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What year would you pick as the quintessential arcade year?
Daviea:
I think 1982 was the year. I recall the arcades very clearly in 1982. They were incredibly busy and always packed with tons of kids. Of course, often you had to wait in line to play, but that was OK since it gave you a chance to talk to friends, relax your hands and get excited about playing the next game. LOL I've always considered 1982 to be the high point of the arcades, especially if the arcade served food (read: PIZZA) and drinks. We called them "sodas" back then! Boy, those sure were some fun times.
The following year, 1983, the arcades (at least in my area) started to take a dive. I think the part that bothered me (and others) the most was the frequent rotation of the games - they constantly removed cool games and replaced them with others, then back again. By 1984, the arcades were dead by comparison. I think Gauntlet/Gauntlet II breathed a little life in what was left of the arcades in '85/'86, but even so it just wasn't the same! At the very least, the arcades were doing better in 1985 than 1983/1984.
I think the "crash" was caused mostly by the high number of console games and personal computers available at the time. I freely admit that I was swayed from the arcades because of it. To this day, I still have fond memories of my old Commodore 64.
Anyhow, my vote goes to 1982!!
David Adams
RAM Controls
Chuckolicious:
I'm agreeing with 81, from both the game release standpoint and the highpoint in my NYC raised memory. 78-79 I discovered Space Invaders and Lunar Lander, but 81 was pretty crazy.
Reason I wanted to know this is that in my arcade room, I have a ceiling light with a pull chain. My significant other suggested a quarter as the chain weight. I thought she had a brilliant idea in that, but now I had to get super detailed with the year of the quarter. A bit OCD, I know, but whaddya gonna do? :D
Benevolance:
That's some nice attention to detail, that is. :D
retrometro:
Heh, one of my favorites list in MALA is an "old school" category of games I like from 1979-1984. But if I had to narrow it down, it'll definitely be 1981-1982.
For me 1979-1982 games were the hot titles that were ported successfully (note the word successfully :-) to the 2600/intellivision/5200/colecovision. Once you get into 1983-1984 or so, it took the Amiga/AtariST/NES/Sega Master System to do a descent job.
bkenobi:
Are you kidding?! The reason arcades died in 1983 or so was because the NES came out and you could play any game you wanted and you didn't have to bum a ride. Of course, you had to convince your parents to buy you the game at $40-70 or rent it for $5. Course, I was never allowed to go to the arcade as a kid on a regular basis, so my opinion is as a console gamer...