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I miss arcades

Old 01-09-06, 10:27 AM
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I miss arcades

I remember back in the day when the arcade is where everyone gathered to play video games. It was a total gaming social experience. On Friday nights there was always a big group around the Street Fighter machines. Gaming on LIVE is great, having buddies over works, but there was nothing better than whooping a complete strangers ass on NBA Jam with 3 people watching over your shoulder.
Old 01-09-06, 10:35 AM
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I never got into them much. Would drop a dollar or two occasionally when I went to the mall on Street Fighter 2 or another fighting game. Never got into any other type of arcade games.

But once decent fighting games were on the SNES it just never made since to me to pay for each life when I could play for "free" at home with my friends. Hell guess it was totally free since my parents were buying my games way back then.
Old 01-09-06, 10:43 AM
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I remember when I was 10 or 11, I made a square hook out of a coat hanger that could be inserted through the coin slot of an arcade game and I could get all the free credits I wanted.
Old 01-09-06, 11:21 AM
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My friends dad was a dentist and he put a hole in a quarter that we tied a string to and used for games. It didnt always work though.
Old 01-09-06, 11:41 AM
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Just think if this was the 80'd I'd probably have to post this message:

Discussing ways to defeat arcade machines is NOT allowed
Old 01-09-06, 11:45 AM
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Originally Posted by Save Ferris
My friends dad was a dentist and he put a hole in a quarter that we tied a string to and used for games. It didnt always work though.
For some reason, I find the non sequitur about your friend's dad's profession disturbing. Why mention it? Are you an anti-dentite?
Old 01-09-06, 11:45 AM
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Originally Posted by Josh Hinkle
I never got into them much. Would drop a dollar or two occasionally when I went to the mall on Street Fighter 2 or another fighting game. Never got into any other type of arcade games.

But once decent fighting games were on the SNES it just never made since to me to pay for each life when I could play for "free" at home with my friends. Hell guess it was totally free since my parents were buying my games way back then.
Yeah everything was "free" cuz the parents paid? Even arcade games. Heh.

I usually got $5 to drop at the arcades on Saturdays. I'd go to the mall with the parents, and while they shopped I'd play games. I remember as I got older and games starting costing 50 cents, that five bucks became a shorter & shorter amount of games.

Of course also played games on the Super Nintendo, but it was always a step behind the arcades & never "arcade" perfect.

Good times.
Old 01-09-06, 11:55 AM
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My parents both used to work at a video arcade when I was little. Instead of getting a babysitter they'd give me a bunch of tokens while they worked. Lots of my childhood was spent playing Time Pilot and Moon Patrol. I remember how everybody was in awe when Dragon's Lair and Star Trek came out.
Old 01-09-06, 11:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Gallant Pig
Yeah everything was "free" cuz the parents paid? Even arcade games. Heh.
I had allowance of like $10 a month, so usually playing arcade games was "my" money. SNES games I had to get my parents to buy, and just got 3 or 4 a year usually, X-mas and birthday mainly.
Old 01-09-06, 12:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Groucho
For some reason, I find the non sequitur about your friend's dad's profession disturbing. Why mention it? Are you an anti-dentite?
Sorry I left the details out somehow. He had free access to his dads dentist drills and put holes in quarters all the time.
Old 01-09-06, 12:06 PM
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My parents rented out a local arcade for my birthday party when I was in fourth grade. Twenty or so kids running around playing all the free games they wanted, on a Saturday morning--it was a blast.

However, my dad made me quit the greatest game of Pac Land I had ever played so that we could do cake and presents. For that I'll never forgive him.
Old 01-09-06, 12:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Save Ferris
My friends dad was a dentist and he put a hole in a quarter that we tied a string to and used for games. It didnt always work though.
A small piece of tape on the quarter worked better for me. The string on the quarter trick seemed to work better on Atari coin doors with the round slots, like the one on Asteroids. I remember other games where you could shuffle your feet on the carpet to create some static electricity and shock the door with a quarter to get credits.

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Old 01-09-06, 12:13 PM
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Some of my greatest memories are from a place in our town called Bump n Tilt (which has been out of business for over a decade now). I used to go there around '83/'84. Basically it was loaded with games, maybe not THE latest games but in 1983 they all felt pretty much new. I mean, they had all the good ones, the Pac-Mans, Donkey Kongs, etc... probably about 30 odd games including pinball. They also had an indoor bumper car area. Anyway, you paid something like 4 bucks to get in, and everything was set on free play. It was my happy place back then.

