With some great memories of first seeing or playing your favourite Arcade games, I wondered it having a Game of the week to discuss, each tell your first memories etc of a game, I know not everyone will resonate with all the games selected but be interesting to read others replies too, can cover a set game each week, so there will a chance for most to add to the thread when one they have memories of comes up
There are quite a few I could go with but I thought I'd start with Operation Wolf as it seems to be the first Video game I remember playing, I can't remember where it was. we used to holiday in Caravans at seaside with parents when younger and were always remember the arcades but not video games, remember the Glendale Chicken and Parrot Egg machines on the front, going in the cool Kids Dalek ride, when I was at the Duke Of Lancaster Cab Raid and saw that Kids Helicopter ride, it triggered memories of riding in one. proper old type Crane machines pre Electronic which I managed to get one for my Arcade Collection, played many Mechanical shooting games, Pushers and the cool Street's Wheel Em In, this was all late 70's very early 80's but never played Video games then that I remember
My Dad did buy one of the early Pong type games off his mate, he had bought a Spectrum ZX80 so was selling it, so were playing Video games from beginning of the 1980's, after playing that for a year or so my brother bought Atari 2600 of school mate, so I got to play Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Galaxian, Combat etc
Maybe I did play some earlier video games in the arcades but for some reason though Operation Wolf I seem to have first memories of, probably due to the gun on the front, though looking at release date of Nov 1987 and propably wouldn't of seen it in UK till 1988 maybe I played Outrun before but I can't what years anything was now, anyway
So Operation Wolf I always remembered, had 2 or 3 goes on it and remember the Jungle Stage but never had much money to spend on them so that would of been it, pretty sure I failed to shoot the guy holding woman Hostage and my game was over
No idea what year I got my 2nd hand Commodore 64, school mate Ian had Spectrum ZX81 and Alan a Commodore Vic 20, Mitchell got Commodore 64, which was awesome so C64 it was, had demo of Op Wolf which was just first Level, not very easy playing it with Joystick
Next system after seeing another mates latest computer was Atari ST and soon as I got that I bought Operation Wolf for it, was much better playing it with a mouse and graphics were awesome at the time, music wasn't bad either but nothing beat the Arcade Version, Enjoyed playing it on that
Jumping to Mid 90's my mate at work when started at computer maintenance company downloaded from bulletin boards C64 Emulator, was pretty amazing to be able to play all the classic C64 games I had years before, then a while after he got this arcade emulator, just dos one with early 80's games, which blew me away, couldn't believe it was original games it was running, I lost them I assume when my scsi 4.3gb hdd failed on the final time I connected it to copy everything off, it had issues spinning up and was working, shut down to connect new IDE drive and never powered up again
I don't remember it being called mame then, he didn't save copy either annoyingly but they kept adding more games like Green Beret, it was totally awesome and then when they got onto later 80's and we got Operation Wolf I was loving it as this was my era, so when I found a site called eBay after looking for info on old Paddington Bear I got, I found 2 on this site, then realised they were for sale, I started looking at Ghetto Blasters and then found Arcade stuff so first machine I searched for was Operation Wolf, there were ones for sale in USA and I said to my mate if I see one for sale over here I'm buying it, i'd been looking on eBay since 2000 but never signed up
early 2001 I was searching one night while having a few beers and damn there it was, Op Wolf on auction, I quickly signed up so I could bid, hadn't a clue how it worked I just stuck in a bid on and it went up to £86 woke up next morning and suddenly remembered bidding, put PC on and logged in, Congratulations you won the item £86 I'm like oh shoot, what do I do now, machine was in Bridlington but listing said they would deliver for £50, so they arranged a night to drop it down to me, they turned up, jeez I didn't realise just how big these things were, couldn't start with much bigger upright cab, they brought it down on a trailer and had to get it through my Front Door, and then swing it around into the lounge and then we plugged it in, didn't work, just garbled screen, the monitor was arching around the anode cap, wether it had been working before they drove down I had my suspicions but they were very apologetic and said he wouldn't charge me for delivery, I thought that's not fair after there massive drive down so I rounded it up to £100 and both happy, I realised a few years after it didn't have original monitor glass, trust me to get only one without and took me years to get hold of that part
After months of owning one and not being able to play it, I was constantly looking for another PCB, eventually one for sale from Arcade Warehouse, I bid and won it, £27 I think for working pcb, after days I messaged them as nothing had arrived, they hadn't posted still, said they would get it sent and was here next day in a Pizza box (old faulty one is still in same box lol) and sure enough it was working when swapped board and could finally enjoy playing it
So Operation Wolf started off my Arcade Collection, purely because you can't play the game properly with out the cool Uzi Gun so I needed original machine, even my Nephew was impressed with it when he played one last year, loved the recoil effect and said it's much better than the ones with plastic guns
From that day I then wanted Operation Thunderbolt and loads more classics from late 80s, then years later when I'm running out of space again I found they made the smaller Operation Wolf Single Site Cab, so I kept thinking I should get the smaller one, I managed to get one about 9 years back I guess because I picked it up in my HRV and again only paid £100, not working but was only because tube with lens missing from gun, had to take the cab apart though as it was falling to bits, then rebuild it, then sold my original to member here and it then went off to Arcade Club at Bury. Was shame to sell my first cab but needs must to fit in another classic
So were there any other Brilliant Light Gun Games before Operation Wolf, the graphics at the time was amazing, the game play was awesome, probably why I remembered it so well. You have Crossbow in 1983 deffo would of been drawn to it If i'd seen one with the big Crossbow gun on it, you have Duck Hunt and Sega Shooting Master 1984 but non are what you'd call super exciting and I can't think of anything else that's remotely well known before Op Wolf
So whats your memories of Op Wolf?
