What games do you have fond (or not so fond) memories of?

[Singapura]

Let's take a trip down memory lane...

For me the old arcades hold sweet and a bittersweet memories. Strangely enough they are connected to my grandparents. They lived in a place called Veendam, in the North of The Netherlands. Ever since I was a baby I visited them as often as I could and can still remember the place like it was yesterday. My sister lives there now and Veendam doesn't look at all like it used to anymore but anyway... Around 1980 an arcade opened up near my grandparents place and it drew me in like a magnet. I was still twelve so technically not allowed to go in but I did anyway and boy, was I in heaven. During that time my grandmother got really sick and needed almost constant care. My mother is an only child so there wasn't much family. I helped my grandparents in the weekends and holidays which was a tough job for a kid of 12 but at the end of the day there was always the arcade.

The Star Wars machine (a sit down one with all the trimmings) was the best one. I spent most of my pocket money in that thing and it was something that really helped me to relax. When they put in a standup Tron, I diverted my attention (and cashflow), even though I could never get past the light cycle stage.

After my grandmother past away, I still visited my grandfather every week. Tried to get him out of the house but the arcade was too noisy. One thing I remember was the local snackbar down the street. Every evening my grandfather gave me two Guilders to buy "kroketten", a typical Dutch snack. There was a Popeye machine in there and it is the third machine I really, really got into. The snackbar was also the local hangout for the (professional) soccer team and there were always some players to compete against.  Seems like a different life now...

When I started high school, I spent more time in the local arcade then in the classroom. Although they were older machines, I mostly played Galaga, Pooyan and Pole Position. The  most impressive machine I remember was the enormous Gauntlet, but they asked two coins for that one so I didn't even play that much.

Soooo, what are the machines that you remember most?

[nukedawg]

I have fond memories of many arcade games. My father loved to go to Las Vegas and every year we would fly or drive there from Texas. We took trips in the early to mid 80's and I wasn't old enough to gamble since I was a young teenager. He would give me a 20 and say 'go have fun', and that I did mainly at the arcade at Circus Circus. It was tremendously huge with several of every game imaginable!! I played games during those trips to Vegas that I had never ever seen before. Many of them were brand new, the latest!

The ones that stand out for me during this time were games such as Major Havok, Mad Planets, Tac/Scan, I Robot, Gyruss, Satan's Hollow, Sinistar, Qix, Time Pilot and Time Pilot '84 and Two Tigers. Many of these were hard to locate at local arcades which seem to have more common or 'popular' games.

Later in the 80's games such as Vindicators, Assault, Black Tiger, Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother, Thunder Blade, Silk Worm and others. These also to me were rather uncommon compared to most of what I would find in a local arcade.

So thank goodness I can now play these elusive beasts to revenge the toll they took long ago on my poor poor wallet! (which was really quite alright) hehe

[Zobeid]

I think my two all-time favorites back in the day, and the only coin-op games that I was ever particularly good at playing were. . .    Star Castle and Gyruss.  I played a lot of games, but those were the only two that I ever developed any semi-braggable skill with.

The first arcade that I ever went into had a full cockpit-style Tail Gunner machine, which was terribly impressive by the standards of the time.  I loved it.  I would have loved it more if I'd ever gotten a chance to play it more than a couple of times and figure out what I was doing, but it was always occupied.

My favorite HOME game in those days was Cosmic Avenger on my ColecoVision.  I was vaguely aware that it was a port from an arcade game. . .  I only saw an actual Cosmic Avenger machine one time, and to my intense frustration I didn't have an opportunity to play it.  Maybe it's just as well.  It's quite a bit harder than the CV version, and I probably would have found it frustrating.

I have a soft spot for Eagle (a Moon Cresta clone) which was parked in a local convenience store for a long while.  It was a very simple-minded game, and I can't say exactly why it fascinated me so.  Quasar, Phoenix and Astro Blaster were good too.

