Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to these boards so this topic may have been brought up in the past, but to this day I am a big fan of video games.
As a kid, living in VA, on allowance day, I would jump on my bike and head to the local video game arcade which was called Wizards.
If you bought $5 worth of tokens you got an extra $1's worth and that is how I would spend my Saturday morning.
Wizards had video game and pinball machines. They also had a snack bar with things like pizza and hot dogs and rented out horror VHS tapes. (This was pre-Blockbusters)
It was pretty much a dark, dreary place from what I recall. Everything was painted black inside, the windows were blacked out, it might have been an old bar at one time.
I can't recall if they served beer at the snack bar. I was too young to care about that. I was probably in 6th grade around the time I would go.
Some of my favorite games were:

Moon Patrol
Galaga
Nibbler
Mr. Do's Castle
Dragons Lair

Just curious if anyone else used to go to an arcade and what was it like in your area?

  I went to arcades once in awhile, but mostly played coin-ops in convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants and department stores or wherever else I ran into them.  Coin-ops were pretty much everywhere.  Most recently - Ms. Pac Man in a bar last Friday.  Someone had ratcheted the speed up so much it was near impossible to make a turn when I needed to.  My old pattern was coming back to me but that console was just too fast.  A mere 25,000, but I had the top score..!

    I've heard of Moon Patrol, Galaga and Dragon's Lair.  Never played Moon Patrol.  Played Galaga.  Loved Dragon's Lair but sucked at it.  I have the Dragon's Lair DVD game and have played it often, but guess what...I still suck at it..!

I spent the better part of my misspent youth and teendom at an arcade (national chain - Aladdin's Castle).  If I had a time machine, and a roll of quarters, I would do it all over again.

Some of my favorites (but not all, because we're talking 25 years or so ago and my brain is slowly becoming a blank slate):

Golgo 13
Dragon's Lair
Joust
Trivial Pursuit
Space Ace
Qix
Tempest
Xenophobe
and then there was a scroller game that you fought against Zombies and ghosts and as a power up you could turn into a white wolf... *sigh* the name was deleted from my memory banks

but it did remind me of another one that I liked alot, which was (insert scream here) Can't...remember...name...of!!!!!  You were this little character dressed in a suit of armor and had to pass through all these stages... I remember some windmills...

sucks to get old


Our arcase was in a mall next to a pet store so when I was out of money, I'd go look at the cute animals that I couldn't afford.  ;D

and then there was a scroller game that you fought against Zombies and ghosts and as a power up you could turn into a white wolf... *sigh* the name was deleted from my memory banks


Ah sounds like Altered Beast. A fine game! In fact you listed several other games I used to like to play as well.

Joust
Qix
Tempest

I loved them!!!

I still have some of the old tokens from my youth and one of them is from an Aladin's Castle.
I remember there was one in the mall in Oshkosh, WI when I'd visit my grandmother in the summer time. I'll try and find a picture.

I loved arcades spending hours and hours with $10 in quarters in my hand waiting to play my favorite video game then I'd come home with nothing left. ;D

Ah sounds like Altered Beast. A fine game! In fact you listed several other games I used to like to play as well.


Thank you!  My brain was nearly there with the name... it kept nagging me "starts with an "A", "starts with an "A"  ;D

Do/Did you like pinball as well?  I started a thread in the photo board about the World Pinball Championships that were held recently in Pittsburgh.  What also made it nice was that it wasn't ALL pinball, but about 12 or so video games too.  I asked if they would let me move in. (They just looked at me oddly.)  ;D :D  http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=44482.0

One of these days I'd love to get out to California for the http://caextreme.org/ California Extreme expo.  Well, that and Comic con, but that another thread altogether.  ;D

That pinball thread is GREAT!!

The arcades I would go to had some pinballs, I'll admit I was more of a video game fan in the 80's but did have a few pinballs I really liked.

Gorgar
Black Knight
8 Ball Deluxe
Pinbot

I got more into pinballs later on as I got older. In the 90's there were a lot more pinballs I really liked to play

Elvira
Doctor Who (Favorite)
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Judge Dredd
Twilight Zone
Indiana Jones

These were all I remember fondly also.

