Anyone visit Arcades anymore?

That shark game was called Let's Go Island 3D Lost on the Island of Tropics:







Click here for all the real-time 3D pure arcade action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VKQYv_hMKs

When I was in my late teens my Mom and another lady bought a building and turned it into an arcade. It was 100 yards from the school bus stop. It was small but had most of the classics, (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Robotron, a few pinball machines, etc.) I got to play for free during off hours so that was pretty fun. I could play Galaga forever....

Oh man, that would have been low teenage heaven for me.

Has anyone else tried Double Dragon Neon yet? I installed it today and played briefly. Seems like a pretty decent modernization of Double Dragon. I definitely want to try co-op though.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/252350/Double_Dragon_Neon/

Thrasher said:

Oh man, that would have been low teenage heaven for me.

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Honestly, arcades probably helped to pave the way to IT for me. When I learned fixing them could lead to a job, I started down the path. I ended up moving to Windows-based stuff in the early 90's and have been working IT since.

I got my first IT job from a friend who played in the Alien Arcade as a kid. He was 8 years younger than me and just called me out of the blue for helpdesk support. I was selling pianos and organs at the time. I used to help him burn disks for the C64. Now I have 20+ years in the IT field and work for a huge company making a very nice salary. All because I played arcade games and tinkered with computers.

Man, you lucky bastard 'nut. That sounds like a dream kind of situation with the arcade, or at least it would have been for me. Whilst I was unfortunately born too late to have experienced the golden age of arcades in the early 80's, I still very much connect with many games from that era. I completely concur on Galaga for instance. Aesthetically, that game is a masterpiece of video game art. The delightful little tune it plays at the start of each game and at the end of the challenging stages for instance is just magic. Gets me every time. Again, I was only exposed to its game-play first via a C64 clone called "Galaxy", which I copied from a friend in primary school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeVBxXpL2TE Playing Galaga itself came much later.

@ JDR
I bought Double Dragon Neon a couple of years back on Steam when it was on sale. It's not bad actually - full of 80's nostalgia, humour, pop culture references (the main villain is an amusing play on Skeletor from He-Man) and all round Double Dragon fun. I've beaten it on the first two difficulties, but not yet on the hardest one. The level two theme for me was extremely addictive - I used to repeat that level just to listen to it and practically time-warp myself back to where I first played Double Dragon in the arcade.

I've got a couple of days left of holidays; whilst we're on opposite sides of the world, give me a hoy on steam if you want to try it out via co-op.

Thrasher said:

If I were to show up in one now, I'm sure I would get a lot of strange looks.

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I dunno about that mate, if you consider that your generation is likely to be one of the key demographic groups who are experiencing nostalgia for this era, you might be pleasantly surprised I think at the average ages of those who do attend barcades at least.

That said, the local Bartronica in Melbourne also caters for console playesr by having couches and various classic 90's machines to choose from (SNES, N64, Megadrive/Genesis). I suspect I'm just one of a wide ranging spectrum of players though who simply go to the place to relax with a brew and a game after a working day.

SirJames said:

I have the original Australian space invaders pub table. 20c a play!

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Cool! Post a photo of it to the thread if you want! The documentary "100 Yen" has some fascinating stories on Space Invaders.

A retro arcade would be very cool.

How close is this place for you Thrasher? http://www.theoneup.com/

3625 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA, 91423

Edit:
Nice range of games and they're free to play evidently if you're a paying customer. Not quite the same thing as dropping a coin in a slot, but still could be interesting for a night out.

That's a huge list of games that would need a warehouse to fit! Thanks!

Pessimeister said:

@ JDR
I bought Double Dragon Neon a couple of years back on Steam when it was on sale. It's not bad actually - full of 80's nostalgia, humour, pop culture references (the main villain is an amusing play on Skeletor from He-Man) and all round Double Dragon fun. I've beaten it on the first two difficulties, but not yet on the hardest one. The level two theme for me was extremely addictive - I used to repeat that level just to listen to it and practically time-warp myself back to where I first played Double Dragon in the arcade.

I've got a couple of days left of holidays; whilst we're on opposite sides of the world, give me a hoy on steam if you want to try it out via co-op.

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Yeah, it's pretty good as far as brawlers go, but I've only played the first level so far. It also seems to have a steeper learning curve than the older DD titles.

Do you limit yourself to a set amount of continues when trying to beat these kinds of games?

And yeah, I'd definitely be up for some co-op if our schedules allow. Probably won't be easy with the time difference though. I just checked and it's 6:25am in Melborne right now vs 4:25pm here.

Have you ever played co-op using MAME? I wonder how easy it is to set up. I'd love to play some Golden Axe or Gauntlet 2. Too bad the Sega classics on Steam don't support online co-op.