Omega Race was a funky sort of game.  So was Vanguard.  So was Missile Command.

I could list dozens of old games that I have fond memories of.  If I get started I wouldn't know where to quit.

[phishpac]

As a little kid I liked galaga.  When I got a little bit older, I was CRAZY for space harrier.  I don't know why, but I loved that game.  Later on I was a big final fight fan.

[RoninEditor]

My parents owned a small grocery store in super small town and I was a video game nut at the time, like eight years old at the time.  The local arcade was a 30 minute car ride so I begged and pleaded for my parents to get some games into the store.  They finally did it.  The vendor wanted to 'test the market' at first so they gave us the lame:

1) Piranha:  http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_id=9026

It was a Pac-Man ripoff but my God, I didn't care because I had a 'real' arcade game to play on!  I forced myself to fall in love with it and it actually became fairly fun.  When I found it on Mame, it was such a time travel moment, I remembered everything as clear as the first day I played it.

2) Gorf

Finally, we started to get some new games and I also got a fondness for this.  While playing it in Mame, I kinda was like (at first) like, "Huh... not as good as a remember."  Then I forgot that there were multiple levels and then it all came back to me.

3) Galaxian. 

After Gorf did well, we were upgraded to Galaxian... pfssssshhht, pfrssssht... who doesn't remember that shooting sound, as well as the hum of the waves of ships.  I used to play this so much that area around the monitor got 'burn your hand hot', I have no idea how that happened or if I'm remembering that wrong.

4) TRON!!!!

The game that lead me all of you, as I was looking to buy a copy of it for my computer but found it only on 'this new thing' called Mame (new to me at least).  After Galaxian did well in our grocery store, my parents met with the vendor and they decided to open a whole arcade and ice cream shop... there were about 12-16 classics in there, but Tron was the one I fell in love with.  I used to be so darn good at it, cocky about it to the point where I wasted two or three weeks of allowance so I could show off playing it for everyone, I went home and cried for hours after I lost $16, which was a lot for a kid at the time!!

And then I later added (not replaced) Tron with Ms. Pacman and Galaga, as well as Dig Dug, Contra and others.  It's so weird, for our generation, this really was a time when we'd hear the sounds of a game, to this day, and remember those innocent days as children... enough for all of us to recreate that great time by building our own cabinets... and that's what it's all about to me.

[fjl]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=75570.0

[psychotech]

Fond memories of Zaxxon, Star Wars, Defender, Bombjack, Wizard of Wor, Scramble, Section-Z, Galaxian, Gorf.

Too old & demented to remember more..

[boogieman]

Ones I remember fondly:
Demolition Derby (fun playing with my cousins on the 4p cocktail)
Double Dragon
Dig dug
Asteroids
Street Fighter 2 CE
Mario Bros.
Burger Time
Simpsons
TMNT
Hard Drivin (man its so crappy looking now but was awesome then!) - remember the car starting sound?
Kangaroo (believe it or not lol that game rocks)
POW
I remember one time at a summer camp playing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.  It was pretty fun.  Now it's just disturbing, him rescuing little kids and all!

All sorts of others I remember but I think those were my favorites.


not so fondly: Pacman... dang I hate that game!     I die horribly pathetic deaths!

[danny_galaga]

quite a few of my memories happened in holland too. mostly in Scheveningen (and yes, i can say it properly  ). one in particular that stuck with me was a gunslinger type game. i did ask here once and someone came back with an answer but for now i cant remember what it was called. it used video footage (laserdisc maybe?) of live actors. you drew your gun against a bad guy on the screen.

another early memory was of atari sprint (i think). but you know, i dont have especially FOND memories of particular games as a kid. i remember one time me and a friend blew $20 each (in about 1981-2) one day. i cant remember where the money came from on that particular occasion. we spent every last cent and didnt have anything to catch the bus home with! if it werent for a chance meeting with a friend of dads we would have been walking home. he gave us a few bucks. which we then went straight back to the arcade with! wisely we kept the bus fare in our back pockets   

my FONDEST memory is more recent. that was when i was testing my cocktail mame cab. and i played a whole stack of commando on it. it just seemed so right...

