There are info on how to play LL right in MAME. There is an analog lever to control thrust, and three buttons to either rotate the craft left, right, or abort mission.

Up, Low Kick, Down, Down, Down, High Punch, Low Kick + High Punch, Up, Start

You never knew that?

i was just in las vegas and they have some pretty sweet arcades there. alot of the hotels have a pretty big one and theres also a nice one out on the strip. the luxor has donkey king which i played to relive my youth. the line for that was soooo long when it first arrived at our local arcade.

I would so love to own this game!!

As far as arcades in general, I can't believe no one has mentioned the sad passing of what made arcades, well, arcades. The atmosphere! Nowadays if you do find one, it's all brightly lit, clean... I miss the days of the dark, loud setting that would lure you in from the mall. Like a cave. I never really frequented them too much, but enough to miss them and the way they used to be.

Sadly, most Vegas arcades in hotels are closed after 10pm.

Wow, great memories. We had some good arcades in town when I was in high school. I remember when my best friend (Draven) and I would drive all the way down to the south side of town so we could play MKII all day on a Saturday. Good times.

When I was on vacation this year, I went to an arcade that had mostly new games, but there was one that allowed you to play over 60 older games. It was great...Mr.Do...1942...Mappy...Bump-and-Jump...

1981 - Eddie's Jr Liquor. I'm racking up points on Phoenix, besting my high score. My bmx bike is outside the door so I can keep my eye on it. So I glance over and this kid is stealing my bike. I'm already on my last man, but I'm still hanging in there as he's riding away. The second my ship gets destroyed I'm out the door and on that guy half a block away. Luckily he was a big kid and wasn't peddling too fast. Also, in a 4 block radius, I leave my high score initials on the machines at various liquor stores. Crazy Kong, Tempest, Galaxian, Robotron. I'd do rounds and check periodically if someone else posted a top score.

1983-85, Long Beach Mall.. Electronic Corrale. Daily Xevious tournaments with friends after school. Always watching the target to see it light up red in the open fields to bring out the towers or the extra ship. Once in a while, had a Smash TV tourney, too. Poured about $20 in quarters to finish Dragon's Lair and the Lupin/Ninja LD game, never did finish Space Ace.

1986, freshman year at college, LBSU... I do nothing but spend my time at the student union, learning the turtle trick on Super Mario Bros. Before long, I was turning the machine over a few times. Ended up trying to be the closest to end the game at 999,990 before it reset to 0 and carrying 99 extra men.

Ahhhh...Aladdin's Castle. Good times. We also had a Fun Tunnel close by.

I remember playing Tempest, Robotron and Mach 3 (man that one was hard and expensive).


http://www.jmpc.com/Starcade/games/mach3.htm

Very, very early 80's... Chuck E. Cheese's was the main arcade hang out for me and my brother (about 8 or 9 years old). I still remember when Joust and Q*Bert where brand new games. We used to go into the dumpster out back and find the voided $20 Chuckie Bucks and carefully erase the VOID stamp on the back and turn them in. I also remember when Gauntlet was brand new at a nearby Golf 'n Stuf's arcade and there was 20 kids surrounding us playing it. I think my earliest arcade memory was Ms. Pac-Man at a pizza place in the mall.

Good times.

Good thread.. Surprised no one has mentioned the thrill of finding a game that had a credit just waiting on it or finding an arcade game that was "broken" and would allow you as many credits as you wanted for 1 quarter

Man, whatever happened to arcades? Did online gaming start to kill them off or what? I don't think there's any left in my area; the one in the mall I go to closed down and is now a National Guard recruting station.

\

A bit offtopic, but thanks for letting me know that Astroworld has closed. It apparently was announced just after Hurricane Katrina struck and just before Rita, which could be why we didn't hear about it here in LA. (Or at least I didn't). They did have fun arcades there, but man, it definitely seems like childhood is going away. Crap

Back on the arcade subject, the only dedicated arcade in Baton Rouge closed down not too long ago. I used to always pop into Space Port, but after awhile, they had the same games and never changed them. Once, they had an SNK machine on sale for $250 and I didn't pick it up. I do regret that now!

My favorite arcade used to be the one in Bon Marche Mall...it definitely had the seedy atmosphere, but it was packed with games and pinballs until it closed in the early nineties. Now I think the only arcade around here is in the back of a video game shop in the new mall, and it's not really the same. I think the Celebration station has a few games as well, but they're dancing, racing, and a lot of skeeball.

I think it's sad. I want to build a MAME machine, and when we have a kid, they're just going to look at it and wonder why Dad built it. No concept
of arcades or the importance of quarters at all.

If I think back 10 years ago, there was one in every mall in my area. In addition to that, there was some in strip malls and then random machines at different places. There's only one mall left that has one now, plus our little "amusement park" that we have here with mini golf and crap like that.

As for me, I think I loved Double Dragon the most. I'd take off after school to try and waste some quarters on that one. I also remember this wrestling game that was in front of the Kmart. I don't remember what it was called, but some of the names were Ultimate Worrier, Coco Savage....damn, that's all I remember. I'd love to have that one...

Used to tear up both street fighter and mortal combat at newman's grocery in edgewood Texas...sad day when we went back there and all the machines were gone...we used to drink glass bottle coca cola and trade the bottles back in for dimes to get arcade money...but I have to say that the coolest place i ever got to play arcade games was Larry Johnson's (when he played for the hornets) house in Dallas. My father did all of his home theater and electrical work...he had NBA Jam TE and MK2 as well as a few others. His mother told me to have at it, which I did when my father didn't need me running tools up the ladder.

