Old timers - How good were you at playing Arcade games?

[amethyst]

The bragging rights thread. Sorry but I can't be modest about this, I was very very good at most and exceptional at PacGal, Pinball Action, 1942, Xevious, Popeye and PunchOut. With PacGal the shopkeeper never turned off the machine, so I would play every now and then beating my previous top score. I could play that game for hours because there was a trick where you could get the chasing ghosts piled up at a spot and then you hide at a certain spot and the ghosts didn't have a clue (stuck in the same sequence). So, go buy something to eat whilst the game is running in "confused" mode With pinball action there was always a lot of younger kids watching because they got free credits. If I remember correctly, you could get 3 free credits for finishing all the phases (you could also get free credits during the game). So I used to play 2 or 3 games leaving them with a lot of free credits. 1942 was another game you could play for many long periods. The trick was to keep playing one of the easier screens all of the time (well untill you got bored). Xevious could also be played for a long time as it was not really a very difficult game. Popeye was lots of fun. And so many others, good old days.

[mikewalsh]

I'll be honest, games were something I never really got into.

Despite being old enough to go into pubs in the late 70s/early 80s, I had no interest in arcade games or the desktop 'Pacman' devices that were becoming popular (TV screen that was built into a table).

Flat-sharing with a mate at the end of the 90s gave me my first introduction to FPS games; he had a PS1, and spent every spare moment playing Doom, Quake and the original 'Driver'. FPS, I could take 'em or leave 'em, but I did have a wee go at "Driver"; that was, erm, OK. (-ish)

I discovered Xonotic and RedEclipse a few years ago. More "grown-up" FPS than Doom or Quake, I play around with them sometimes for half an hour, here & there....but I never understand the 'addiction' of games, this whole business of trying to constantly beat & improve upon your own score. Really, I can think of so many things I'd rather do with my time, but if you like that sort of thing, then.....you do.

Each to their own..!

Mike.

[GMBudwrench]

Despite having sunk $100 in quarters into the aforementioned Pac-Man machine one summer, and an undetermined amount into others, I was mediocre at best with the electronic video games. My best accomplishment was beating Halo on Xbox and that was with approximately 18 months of playing and being lost in that ungodly large space ship. I’m pushing 60 and remember the days of Pong. |o |

[amethyst]

Well, it's true that one had to spend a few to play some games very well. One could also learn a lot from just watching someone play.

[user1111]

Our local pub just had space invaders and asteroids, along with pool tables and darts boards. Became quite proficient in all of those with all the regular practice we got (pretty much most evenings). There were also a couple of three wheel betting machines but they never had any appeal to me.

Occasionally we went up to the West End and played more variety in the arcades around Leicester Square - but usually just as a in-fill whilst waiting to go into one of the cinemas, so pretty lousy at the alternatives.

[amethyst]

Arcade games were very common at local shops in South Africa. Your local corner shop would probably have had some machines. We still have all these old arcade games and machines at an "entertainment centre" here at my local huge modern mall (I think so). I wonder if this is quite unique because one does not see it otherwise. I'll go have a look next time I go to the mall, not sure if that game centre is still there.

[ozsouth]

I was too easily distracted to be any good at arcade games. How folk could concentrate for so long amazed me.

[Grey]

I could play that game for hours because there was a trick

Well, I was already immersed in memories of my favorite arcade machines: viewtopic.php?p=35784#p35784

I can add that "I had to move my body to live". More specifically, coins and tokens were sold directly in the building with arcade machines. These were coins and tokens marked with green paint so that visitors could not bring and use their own. However, with a certain skill and desire, it was quite possible to make very similar coins at home by modifying the usual ones...

But not everything is so simple in this world If you don't buy anything, but at the same time play for a long time, it could attract the attention of employees. It was necessary to buy a certain number of "official" coins and tokens. Strict calculation, precise actions. All this allowed the Soviet student to be quite smart, but at the same time dreamy and reckless

[amethyst]

I actually have all these original arcade games on my Windows machine. Plays well with MAME. The thing is you need a proper joystick and game pad to play the stuff properly.