[Bones]

Hey Dan, you do realise of course your cocktail machine busted into flames from the excessive NT summer two years ago?

[TheShanMan]

The Long's Drugs across the street from our house always had 2 games next to one of the exits, and I fondly remember when they had Donkey Kong, Pole Position, and Dragon's Lair. Particularly Donkey Kong since it became my favorite game of all time. I bought the book "How to Win at Donkey Kong", and cashed in the $20 check I got at Christmas from Grandma into quarters and I was set for a while! I would go there after school.

I also remember how there was a big arcade at Pier 39 in San Francisco, and my dad had a restaurant next to it, so on the rare occasions that we drove up to there on a Saturday, my brother and I were in heaven after eating.

Then there was the arcade called Galactican that was a 25 minute bike ride from my house. Kind of a shady arcade, but fortunately I had zero interest in drugs - all I cared about was playing the games!

[Twin-X]

As a little kid I liked galaga.  When I got a little bit older, I was CRAZY for space harrier.  I don't know why, but I loved that game.  Later on I was a big final fight fan.

Looks like we almost share the same memories.

However i did not play galaga but i did play 1941 and contra.
Space Harrier i am still fond of that game iand i was lucky to play alot in the simulator. I miss that thing . And also later on Final Fight.

[lanman31337]

Back in the day in my area we had Side Show Pizza.  Very similar to Chuck-E-Cheese, but with different animals, and they had this mechanical band that would come out and sing.  Much time on Tron, Berzerk, Double Dragon, and Tiger Road.

[Franco B]

The game that took most of my cash was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. I loved that game but it was so annoying as the Operator had set it to one credit/no continue so you could not continue your game when you ran out of lives. I pretty much always got up to the first time you meet Slice, one time I managed to get past him on one credit but that was it.

One of the first games I played when I got into MAME was C&D and it was sooo good to be able to play the rest of the game   

[Ginsu Victim]

Back in the day in my area we had Side Show Pizza.  Very similar to Chuck-E-Cheese, but with different animals, and they had this mechanical band that would come out and sing.  Much time on Tron, Berzerk, Double Dragon, and Tiger Road.

Side Show? Sure it wasn't Showbiz Pizza? Sounds exactly like it.

[Gehrig]

I have fond memories of playing POW as a kid.  And horrible memories playing it later in life saying, "Man this game sucks!"

[Ginsu Victim]

When I was in kindergarten, I used to go with my dad before school to a cafe every day for breakfast and this one waitress would always play me in Donkey Kong on their cocktail machine. (She paid, and hooked me up with free pie)

I used to love going to any one of the several arcades we had back then. For some reason, I loved Super Pac-Man when it came out, but now I can't stand it. Same goes for Zaxxon. I loved it then, but I'm not big on it now.

Had a Pizza Inn in our neighborhood that had Donkey Kong Jr and a Galaga cocktail. I would scarf it down so I could go play.

In '86/'87, my older brother and I used to go to a local gas station and play Rastan for hours. Also Shinobi. He had a friend with a Donkey Kong machine, but he wouldn't let me play. Earlier on, my brother had a girlfriend who was pretty well off and they had an arcade room in their house. I was six, and thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Got stuck in the laundry mat a lot as a kid, so I'd search the dryers for change, then go to their arcade room and play Cloak and Dagger, Centipede, Pac-Man, and Frogger. I wouldn't play Sinistar, though. I was a kid and that game scared me.

There was also one place that didn't last long that had a Defender and a Q*Bert.

I recall in my younger years going to Showbiz Pizza and playing Baby Pac-Man and Kangaroo for the first time. Loved them.

Later on, Strider hit arcades and just blew my mind. However, not as much as the 7-11 when I was five that had a Dragon's Lair.