Mat Mania

i wonder if they got in any shit for using vader in mat mania

Me too. That's why I put one in my garage for my daughters and my friends to enjoy. Luckily I live in the Bay Area and about 3 or 4 of my good friends all have garagecade's as well. Here's mine :




















I have more pics but photobucket is acting crazy

Arcades...a great place to pick up Runaways.

Fort Lauderdale was a great place to grow up in the early 80's. Grand Prix, Showbiz, and Chuck E. Cheese were all relatively close to each other, and we always got to go to one of them every time we were at my grandparents' house in Plantation. Hell, even our dentist's office had a small arcade. Chuck E. Cheese may still be around, but the original Grand Prix location was razed to make room for I-595, and I know Showbiz is long gone.

The early 80's classics will always be my favorite...Tempest, Qix, Gyruss, Discs Of Tron, Burgertime, Galaga, Tron, Mappy, Joust...the list goes on. I had pretty much sworn arcades off once they were relegated to the corners of malls, around the time Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat came out, so I don't have any fond memories of anything that new.

Well, maybe RoadBlasters.

What do those bubble hockey games go for at arcade auctions? I've always wanted one of those.

Summer of 84 - We move close to a laundry mat and they have a line of arcade games. My first favorite game was DONKEY KONG 3. I would beg my mom for quarters to play that game only to lose after the 4th of 5th stage. I would get so happy when I would get the SUPER SPRAY!!

Later that year I found out that my local Stop n Go had Gyruss...Oh my GOD! This game had me hooked for months on end. They also had Mach 3 and Space Ace! I would mindlessly stick quarters into Space Ace thinking I was controlling the action but I wasn't

In between those years I would start playing games like Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Vigilante, Double Dragon, Shinobi.

I'd say around 87 was when I started to play really hardcore at games like Golden Axe, Double Dragon 1-2, After Burner 2....but none of those compared to the giant cabinet with the big plunger style buttons. Yep, I am talking about STREET FIGHTER. It was 1988 and Bloodsport had just come out in theaters and vs fighting movies were slowly becoming the rage everywhere. I remember watching other players doing the motions to do Ryu and Kens fireballs and the muffled voices that yelled "WHAT STRENGHT! BUT DON'T FORGET THERE ARE MANY FIGHTERS LIKE YOU ALL OVER THE WORLD" and "YOU'VE GOT ALOT TO LEARN BEFORE YOU BEAT ME..TRY AGAIN KID!HAHAHA!"

From that point on I was a confirm addict. I would do just about anything a kid could do to get quarters to play Street Fighter. Cut yard for 5 bucks, wash cars for $2, rake leaves....hell I would even lie to neighbors and say that our phone was disconnected and needed a few quarters to make some phone calls. Anything to feed my Street Fighter addiction.

Other games started coming out that were really nice too. Sega's hologram games were really cool but never played them. Sunset Riders, Crime Fighters, Pit Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(God, how I remember the Turtle craze of the early 90's). The smell of pizza coming from the food court...the crowds of people gathered around the machines to play these 4-5 player quarter munchers was just crazy! Street Fighter was just gathering dust in the corner. Nobody was playing it because the buttons were ripped and the game was too hard so I played what I could to help time pass.

Finally the day came when my friend was knocking at my door ...completely exhausted from running and he spoke the words ...."The mall! STREET FIGHTER 2 IS OUT!!!" My eyes lit up and I RAN to the mall(mall was only 10 mins away) and I got to the Tilt gameroom. There it was! Swamped with players all around it....everyone trying to get a glimpse of this new game... quarters lined up all across the control panel. All you could hear was HADOKEN! SONIC BOOM! After about 30 mins of waiting I finally got the chance to play and to my suprise the plunger buttons were GONE. It was replaced with a 6 button setup which I knew nothing about. There were 8 characters to choose from! The colors were so vibrant...the artwork....everything was just so overwhelming I didn't know where to start. I ended up picking Chun Li and just mashed away trying to figure out what she does. I didn't care if I won or lost I was just so happy!!

From that day forth Street Fighter 2 was the game that defined my teenage youth. Sports, school and all other activities took a backseat to my newfound fever. Everything from discovering "secret moves" to discovering combos was slowly becoming the trend. It's what set you apart from the rest. Things like the mysterious red fireball, the Guile Handcuff, the Guile Blackout, arguing and getting into fistfights because of someone playing "cheap" and playing on those machines where one of the sticks was busted or the buttons didnt respond. The cigarette burns on the control panels. The rush of playing a complete stranger and testing your skills against theirs. Having your ass handed to you and not knowing what the hell just happened to you. The trash talk. The fact that you could walk into ANY Stop n Go or 711 and find crowds of players was sight to behold.

I am glad I lived to experience that time. Nothing....not even with todays amazing graphics and power consoles can hold a candle to the experience of arcades. Between 1980 and 1993.....that was a period of utopia for an arcade gamer.

Sorry for the rambling.....all those memories just hit me all at once.

Great writeup!

What's the turtle trick?

On one of the earlier levels of SMB you can bounce the turtle coming down the stairs back and forth between you and the stair step. You keep bouncing over and over til you have infinite lives.