I miss 20 years ago when every mall had an arcade place

I remember playing on some "hacked" versions of Street Fighter 2 in some gas station where fireballs travel in a sine wave pattern and you can shoot multiple ones at on the screen at various speeds of super-slow, normal, and really fast. All the characters can also "jump" their way up the screen scrolling upwards and back through the "ground."
 
jds62f said:
lol i thought the same thing. I hate going to the mall! I do go to d&b for the video games every now and again though. What do things cost at the strip club you go to? Anytime I've ever been in one its been at least $20 cover, and when its cheaper they require you to buy at least one drink (with a bottle of beer costing $7-9). Definitely NOT cheaper than any dave and busters I've been too... but then again I'd rather have my boobies at home anyway....
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$20 doesn't get you too many games in D&B. Hell one round of the vr will cost will cost u $10. Plus the drinks are about the same as nudie bar prices.

I used to work at the Houston D&B when I was 19 back when you used tokens not the card swipes. Used to have to come in at 6am to empty the machines of tokens to get them recycled and packaged back up again. Good thing was playing all the games on our off times for free. My nickname at the time was "Matrix" playing the Mechwarrior pod simulators, it was before the movie came out and I ruled. (of course I played it constantly) other favorite game was Manx TT I ruled that one as well.
 
Joe Average said:
One of my fave fun games was Ring King, a boxing game. Just had the silliest sounds and graphics, and when you hit just the right combos it would do a freeze-frame at the moment of the punch, then slow motion. Hilarious stuff...
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I had Ring King on NES. It was one of the era's fighting gems, along with pro wrestling.

For me, the true golden era of the arcades died in the early 90s, SF2 being the last great "destination" arcade game. The game you went to the mall or pizza place just to play. Arcades were never the same after the advancements of PCs and home consoles by the end of the decade. I'd occasionally drop some change into a Model 2/3 machine, but even that lost its luster when the arcade's graphics stopped outpacing home machines.
 
rkatapt said:
$20 doesn't get you too many games in D&B. Hell one round of the vr will cost will cost u $10. Plus the drinks are about the same as nudie bar prices.

I used to work at the Houston D&B when I was 19 back when you used tokens not the card swipes. Used to have to come in at 6am to empty the machines of tokens to get them recycled and packaged back up again. Good thing was playing all the games on our off times for free. My nickname at the time was "Matrix" playing the Mechwarrior pod simulators, it was before the movie came out and I ruled. (of course I played it constantly) other favorite game was Manx TT I ruled that one as well.
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to be fair, $20 doesn't get you far in a club either. and just like at d&b, if you want a "premium" experience its going to cost you more... i could buy that they are on par with each other $$ wise, but there's no way a club is cheaper unless you pay to get in and then sit in the far corner all night...
 
Lots of good arcade memories here as well. I'm another old gamer, so I have fond memories of games like Gorf, Robotron, Tempest, Mappy, Spy Hunter, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Defender and some 2 player baseball game I can't recall the name of.
 
I missed arcades so much I decided to bring it home where it belongs.. ;)

Link

I wish they would make a comeback though cause there isn't nothing like putting the quarter up on the ledge, waiting your turn, and whooping someones ass in SF2.
 
Arcades were great when i lived 20 minues from the Jersey shore, in NJ. Always a few with 50-100+ machines like 30 minutes away.

Those days are long gone, I remember playing them in the mid 80's, games such as double dragon, and it's clones, paperboy, gauntlet, and others, seemed to reach a peak in the mid 90's, but started to die off with the Playstation, and N64 gen consoles, the ps2/xbox just about put the stake in it.
 
I don't know if anyone can help me with the name of an arcade game I love.

It was top down view, kinda like Raiden, and you would pilot a ship but as u progresses you would add more parts and eventually you would turn into a robot ala voltron, it was really cool, but cant remember the name.
 
We have a Dave and Busters here in Kansas City, and it's fun to go to occasionally... There is a horse breeding/racing game I got into for a little bit. My only issue was the lack of Pinball games... The D&B's that was up in Detroit had the Pinball games and I LOVED IT SO MUCH! I really want to buy one some day but dang they are like $1000...
 
I truly know how you feel man, some of my best memories came from arcades at the Mall, I can remember spending entire days there only to be picked up at a designated time from my parents or my friends parents. We had a pretty big arcade at the theater by my house when I was a kid and I used to spend alot of time up there, either playing the arcades or watching movies, I miss those moments dearly.

I can remember waiting in lines for up to half and hour just to play Mortal Kombat and Tekken, I think it wasn't the arcade that was so much that was the fun , but the social gathering, and you knew that everyone around you was there for the same reason you were... to have fun , And fun we did have :).

Thanks for the thread.
 
you guys were so into fighting games.. man I just never got into those, but I did watch sometimes... I loved my scrolling shooters though... :) yeah, thanks for the thread also... totally nostalgic..
 