[CrazyKongFan]

I'm sure he meant Showbiz Pizza. We had one too, and my mom always took me and my brother there on Friday nights. I even had a few birthday parties there. I can't remember what games they had there any more, other than a Dragon's Lair (with an extra TV screen on top) and Joust. I remember the Joust was one of those with the Pterodactyl cheat, and the extra player score was only $6,000, so I could play on that for a long time I think they also had a DK Jr, Popeye Q*bert and Space Ace. One rule, we had to go before 9pm, so my mom could be home to watch Dallas (this was before VCR's were affordable )

[nipsmg]

I was lucky that growing up, about 20 minutes from me was a very Large arcade called "Milford Amusement Center".  In its day, it was a GREAT arcade.  every game you could thing of, new ones cycled in all the time, with pinball, pool, laser tag, even bumper boats and stuff out back.  They even had this afterburner type game that sat you strapped into a gyroscope that went 360 degrees upside-down, sideways, etc.  I think at one point downstairs they also had virtual reality stuff.

I have fond memories of quite a few games.  I loved APB, steel talons, Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, stewart's 4x4 offroad, and the MK series.  Cybersled too.  And pacman/ms pacman.   And... (this could go on for ever).

[wbassett]

Defender was my game of choice when I was in high school.  There were several of us in town that could actually roll the high score.  The real trick and challange of a 'Master' was to as close to a million as possible!

Later when I was in school to be a nuclear reactor operator in the Navy I got hooked on Major Havoc.  There was just something satisfying about spending all day in school learning about reactors and then at night playing a game where the goal was to destroy reactors!

Others that I have fond memories of are Police Trainer and Silent Scope.

I now can play all of those except Silent Scope on my MAME machine and I impressed the hell out of my son with my Defender skills, although being 20 plus years since I played it I have a lot of rust to get rid of!

[Gehrig]

Yeah.. more recent memories were of Silent Scope Vs Mode.  Wish Dave & Busters still had 2 Silent Scopes.  That was very fun.   They removed one of the Silent Scopes and added a Silent Scope 2.  It was annoying because now Silent Scope wasn't linked....all by it's lonesome self.

[lanman31337]

Nope, it was Side Show Pizza.  And here's why it closed:

http://www.aemllc.com/articles/legislative/oneoperatorreformlawpa/oneoperatorreformlawpa.php

[nukedawg]

Another memory I have, even earlier prolly in the late 70's, was when a friend from grade school had a stash of $2 dollar bills that his granny game him to save for later in life. He would come over and show me the cash and off we would go to play games such as Sprint, Space Wars, Lunar Lander, Night Driver, Sea Wolf and Head on.

I have no idea how many $2 dollar bills we went through but we played for hours every day after school for months on end. He must of had a fortune back then lol

[CrazyKongFan]

OK, I guess we stand corrected We did have a local one called Showbiz Pizza though, there was about a half dozen band members in this "robot" band. One was Billy Bob, another was Mitzi. At least those are 2 I can remember off the top of my head. They also had someone dressed up in a Billy Bob costume, and you could get your picture taken with him at your birthday party.

[Ginsu Victim]

My Showbiz Pizza was in Houston. Also had birthdays at Scooby Doo's Pipe Organ Pizza and Pistol Pete's. (And of course, Chuck E Cheese)

[lanman31337]

Very very similar, except the main character was Major Magic, there was a hillbilly band, and I want to say a jazz band as well.  It was really cool.

[Ginsu Victim]

here's a page with all kinds of info and pics of the showbiz pizza characters
http://rock_afire.tripod.com/

[RoninEditor]

I have to dig out the pic of me at this b-day party of mine, we had "Showbiz Pizza," the ONLY time a kid could care less about pizza... because it got in the way of the games, which worked out well because I remember it being served on white plasticky cardboard and you couldn't really taste the difference, haha.

