Hello Watchers
I've been having some powerful nostalgia recently for my formative arcade experiences from back in the 80's and early 90's. This has been reflected in getting heavily into MAME, visits to local bar-cades after work on fridays as a way of ending the week and even some arcade/gaming oriented documentaries over the weekends (King of Kong, Chasing Ghosts, Gamer Age, Ecstasy of Order, 100 Yen, Special When Lit + many more!)
There is just something undeniably exciting and intimate about seeing these cabinets together and the happy energy people have when using them. From the wonderful music and sound fx, marquee art and sheer immersing atmosphere that they create to lure you in. Even to this day, I still feel the same sense of buzzing exhilaration that I felt in such a place when I first walked into "ElectroFun" when I was 9.
Obviously as an adult, a pint or two lends a different quality to the experience and travelling home on the train has been more pleasant as a result.
A friend has recently quite kindly loaned me his Hori Pro 3SA to tinker with on MAME, which has added a whole new layer of authenticity to my home experiences.
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Arcade-Pro-3-SA-Playstation-3/dp/B002FL0T8U
(It sure is a beast for the space it takes up!)
Here are some games that I've been getting into lately:
Raiden DX (Love the entire main series!)
Galaga (Bought an edition on Steam as it saves high scores)
Pac-Man (Especially Pacmania lately )
1942 (Practicing to go for a dude's score from the pub!)
Double Dragon (Brawlers are a major love - I found some obscure ones last year. I'm still trying to beat it in one credit even after all these years!)
Moon Patrol (Made a silly remix for the main tune for it years ago…)
+ Many more. Thus is the gigantic seemingly infinite well that is MAME!
I was just curious if anyone still frequents any particular arcade of any kind these days? The modern business model tends to favour the "Bar-cade" given that the old model is largely no longer feasible to operate any more, with the exception of course of classic places like Funspot which is certainly more than an arcade. If anyone has been there or indeed to other places like the 1Up or 2Up, I'd love to hear a story or two!
I understand that California Extreme for 2017 is fast approaching as well:
http://www.caextreme.org/
If anyone has been to this or is intending to go, it'd be great to have some insight!
For those that live locally in Melbourne, we have Pixel Alley and Bartronica. There's also the Beta Bar in Hawthorn, but I haven't investigated that yet. I believe it has more of a general pop culture/cosplay focus and not just arcade gaming. We also used to have Forgotten Worlds in Collingwood, but it sadly closed shop late last year.
If there are enough interested local members, maybe we could have a get together at either Pixel Alley or Bartronica some time, who knows?
Well, I'll leave the thread open for posters to comment, whether that be on their early arcade experiences or perhaps on an arcade that you're visiting today.
I've been having some powerful nostalgia recently for my formative arcade experiences from back in the 80's and early 90's. This has been reflected in getting heavily into MAME, visits to local bar-cades after work on fridays as a way of ending the week and even some arcade/gaming oriented documentaries over the weekends (King of Kong, Chasing Ghosts, Gamer Age, Ecstasy of Order, 100 Yen, Special When Lit + many more!)
There is just something undeniably exciting and intimate about seeing these cabinets together and the happy energy people have when using them. From the wonderful music and sound fx, marquee art and sheer immersing atmosphere that they create to lure you in. Even to this day, I still feel the same sense of buzzing exhilaration that I felt in such a place when I first walked into "ElectroFun" when I was 9.
Obviously as an adult, a pint or two lends a different quality to the experience and travelling home on the train has been more pleasant as a result.
A friend has recently quite kindly loaned me his Hori Pro 3SA to tinker with on MAME, which has added a whole new layer of authenticity to my home experiences.
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Arcade-Pro-3-SA-Playstation-3/dp/B002FL0T8U
(It sure is a beast for the space it takes up!)
Here are some games that I've been getting into lately:
Raiden DX (Love the entire main series!)
Galaga (Bought an edition on Steam as it saves high scores)
Pac-Man (Especially Pacmania lately )
1942 (Practicing to go for a dude's score from the pub!)
Double Dragon (Brawlers are a major love - I found some obscure ones last year. I'm still trying to beat it in one credit even after all these years!)
Moon Patrol (Made a silly remix for the main tune for it years ago…)
+ Many more. Thus is the gigantic seemingly infinite well that is MAME!
I was just curious if anyone still frequents any particular arcade of any kind these days? The modern business model tends to favour the "Bar-cade" given that the old model is largely no longer feasible to operate any more, with the exception of course of classic places like Funspot which is certainly more than an arcade. If anyone has been there or indeed to other places like the 1Up or 2Up, I'd love to hear a story or two!
I understand that California Extreme for 2017 is fast approaching as well:
http://www.caextreme.org/
If anyone has been to this or is intending to go, it'd be great to have some insight!
For those that live locally in Melbourne, we have Pixel Alley and Bartronica. There's also the Beta Bar in Hawthorn, but I haven't investigated that yet. I believe it has more of a general pop culture/cosplay focus and not just arcade gaming. We also used to have Forgotten Worlds in Collingwood, but it sadly closed shop late last year.
If there are enough interested local members, maybe we could have a get together at either Pixel Alley or Bartronica some time, who knows?
Well, I'll leave the thread open for posters to comment, whether that be on their early arcade experiences or perhaps on an arcade that you're visiting today.
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