What game pops into your head first when you think about your 80's experience?

jehuie

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What game pops into your head first when you think about your 80's experience?

So I was thinking back to what game influenced me the most when I was growing up in the 80's and oddly, the first one that popped into my head is Armor Attack. Me and my friends played the heck out of this game at a little deli down the street from where I went to high school during our lunch break.

I say "oddly" because I think it was only there briefly and there were tons of other games that were there much longer so I'm not sure why this one stands out so clearly. There was also a Star Castle in a small gym very close to there.

The other that I remember the clearest was a Sinistar cockpit at the bowling alley. The volume on the thing was cranked up and there was just this sense of awe the whole time we were playing whenever it screamed and said "I Hunger"!

You young bucks who didn't experience the 80's can never understand what it was like I'm afraid.
 
For me it was a Bally Space Invaders pinball machine, Dragon's Lair, Defender and Pac Man and the elusive 13th key!
 
For me it was a Bally Space Invaders pinball machine, Dragon's Lair, Defender and Pac Man and the elusive 13th key!

Yeah, I put way more quarters into Defender than either of the other games I mentioned. Not sure why that one isn't higher on my list that sprung into my head. I think it's because of who I was playing with at the time. Both of the ones I listed were with specific people and events of the time that are sort of seared into my brain.

Oh....and the pins were before then for me. 70's era EM pins at the skating rink. That was a big deal too....

Which reminds me, they had this game there that hung on the wall. Maybe someone here will remember it. You put a nickle in the thing and then pressed a button and it held the coin in place. I think it said "Stop" and "Go" on it and I think a picture of a traffic signal. Anyway, it would hold it for a variable amount of time and then a bell would go off and it would drop the coin. The object was to press the "Stop" button before the coin fell down into the coin collector. If you hit it in time you could catch the coin and save it and, I believe, use it to play again. But if you were too slow you lost it. I haven't thought about that thing in years. It was just a small wall-mounted thing. Anyone remember that?
 
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I have a few games, all based on places where we used to play them:

Crazy Kong - Used to play this all the time at a local laundrymat. "I love the smell of laundry soap in the morning.... The smell, you know that soapy smell.... Smelled like.... victory."

Ikari Warriors; Empire City 1931; Karate Champ - I'd play these with my cousins at a local convenience store. We'd save our coins during the week, then dump them into these machines while nibbling on Slim Jims and drinking Thirstbusters.

Man, I loved those days. I also love reading these threads with memories like these...
 
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Wow, the Slim Jims and Thirstbusters made me think of when we rode our BMX bikes with bright yellow mag wheels (cause that was the shiz at the time) to Majic Mart, a convenience store about 2 miles from home and had to put your quarter up on an Asteroids machine where the bezel and control panel met so you would be "next up" while drinking Coke flavored ICEEs from a KISS collector cup, Things just seemed much more simple and fun back then.
 
Donkey kong at the corner store but my brother was the neighborhood master,he would be there hours on a single quater.HERCULES pinball in the seventies stands out alot cause the arcade had a dedicated room for it(and it was HUGE and i was small) Asteroids was a biggie for me while my mom did grocery shopping.As a freshman in high school it was spy hunter at the skating rink across the street everyday at lunch with a personal pizza or a deep fried burrito.Just to name a few.
 
Oh, I have to add playing Star Wars at a local grease pit called Turk's, which had the best fried barbeque chicken in the state of Arizona. It was decorated in dark wood with all dark wood booths, had a loud, brightly-lit jukebox in a dark corner, had one of those awesome Pepsi signs with the press-on letters, the scent of french fries hung heavenly in the air, and there was a side room that was a mini-arcade. I would go with my dad to pick up dinner just to visit the gameroom. The games I remember most were a Black Knight pin, Joust, Atari Football, and a Star Wars upright. Good times.

When I pass by it now, Turk's is a sushi place, and the arcade was converted into a hair supply shop. Boo.
 
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Pole Position is the primary game I think of when I remember the 80's. Oddly enough I can not remember ever playing it but I do remember hearing "prepare to qualify" while playing other vids, playing skee ball, and diving into ball pits.

The only other 80's game that really caught my attention was Return of the Jedi. I do remember playing it and it was OK, but something about the cabinet really impressed me.
 
