fuko
Active member
Had a few friends over on Sunday to celebrate my wife's birthday, mostly 30- to 40-somethings... so, people who remember playing in arcades as kids, but haven't played in years. Not the collector scene by any stretch. I had a few games and pins turned on, not everything (a lot are in storage while we renovate the garage for more space), but I tried to have the crowd favorites available. Anyway, here are my very unscientific observations of which games got the most play. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised:
Zero Plays (not even one):
- Star Castle
- Black Widow
- Major Havoc
- Quantum (the vectors just bombed, basically)
- Defender
- Berzerk
- Banzai Run (I was very surprised by this. Thought the vertical playfield would get a few people to try it)
- Pinbot
Handful of plays (less than 5 all night):
- Tempest (!)
- Ms Pac (!!!)
- Dodonpatchi DFK (intense Cave shooter. Very colorful. People love to credit feed and play forever :/ )
- Twilight Zone (not surprised. It's a hard game)
Lots of plays:
- Galaga (a BIG favorite)
- Donkey Kong (everyone played at least once)
- Space Wars (once folks figured out how to coin it up, everyone had a great time playing and watching this one. I heard laughing and cheering)
- Funhouse
- Joust pinball (lot's of people playing head-to-head. No single plays)
Most played (someone was playing pretty much all night)
- Medieval Madness (everyone loves this game)
- Transformers (new pin from Stern. Just got it. Everyone had to play it
)
So there you go. A couple of observations:
- For the most part, people just did not connect with the vectors. I guess they found them intimidating... or at least don't remember playing them as kids
- pins are popular with the older crowd
- 2 player games rock
- You can't go wrong with Galaga or Donkey Kong. Everyone has a memory of playing those games
Anyway, just thought I'd share and see what your experience has been.
Here are a couple of pics I snapped of the night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gloogun/sets/72157628898232355/with/6709062945/
Zero Plays (not even one):
- Star Castle
- Black Widow
- Major Havoc
- Quantum (the vectors just bombed, basically)
- Defender
- Berzerk
- Banzai Run (I was very surprised by this. Thought the vertical playfield would get a few people to try it)
- Pinbot
Handful of plays (less than 5 all night):
- Tempest (!)
- Ms Pac (!!!)
- Dodonpatchi DFK (intense Cave shooter. Very colorful. People love to credit feed and play forever :/ )
- Twilight Zone (not surprised. It's a hard game)
Lots of plays:
- Galaga (a BIG favorite)
- Donkey Kong (everyone played at least once)
- Space Wars (once folks figured out how to coin it up, everyone had a great time playing and watching this one. I heard laughing and cheering)
- Funhouse
- Joust pinball (lot's of people playing head-to-head. No single plays)
Most played (someone was playing pretty much all night)
- Medieval Madness (everyone loves this game)
- Transformers (new pin from Stern. Just got it. Everyone had to play it
So there you go. A couple of observations:
- For the most part, people just did not connect with the vectors. I guess they found them intimidating... or at least don't remember playing them as kids
- pins are popular with the older crowd
- 2 player games rock
- You can't go wrong with Galaga or Donkey Kong. Everyone has a memory of playing those games
Anyway, just thought I'd share and see what your experience has been.
Here are a couple of pics I snapped of the night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gloogun/sets/72157628898232355/with/6709062945/





