Your childhood games / memories

[opa]

I just thought I'd share a gaming-related story and maybe open things up for discussion. When I was a kid one of the doctors offices I went to had arcade games. Yes, real cabinets. And it was awesome. Just from my fuzzy memories, I recall playing Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Galaga, Ghosts n Goblins, and Crystal Castles (probably a PacMan / Ms Pac Man too, but I can't remember)

As a kid it really helped calm my nerves for any upcoming appointment. You actually got to have a bit of fun! Which is a nice change compared to reading through the 1997 November issue of "Sports Illustrated" or whatever magazines the office had in a stack.

My project the past week or so has been rebuilding this "appointment arcade" or whatever you want to call it. I got a half decent usb arcade stick and a spare raspberry pi and dumped all these games onto it for a nostalgia trip. (I also included Golden Axe because why not)

Do y'all have any memories like this from back in the day?

[Ziggy]

That's awesome. When I was really young, the doctor that I would go to had two waiting rooms, the sick side and the well side. The sick side was like a play room of sorts. And there was this thing high up on the walls, a string that ran from one wall across the room to the other wall, with a little toy man riding a unicycle on the string. He would go from one side of the room to the other. It was enough to keep my occupied every time I went there. Later, when I was still young, I started going to a different doctor. The waiting room there was as boring as boring could be.




When I was a kid, we had this local place called Sports Plus. It was huge, and it had everything. When you walked into the main entrance, there was a huge arcade floor. Straight back was food concessions, with tables and chairs. They had pizza and soda, that sorta thing. They had arcade cabinets, as well as other more carnival-like games like ski ball, hoops and that sort of thing. You had to trade cash for tokens, and games won you tickets which you could exchange for prizes. I still have my Sports Plus fanny pack! I went there many times, including at least one birthday party.

But it was much more than an arcade floor. In the same area as the arcades was also a small bumper car arena. At one point they added indoor rock climbing, which was a lot of fun. Off of the main floor were several other areas. There was laser tag, and a 4D movie theater. I did a couple of 4D movies there, and they were a lot of fun. Upstairs was a bar that had pool tables and a couple of bowling lanes. Then off to the side was an ice rink.

It was an amazing place to go to as a kid. And I would love to still go there as an adult. But sadly it closed.

[Jagosaurus]

I have more of these from public places and arcades, but will share a fun at home one...

I bought a Sega Dreamcast at launch and my dad drove me to the mall. Fairly certain it was still a Software Etc that hadn't been rebranded to Game Stop yet. I actually only had enough money for the system itself . I was going to be okay with demo disc & Hollywood Video rentals for a bit while I saved up for games.

My dad was blown away by NFL2K playing in store on a kiosk as a big football fan. He splurged and bought me Sonic Adventure & NFL2K for us to play together.

That first NFL2K game once home, I beat him BAD. We're talking probably 70 to 6 . I then got sucked into Sonic Adventure for weeks ...

Well, my dad had been working nights. When I was at school, he would sneakily take Sonic out, practice NFL2K, put Sonic back in system, put NFL2K back in jewel case. I was oblivious to his antics when I got home from school & booted up Sonic.

I was surprised when my dad challenge me again. And even more surprised when he beat me & then confessed to his practice sessions

I had some great Dreamcast memories that generation with family and friends. That's by far my favorite one though.

[Ziggy]

That's an awesome story, Jag. Thanks for sharing it!

[Note]

Great idea for a thread and cool to read some of the memories that have been shared. Awesome story about your dad sneaking in some playing time on the Dreamcast, Jag.

I have a lot of childhood gaming memories, but I guess I'll start with one at the beginning of my gaming journey.

In the late 80s and early 90s, I lived in a small building with three apartments, which were all occupied by my family or my extended family. I also had two cousins just a few years older than me that lived down the street, a short walk away. It was awesome growing up with a lot of extended family in the area.

My two cousins that lived down the street were hardcore gamers already. They didn't necessarily have a large collection of games, but they would manage to get hot releases and good obscure titles, I believe mostly from trading in stuff they already beat. My uncle was also a comic book collector, so I think by extension he was supportive of their gaming hobby.

