Retro arcade gaming

[Strykr]

alright chaps,

wondered if anyone on here was intro retro games? particularly arcade games, i spent a lot of pocket money down the front back in the day, and i know the arcades are pretty crap these days, but wondered if anyone on here was into it?
ive got 3 full size arcade games at home, and its like a childhood dream :) just wish i didnt have the day job!

anyone else on here into arcades? or have any fond memories of mispent youth playing kung fu master and street fighter 2? any fave games? :smile:

 

[Bluesmanager]

Some fond memories of arcade titles - spent an entire evening and the best part of a fiver on a simpsons arcade game and a TMNHT game when at a carrivan park over one summer a decade ago, then had some damn good fun going guns akimbo on Time Crisis when no-one else wanted to team with me.

Always worth a laugh or two they are - shame they cost a packet and triple your 'leccy bill really...

 

[MK Shrimper]

Some fond memories of arcade titles - spent an entire evening and the best part of a fiver on a simpsons arcade game and a TMNHT game when at a carrivan park over one summer a decade ago, then had some damn good fun going guns akimbo on Time Crisis when no-one else wanted to team with me.

Always worth a laugh or two they are - shame they cost a packet and triple your 'leccy bill really...

Pah, they're recent!

I used to love Gorf as a kid, plus at college I ignored food to play 1942 for an hour!

 

[Cricko]

I used to have one of these at home.I spent far to many hours mastering it. I used to play it in a local bar ,many years later I brought myself one from First Leisure.

Missile Command.

[video=youtube;I9Oc9qcXfzs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Oc9qcXfzs&feature=related[/video]

 

[davewebbsbrain]

[video=youtube;gmvWxG2zvs8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvWxG2zvs8[/video]

I found a game called I-robot while on holiday in Devon in 86. Spent all week playing it but couldn't find it anywhere else when I got home and never seen it since.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Carnival - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXsCgbd6d3g

Space Panic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTNG982glR8 (this guy isn't playing it very well though!)

 

[Cricko]

[video=youtube;gmvWxG2zvs8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvWxG2zvs8[/video]

I found a game called I-robot while on holiday in Devon in 86. Spent all week playing it but couldn't find it anywhere else when I got home and never seen it since.

Buy yourself one Phil...

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8172

 

[Strykr]

Gorf, irobot and missile command, are all considered classics, and the original cabs still come up on ebay every once in a while, there pretty expensive though!
for you guys wanting a retro blast, check out the MAME emulator, all the old classics :)
that missile command cricko is very nice!
ive got a generic cab, horizontal, which has dual light guns on it. and a vertical one, play a lot of galaga and 1942 on that one! about to build a dedicated driving cab for championship sprint, outrun, off road etc, keeps me out of mischief :)

 

[Cricko]

Short story.

When I first looked to buy the "Cocktail" version of Missile Command there were few about that were not damaged..either the motherboard was shot or the cabinet was to damaged to consider...I ended up buying 2, one where the board was good and one that had a great cabinet but very scratched glass which was from being used in a pub as a table( which is what the were really when not being played).I think I paid about £400 for the pair.Nowadays a single machine would be over £1000 I would think.

I contacted Atari Ireland as that was where I was told parts were obtained from...I was told a new printed glass top was going to be £80 + freight from Atara USA and it would take 6 weeks to get...I was about to order it but thought I would try Atari direct in the USA.. They were very helpful and liked the idea I was restoring one. I was told $40 delivered and they had a flight with parts going to England that week.....It arrived to me within a week. Amazing service.

The Motherboard although working was a worry as I knew they had a tendency to fail when they got old....The price from Atari was quite expensive so I thought I would call an old friend of my parents who owned an arcade on Southend seafront. I knew he had a stand up one in his arcade Wonderland once and that they took the same motherboard as the cocktail version with a few minor tweeks....It turned out Terry (who owned Wonderland) was putting the table top versions in local pubs originally and although this was some years ago he told me to contact his parts place near Tots and after digging through hundreds of motherboards all for varying machines I found 2 Missile ones, both brand new and both set up for Cocktail versions..They cost me £40 for the pair...Result.

It was also fun to change the dip switches about to make the game harder which of course you could never do in the arcades.

http://www.missilecommand.com/

 

[Strykr]

Great service from atari, especially for such an old part!
Those PCBs on those old games are very flakey now, some people spend there whole lives trying to fix and maintain them
is wonderland still there?
i remember they had a stund up wonderboy game, worth the extra walk :)

 

[Cricko]

Great service from atari, especially for such an old part!
Those PCBs on those old games are very flakey now, some people spend there whole lives trying to fix and maintain them
is wonderland still there?
i remember they had a stund up wonderboy game, worth the extra walk :)

I think so , but if you are stuck for anything the old workshops for most places are still there and I know most of the arcade owners from the old days when my parents had a few drinking clubs about the sea front,so can always ask for you.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Great service from atari, especially for such an old part!
Those PCBs on those old games are very flakey now, some people spend there whole lives trying to fix and maintain them
is wonderland still there? i remember they had a stund up wonderboy game, worth the extra walk :)

No Wonderland is not there anymore.
Anyone remember the massive slot car racing track upstairs in Wonderland?
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=32&ty=82

 

[Cricko]

No Wonderland is not there anymore.
Anyone remember the massive slot car racing track upstairs in Wonderland?