Asteroids was the first one I played on site and oddly it was in a grocery store. My parents, while providing us with a Pong (Telstar) and Atari 2600 at home were adamantly against dropping quarters into games in the wild due to wasting money.

But the one I flash back to more is Space War, because for 2-3 years running it showed up in a tent at the county fair in the fall, and the last time I played it I was standing in 2 inches of rain water on a pallet! Why everyone thought it was OK to have games out in the weather back then boggles the mind. I loved and still love Space War due to the configuration options - back then I thought it was awesome that you could "program" the game to your tastes.

And the reason why we could drink a 32 ounce Coke Icee back then was *because* we had to ride our bikes everywhere and play outside most of the time. I don't remember getting a Coke more than once a day or an Icee more than once a week or two and even though we had a candy bar once every day or two none of my family or friends was obese. Times WERE simpler back then.
 
Atari Football because it got a lot of play with my Uncle

Donkey Kong because it was at the corner store and I'd play it after Little League practice

Front Line and Super Cobra because the motel near my house had both of them and I put a lot of quarters in each
 
Times weren't simpler, only different.


For me, I'd say it's a tie between playing the Star Wars cockpit & watching my brother play Centipede.
 
Pole Position is the primary game I think of when I remember the 80's. Oddly enough I can not remember ever playing it but I do remember hearing "prepare to qualify" while playing other vids, playing skee ball, and diving into ball pits.

The only other 80's game that really caught my attention was Return of the Jedi. I do remember playing it and it was OK, but something about the cabinet really impressed me.

+1 on Pole Position. That game blew my mind away. That and After Burner.
 
Donkey Kong, Star Wars

Roadblasters

Bagman...although I could never get past the first level.

Tempest

Tiger Heli

Although for me, it was almost more about the "place" than the game.

I used to go to this nickel arcade "Wunderland" in Portland, OR and stay there all day long on $5. Boy do I miss that atmosphere.
 
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I could say the Pac-man or Donkey Kong machines but I'll be more specific.

Star Castle: Nothing is more of a staple of '80s for me than this machine. Something about that background music! I first played one of these at a Zayre department store (probably around 1980).

Crazy Climber: I played the Taito version at a Dominick's Grocery Store. Loved the concept and how the joysticks were implemented in the gameplay. This place always had weird games in their lineup. I recall playing a Wild Western, Frenzy, Congo Bongo and a Omega Race at this location.

Bosconian: This is a weird choice I know.... but it was a game I really never got tired of. Gameplay was very addictive - did I mention the speech! This got A LOT of play at our local Perry Drugs Store. Funny enough, it's a game I still don't own and never realized how uncommon they were till I starting to look for one.
 
Another game that I think about when I think about the 80's is Head On. There was a Head On at the local Skateland and I remember playing it all night long on Fridays. The newer color games and the Foosball table had lines waiting to play but no besides me ever played Head On.
 
Galaga, Donkey Kong, and Centipede. Galaga was the first game that wowed me I guess with the visuals. I learned the no fire hack and also eventually got pretty good at it. Donkey Kong was the first game I can remember where you had to stand in a line to be able to play it. Plus since I was 10 years old and a skinny little shit at the time I had to wait even longer because the older kids would cut in line. When I would finally get to play one it was probably the most addicting game I ever played. I can remember you were considered cool if you could make it past the elevator boards. Centipede was the game I would play the most because those machines were everywhere, but I never got any better at it. The funny thing is I didn't realize the HS names were already in there because I was wondering who the DFW and DEW guys were. The best part is that I have all three now, which is something I could never dream of back then.
 
Centipede, Berzerk, Pacman, Pole Position and Q*bert. Those were the big 5 for me in the early 80's. They still define the arcade experience for me.

Between 1985 and 1990, the big 5 were Double Dragon, Operation Wolf, Outrun, Heavy Barrel and Ghosts N Goblins.

What's funny is that I still own all of the early big 5, and of the later big 5, I have sold all 4 that I owned. The only one of the later 5 games I have never owned is Operation Wolf. For some reason, I already knew that the hassle would far outweigh the nostalgia of that title.

It seems the early classics really have staying power, while the later classics were merely fun at the time but got old quick.
 
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