[Grey]

I actually have all these original arcade games on my Windows machine. Plays well with MAME. The thing is you need a proper joystick and game pad to play the stuff properly.

Some games from the past (for example, The Little Humpbacked Horse) are supported by MAME.

With games like Sea Battle, not everything is so simple. These are electronic-mechanical games. There is a periscope and a sight, like in a submarine (there was even a legend among the people that the periscopes were removed from decommissioned submarines ).

The Sea Battle is not in the form of an emulator, but a simulator for Windows. But... Keyboard and mouse control is a pathetic replacement. Nothing can replace a good physical periscope and those sensations and feelings from the past.

I have Logitech F310 and 8BitDo M30 gamepads. In the town there are handlebars, pedals, steering wheels for sale. But there are no periscopes

[xenial]

In my younger years i had the amiga500 and in fact still have 2 in their original boxes.
How good was i at the games.

Not very to be honest and i still struggle to beat any of them.

[bigpup]

I was too easily distracted to be any good at arcade games. How folk could concentrate for so long amazed me.

Like cell phone zombies
.

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I was average on the old pinball games.
As a young person, money was not something I had a lot of, so could not play them that much.

Never really got into the computer based Arcade games.
Seemed too simple to me.
No real challenge.

[spiritwild]

I wasn't but had a friend who ran pacman till it just glitched and crashed. Dude would spend all day on that damn thing.
I had shit to to do, hit the record store, eat candy that exploded, play football basketball and baseball. Get my ass kicked for being in the wrong hood. Everything but stay in the house. 9:13 streetlights flickered on, gotta go!!! I think my bike had 420,000 miles on it

[amethyst]

Never really got into the computer based Arcade games.
Seemed too simple to me.
No real challenge.

A clear sign that you didn't actually play it enough or long enough to appreciate how difficult it could be. To be able to play a game for an extended time requires skill. You can hone your skills by playing a lot but natural ability will always separate the average players from the really good players. This is where things like hand and eye coordination and reflexes come into play. It's also mentally challenging because you need to concentrate for a long time, stay calm and not get rattled easily. Definitely not simple.

[Clarity]

HA! Just saw this thread! Those were the good old days...only because I, we, got thru them and beyond.

Yes, I pin-balled when I could and had enough nickels. By the time I was a junior in High school I had gotten good enough to walk out leaving credits for others as I had gotten bored and out of time to get home.

AFter college and race cars, I had professional assignments and met customers in local establishment (ah-hum) to conduct business and play the board-games and electronic-games of the past that were ever-present in the high-end clubs. Good enough to impress many and was a lot of fun when competing.

Ah, the good old days of fun and games.

Today,I am reduce do Sudoku and Wordl and other mindless games from time to time. Still see the fun in all of it.

Too bad that physical prowess, we old farts had, is gone! .... just memories of bygones, yet it has been a great joy-ride for the most part.

I look at kids today and this thread has got me thinking: What kind of similar question will they ask 50 years from now about the things they played in their teens and twenties? Our world and the technology games we had is NOT the same as our parents and grandparents. And certainly could not even be dreamed of by our grandparents of what we would be playing with. So, I stand today considering if I was a kid in today's world what would I have at my disposal 50 years from now. My thoughts: Would I get a new game model robot that I would change whenever an upgrade or new model comes along? Would I be jumping from one to another or would I be satisfied with just one? Would I upgrade or stay pat? Would I request new features?

My past is gone and my future shortens by the day.

[wiak]

My past is gone and my future shortens by the day.

Space invaders and so on hadn't really taken off much in my part of the world when I was a teenager, and by the time it had, I was spending a couple of years playing table football competitions and winning bottles of whisky...