I wonder why arcade machines no longer have a graphics edge on consoles? Makes no sense. Consoles use outdated hardware just like they always have. Arcade machines could easily use PC hardware and smoke them. That was the entire reason I went to the arcade. Killer Instinct 1 and 2 looked awesome while my games at home on Sega Genesis looked like pure crap in comparison.

Throw together an arcade cabinet with 4870x2 quadfire and a Intel quadcore chip displaying on a nice LCD... make some games designed specifically for the hardware... then you will have my attention and I "might" pay 50-75 cents to play for a few minutes. As it is though, its paying lots of money to play old tired looking games! Especially in the arcades around here... which by the way have very few fighting games. Marvel vs Capcom is about it. Heck if they had the old KI2 I used to play in middle school I would be happy.
 
magnetik said:
I missed arcades so much I decided to bring it home where it belongs.. ;)

Link

I wish they would make a comeback though cause there isn't nothing like putting the quarter up on the ledge, waiting your turn, and whooping someones ass in SF2.
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I've got Hyperspin Frontend on mine...i'm will never use another thing!
 
revenant said:
so while we're on the subject of classic arcading, anyone have one of these?

http://www.xgaming.com/pc.shtml

I was thinking about getting one for better mame gaming..
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I've got the 2 stick X arcade stick.. It's very nice, but I'd like to have a usb connection for my htpc setup. The new sticks do have usb ports, but I'm not dropping another $150 on that. I'm going to switch out my buttons with either Happ or Sanwa soon.
 
I've been through several different arcade phases from the days of Pac Man, to Double Dragon/Bad Dudes/Heavy Barrel, to Street Fighter/MK, and pretty much finally with all of those Wii-like games they had a few years ago.
I definitely miss it, but at least online gaming offers us some kind of replacement. It'll never be the same and I'll never forget the friends and enemies from the fighting game era. However with online gaming getting better and more interactive we could see a resurgeance of that scene online. Who remembers playing Doom on a BBS system? Look how far we've come since then!
 
Master Blaster said:
I've got the 2 stick X arcade stick.. It's very nice, but I'd like to have a usb connection for my htpc setup. The new sticks do have usb ports, but I'm not dropping another $150 on that. I'm going to switch out my buttons with either Happ or Sanwa soon.
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ok, good to know... I noticed they had two of these at Fry's the last time I was there and I was realllly tempted... I think I will pick one up next trip. but judging by the dust on the box it might be the older version.
 
revenant said:
ok, good to know... I noticed they had two of these at Fry's the last time I was there and I was realllly tempted... I think I will pick one up next trip. but judging by the dust on the box it might be the older version.
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Before you jump on getting the stick, check over at this thread here on NeoGaf. Those people are religious in their arcade sticks. There are more sticks that are "better" given their parts are manufactured by top tier arcade makers.

Personally, if I wasn't setting up a full MAME cabinet and wanted just a single stick for games. I'd get:

HRAP3 (hori)
or
Madcatz Street Fighter IV TE stick

nothing else is going to really be on the level of those sticks.
 
Oh wow, thanks for the info, peeps. Glad I thought to mention this here. :)

the HotRod (above) looks slick... man if I could play robitron on my pc in all of it's two stick glory that would bring a tear to my eye.
 
Ladic said:
These one is way better and cheaper

http://www.hanaho.com/Products/HotRodJoystick.php
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I'd put both on par with each other. I was going back and forth with either the XGaming or HotRod system. Both are fine for beginner setups. The main reason I went with the XG system is because it was more well know and therefore I thought it to be better if more people had it. You can't go wrong really.
 
RiZnO said:
I'll never forget the day I was at my local arcade and the delivery guys rolled in a new game called Mortal Kombat... I was playing sf2 and watched the techs set the game up and it just sat there unplayed for an hour till me and a friend went to check it out..... I was never the same after lol MK changed my life forever haha
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hahaha right on. I remember the first time I saw mortal kombat in an arcade like it was yesterday. The graphics were stunning and the obscene violence was simply amazing lol. I proceeded to wait for a chance to play, only to have the other schmuck playing whoop my ass and shock my head off

anyone remember the sega game that was holographic? It was pretty cool for its time too


and San Fransisco Rush > all
 
Domingo said:
I've been through several different arcade phases from the days of Pac Man, to Double Dragon/Bad Dudes/Heavy Barrel, to Street Fighter/MK, and pretty much finally with all of those Wii-like games they had a few years ago.
I definitely miss it, but at least online gaming offers us some kind of replacement. It'll never be the same and I'll never forget the friends and enemies from the fighting game era. However with online gaming getting better and more interactive we could see a resurgeance of that scene online. Who remembers playing Doom on a BBS system? Look how far we've come since then!
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lol nice... BBS's were awesome. Got my first copy of doom (shareware) from one. 4 hours tying up the phone line and downloading a 5 meg file beat spending 5.00 for a mail order shareware cd

the internet has certainly changed the world
 
Grimmda said:
We have a Dave and Busters here in Kansas City, and it's fun to go to occasionally... There is a horse breeding/racing game I got into for a little bit. My only issue was the lack of Pinball games... The D&B's that was up in Detroit had the Pinball games and I LOVED IT SO MUCH! I really want to buy one some day but dang they are like $1000...
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Look on craigslist? I want a pinball for my basement someday (got to get the basement first) but when I get "step 1" taken care of thats where I'm going to get my pinball machine from.
 
