There will come a day, probably soon, where kids growing up will have no idea what being in an Arcade was like. It is probably hard for most adults my age, and a little older, to imagine such a thing, but sadly, it is true.
I have been thinking over the past several days of what my first Arcade experience was, and best I can figure, it was Chuck-E-Cheese in the early ’80s. I used to have all my birthday parties at that place (“T’was the style at the time”) and can remember playing games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong endlessly with my parent’s money. There were also the tabletop arcade games like Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man at our local Pizza Hut that would devour quarters at an alarming rate. Finally, there was the “Kids Area” of a local furniture dealer that had an arcade version of Popeye that was free to play. Going furniture shopping with my parents was never a problem.
Moving into adolescence, and once my parents moved us into a rural area, the only arcade time I got was at a mall that opened up a few years afterward. I can remember going into that place and playing all the “new” games and never wanting to leave when my parents were done shopping. Since I didn’t have a car the parents were the only way of getting there, I had to seem like I liked shopping just to get a free ride. One time our school took a “Field Trip” to the mall (exciting I know) and that was where one of my favorite memories of arcades took place. A bunch of students, after we ate in the food court, went into the arcade and started playing the six-person X-Men game. That big ass two screen arcade cabinet that had six sticks on it. Well, we all piled on that thing and start going to town. Nothing much really about the game itself was extremely fun, however, the people playing it were. I can remember one of my friends in the jungle level SCREAMING at the top of his lungs like that damn howler monkey in the background. I think we may have gotten ourselves kicked out, but it was so worth it to hear him yelling exactly like that monkey over and over again.
Arcades all over America are all the same. They smell the same, are mostly laid out the same, and they all bring a smile to the face of any true gamer. Once when I went on a trip with a friend to Disney World, we stayed in the park itself. That alone is amazing (I highly suggest if you can that you do it) but one day we decided to just take the monorail around to all the different Hotels and “explore”. One of the hotels we stopped in was the “Contemporary”. It’s a giant triangle that the monorail runs directly through. On one of the levels was an arcade. So naturally, we had to stop and play some games. I walked up to the “Virtual Cop” light gun arcade game and plunked in my quarters. Several dollars and about an hour later I had beaten my first arcade game, on vacation, in Disney World! Truly something that I could be proud of in my own little dorky way.
Going into the Arcade at my local mall was second nature to me. Once I got my license I would drive out there about once a week and just walk around the mall for a little while, check the shops, then make my way to the arcade. I always enjoyed going in because I got to see what new games were out. By then I had come to find that most of the new games in the arcade would soon be coming to home consoles as well. One game always grabbed my eye, and I couldn’t go in without playing it; Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is the first game that I actually could play with confidence that I would get through several opponents before I knew I was in trouble. It also was the first game that I took the time to memorize moves so that I could go in and pull off the finishers. Which I did the first time and was elated to see Sub-Zero rip someones head off and claim Victory. After playing through several different versions of fighters and beat-em-ups I decided that the only game I could consistently beat on a regular basis was Tekken 2. Me and my Wang… Wang being the character I used. I could tear through that game from start to finish in less than 10 mins. It was great.
I asked around, to a bunch of my friends and people that I work with, what their favorite games or moments of arcades were. Most were pretty much the same. Going into an Arcade and picking your machine and just doing your best to dominate it. Be that by going on a winning streak only broken by the fact you had to stop playing, or finishing a game over and over again because you worked there and got free tokens. Pretty much everyone played either the Street Fighter type games or the light gun games. There wasn’t much love for the side-scrollers or the beat-em-ups. I for one loved side-scrollers. Games like N.A.R.C., Ikari Warriors, Final Fight, Die Hard, and like my friend (Brian) reminded me of, Bad Dudes. The old school didn’t get much representation either which is kind of disheartening. No one said they loved playing Galaga, Robotron, or Defender, and sad as it may sound, not one person mentioned Space Invaders. I guess it could have been the crowd I was asking, but still, you would think someone would represent the old school.
My point is this: Most any gamer that was born in the late 70’s early 80’s can give you their favorite all-time arcade game. I can guarantee that when you ask them about arcades in general, they will immediately get a picture of one in their head they used to go to on a regular basis. I can remember going with several friends to several different arcades in one night. We would hit one up, then make our way to another and another just because we got tired of the same games at one.
Arcades are a dying breed now. You’re hard pressed to find one if you don’t live in some population booming area or Japan. And based on what I understand, even in Japan, they are slowly going away. Even recent games like Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6 can’t change that. There is hope though. Places like Jillian’s and Dave and Buster’s are trying to entice adult gamers back to the arcades. How do they do that? With beer, that’s how. Both establishments are giant arcades that have a bar located right in the middle. Drink your beer, play your games, remember all those good things from your childhood. It wasn’t at either of those, but at a place similar, where I beat Super Punch-Out, completely smashed.
I just hope that my child has a chance to enjoy the fun, the smells, and the sounds of arcades before they die off totally. We frequent the local D&B and have taken him to Chuck-E-Cheese so that he can play games there. I also have read him many books on the history of games and I think he has an appreciation of it. I wouldn’t be involved in the things I am now if it wasn’t for arcades. It definitely made a big impact in my life, and I wouldn’t trade those memories in for all the skeeball tickets in the world.
*There is a site I only recently discovered that has recordings of ambient arcade sounds. Different sounds recreated for different years of arcades to match what games would have been out around that time. I can’t recommend it enough if you are nostalgic for that kinda thing. Go to the Arcade Ambience Project site and listen. Below is the ambient sounds created from 1992 arcade games.
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