My favorite was WWF Wrestlefest,it took me almost $20 in quarters trying to beat the damn system and after 2 rolls of quarters I finally got to the main event and beat the game.

but it did remind me of another one that I liked alot, which was (insert scream here) Can't...remember...name...of!!!!!  You were this little character dressed in a suit of armor and had to pass through all these stages... I remember some windmills...



Took me a day, but the little file clerks in my brain finally found the name of this one...

Ghouls 'n Ghosts

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7939


I still have some of the old tokens from my youth and one of them is from an Aladin's Castle.
I remember there was one in the mall in Oshkosh, WI when I'd visit my grandmother in the summer time. I'll try and find a picture.


I'm sure if I looked around at my parents house, I'd find a token or two still.  I think the arcade bit the dust though awhile ago (haven't been to the mall back home in a long time.)

I remember a vacation that my family took when I was a teen to Geneva-on-the-lake, Ohio (right on Lake Erie.)  It was mainly one street filled with souvenier shops, ice cream and fried food stands, photo booths where you dressed in costume for a portrait.  But the main reason that I so loved this place was that it had 3 arcades in like a mile from one another.  Twas heaven for me.  lol
I keep thinking that maybe hubby and I could do a daytrip there one day, but I'm afraid of what I'll find.  No arcades! Oh the horror.  :\'(

I remember playing Journey the video game there YEARS after it disappeared from my arcade.

Do you ever go to arcades anymore?  Once in awhile I'll go to Dave and Buster's or Gameworks but it is not the same as the heyday of my wonder years.  ;D

  Anyone ever played Popeye?  I thought it was the next best thing to Donkey Kong.  Would love to find that one again...

  http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-6/1193336/popeye_arcade_02.JPG

I haven't been to an arcade in awhile. Last one was probably a Dave and Busters but it was years ago.
Like bookmistress4ever stated, it wasn't the same. The modern game consoles have made the arcade obsolete I think.
I did recently pick up an X-Arcade stick to hook up to a PC so I could play the old games from the 80's with a high quality arcade stick.
It's not the same, but it's still pretty fun. In fact I played Popeye using it just last weekend Davester.

I got the X-Arcade Tankstick + Trackball. More info here...

http://www.xgaming.com/

Video arcades?

My favorite game was Avoid the Dope Dealers and The Pedophiles!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/grommit.gif

LOVED Popeye, it kinda reminded me of a cross between Donkey Kong and Nintendo Mario Bros.

I have a joystick plug-in game that has a bunch of games on it.  Never got around to hooking it up to my t.v.  The joystick looks like those from the old Atari 2600 system.  I spent many hours with that too back in the day.  Still not the same as my dark arcade.

It still gives me a little thrill when I'm watching a movie that takes place in the 80s where part of it happens in the arcade.  It probably is similar to when guys see a movie that takes place in a strip club (lol they never really did anything for me, I just end up judging their costume or shoes or dance moves.  :D )  Anyway, I'm getting carried away I guess... just miss the days of arcades. 

   Anyone ever played Popeye?  I thought it was the next best thing to Donkey Kong.  Would love to find that one again...

   http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-6/1193336/popeye_arcade_02.JPG


Yes I've played this game so many times in the past and in fact you can play this game online for free,I've gotten past all 3 stages,the first stage is the hearts the second one are the musical notes and the last one are the letters.

LOVED Popeye, it kinda reminded me of a cross between Donkey Kong and Nintendo Mario Bros.


I loved Popeye especially when you punched Brutus after grabbing the spinach and he flew all the way into the sea.

Popeye had AMAZING graphics for it's time.
I can remember a Burger King near my house (remember when even fast food joints had a few video games?) had Popeye and I couldn't believe how nice it looked.
As a kid I could easily get past the first level, but usually didn't make it to the ship level. We had the Atari 2600 version which was WAY easier, but the graphics were laughable even at the time it was out!

I agree with you bookmistress4ever, stripclubs in movies are ok, but a movie with an arcade scene really gets my attention!!
Here's a few you may or may not have seen...

