When You Were A Kid In The Local Arcade.......

[Magister]

Did you ever piss off the Owner for being able to beat the game or play for a long time on one quarter?

We had a little arcade in our small town. I was never a fan of the owner, she was just an asshole. But I did love going in there and making it to the end of games like Double Dragon, Double Dragon II and P.O.W. She even tried to turn up the difficulty of the games, which didn't do anything. Spy Hunter was another game I held the top score on and could play for a long time.

But my favorite was holding the top four high scores on the F-14 Tomcat pinball machine. She got so pissed she changed the top four scores to all 9s with her name in their place. But in doing so, she screwed the game up so it was unplayable. Good times.

 

[RetroInjection]

This is the first time I've heard of an op holding a vendetta. Are you sure you didn't kill her family?

 

[FrizzleFried]

Did you ever piss off the Owner for being able to beat the game or play for a long time on one quarter?

We had a little arcade in our small town. I was never a fan of the owner, she was just an asshole. But I did love going in there and making it to the end of games like Double Dragon, Double Dragon II and P.O.W. She even tried to turn up the difficulty of the games, which didn't do anything. Spy Hunter was another game I held the top score on and could play for a long time.

But my favorite was holding the top four high scores on the F-14 Tomcat pinball machine. She got so pissed she changed the top four scores to all 9s with her name in their place. But in doing so, she screwed the game up so it was unplayable. Good times.

I don't understand this mentality (the owners)... a prudent business person would promote said player... and push other patrons to beat the guys score...

 

[kkcloak]

When You Were A Kid In The Local Arcade.......

i almost got molested once, a stranger gave me a few quarters to come to his car for more quarters. [didn't fall for it or did i].

#truestory

 

[Mylstar]

My local arcade did the opposite.....


I lived and breathed arcade games starting back in 1979.
The local arcade opened around 81. I was there pretty much every day and all day on weekends. I was a pretty good player backing the day and the owner recognized it.
He game me the arcade shirts to wear to school to promote. He gave me free tokens (I pretty much never paid for tokens for about 4 years). Hell he game me a job at 16 taking care of the high score list and eventually working in the token/change booth.

He let me put some games in the place one I started to buy games - I,Robot, System 1, Three Stooges, Inferno and Gauntlet (bought NIB at age 16).

I bought my Reactor from him back in 1983.

So I promoted his place as much as I could.

 

[casm]

There was one arcade in Dublin that would power down a machine mid-game if they thought you'd been on it for too long. Got into a really heated argument with the manager over that one day when he pulled the plug while I was on level 5 of R-Type; he threatened to kick the living crap out of me over it.

That place was a complete dump down on the quays. Don't know that it actually had a name, just a sign reading, "Amusements" on the frontage.

 

[Chevy Metalhead]

I was playing Star Wars one night and had the force with me for some reason, the game of my life, I couldn't die, wish I could remember the score, but the owners had to stay quite a while after closing as they let me play, was at least an hour after they closed. Went to bring my friends down after school the next day to show them my score and they had erased it.

 

[GreaseBall]

I don't understand this mentality (the owners)... a prudent business person would promote said player... and push other patrons to beat the guys score...

Sure worked for Walter D--OH WAIT

 

[Magister]

It's not the first place that did this. There was a bar right next to my grandparent's house which they actually owned at one time. I use to go over there and play the one machine that they had. The vendor would change it up every few months. Everything from Pengo to Tron to Mr. Do. Didn't matter which game it was, I could go a good half hour on each machine. The bar owner hated it. But the locals loved it. They would gather around me and watch, the whole time buying my pop. A lot of times they would give me another quarter as well.

This is the first time I've heard of an op holding a vendetta. Are you sure you didn't kill her family?

 

[Smart Bomb]

1983-84 era...Ice cream parlor by my house..have a few pins and a few arcades. One day i played the Charlie Angels pinball..i popped 42 games on one quarter. I played for at least 3 hours. In the middle of playing, the coin collector guy showed up. He had to get the coins out of the game so i had to let him do that...my 14 yr old self had to brag.."yep..im popping this game like crazy..im up to 42." Well by saying that he fixed it to where the free games would be harder to get. After he left the free games dropped like the stock market. When it was all over, hours later, and all my games were gone i went to the owner and said "hey..your sign says if you get a high score you get a free game...well i got the high score on charlies angels." He says "Son...you been on thanga,e for 3 hours..u got enough free games."

