Earliest recollection stood at an arcade game and first game(s) played

tebanski

tebanski

tebanski

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Hi all,

Not sure if this question has been posted before (sorry if it has)

What is your earliest recollection of playing a video arcade game and what were the first games (and favourites) you played.


For me, I live in Leeds, the home of Harry Ramsdens Fish and Chips Restaurant (Guisely) But you used to have to queue (for ages) to get in there and at the bottom of the car park was a little grotty shed of an arcade but they had some brilliant games in there.

My early favourites were

1. Missile command (with that big track ball)
2. Defender (sooo many buttons to master)
3. Centipede (trackball again and frantic action)

I used to save all my coppers to change for the powerful 10p coin's, lol
 
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Space Invaders was my first, probably followed by asteroids.

But i have a very strong memory of playing Carnival in a certain grotty shed round the back of Harry Ramsdens probably around 1980/81.

:)
 
MrWhippy said:
Space Invaders was my first, probably followed by asteroids.

But i have a very strong memory of playing Carnival in a certain grotty shed round the back of Harry Ramsdens probably around 1980/81.

:)
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Carnival, Of Course - how could i forget that yellow duck and the dodgy 'big wheel' at the top !! (that is on my list, definately)

I remember Space invaders been there and Asteroids, but never was a big fan of either really (maybe asteroids), Defender was the game to get on and really put Space invaders to shame. Not knocking SI, hall of fame, the original..

Your dates sound correct - it really was grotty...lol

Cheers.
 
johnny bingos in spittal, across the river from berwick.

games such as...

stadium truck racing (cabinet which you stood at yet still had a wheel and pedal)

le mans (i think) - a group c sports car cockpit that you clambered into and played an outrun/lotus tc-esque racing game while the cockpit span around...

MOONWALKER! michael jackson cash in games ftm-fw.

bubble bobble...no explanation necessary...

*n
 
Tank, Pong, Asteroids, Defender, Battlezone, Outrun... They only allowed you three letters for your name if you got on the high score list. Hence CyberMYK
 
Cybermyk said:
Tank, Pong, Asteroids, Defender, Battlezone, Outrun... They only allowed you three letters for your name if you got on the high score list. Hence CyberMYK
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Spent loads of money on outrun, Ferrari Testarossa's were THE car back then.

The three letter high-score sketch (were they saving on very expensive RAM. do you think?) I used to name all mine TEB (part of my surname) It used to annoy me that people would just quickly tap AAA, what was the point in that.

Pong remind's me of the old Atari's (and the quite adept, paddle wheel)

Fond memorie's

Cheers.
 
Old Wino said:
Space invaders arcade machine, late 70's, Hannover airport, West Germany

Image you'd never seen or heard of video games before, no-one has a computer, you are a teenager, there is a strange noise comming from the middle of a mahoosive crown of people - you elbow your way through and get your first glimpse of... a 'video game', Bingo - hooked for life ;)
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Excellent description 'Old Wino'

I guess my own story is so very similar, seeing the games (in an area i could actually play them) - (many a family pub meal, i was not allowed to leave the table to explore these beep's and flashes from a wooden cabinet)

seeing and playing was at a ratio of about 25:1 (10+ people around a game) and they always had 30p or 40p in the bloody machine - hard to get a game, busy.



Hooked for life, indeed.

Cheers
 
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tebanski said:
Excellent description 'Old Wino'

I guess my own story is so very similar, seeing the games (in an area i could actually play them) - (many a family pub meal, i was not allowed to leave the table to explore these beep's and flashes from a wooden cabinet)

Hooked for life, indeed.

Cheers
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heh, pubs, during the 80's it became 'trendy' for a while to organise a stripper for someone when they left work. I loved it because it meant you never had a problem getting to the resident 'wooden cabinet'

Ahh.. fun times
 
Outrun at Salisbury fair.
Also some kinda wireframe, tunnel-like space shooter where you fly along shooting other ships. Almost like a very primitive version of Descent. No idea what it was called.
 
Centipede
Galaxians
Defender
Space Invaders

I also remember a space style game that asked you questions and you could get extra lives for answering them correctly, and also a war game that involved a jeep and horizontal scrolling, wasted lots of time and money on that one.

Anyone remember the original Street Fighter with the big pads for punching and kicking. I got myself quite a few skinned knuckles from that one.
 
Just remembered another classic(s)..

Scramble (with 5 levels, bombs and gun buttons) - hard as sin when you got to the brick level (either 4 or 5)

Zaxxon was the first 3D shooter i saw and was also hard as sin, especially to judge height

Both right to left scroller's

happy day's
 
Space Invaders and Galaxian at some holiday camp when I was a wee nipper, either end of the 70's or early 80's.

Those were the first arcade cabinets I played on.

Edit: Over the years I spent a fortune playing Nemesis, Double Dragon and Street Fighter 2 in local shops.
 
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TMNT, the arcade game with four players available. that game so owned. i spent so much money on that machine until they took it away :( and metal slug, i loved that series. always good fun.
 
Mortal Kombat would have been my first big game or Street Fight II not exactly as old school as space invaders.

This was in the Underground in Penzance.
 
TMNT 4-play and street fighter (OG 2-players sitting on a bench version) were also reprezentin' at johnny bingos.

woot for being born in 1984. ;)

*n
 
Space invaders then Asteroids.
Asteroids was my first game though i loved it, 10p a go and you was on as long as you liked with loads of lives built up. You'd get fed up in the end and pass them on to the next kid.
Galaxian was a big game for me when that came out as well.
 
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