Ladic said:
that use to be the days, when u walked into just about any mall, and there was the arcade place with over 30 arcades to play with.

What happaened to those days??? now all arcades are either shooters or racing and you can barely find a place that has an arcade or two,
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I feel for you, we had an arcade place in the mall called Tilt, funny they didn't have any pinball games (miss those too) but it was all arcade games. It was the place to be for the newest, I remember when my friends and I first saw Gauntlet man that game took our quarters fast! :D

The movie Tron, Flynn's Arcade, I think most 80's arcade places were like these. Some people are so nostalgic that they recreate them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTXgQE7XcXg

Damn, I feel old, the closest we have of those now is Dave & Busters, not the same though.

I think one of the cool things were that games were original, I mean there were clones, but where would you see games such as Root Beer Tapper, Timber, Rat Pack, Moon Patrol, Gauntlet, etc., something for everyone.

Sometimes I think that someone could open up one with a pizza joint or something and it will do great but unfortunately the times have change, and spending time at one place is a waste time. Sad, I know. We used to go out to Pizza Hut, sit down and spend an hour to eat, play the jukebox, etc. but now, it's all carry out.

Dang, it makes me old and sad.
 
tronmaster said:
I feel for you, we had an arcade place in the mall called Tilt, funny they didn't have any pinball games (miss those too) but it was all arcade games. It was the place to be for the newest, I remember when my friends and I first saw Gauntlet man that game took our quarters fast! :D

The movie Tron, Flynn's Arcade, I think most 80's arcade places were like these. Some people are so nostalgic that they recreate them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTXgQE7XcXg

Damn, I feel old, the closest we have of those now is Dave & Busters, not the same though.

I think one of the cool things were that games were original, I mean there were clones, but where would you see games such as Root Beer Tapper, Timber, Rat Pack, Moon Patrol, Gauntlet, etc., something for everyone.

Sometimes I think that someone could open up one with a pizza joint or something and it will do great but unfortunately the times have change, and spending time at one place is a waste time. Sad, I know. We used to go out to Pizza Hut, sit down and spend an hour to eat, play the jukebox, etc. but now, it's all carry out.

Dang, it makes me old and sad.
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Hey the Mall I went to had a "Tilt" in it also... it was underneath the malls food court.. it had a big Pirate ship you could play "shoot the pirate" with laser feedback rifles.. Ahh the good ole days.
 
Another reason why consoles should never have been invented.

My perfect world would have only PC games and Arcade games :)
 
I've always wondered how you would make arcades successful again. Maybe a classic games only arcade with a big screen competition so everyone could watch? In the middle of a mall?

Charge only 5 cents per game?
 
Master Blaster said:
This post is mainly for magnetik, but check it out fellas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-JEQHS23L4

and this is for Grimmda, since you like pinball ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkVYnnudHdM

Of course, none of this beats the real deal, but you know there are people who love the Arcade Culture as much as you!
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hahaha nice! over the top! I wish I had the space for a full size 4 player. I even have my 37 Westy as a donor.

I'm using Maximus Arcade as my FE. It was the first one I tried that worked w/out too many quirks.

But there's nothing like being completely surrounded by lights and sounds of a REAL arcade.
 
RavenX said:
I just watched Terminator 2 and when John Connor and his friend went to the "galleria" that brought back memories. Sucks there are no places like that nowadays
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The "galleria?" (Storms off to go find John Connor)
 
revenant said:
Oh wow, thanks for the info, peeps. Glad I thought to mention this here. :)

the HotRod (above) looks slick... man if I could play robitron on my pc in all of it's two stick glory that would bring a tear to my eye.
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I have that stick.. and by default in robotron it uses 2 sticks. Same for smash tv. (only one player for my setup though)
 
bfellow said:
I remember playing on some "hacked" versions of Street Fighter 2 in some gas station where fireballs travel in a sine wave pattern and you can shoot multiple ones at on the screen at various speeds of super-slow, normal, and really fast. All the characters can also "jump" their way up the screen scrolling upwards and back through the "ground."
Click to expand...

In 1993 I went to Israel and it was before Champion Edition. In a hotel there in Jerusalem, there was a hacked SF2 cabinet where you could play as all of the bosses, and all the characters had all kinds of hacks and tricks. It was pretty cool. I was less impressed with the actual sightseeing tour of the country. No I'm kidding it was a terrific journey I'll never forget it.
 
I recently took my younger brother to the local arcade. I remember arcades having way better graphics than my console/pc could put out at the time, but now that is a thing of the past. Some of the arcades there were still sporting Ps1 graphics...not even worth the 50 cents.

I will say for those of you over the age of 21, Dave n Busters is pretty fun. Getting hammered while playing some of the games there is pretty fun.
 
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