It still burns me he sold me out on that free game.

Anyway i rushed home and called my best friend and ahared the news.

I was all alone while it happened..no friends around me or anything. No one there to witness my one time greatness.

It was only him and i in that little ice cream store and im sure every pop he heard he cringed.

 

[Magister]

I remember another time they had an Arcade Tournament at the local Bowling Alley. I didn't know anything about it and just happen to go there to play some games. I missed the sign up by like 5 minutes and they wouldn't allow me to enter the tournament. Some of the games they had were Congo Bongo, Ms. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man and a few others I can't remember. I do remember watching the whole thing and thinking to myself "All these people suck at these games". Yea, I would have easily took 1st Place if I would have been allowed to enter.

 

[Iggy]

I lived and breathed arcade games starting back in 1979.
The local arcade opened around 81. I was there pretty much every day and all day on weekends. I was a pretty good player backing the day and the owner recognized it.
He game me the arcade shirts to wear to school to promote. He gave me free tokens (I pretty much never paid for tokens for about 4 years). Hell he game me a job at 16 taking care of the high score list and eventually working in the token/change booth.

Very similar story to mine. I was best friends with the older son of the owners of Odyssey. I also got the arcade game t-shirts, and worked under the table for them. I think of how different my life would have been had that place not burned down back in '84. They had already been taking me with them to go buy supplies for the vending machines, and records for the juke boxes. I was allowed to buy stuff on their account, as only businesses were allowed to buy from the place. But it was super-cool, to my 16-18 year old self.

The "work" was fun, too. Riding around in a pick-up truck, with 4 arcade games in the back sure drew a lot of attention back then.

 

[thegleek]

The "work" was fun, too. Riding around in a pick-up truck, with 4 arcade games in the back sure drew a lot of attention back then.

heh, yet this still holds true to this day, tons of looks from bystanders and people driving
next to your haul of 2-4 games in back of a pickup truck. it's priceless! woo hoo!~

 

[alggamer]

heh, yet this still holds true to this day, tons of looks from bystanders and people driving
next to your haul of 2-4 games in back of a pickup truck. it's priceless! woo hoo!~

I get looks when I move one game in my pickup. Even got a few offers from some people as well as inquiries on fixing an "old machine" they or a relative had. Got some repair business that way as well as one of my games.

 

[jawhn]

Me & my buddy would get asked to leave the Circle K if we were playing for too long on a quarter for R-Type or Rolling Thunder. Made no sense. We weren't being noisy or obnoxious, other than cheering each other on.

But yeah, we'd be there for 30min plus, on just a few quarters. Cry me a river. We were buying their sodas and shit, after all...

 

[mk3u2012]

I don't understand this mentality (the owners)... a prudent business person would promote said player... and push other patrons to beat the guys score...

agree 100%

Thanks
Blake

 

[Iggy]

heh, yet this still holds true to this day, tons of looks from bystanders and people driving
next to your haul of 2-4 games in back of a pickup truck. it's priceless! woo hoo!~

True, but it was different back then. At the time, it was like "Damn, those lucky bastards!" and nowadays it's "Holy shit! Look at that, I remember those games!"

 

[carolinamarcg]

Around 1985 age 13 I was marathoning galaga with the no bullets exploit at a bowling alley. A younger kid had been watching me and was in awe. We had been talking and I explained the trick. He immediately runs to the counter and tells the guy at the counter. He comes over, says I am cheating, and unplugged the game. I should have kicked that rat kids ass.

 

[Magister]

This didn't involve cheating, but the local bike shop had a handful of games, one of them being Yie Ar Kung Fu. No one could get past Blues. That is until one day I figured out what moves to use that beat him every time. Of course when that happen, the next thing I know everyone was able to do it. Using exactly the same method I used.

 

[smalltownguy2]

But I did love going in there and making it to the end of games like Double Dragon, Double Dragon II and P.O.W. She even tried to turn up the difficulty of the games, which didn't do anything.

Double Dragon - a.k.a "20 minutes of elbow smashing, then a head-to-head fight."