was that anyway....

[spidermonkey]

One of my past time favs was "Leisure Land" at the Morris County mall in Ceder Knolls N.J. All I remember smelling is hot electrical smell and Captain Black apple pipe tobbacco smoke which came from the pipe of this bald fat dude who looked like an evil Don Rickels. He was the owner and on site repair man. He used to walk back and fourth seeking out  kids who were either rocking,kicking or pounding on the control panels because they just lost a life on Defender ect...   Then he would chase them out. Whenever I was playing a game and I heard the jingle jangle of about 50 coindoor keys on a giant keyring getting louder and louder I knew he was right behind me so I had to treat the machine like it was my first born for fear of getting thrown out and not being able to get my weekly fix of Galaxian. I remember getting thrown out just for yelling at a Zaxxon machine because I had lost all three ships in about twenty seconds. (wasn't used to 3-d graphics yet)  Mmmmm the smell of  hot electrical parts and apple pipe tobbacco mixed together. Theres no other smell like it in the world.