Growing Up In Arcades: 1979-1989

[J T]

This photo set is FANTASTIC!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/arcades/

[BRIK]

Great set. I wish I could of been around in that era to experience it first hand.

[benderx]

I remember playing video games with a tall chair to reach the controls. Games I remebered (86-89)were Ms. pacman, galaga, gradius, 1942, pole position, Rampage, ikari warriors, Super mario bros Arcade ed.,Ninja turtles 89, and pinball machines. Konami made some great arcade games. I do recall playing some table top games and dig dug.

[CFFJR]

Slick pictures.

I miss arcades...

The low lighting, the blaring sound effects, buttons being mashed. Sensory overload.

You've only got four quarters to spend, so you waste 20 minutes just wandering around, trying to decide what the hell you want to play.

Then you waste even more time when you stop to watch some guy kicking ass at Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, (or whatever other game you want to plug in there) and forget that you came in to play yourself, not watch some other people play.

Then finally you step up to a four man beat em up, and spend a few minutes bonding with 3 complete strangers. You'll never see them again, but until you're all out of quarters those guys are your best friends.

[Erik_Twice]

Wow, those photos are great! Three Defenders in a row!

[hashiriya1]

Those were the days. My first memory of playing at an arcade was at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. I was totally hooked on Marble Madness, but it was insanely difficult.

[s1mplehumar]

These are really a treat. My first arcade experience was a Galaga cocktail that was situated in the back of a small ice cream joint. My brother and I would slip in a few games after Little League victories. Good times

[mas]

Brings me back to great times. Riding my bike with my friends with 5 dollars that I worked for all week doing chores. We had tokens 8 for a dollar and some only took 1 token. My favorite was mat mania and cobra command and gunsmoke. Used to spend all afternoon playing. Now there is nothing left in my area at all. Makes me sad because my kids can't enjoy the arcade experience.

[gtmtnbiker]

Yes, those were my teenage years. I remember going to the arcade at the mall in Woodbridge, NJ as well as play the machines at the corner deli or pizza parlor. Those days will never come back.

I delivered newspapers and would take my collection book to get money from a couple of customers. With $3-4 in my hands, I would spend it all on Asteroids, Pacman, Donkey Kong (or the pirate version Congarilla), Dig Dig, etc. Every two weeks, I would pay the newspaper bill and would end up with $5 left over while my brother would have $25+ from his route. My Mom would asked what happened to my money......Gee, I dunno

[Xeogred]

Then finally you step up to a four man beat em up, and spend a few minutes bonding with 3 complete strangers. You'll never see them again, but until you're all out of quarters those guys are your best friends.

This, a thousand times this man. Does Chucky Cheeses count? lol, because I always teamed up with people playing TMNT arcade, X-Men, or the Simpsons beat em' up. I was always a bit better than the average player on beat em' ups back then so it was awesome coming in and kicking ass, haha. There was always that one other player that rocked too and it was like, there's my friend for that night.

But yeah, then there was always that one guy somewhere dominating a game that'd bring in crowds just to watch.

I grew up playing a lot of games like Pac-man, etc, at cleaners with my parents.

There's still big arcade places around here (okay like one outside of one of the malls), called Power Play, it's pretty awesome... but yeah, the experience is just not the same. It's one of those places where you need a card instead of coins, and the games probably rack up to like $1.50 a game or something instead of just dropping a quarter like back in the day.