Arcade Memories

[TL]

So everyone we are all old gits here, what are your earliest memories of the arcades of yesteryear?

Most of my earliest memories are of going on holiday to Butlins, my dad used to play on the machines I used to watch but then when I got older he would give me money to play on them too. I can remember the arcade at Butlins in Margate vividly. The machines I remember most are Jack Rabbit, Sega's Monaco GP, Pole Position and the Pac-Man games by Namco, Ladybug, Atari's Gauntlet, Super Sprint & Paperboy and Nichibutsu's Moon Cresta.

There was also a youth centre in our town where my mum did dance lessons and they had an arcade at the back. I can recall that they had Pole Position, Asteroids, Konami's Jail Break and 720 Degrees.

Out local cinema also had an arcade on the side of it but the only machine I actually remember them definately having was Dragon's Lair, probably because it wowed me so much when I first saw it.

[AmigaJay]

My earliest memories of playing an arcade game was actually on holiday in Corfu in 1983 when I was 6, in our hotel lobby they had a tabletop Space Invaders machine, I just remember everyone being wowed by the graphics and sfx, also someone worked out you could put a 2p coin in the drakma slot and it gave you a credit!

Back home when we moved from Cambridgeshire down to Devon in 1986 was amazing...over .the next 10 years I would experience hundreds of new arcade machines when they came out..good times.

Also remember trying to climb on the full size hang-on bike machine ad literally 'hanging' on lol

[onthinice]

My first was Sea Wolf.

Then the usual suspects: Berzerk, DK, Dk Jr., Krull, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Phoenix, Space Invaders, Spy Hunter and Super Pac-Man.

[TL]

Oh wow, that cab looks beautiful! 

[onthinice]

It is such a simple game but the cabinet made it cool!

[guest4451]

Since my memory's getting worse, I'm going to rely on a post I made in 2006 on RG. 

Furthering my non-UK exploits, even when we traveled to somewhere like France, my arcade detector managed to find a couple of places. Thinking back, I remember managing to come across games like New Zealand Story, Out Run and the peculiar Hard Head on my pilgrimage. Furthermore, many boat trips were spent hanging around whatever arcades they had on board.

Sorry for the waffle, I'm pretty hungover at the moment so this was about all I could be bothered doing today '

[Tachi]

My first arcade memory is going to Cues, the Snooker club in Plymouth when I was about 7 or so and they and they had a table in the snooker area which had the Pacman game built into the tabletop.
That ate loads of my 10ps
I realised then that films like DARYL lied, beating a game doe snot make you cool

[onthinice]

I was trying to remember Stunt Cycle and stumbled across Happy Days the Fonz.

[dougtitchmarsh]

My first arcade memories were of being in the Airport Bowl near Heathrow airport when my dad was bowling in the league there on Friday nights and some Saturdays. He'd be practising bowling and me and my brother would be allowed some money to play the machines. My earliest memories are of the Breakout cabinet and standing on a crate to try to bash those bricks. I also remember the Space Invaders machine turning up one week and drawing a crowd.
One of the games I remember playing but don't recall the name of was a driving game with a top down view, and a wheel you tried to steer with as you spun wildly around the track. I was under ten years old, so don't hold it against me that I don't recall the name.

[Console Compulsive]

My first arcade memories are of the arcades are from the mid 70's in my home town of Canvey Island. My mum used to take me there as a toddler along with my older brother.  There were four arcades on the seafront (With another one built in 1988) and the funfair and the Casino, the biggest of the arcades, which was sadly demolished in 1993.

When I was finally old enough to actually play the games (about 5 years old) my experiences were limited to the penny pushers, shooting gallery games and Mechanical style games with only a handful of video games to choose from. Games such as Boot Hill, Pong, Breakout, Night Driver became my entry into the world of video games and the variey of games rapidly expanded as time went on.

The good thing with having so many arcades in the area was the sheer variety of games. With each arcade being in such hot competition with the others they would always try to buy games that the other arcades didn't have. Also as a added bonus Southend on Sea was a bus ride a bus ride away.

[sloan]

Around the time I was 15-16 years of age, I frequented two arcades in my town. My preference was for a family-owned arcade that would give me 8 tokens for $1, versus the standard quarter charge for most arcade games of the time. I distinctly remember one summer day when I looked over to the door and a young couple walked in. Being a normal teenage male, I scoped out the female and she was nicely attractive, wearing shorter shorts and a crop top with clearly no bra underneath, if you catch what I am saying. The crop top was like a tee shirt that has been cut off to midriff level. Going about my normal arcade gaming activities, I would occasionally glance over her direction to enjoy the scenery, all while trying to go unnoticed by her male companion. One time I looked over and what I saw blew my mind. She had bent over to tie her shoe, with her rear parts facing my direction, and I could clearly see everything she had inside her crop top hanging down for full display. This young woman was not overly large in the chest department, but probably a c-cup in my estimation, and thoroughly made my day for sure. I have to say that is the best arcade experience I ever had.

[TL]

Around the time I was 15-16 years of age, I frequented two arcades in my town. My preference was for a family-owned arcade that would give me 8 tokens for $1, versus the standard quarter charge for most arcade games of the time. I distinctly remember one summer day when I looked over to the door and a young couple walked in. Being a normal teenage male, I scoped out the female and she was nicely attractive, wearing shorter shorts and a crop top with clearly no bra underneath, if you catch what I am saying. The crop top was like a tee shirt that has been cut off to midriff level. Going about my normal arcade gaming activities, I would occasionally glance over her direction to enjoy the scenery, all while trying to go unnoticed by her male companion. One time I looked over and what I saw blew my mind. She had bent over to tie her shoe, with her rear parts facing my direction, and I could clearly see everything she had inside her crop top hanging down for full display. This young woman was not overly large in the chest department, but probably a c-cup in my estimation, and thoroughly made my day for sure. I have to say that is the best arcade experience I ever had.

 

[onthinice]

I would rep you if I could Sloan :21:

[dougtitchmarsh]

sloan = legend

[sloan]

Nothing I did. I was just in the right place at the right time.