War Games
Night Mares (The second story staring Emelio Esteves called Bishop of Battle)
Cloak & Dagger
Tron
Robocop 2
Joysticks

I'm sure there are others. These are some off the top of my head.

I also played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and Hogan's Alley.

http://clgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mike-tyson-punch-out.jpg

http://www.ilovethe80s.com/hogansalley.jpg

Oh please!  Does anyone remember this game - its name?

I loved playing this silly Space-Invaders rip-off at our local arcade.  It's the only place I ever saw it, and that was middle school - we're talking at last time 1983, maybe.

You played the shooter a'la SI, but were shooting at balloons (like big, hot-air balloons) in formation instead of spaceships.  Underneath the shooter was a "clown" (I think) running back and forth, and every so often a balloon would swoop down out of formation and try to kidnap the clown.  You could shoot it, or if you failed, it caught the clown and took it up out of the screen if you didn't shoot it.  While climbing up the screen, the clown says "Help!  Help!  Help!"  Then if you shot the balloon, he floated back to his "home" while saying "Thank you!"

I don't know why, but I loved that game.  I just wish I could remember what it was called.  Trying to google it is hard - mostly references to Atari's "Circus" game and so on!

Pinball - same arcade - THE BLACK HOLE.  Saw it a few other places, though, so it was somewhat popular.

It was awesome - various staging levels where the ball might pop out.  Great pinball, never seen 1 as "interesting" since.

Anyone ever play EMPIRE CITY 1931?  c. 1989 as I played that at my college campus with a school pal - we wore out that thing.  I also saw it at a local 7-11.  It was a very simple shooting game (with guns), very simple graphics/animation - but we loved it!

I've found the name of that balloon game! It's called King & Balloon from the early 80's!

hsu3TOX4nU0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_%26_Balloon

Pacman
Ms. Pacman
Galaxian
Asteroids
Centipede
Galaga

Well, since I'm late to the thread and everyone's covered Altered Beast and King and Balloon...


Golgo 13


That's obscure.  But yes, there was a 1999 gun game based on the Anime series.

Why yes, I did spend a lot of time at the arcade.  In the early 80s, you could usually find me on the Atari row with Battlezone, Missile Command, or Tempest, or on the Williams row with Defender, Robotron, and/or Stargate.  Knew my Pac-Man patterns and could hold my own for an hour or so, but never made it to the kill screen.  In the late 80s, I helped keep my local arcade afloat for a few more months by practically living in Sega's full-motion Afterburner machine.  Whenever I'm lucky enough to see one in the wild, Galaga and Ms. Pac are still guaranteed to get a quarter.


Nibbler


Speaking of Nibbler, just last weekend, Tim McVey made an attempt to take back his title from Rick Carter, but due to a known bug, the game ended prematurely.  

There's the thrill of victory - but after almost 24 hours of continuous play to get to 600M points, there's the risk of...

NWpUmdTRHxA

...the agony of defeat.

At 129 extra lives, a bug in Nibbler ends the game.  The code basically says "There's no 129 in two's complement arithmetic on an 8-bit system, so that's not 129 lives left, it's a minus 1.  And since he has -1 lives left, he must have lost a life with zero lives left, and therefore the game is over.")  

Still a hell of a performance from (video) gaming's first billion-point gamer.

That's obscure.  But yes, there was a 1999 gun game based on the Anime series.



hmmm...maybe I got the name of the game wrong (wouldn't be the first time.)  The game I think of was typical joystick and fire button, that ran on laser disk, very similar to Dragon's Lair.  If you didn't press the joystick up exactly the right time, the little seguay/cut scene animation would replay and you'd have to do the scene all over from the beginning.   :-\\

edit: OK, it was bugging me, so I tracked it down.

Cliff Hanger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGhgO_dv9fU

Watching it all these years later, it's rather loud and annoying now...  ;D  I think I've reached the years now where I want peace and quiet and as little stimulation as possible.  Yeah, I'm real fun at parties.  ;) :D

I've found the name of that balloon game! It's called King & Balloon from the early 80's!

hsu3TOX4nU0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_%26_Balloon



Hey Barry,this reminds me of Space Invaders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcO0Gu37NhE

Who here remembers Hogan's Alley?

