I remember being in a bowling alley in the early 80's and my uncle playing Pong (yes people used to pay to play Pong on an arcade machine) and saying "Wouldn't it be great if you could play this at home?"
And a year or so later, we could.
@Arwen Darkblade
Proud Member of Hammer of the Gods and Sanguine Syndicate
Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
[URL="http://tobyfife.blogspot.com/"]Hero Girl[/URL] - my geek culture blog
I remember going to the local Shakey's Pizza that had a tabletop version of PacMan. You know those little tables where two people could sit opposite one another and play, and the screen would switch sides for each player?
I still want one of those for my house.
We had a local arcade and I could easily drop $20 in a long Summer afternoon. Video game playing has gotten considerably cheaper over the years.
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
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The Pizza Hut in my hometown had one of those for Centipede well into the 90's. It was so much fun to play!
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Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
I remember going to the local Shakey's Pizza that had a tabletop version of PacMan. You know those little tables where two people could sit opposite one another and play, and the screen would switch sides for each player?
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@Arwen Darkblade
Proud Member of Hammer of the Gods and Sanguine Syndicate
Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
[URL="http://tobyfife.blogspot.com/"]Hero Girl[/URL] - my geek culture blog
Ah the ancient era of computers...
Load "MyGame", 8, 1
"Press Play On Tape"
*wait for a while*
RUN
The wait time went down once floppies came around for the C64. You could do some really cheatastic things just by swapping different floppies around while playing or saving in some games. 
Quote:
I still have my C64, with external floppy drive and 2 holders of floppies |
Originally Posted by Darkbridger
Ah the ancient era of computers...
Load "MyGame", 8, 1 "Press Play On Tape" *wait for a while* RUN The wait time went down once floppies came around for the C64. You could do some really cheatastic things just by swapping different floppies around while playing or saving in some games. |
I remember hooking it up to my 13" black and white tv, wishing I could play Wizard of Oz (on 4 separate discs) on the color tv.
Let me tell you what, those cassette drives we had on the early home computers needed shoved up.......well, let's just say they made remembering which matchbook went with which 8 track a pleasurable experience.
I used to just re-type in the code from the books because it was quicker than flailing with the knobs to get the program to load from the cassette tape.
I remember all of this...I think (you tend to forget things when you get old).... where was I, OH yeah. GET OFF OF MY LAWN!
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I just recently tossed out some old games I had on floppy disks that I loved: The Bard's Tale, Lords of Conquest, and classic Lode Runner. I kept these for almost 30 years because I loved them so much, and finally tossed them out when I realized that I wasn't ever going to need them again in that format.
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
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I still have the 5.25" disk with a BASIC text adventure game I tried to write during my high school senior computer class. Dunno why I keep it since the darn thing never worked right anyhow, and I'll probably never own a drive to read the file again anyhow. I remember the teacher glancing over my shoulder when I was working on lines in the 10000 range and asking if it was really that big. Since BASIC encouraged you to number by 5s, 10s or even 100s until things got detailed, it was smaller than it sounds. She still wanted me to print it out to see what sorts of things I was doing, none of which were covered by the class. The rest of the kids hated me that day for getting to listen to the pleasant plodding drone of a dot matrix printer for most of the class while they were trying to write programs that took input and performed simple math. |
Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
I just recently tossed out some old games I had on floppy disks that I loved: The Bard's Tale, Lords of Conquest, and classic Lode Runner. I kept these for almost 30 years because I loved them so much, and finally tossed them out when I realized that I wasn't ever going to need them again in that format.
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*looks over at Visual Studio and the multi-million-line MMO project sitting there and sighs wistfully*
*then looks at all the youngsters around and yells 'get off my digital lawn!'*
EDIT: I knew I would find it eventually...my first programming book
This is neither here nor there, but I would speculate that there are only a small percentage of kids that play CoH. Whenever, I start feeling like an old fogie, I realize that everyone I'm teaming with feels the same. And the average age at the HeroCon had to be around 38 or so.
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
Quote:
The bar down the street from me has one of those now but it's Ms. Pac-Man |
Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
I remember going to the local Shakey's Pizza that had a tabletop version of PacMan. You know those little tables where two people could sit opposite one another and play, and the screen would switch sides for each player?
I still want one of those for my house. We had a local arcade and I could easily drop $20 in a long Summer afternoon. Video game playing has gotten considerably cheaper over the years. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ArwenDarkblade
I remember being in a bowling alley in the early 80's and my uncle playing Pong (yes people used to pay to play Pong on an arcade machine) and saying "Wouldn't it be great if you could play this at home?"
And a year or so later, we could. |
Remember Shark Hunt? They actually had one of those in the movie Jaws. Man I thought it was sooooo cool back then.
I remember my first CollecoVision system.
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I was always behind the curve. Got my Atari 2600 about the time the NES came out. Stayed a half-step behind until Xbox 360.