Nowadays all the arcade stuff for kids is lame ticket games.
Old 01-09-06, 12:28 PM
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I remember going to Rehobeth and playing all the games in the arcade on the boardwalk, my true vice was all the pinball games.
Old 01-09-06, 12:31 PM
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I got next.
Old 01-09-06, 12:33 PM
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Originally Posted by D300
A small piece of tape on the quarter worked better for me. The string on the quarter trick seemed to work better on Atari coin doors with the round slots, like the one on Asteroids. I remember other games where you could shuffle your feet on the carpet to create some static electricity and shock the door with a quarter to get credits.

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I, I mean my friend, would take the shocker out of those click lighters and use them to shock credits onto games. Worked for about 25% of them.
Old 01-09-06, 12:36 PM
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Didn't you guys get caught & banned from the arcade? I didn't live in an area where I could go to another arcade.
Old 01-09-06, 12:43 PM
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Arcade in one of my local malls is one of my fondest childhood memories. During that time span, I was about 13-15 when Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 and street fighter 2 were the big hits. My friend and I were so good at Mortal Kombat 2, we could play for hours off of one credit. It was nuts how two guys would be going at it with a crowd of about 10-20 standing around watching. There would always be like 10 credits in the machine because people would put their quarters in and yell out "I am 5th to play"

The arcade was a 10 minute walk from my jr high school so we would be there every lunch hour. After school on Friday, we would goto the arcade from about 330-530 when my mom got off work. She would take my friend and I home for supper, drop us off at about 7pm and would pick us up at 930 when the arcade closed. All we did was play Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Samurai Showdown. After my mom picked us up, we would goto Block Buster and rent some SNES/Gensis games and play all weekend.

Man I miss being a kid

Some highlights

- Having detention every day for being late to class every day after lunch
- Coming 2nd in an MK II tournament in the city
- Being a 14 year old and threatened by a 25 year old heavy metal thrasher dude for beating him so many times. "If you put a quarter in this game, I'm putting your fuckin head through the screen"
- Buying all the MKII characters moves from the guy who ran the arcade for $5 bucks
- My friend and I creating a book dedicated to Mortal Kombat
- Letting my opponent pick my character for me and still ripped them...add embarasment by doing a babality or friendship (no kicks or block)

SO MUCH FUN
Old 01-09-06, 12:53 PM
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Hawaii still have arcades.. in fact a chain of them, Fun Factory. Back before things like GameWorks and D&B, this is where I would spend most of my summers. And before that, it would be the Mitsukoshi building. Can you imagine a whole building floor dedicated to Japanese table tops? Spent too much time playing Crazy Climber and Moon Cresta.
Old 01-09-06, 01:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Gallant Pig
Didn't you guys get caught & banned from the arcade? I didn't live in an area where I could go to another arcade.
I did get banned from a bowling alley for changing the dipswitches on their Ms. Pac-Man so it was set to free play.
Old 01-09-06, 01:24 PM
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My best friend's uncle worked on video games for a living and taught us some tricks to get free games, many of them mentioned here. We also went after some dipswitches every now and then. We once spent about 4 hours one afternoon in a convenience store's game room (in the back of the store) playing Defender because we rigged it for for free games. No one ever came back to check on us, they just thought we were spending buttloads of money back there, I guess.

I remember when this same friend's dad bought a laserdisc player. This uncle lent us the laserdisc that was in Space Ace and Dragon's Lair one evening and we watched them from beginning to end.

I lost interest in video games when they raised them to 50 cents per game, I couldn't afford it on my allowance and still do other things with it.

MAME has certainly brought back some memories.
Old 01-09-06, 02:18 PM
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I remember MK I being the first 50 cent game at my bowling alley ... ruffled feathers, but of course people still played it.

I usually played whatever MK incarnation was around at the time, but my all-time favorite game is probably the original TNMT video game ... ah, such good times.
Old 01-09-06, 02:31 PM
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Originally Posted by edstein
I remember when I was 10 or 11, I made a square hook out of a coat hanger that could be inserted through the coin slot of an arcade game and I could get all the free credits I wanted.
Awesome
Old 01-09-06, 03:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Goldberg74


I got next.
Remember that little slot between the glass on the machine? Dudes would stack their quarters there which meant they had dibs. Some machines if you stuck quarters there they would slip between the glass
Old 01-09-06, 03:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Gallant Pig
Remember that little slot between the glass on the machine? Dudes would stack their quarters there which meant they had dibs. Some machines if you stuck quarters there they would slip between the glass
Of course I remember that.

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