Cliff Hanger


Ha! I remember that game. It came out after Dragons Lair during those few years laser disk games were really popular.
Seems to me this was at that arcade in Wisconsin, because I only had the opportunity to play it a few times, but at the time thought it was really cool.
I later found out the game was just pieced together from an existing anime series called Lupin 3. In particular a movie called The Castle of Cagliostro.
I have the movie on VHS, and the dubbed voices in the game are way different than the movie.

Another laser disk game I really liked was called Cobra Command.
You flew around in a helicopter an blew things up. That was a pretty cool laser disk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN1LC2s4P-w

I also remember Hogan Alley. Gun games were always a favorite. I think one of the earliest and best was Crossbow. I guess it wasn't technically a gun game since you in fact fired a crossbow, but I always liked that game and thought it had amazing graphics for the time.

Astron Belt was my favorite laserdisc game. It cost 50 cents a game and the gameplay was rough. But I didn't care, I loved watching those model spaceships and purty 'splosions.

One laserdisc game I would love to play is Star Rider (1983). It's the most 80's looking game I've ever seen. It's like an 80's nightmare!

m7z25MrF1hk

But I didn't care, I loved watching those model spaceships and purty 'splosions.


That was one I recall as well and played a few times. Those gasoline can explosions were kick ass back in the day!!
I wasn't very good at it from what I recall though. Never lasted long and like you said, the LD games were usually 50 cents!!

That is a pretty one barry, I'm guessing my arcade never got it.  :\'(

I remember a holographic laserdisc one called Time Traveler (and as I recall, it cost a pretty quarter to play back then.)  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r0bCjMkFf8


We were speaking of films that had arcade scenes in it... on a similar stroll down memory lane, I was thinking of that other rite-of-passage from the 80s (music videos.)

Two that I remember having arcade scenes in were:

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - You got lucky (It had the arcade game "Astro Invader" in it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTAhZKP5wCY
Glenn Frey - You belong to the city (Glenn walks by an arcade whilst walking around "The city")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AczNk1CBTbM

Time Traveler looks amazing! I checked a list of laserdisc games I could play on my pc using an emulator, but sadly, Star Rider wasn't there.  :\'(

Too bad. It would've been awesome listening to Flock of Seagulls or Aldo Nova while cruising through all those diamonds and cubes.  8)

Good thing is - I'm actually playing King and Balloon on MAME right now! And yes, the king says "Help!"/"Thank you!" when you rescue him. It's great!  ;D

Astron Belt was my favorite laserdisc game. It cost 50 cents a game and the gameplay was rough. But I didn't care, I loved watching those model spaceships and purty 'splosions.

One laserdisc game I would love to play is Star Rider (1983). It's the most 80's looking game I've ever seen. It's like an 80's nightmare!

m7z25MrF1hk




Wow Barry what system was it for?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdXNpEUT54o

Pole Position (1983)

There was never a home game version of Star Rider, just a standup arcade game.

I've never seen one myself. But I've heard it had a "space cycle" you sat down on, handlebars, etc.

It's just as well we didn't have one at my local arcade. I would've wasted tons of allowance money on that!

Astron Belt was my favorite laserdisc game. It cost 50 cents a game and the gameplay was rough. But I didn't care, I loved watching those model spaceships and purty 'splosions.


No disrespect to Astron Belt, but as long as we're breaking out the frickin' lasers, Atari's Firefox topped it.

It was a cross between Star Wars (shoot the bullets (or the red radar-thingies), not the enemies), but with two difficult tradeoffs: the more you shot the enemies, the more likely you were to get shot.  The more you got shot, the less fuel you had.  Like Star Wars, if you ran out of fuel (shields), you crashed and burned in the Russian arctic, and the game was over.  But unlike Star Wars (where surviving the level got you one, two, or three shields back depending on operator settings), in Firefox, if you survived the level, the more enemies you shot, the more fuel you had for the next round.

Hard game to play, even harder game for an arcade operator to keep running.

Oh yes, and explosions.  Lots of explosions.

