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| What year would you pick as the quintessential arcade year? |
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| Jack Burton:
2009! for me at least. In some ways we've got it better than ever with thousands of games we never got to play playable in MAME, great online communities, cheap cabinets and and boards, and online high score competitons and local tournaments for some games. Arcades were great, but I think the best times I've had with an arcade game have been at home with my friends in front of my own personal cab. It really is a luxurious experience compared to public arcades. You have infinite credits, perfect controls, sound, and monitors, and it's extremely convenient. I think the current era is extremely underrated. |
| Ummon:
I agree with Jack, some. But in the essential vein of the question posted....I was going to agree on '81....and then I realised the mention of '82 was more appropriate. That year was the PEAK of things, for sure. '82. |
| NoOne=NBA=:
'82 |
| Zebidee:
My initial thought from personal experience was 1983, and the number of people voting for 1982 confirms this. Huh? Does this make sense? To explain my logic a bit further, I'd say that my own estimate of 1983 is spot-on for Australia. Being at the other end of the planet, all the games took a bit longer to get here. Thus, I reckon the peak arcade year for Australia was 1983. When consoles came out in the early years, what i really noticed was that they didn't have good picture quality. That was partly because they didn't haver RGB inputs to your TV, and partly due to hardware limitations. These days, console games have much more snazz & bling. |
| u_rebelscum:
You're limiting to '77-'83?!? The quintessential, or my quintessential? Classical only or of all time? Arcade game or arcade hall? Most number of good games released, or most good games out in arcades, or highest good/bad game ratio? Highest number of people, or best types of people, or before it got too crowded? I ask because for me, there are three very distinct periods for arcade games, classic ('80-'85), my teen years ('86-'91), and post high school ('92-on). My quintessential years were during my teen years, and of those I'd pick '87 or '89. Not only did I get to go out on my own to the arcades, but most of my favorite games came out during those years, and all my classic favs were still out in the arcades. As far as games go, '89 was the biggest year in number of favs released for me, plus the '87 games were still in the arcades. However, the arcade I went closed somewhere around '89-'90, and its decline started a year or so before that, so '87 was a better arcade climate for that arcade. (The pizza joints arcades, 7-11, and the other arcade were still humming in '89 though.) I can't say the classic years were my quintessential, mostly since I rarely got to play, and mostly at a small pizza joint not arcades, and as I said above those great games were able to stick around to my teen years anyway. Still '82 & '83 released quite a few (just over half as many of my favs per year) as during my teen years. '84 had quite a few good games, too, but it also marked the release of the nintendo VS cabs; they were not arcade quality of the time and took away space from real arcade games. By '86, most of them were gone from the arcades I went to, just in time for my teen years. Side note: before doing research, my first guess was that '85 was my year. However most of the games I (mis)remembered playing that year weren't released until 2-5 years later. |
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