I remember, there, though playing Dragon's Lair all of the damn time and being horrible at it, but LOVING the game.  This was an example, though, of a game where I play it again these days and I'm like like wtf is going on?  Like, do I dare say this game maybe never was that good...?  (I know, I'm waiting for the lightning bolt to strike!)

[GAJoe]

Most of my earliest and fondest arcade memories are tied to shopping trips with my mom.  Some of the locations make it very evident that in the early 80s they'd put arcade games anywhere.  I have fond memories of playing Donkey Kong on a cabaret machine in a Dollar General, Pac-Man at the entrance to a Super Dollar Store, Galaga at Pizza Hut, Ms. Pac-Man at the laundry mat, Tron at the grocery store, Rolling Thunder at the gas station, Mat Mania at Wal-Mart, and so on.  Best of all, though, were the games I played at the entrance to the Sears Outlet store in Decatur, GA.  While mom would check out, I'd beg for quarters and play whatever new game they'd installed since the last time.  Wonder Boy, Gauntlet, Pole Position, Elevator Action, Ghosts and Goblins, etc.  I loved Gauntlet and Wonder Boy the most.  Gauntlet because it talked and Wonder Boy because of the music and the skateboard.  Eventually, I learned to love Wild Gunman, too, once I figured out the gun on the Playchoice-10 wasn't a policeman's gun and I wouldn't get in trouble for using it.

[Singapura]

I totally forgot one that was my biggest achievement! On my way to school there was an arcade that held a Pacman tournament. Top prize was an Atari VCS system with the Pacman cartridge. I entered and basically stomped the competition (don't even remember the score but I played for over an hour while the others were finished after about 10 minutes). It was really weird with all the (local) radio stations covering the thing and I hadn't even told my parents I was going to do this. When I brought home the Atari my mom didn't believe I'd won it but when I showed her the certificate she had to. It basically started my home gaming years

[AgentX]

It's weird, but for me, video game memories are rarely about the game itself, but the people and circumstances surrounding me at the time I was playing it. It's like my brain has built its own little catalog of all the games I've played, who was there and what was going on. I still find myself driving down the street past an empty lot and thinking "Oh, that's where that Peter Piper Pizza used to be that had that Track and Field and Street Fighter - you know - that one where we stole that water pitcher from on the last day of junior year."

Some of my best memories:

1982 Gorf: My Dad and I used to walk up to Ron Jaworski stadium in Lackawanna NY on warm summer nights to watch baseball. Sometimes, before the game we'd stop in this little pizza shack to grab dinner. The place couldn't have been more than 10 feet deep, but they had a Gorf stuck in the corner. My Dad always spotted me a few quarters while we waited for the pizza.

1983 Star Castle: This is the game I played when Rochelle Thomas turned me down for couples skate at Leisure Land. Broken hearted, I turned my affection towards the Star Castle hidden behind the fooseball table. Now every time I hear 'Faithfully' from Journey I see vector starships.

1986 Excitebike: Excitebike was the first game I was really good at. I would spend most of my summer afternoons at the local craphole arcade down the street. One day I forgot to bring a chain to lock my bike up. I must have parked it too close to the door for the owner's taste because the next thing I know he's yelling at be incoherently and throwing my bike out into traffic. Thanks jerk!

2004 Time Pilot: After my four year old daughter had an incident at a friend's pool (read: slipped off a step and sank like a stone) my wife and I decided she needed swimming lessons. Every Tuesday for nearly a year we'd take turns sitting behind a giant glass window watching my daughter furiously splash about with enthusiasm only a preschooler can muster, all the while going nowhere. Tucked behind seating for 10 soccer moms, was a Time Pilot being slowly bleached away from the chlorine gas that hung in the air like fog. When it was my turn to take her, I'd always remember to bring a few quarters so afterward we'd share a game. She'd mash the fire button while I'd steer. Then we'd switch. When we did well, I'd always let her put her initials on the scoreboard.