Here's a 6000-mile game played almost flawlessly (he gets detected twice: once on a flight segment at 4:06, and again in the second-last flight segment at 4:26); the player is almost never in danger.  

JzYKcjwCUvM

I could nail the 6000 in my sleep, but a 9000 or 12000-mile game (12000 was an "unlimited journey", but "waves per unlimited journey" could be set to either 4 or 8 waves, corresponding to 12000 or 24000 miles) typically had me taking off on the last 3000 mile hop either knowing I was doomed at takeoff, but more often than not, I was sweating it out through the entire level, ending with a final flight segment during which, if I played flawlessly, I would still be coasting out of the ice trench on fumes.  My 12000-mile games were coin flips, my 24000-mile game (after finding a machine that let me do the whole 24000 miles) was a miraculous fluke that probably cost me a small fortune.  But it was worth it.  Coming out of the trench with "0 - empty" in the lower right-hand corner of Firefox was one of my favorite (and expensive) arcade memories.  

It was only after that game was over that I realized I'd essentially flown around the world and probably landed the damn thing in Moscow :)

I've never seen one myself. But I've heard it had a "space cycle" you sat down on, handlebars, etc.


It seems to me I saw this game only in video game mags at the time, never in person.
I suspect it was pretty rare. Too bad, at the time it no doubt would have made a mint, but was probably VERY expensive to produce which would explain the lack of first hand experiences.


I could nail the 6000 in my sleep, but a 9000 or 12000-mile game (12000 was an "unlimited journey", but "waves per unlimited journey" could be set to either 4 or 8 waves, corresponding to 12000 or 24000 miles) typically had me taking off on the last 3000 mile hop either knowing I was doomed at takeoff, but more often than not, I was sweating it out through the entire level, ending with a final flight segment during which, if I played flawlessly, I would still be coasting out of the ice trench on fumes.  My 12000-mile games were coin flips, my 24000-mile game (after finding a machine that let me do the whole 24000 miles) was a miraculous fluke that probably cost me a small fortune.  But it was worth it.  Coming out of the trench with "0 - empty" in the lower right-hand corner of Firefox was one of my favorite (and expensive) arcade memories. 


This is an awesome post. Firefox was a GREAT game. I was like 12 when it came out and had seen the movie. This was outrageously cool at the time, to see a movie turned into a game! I almost always played the 6000 which I'm guessing anyone could finish because I recall I could beat it.  I tried the 9000 but couldn't finish it so I'd always pick the 6000. Not much of a challenge even then....but still VERY cool. Thanks for reminding me. I haven't thought of that game in years!

Who remembers the wrestling games from the arcade?

I suspect it was pretty rare. Too bad, at the time it no doubt would have made a mint, but was probably VERY expensive to produce which would explain the lack of first hand experiences.


It wasn't the cost of producing the game, it was the cost of keeping it running.  The laserdisc players of the time (and specifically the model used in Firefox) were pushing the edge of technology for home video, and simply couldn't stand up to the dusty, hot, and heavy-vibration environment of the arcade.

If you ever own a laserdisc game (consult your local Craigslist and eBay, they come up for sale fairly frequently in both working and non-working condition, and most are relatively easy to fix if you can find the parts, which is where the community part comes in), you can join the community at the Dragon's Lair Project.  The people there will walk you through the fix, and/or help find you the parts at reasonable ($50-100) prices.

If you don't have the space for a full-size cabinet, DAPHNE is to laserdisc games what MAME is to most arcade games.  You can run most of the games in emulation on a PC, and it's virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

But if all of that sounds like work, and you need some motivation, hit up this guy's blog and take a walk down laserdisc game memory lane.

I loved Arcades!!!!!!!

In the 80s i always used to go WHEN THEY HAD G00D GAMES!! (Ms pacman,Galaga,frogger,Galaxian,etc)

Took me a day, but the little file clerks in my brain finally found the name of this one...

Ghouls 'n Ghosts

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7939


A wonderful sequel to the hit Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Typically merciless difficulty level from Capcom but it still doesn't stop me trying to complete the game.

I didn't have much money to go to the arcades when I was a little 'un but I do remember playing Pacland and R-Type.