32.
Memories: I was in the mid to late 80s era local arcade and convenience store scene.
When I was barely old enough to remember much, I'd be in what seemed like huge arcades packed with games I could never afford to play to my fill. This would include space invaders although it was kind of unexciting to me. Dig Dug was there and I'd play that more often but it was still kind of dull to me, too cartoonish. I'd try games like Gyruss but they were a bit out of my league for that age. I think my first favourite game I liked to keep putting money in was Roc n Rope, though I could have sworn it was called Rope Man in that arcade. I accidentally found it in mame as roc n rope.
The four beeps with the stop lights in the attract mode of pole position will always remind me of 7-eleven slurpees and vice versa. I just moved to an apartment complex near a 7 eleven that always had 2 arcade games constantly rotating on a monthly basis and that's where I acquired most of today's MAME nostalgia. Pole position was installed when I moved there and every time I was in the store I'd hear the 4 beeps, they were very frequent and must have driven the girls at the cash register nuts.
Also in that store is where I discovered spy hunter, paper boy, IKARI, Karnov, Gauntlet, Xenophobe, Arkanoid, Double Dragon, Rampage, Rush n attack, Exciting Hour, Cheyene, Kung Fu Master
In a fish & chip store in that same little zone of stores, also had 2 rotating monthly games. There I discovered Commando, 1942, Xain'd Sleena, Tiger Heli, played some galaga already nostalgia by then for me
In a full arcade a short bike ride away is where I found Twin Cobra as a brand new installed game and loved it from day 1, became mesmerized by the already simplistic yet strangely enigmatic Tron, and the rest of the games I would have already been exposed to.
In a dept store entranceway in a mall, I saw Karate Champ and a kid there showed me how to win most rounds before I ever put a quarter in: Walk up to the guy, press left joystick up and right joystick down to jump over opponent, then push both joysticks toward each other to back kick and knock him down.
WIthin the next few years when I moved again, the arcade in the local mall introduced me to Guerrilla War, Contra, R-Type, Shinobi, Bubble Bobble (gay as that is to mention), Space shuttle/station pinball and Banzai Run Pinball, XYbots, Bad Dudes, Rolling Thunder, Ninja Gaiden, Golden Axe, Robocop
That was the end of my era. Beyond that point I started noticing that when I'd walk into an arcade I'd see 8 street fighters beside each other or 8 sit down racing games networked together, and I'd walk through the place finding nothing of interest, probably see 2 or 3 machines in the very back that MAY be powered up, if so they'd have all yellowed screens or the joysticks wouldn't work reliably in certain directions, that would be Galaga, Pacman, sometimes a centipede. Then I turned to Mame.
Started discovering many games I never knew about back in 98 and NOW they are nostalgia to me (Rastan). WHen I build the cab this year and fully start playing, It'll all come back to me. it's been a dormant hobby for years.
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