Yes very well, I was a kid then mind and lived next door above what were then cafes....they also had one at the bottom of Hamlet Court Road for awhile. You can see the posters saying "Wonderland Raceways" on the windows here.

Click image to enlarge.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Yes very well, I was a kid then mind and lived next door above what were then cafes....they also had one at the bottom of Hamlet Court Road for awhile. You can see the posters saying "Wonderland Raceways" on the windows here.

Click image to enlarge.

Yeah found a few photos of the outside, but none of the track inside. I love those old photos, first car is a DAF 55. But what is the 2nd car?

 

[Cricko]

Yeah found a few photos of the outside, but none of the track inside. I love those old photos, first car is a DAF 55. But what is the 2nd car?

It looks like an old Sunbeam Rapier or one of the old Vauxhall's......Hmmmmmm.

 

[BrettieAngell]

I used to live in a house that had an arcade next to my bedroom!

Track & Field/Hypersports :thumbsup:, Asteriods, 2 pinball machines and a couple of machines that I can't remember right now, ****ing happy days they were!!

 

[Strykr]

I used to live in a house that had an arcade next to my bedroom!

Track & Field/Hypersports :thumbsup:, Asteriods, 2 pinball machines and a couple of machines that I can't remember right now, ****ing happy days they were!!

cant beat a good button bashing on the track and field :)

 

[Rudi Luftwaffe]

Where do you start?

Some of my favourite include:

Sega Hot Rod.
Terra Cresta.
Lunar Lander.
Gauntlet.
Marble Madness.
Gravitar.
Outrun.
Hypersports.
Defender.
Battlezone.
Karate Champ.

 

[Strykr]

Where do you start?

Some of my favourite include:

Sega Hot Rod.
Terra Cresta.
Lunar Lander.
Gauntlet.
Marble Madness.
Gravitar.
Outrun.
Hypersports.
Defender.
Battlezone.
Karate Champ.

some great choices :) i remember playing 4 player hot rod with my mates in that tiny arcade, stardust i think it was called!
championship sprint was also superb...

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

Short story.

When I first looked to buy the "Cocktail" version of Missile Command there were few about that were not damaged..either the motherboard was shot or the cabinet was to damaged to consider...I ended up buying 2, one where the board was good and one that had a great cabinet but very scratched glass which was from being used in a pub as a table( which is what the were really when not being played).I think I paid about £400 for the pair.Nowadays a single machine would be over £1000 I would think.

I contacted Atari Ireland as that was where I was told parts were obtained from...I was told a new printed glass top was going to be £80 + freight from Atara USA and it would take 6 weeks to get...I was about to order it but thought I would try Atari direct in the USA.. They were very helpful and liked the idea I was restoring one. I was told $40 delivered and they had a flight with parts going to England that week.....It arrived to me within a week. Amazing service.

The Motherboard although working was a worry as I knew they had a tendency to fail when they got old....The price from Atari was quite expensive so I thought I would call an old friend of my parents who owned an arcade on Southend seafront. I knew he had a stand up one in his arcade Wonderland once and that they took the same motherboard as the cocktail version with a few minor tweeks....It turned out Terry (who owned Wonderland) was putting the table top versions in local pubs originally and although this was some years ago he told me to contact his parts place near Tots and after digging through hundreds of motherboards all for varying machines I found 2 Missile ones, both brand new and both set up for Cocktail versions..They cost me £40 for the pair...Result.

It was also fun to change the dip switches about to make the game harder which of course you could never do in the arcades.

http://www.missilecommand.com/

I spent half of my youth down the seafront, and could always be found in Wonderland on a Sunday (after The Big Match, Sunday roast and footie over Blenheim Park) with lots of other lads and girls. I used to do very well in the cash pool comps that Terry organized. I liked the Missile Command and the colours of the screens. I held the highest score for ages. The giant Scalectrix race track upstairs was great to play on. Terry Flynn was a great character, and was like a favourite uncle to us all. When he took over the chemist to the left of Wonderland, he turned it into the first video rental shop in Southend and then a convenience store and called it Nobles. I asked him why not Flynn's, he said it sounded too Irish. He went on to make a fortune buying houses and doing them up for sale or rental. He caught the market perfect. At one stage he owned almost the whole row of buildings between the corners both sides of Wonderland. He went on to sell a lot of all this and live the life of riley with his common law, Pam.