[danny_galaga]

Hey Dan, you do realise of course your cocktail machine busted into flames from the excessive NT summer two years ago?

and you couldnt have told me this last week?! i just this week booked a ticket back to darwin to pick up some things, including the cab...

[robC]

We had a bowling alley with an arcade that my group used to go play games at.  They had a Time Pilot game that I loved. Not very ethical, but one of my buddies found out the control panel was loose and would reach in and quickly hit the credit button a ton of times, and we would proceed to play for a few hours.  They weren't losing out too bad though, since the other games there consumed all of my paper route money!

[GAJoe]

I was trying to think of games that I had not so fond memories of.  Galaxian was never fun for me.  Once I got a taste of Galaga, its predecessor seemed sluggish.  Also, the alarms and sound effects cut through my brain like a knife.  Tag Team Wrestling...it wasn't Mat Mania and I wasted a little money figuring that out.  Karnov, so freaking hard, yet so pretty I kept wanting to waste money on it and die in less than a minute.  For years afterwards, I'd have random dreams about playing Karnov in an abandoned glass shop, which we had passed on our way home on that first day I played the game.  I can't stand Krull, which I always associate with an ex-girlfriend who's step-father ran an arcade shop.  She loved the movie Krull and he brought her the cab.  It conjures unpleasant memories to see it.  A tip if you become friends with an arcade distributor, don't ruin it by dating his daughter.

[CrazyKongFan]

Not very ethical, but one of my buddies found out the control panel was loose and would reach in and quickly hit the credit button a ton of times, and we would proceed to play for a few hours.  They weren't losing out too bad though, since the other games there consumed all of my paper route money!

I've seen at least 2 Space Invaders that had this problem. One "back in the day" when I was at a campground, and one recently (at an arcade with a bunch of classics)

[(+_+)]

Man Singapura, that trip down memory lane hits very close to home. Grandmother and everything except in Montreal and a different game list.

Asteroids
Robotron
Space Invaders
Joust
Q*Bert
Nibbler
Pacman

Speaking of Piranha

1) Piranha:  http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_id=9026

It was a Pac-Man ripoff but my God, I didn't care because I had a 'real' arcade game to play on!  I forced myself to fall in love with it and it actually became fairly fun.  When I found it on Mame, it was such a time travel moment, I remembered everything as clear as the first day I played it.

Remember the way you could hook the piranha down at the bottom by the exit, wait for them to get real close and then zoom through the tunnel to the top and eat a few more dots in a stairlike diagonal wobble on the harder levels? I haven't thought about that one in a while.

[RikaKazak]

TMNT FTW!!!

[NoOne=NBA=]

The memories for me are more about the people and places, rather than the games.
If you name a certain game, I can only remember one place having it way back when.
I would actually go from arcade to store to bowling alley to laundromat, so that I could play my favorite games.

I stretched my money by hitting the 10 for a dollar days, and stocking up on tokens for each of the arcades.
That way I could play any time I wanted for cheap.

[abzman2000]

there were very few games I would actually be willing to pay for (being cheap) and the only 2 I remember now are galaga (my specific memories are of a Ms. Pacman / galaga cab, so that's the one I would relive memories on, although Ms. Pacman wouldn't get used), and metal slug 3

[Zeppo]

Crazy Climber - Never really that great at it, but it was fun.

Elevator Action - Can still hear the music in my head.

Defender - Bought one for $200 back in '86 when I was still in high school. The Last Starfighter made me really want an arcade game. The closest thing that I could think of at the time was the Star Wars arcade game. Went around looking, but could never find one, so I settled for Defender. Still a great choice.

Crystal's Pizza Palace had one of the FireTruck games like this: http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7814
Me and my cousin would switch off driving the front and back.

Front Line - Just remembered this one last week. Still trying to figure out how to set the controls to make it work right in Mame. Any suggestions?

BattleZone - The local grocery store had one of these and a Pac-Man. Didn't like Pac-Man too much, so I would spend all my time on Battlezone while my mom shopped.