The 80's video arcade.

[Nuke1967]

Who remembers standing in the arcade, usually at a mall, most of the time dimly lit the sounds of Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Bezerk, Asteroids and other games loudly heard through the whole place.

Pumping your whole allowance in the machines, watching some that could play forever on one quarter and being a bit jealous..

The good ole days.

 

[ringwood]

Yep...you know, "retro" stuff is so popular these days (geez, does that word ever make me feel old, heheh) but I have never seen a retro arcade. Somebody should start bringing those back, might make a mint off us old-timers pining for the good 'ol days.

 

[NightHawkJohn]

I do remember them well, although they were in decline when i was in my teens but i do remember playing on them and that sound of 50 games sound effects all playing together lol, my grandfathers friend owned arcade and also rented them out to others IIRC, i have a vague memory of me in the back of a arcade playing on anything i wanted as the doors were open on the coin boxes so you could just flick the micro switch to get more credits .

I also had an Space invaders table which was our family coffee table for a long while and two other machines which were in my living room, i think a gambling one and i cant remember the other.

 

[beautiful loser]

Hell, frickin yes!! Some of the best days of my youth. And you forgot Robotron, my favorite stand up (one time, played for over four hours on one quarter, setting the high score...best arcade day of my life...haha).

My favorite place to go to was the "Family Fun Center"...had the arcade and mini golf. Never played golf, once...was too busy pumping quarters into the **** machines...back when they were ONLY a quarter, not that 50 cent bullshit they started going to when the arcades started dying out.

 

[Nuke1967]

I lived in a rural area, the only real arcade was about 35 mins away in the mall, I remember at 14 walking towards it and hearing those sounds, thinking what I was going to play first or what new game was in there now.

I enjoyed Robotron, there were so many back then, got to the point didn't have enough money to play them all lol. Those were the carefree days, no worries other than running out of quarters..



[video=youtube]

 

[johnny196775]

Berzerk was fun.

 

[Case]

Oh man. Arcades in the 70s and 80s usually had some kind of cheesy, faux-future paint scheme, neon signs and accents, a lonely dude in a cage whose only job was to give out coin change in exchange for paper money, and of course, there was the non-stop cacophony of every game in the place making noises, bleeps, and 8-bit songs, all at the same time. As a kid, it never bothered me, but I imagine it drove adults crazy.

Much of my formative years were spend in these places.

That first pic shows a guy playing Karate Champ. My buddy and I played that game to death back then.

 

[OnlyMe]

I remember those days like they were yesterday.

Here in Australia back in the early 1980's most of the games used to cost 20 cents to play.
However, I remember certain games such as 'Space Ace' and 'Punch Out' costing more to play.

Also the sit down arcade table machines were great.

 

[Edward W]

I tried supplimenting my driving lessons by using Hard Drivin'

Not sure it really helped as being a game I made quick gear changes that maybe do not relate so well to the real world, but it was based on a driving simulator apparently. (It did feature a key to start the car and clutch!)

No loop-the-loop on my driving test though!

 

[Cavey]

When I was a lad, I used to travel around the country with my dad and I played arcade machines in a thousand greasy transport cafes. I also used to spend our entire 2 week holidays just standing from 9am until 11pm smoking pumping cash into arcade machines.

We did have an arcade in our town. It was called The Harlequin. Unfortunately, it was a smoke filled, windowless area full of drug dealers and other unsavoury people, so I wasn't supposed to go there. It didn't stop me spending all my spare money in it though.

It's nice to see Time Pilot, Karate Champ and Circus Charlie in the opening photo. I loved Circus Charlie.

 

[Nuke1967]

I tried supplimenting my driving lessons by using Hard Drivin'

Not sure it really helped as being a game I made quick gear changes that maybe do not relate so well to the real world, but it was based on a driving simulator apparently. (It did feature a key to start the car and clutch!)

No loop-the-loop on my driving test though!

I remember playing that in arcade, and crashing the car, I thought it was hilarious, not making it around the loop track because not enough speed and virtual gravity did it's thing, or I would go up and fly off the side of the loop and go flying and "Crash and Burn"..Man it was fun.


[video=youtube]

 

[beautiful loser]

[video=youtube]

A bit of nostalgia for all of you arcade fans. You'll thank me later If you shed a tear listening to this, well, I don't blame you.

 

[Nuke1967]

I know those sounds all to well as I walked up to the arcade and the echo of all the games in that enclosed space. A guy made this in 2001 , it really took me back when I saw it.

[video=youtube]