My kids still rarely beat me at table football (if playing singles) though they do manage occasionally. However, until about a year ago, I'd beat them even if they played as a doubles team against me on my own, but that much has changed. Sometimes I manage to overcome them even then, but overall, when they are a doubles team, I just don't have sufficient time to defend. Of course I was a lot faster and new loads of attacking moves back in the days I won trophies and whisky playing that non-computer-game.

I did play space invaders and enjoyed it for a little while at some point (in my twenties) and also wrote quite a number of simple peek/poke character-based games (including shoot-them-up, ping-pong, and simple tracks/car-racing type games). It was a bit addictive, but my computer-game-related addictions never lasted long at all, and I never did get hooked on the later fancier Doom type games. In more recent years I've played SuperTuxKart (network) against my kids quite often, but I'm utterly hopeless at it compared to either of them. At least I continue to drive them nuts playing singles at table football - like some mountain they cannot quite climb. Neither of my sons have yet managed to beat me at chess either, but... my two daughters who are in their mid-twenties now, have both recently defeated me, which is a new disaster in my life; all their life previously they considered me unbeatable, despite both playing for their high school chess team for years, but now they realise I am mortal, in that sense, too, but they still fear having to play me (just not so much, and fading in that fear methinks...).

[wiak]

My past is gone and my future shortens by the day.

Oh, I meant to say, I'm not taking this view though.

For one, I utterly intend to win again at chess next time I get the chance against these daughters of mine.

But more than that, whilst I'm aware of time passing, and I can count time left is obviously getting shorter, I basically consider each new day just a new beginning - not actually fading at all. In fact I have every intention of doing a lot of new things (and improving at various other matters - physical and otherwise related). Yes, I suppose time will inevitably get the better of me, but not for a long time yet I intend...

Right now I'm planning to move country yet again, though it is quite a long term plan - 18 months till I get there. The delay is really due to having kids and their needing to finish certain stages of their education (school exams) before I can fairly make a big move. But I'm naturally nomadic and been bored for decades cos stuck in one place. Time passes, but the future is plenty long enough (hopefully) to move to new pastures yet again.

This attitude is why WeeDog linux, build method and initrd came into being really. I needed to 'move' in that computer system sense too, so I needed something that could satisfy my needs to morph into different forms - something I could mould into different variants, so I could move to a new variant whenever boredom started to creep in, and that is what that was all about. Otherwise I'd just stick with the likes of Zorin, which I really like, but I can't... I need to experiment with other systems or I get bored, and I don't otherwise have much need for computers nowadays anyway - really I should give them up and just get out into the world more. That may or may not happen when I move country again in 18 months planned time.

Let's not forget that, especially as we get older, sitting in front of a computer all the time becomes a killer, yet the temptation to that kind of habit grows on us. Don't.

[Grey]

I was afraid from the very beginning that at first we would brag about achievements in Arcade games, and at the end ... And in the end, the stories of victories will turn into a Victorian-style party in a gray damp castle, and we will clearly feel ourselves living in the Victorian era and now Queen Victoria will enter the hall.

[russoodle]

I was pretty good at Pinball and REALLY, surprisingly good at the Space Invaders games on the machines at our local hangout, back in the day...I loved it, but not a gamer on the computer, just not interested..

[8Geee]

Qix I could finish a low level or two. I liked Battlezone... never got too far. Konami made an olympics style game in the 80's that I was very good at. Lunar Lander was very tough, especially zero-gravity mode. Overall, I was much better at pinball.

8Geee

[JackMark]

When I was a teen, I played Diablo a lot. Really a lot, guys. And guess what? My son plays Diablo too!! He’s only 13, but he’s already mastered playing it. He’s collected all the runes for lawbringer (maybe he’s bought them, I’m not sure). So, like father, like son, you know, guys. Btw, do your kids play games? Sometimes we play PS4 together. We like playing racing games together. Btw, when I was 23 or 24, I also played Need for speed a lot. So, guys, I’ll be waiting for your replies.