Sometimes I would go to their place for a night on a Friday, which was always a treat, because I knew we'd be gaming together late into the night. My aunt and uncle weren't as strict when it came to making sure we were actually sleeping. Other times, my parents would watch us and they would bring a console and the latest release to our place.

On this particular day in the summer of 1992, my cousins came over with their Super Nintendo and the game they were currently hooked on. Also, my parents let them hook it up to our living room TV, which was a big deal, as I had an older early 80s Zenith TV in my room that had color issues. At the time, I only had a Game Boy, so it was amazing to see the Super Nintendo in action.

The game they brought was Street Fighter II, and I was totally blown away. The graphics and sound were something else at that time. My cousins kicked my butt all over the place, as they were always better than me in most games, and would put me through the ringer in anything competitive. Lol. After getting a taste of the SNES on that day, I knew I wanted to get my own Super Nintendo and a copy of Street Fighter II!

[Limewater]

I may have told this story on here before.

In the mid-nineties when I was fourteen or fifteen, my family was traveling, either for vacation or to relocate to or from Texas, where my dad often worked during the summers, and we stopped at some random thrift store. I looked around for NES games, but came up empty-handed.
I noticed that there was a video rental place across the road called "Action Video." At the time, a lot of independent video rental places were selling off their old rental NES games.
I asked my parents if I could go check out the store and they said I could. One of my younger brothers wanted to go, too.

We crossed the street, entered the store, and were greeted by an old man asking to see our IDs.

It took me about three seconds to notice the titles of the VHS cases on the counter and the business cards that featured a "XXX" watermark.

I had just taken my little brother into "XXX Action Video."

[Note]

That's a wild story, Limewater! I definitely had not read about that adventure before, if you shared it earlier. Lol.

[QUAG BOI]

I have a great memory.

I might be younger than most people here. My obsession with retro games started in the mid or late 2000s when I got a Wii as a kid and played Contra 3, Star Fox 64, and Super Mario Bros through virtual console . I've loved old games ever since, but it took time for me to become obsessed with arcade games specifically.

In 2016, on my birthday, my parents took me to the Fun Spot arcade in Maine, which was huge and filled with 80s, 90s, and early 2000s games.

I played Mario Bros 1983, After Burner, Space Harrier, and Time Crisis 3.

The most memorable moment was when my brother showed me a Neo Geo and Metal Slug 1 for the first time.

We beat the game and had a blast, even though I wasn't great at it.

When the Switch came out and I saw Metal Slug available for download, I got it immediately and played it to death.

Since then, I've played many arcade games at home, like Super Hang-On, Crazy Taxi, Radiant Silvergun, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

also if you ever get the chance go to fun spot it is amazing.
however I'm not shore if they still exist?

[pierrot]

In 2016, on my birthday, my parents took me to the Fun Spot arcade in Maine, which was huge and filled with 80s, 90s, and early 2000s games.

Yo~! New England represent!
Did you mean Laconia New Hampshire, though? I know Funspot is there, but I don't know if they would have had any branches in Maine back then.
It's still around, at least for now: https://www.funspotnh.com/
It might stick around forever, and it's been a number of years since I was last there, but each time I've been in the last ten years they seem to be struggling more and more with maintenance on a ton of the cabinets. I haven't seen Super Hang-On operational there in forever, and Space Harrier was out of commission last time I was there, with After Burner II and Outrun looking like they were going to be next. It always seems like there are fewer and fewer pinball tables that are fully operational there, too.

I do hope they're able to stay operational while maintaining the arcade, because it is really cool.

[QUAG BOI]

I just checked their website, and it looks like they’re in New Hampshire. I must have misremembered, lol.

Also, hears a funny story: when I saw a Crazy Taxi arcade machine there, I thought, "crazy taxi PPPPFFF!!!! that game sounds dumb" A few years later, I got a Dreamcast with Crazy Taxi, which ended up being one of my favorite games of all time

wish i played that machine