Also saw something at work last night that made me pause. I'm sure you've all seen the Atari-style joysticks that plug straight into the TV and 10 games on them. Last night I saw a system styled like an old 2600 that comes with 40. Almost walked out with one this morning.
Remember kids, reading is fundamental. Especially on the forums.
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I live about 1/2 an hour from an arcade that has it. I love pinball, when we used to go to roller skating rinks they had those, because Rural NH is about 10 years behind everything. |
Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
I remember going to the local Shakey's Pizza that had a tabletop version of PacMan. You know those little tables where two people could sit opposite one another and play, and the screen would switch sides for each player?
I still want one of those for my house. We had a local arcade and I could easily drop $20 in a long Summer afternoon. Video game playing has gotten considerably cheaper over the years. |
Here's a link to the upstairs of where I go where they have the 'classic' games.
It also has that version of Pac-Man my daughter and I play it together when we go there along with fooz-ball and air-hockey where I kick her butt!
http://www.classicarcademuseum.org/gamelist2.htm
http://tiny.cc/ArcaneDefenseItems
This is a bug, nothing more. Please put away the tin-foil hats, there's nothing sinister going on here.-Protea
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This is what I want. http://www.bmigaming.com/games-video...rcadegames.htm
A stand-up machine for my game room, so I can relive my wasted coin-up youth. Anyone got a spare three grand laying around?
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
Quote:
I have a Class of '81 machine. |
Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
This is what I want. http://www.bmigaming.com/games-video...rcadegames.htm
A stand-up machine for my game room, so I can relive my wasted coin-up youth. Anyone got a spare three grand laying around? |
The company that I got it from later sold me a replacement board that included a bunch of other games. I assumed it was a legal Namco board, but I'm not entirely sure.
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Do you like having it in your house? Do you use it enough to make it worth your time/area/money?|
Originally Posted by Darkbridger
I have a Class of '81 machine.
The company that I got it from later sold me a replacement board that included a bunch of other games. I assumed it was a legal Midway board, but I'm not entirely sure. |
I'm buying a house now with a huge gameroom that would be perfect for such a machine, but that is no small price for me, so I would have to seriously consider anything like this.
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
Quote:
Yes|
Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
Do you like having it in your house?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by PuceNonagon
Do you use it enough to make it worth your time/area/money?
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If you have lots of gamer friends that will visit frequently, you'll get more out of it probably. I bought it mostly to have a Galaga machine, which I spent way more time on than Pac-Man or Ms Pac-Man. Even if I had a PC-driven cabinet with 100s of games instead of the 25 or so I have now, I don't think I'd spend more time playing it. It's also big and heavy and a royal pain to move around, particularly if you have narrow doorways or odd turning hallways, despite having wheels on it. The no on area is because my game room is small. :|
I remember going outside to play wearing a towel as a cape! with no pants!
That was last week!
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_____________________________________________
Daily affirmation: net helpmsg 4006
I'm going to need a hacksaw. -- Jack Bauer
I just lost my chicken - Bubbles
Aaawwk! I can feel it in my choadies - Hank Venture
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I still have my Vic-20 AND C64|
Originally Posted by Mermoine
I still have my C64, with external floppy drive and 2 holders of floppies
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and god knows how much money i spent on Gauntlet, Dragon lair and Bubble Bobble arcades
My LotG sold for 65mil and I'm spending it all on hats
Needlepoint and Hobbytex Champion 1984 Blaming others since 2003
.......... I have a cap gun........
Quote:
Its okay, you can smile, cap guns are cool. |
Originally Posted by tremorr
.......... I have a cap gun........
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I remember my 7th grade class getting into a big cap gun fight on the streets of Williamsburg, VA, right after the Christmas parade ended. It was a lot of fun. Nowadays, we'd be arrested. Back then we were just glared at.Back on target...growing up, I probably dropped more quarters into the local arcades than I've spent the last 5 years on all MMOs I've played, with expansion sets. There were days we'd play stuff like Centipede at Mazzio's Pizza, then leave and go play Lunar Lander, Star Castle and Battlezone at the arcade and finish up playing Gyruss at the front of the local department store. In the winter, we'd play Asteroids Deluxe at the hockey rink.
Nice cartoon Frog! I can relate. Space Invaders at the local take-away outlet drew me into the sordid world of computer games, I spent boy-months worth of time playing that thing with it's silly plastic strips to imitate colour. When I could get a 'computer' at home (and I use the term lightly) I hassled the parents for a genuine Sinclair ZX81, membrane keyboard and all! Retyping programs was par for the course, going from 1K to 16K RAM seemed like a leap into the 21st century, and when I finally got a tape deck for it I thought I'd be joining Buck Rogers in the 25th soon enough.
Ahhh, the good ol' days.
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A lot of gamers today complain about the cost of systems and games, and while I understand their viewpoint they really don't have any idea the amount of money we spent back in the day on this stuff.
Whether it was at the arcade or via home computer, we were throwing down some serious coin (even not counting inflation) to get our game on.
I must be old...I can totally relate to this...
