Evening party - In the arcade

Scott C

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Invited twenty or so kids ranging from 11-15 to have a party in the arcade this evening. It seems like every party is different so I thought I would post some of the results and funny things that came out of it.

- Most of the reactions from the kids and adults (none had seen the arcade previously) where the same... "Wow!", "Cool!", "Nah uh!", "%^S#$&", where did you get all of these, how long have you collected, do you fix them, do you have xxx, xxx or xxx, etc.
- One 14 year old girl tried Tempest, wasn't quite sure about it until I explained the gameplay, then really got into it and played a lot of games. Most of my guest don't get Tempest but she really did and even showed some of her friends. Really nice to see someone young enjoy what a truly challenging, fun and addicting game Tempest is.
- Every game got played and only a few got little play, like Space Ace and Bosconian (not typical).
- Another 14 year girl asked me if I had Mappy. Woh, where did she hear about Mappy? Turns out her brother had one of those JPaks that plugs into the TV and she fell in love with Mappy at a young age. I have the Namco classics game, but didn't have it in a cabinet so she could play (next party I told her). :)
- Another girl asked if I had Dragon's Lair pointing to the DL marquee on top of my SA. She stated she saw it in a movie once and really wanted to play it. Wow... I told her next party I would switch the SA to DL so she could play.

All the games survived the party except for the Astron Belt. It started developing laser / laserdisc player issues and blanked. BattleZone continued working, but started developing some vector lines not touching issues. All in all a great evening and now these kids have been exposed to these classics. One dad told me he previously tried explaining to his kids what arcades looked like BITD, how we lined quarters along the marquees, etc. and they didn't get it until the party tonight. Nice to know I am making a difference. :)

Games invited were:

- Donkey Kong
- BattleZone
- Asteroids Deluxe
- Galaxian
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Satan's Hollow
- Bosconian
- TRON
- Wizard of Wor
- Robotron
- Stargate
- Mario Bros.
- Centipede
- Dig Dug
- Tempest
- 60-in-1
- SW:E1 pinball
- Quartet 2
- Star Wars
- Space Ace
- Astron Belt
- Missile Command
- Outrun

Scott C.
 
I get a similar reaction when people come into my basement arcade. I mostly have pinball machines and by the end of the night most are playing the MM, SWEP1, MB or TAF.
 
BattleZone continued working, but started developing some vector lines not touching issues.

This may not be a bad thing. You don't want "touching issues" with so many 14 year old girls in the house, LOL (joke)

Nice collection and nice of you to open that up to others. I like peoples reactions when they come over to myplace, I can't imagine what they would say if I had that many machines.

Sounds like everyone had a good time!

Chris
 
This may not be a bad thing. You don't want "touching issues" with so many 14 year old girls in the house, LOL (joke)

Nice collection and nice of you to open that up to others. I like peoples reactions when they come over to myplace, I can't imagine what they would say if I had that many machines.

Sounds like everyone had a good time!

Chris
I see your point.

Yeh, the kids had fun and several of them asked to do it again, so who am I to argue with them. :) Hopefully, I'll have some additional games working by then.

There were a couple of kids trying to figure out Robotron and initially thought it was a two player game since it has two joysticks. After a game of only using one stick I explained how to play it and the general gameplay. After that, they enjoyed it a lot more! :)

A lot of kids played Outrun, but not one of them initially knew to use the gearshift, so their games varied depending on hi or low. Yes, I told a number of them how to use it until the word got around to everyone that played (WhisperNet).

I did take note of which games players would actually finish the game before going onto something else. The vast majority of players would finish a few of the games, but leave others so there wasn't a consistent pattern. Therefore, no games really bombed in the eyes of these kids. I've heard others talk about the short attention span of this generation and I think I just witnessed some of that.

Most recognizable characters or games to these kids..... Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. with Star Wars and Star Wars:Episode 1 (pinball) as runner-ups.

Scott C.
 
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