There are quite a few I could go with but I thought I'd start with Operation Wolf as it seems to be the first Video game I remember playing, I can't remember where it was. we used to holiday in Caravans at seaside with parents when younger and were always remember the arcades but not video games, remember the Glendale Chicken and Parrot Egg machines on the front, going in the cool Kids Dalek ride, when I was at the Duke Of Lancaster Cab Raid and saw that Kids Helicopter ride, it triggered memories of riding in one. proper old type Crane machines pre Electronic which I managed to get one for my Arcade Collection, played many Mechanical shooting games, Pushers and the cool Street's Wheel Em In, this was all late 70's very early 80's but never played Video games then that I remember
My Dad did buy one of the early Pong type games off his mate, he had bought a Spectrum ZX80 so was selling it, so were playing Video games from beginning of the 1980's, after playing that for a year or so my brother bought Atari 2600 of school mate, so I got to play Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Galaxian, Combat etc
Maybe I did play some earlier video games in the arcades but for some reason though Operation Wolf I seem to have first memories of, probably due to the gun on the front, though looking at release date of Nov 1987 and propably wouldn't of seen it in UK till 1988 maybe I played Outrun before but I can't what years anything was now, anyway
So Operation Wolf I always remembered, had 2 or 3 goes on it and remember the Jungle Stage but never had much money to spend on them so that would of been it, pretty sure I failed to shoot the guy holding woman Hostage and my game was over
No idea what year I got my 2nd hand Commodore 64, school mate Ian had Spectrum ZX81 and Alan a Commodore Vic 20, Mitchell got Commodore 64, which was awesome so C64 it was, had demo of Op Wolf which was just first Level, not very easy playing it with Joystick
Next system after seeing another mates latest computer was Atari ST and soon as I got that I bought Operation Wolf for it, was much better playing it with a mouse and graphics were awesome at the time, music wasn't bad either but nothing beat the Arcade Version, Enjoyed playing it on that
Jumping to Mid 90's my mate at work when started at computer maintenance company downloaded from bulletin boards C64 Emulator, was pretty amazing to be able to play all the classic C64 games I had years before, then a while after he got this arcade emulator, just dos one with early 80's games, which blew me away, couldn't believe it was original games it was running, I lost them I assume when my scsi 4.3gb hdd failed on the final time I connected it to copy everything off, it had issues spinning up and was working, shut down to connect new IDE drive and never powered up again
I don't remember it being called mame then, he didn't save copy either annoyingly but they kept adding more games like Green Beret, it was totally awesome and then when they got onto later 80's and we got Operation Wolf I was loving it as this was my era, so when I found a site called eBay after looking for info on old Paddington Bear I got, I found 2 on this site, then realised they were for sale, I started looking at Ghetto Blasters and then found Arcade stuff so first machine I searched for was Operation Wolf, there were ones for sale in USA and I said to my mate if I see one for sale over here I'm buying it, i'd been looking on eBay since 2000 but never signed upearly 2001 I was searching one night while having a few beers and damn there it was, Op Wolf on auction, I quickly signed up so I could bid, hadn't a clue how it worked I just stuck in a bid on and it went up to £86 woke up next morning and suddenly remembered bidding, put PC on and logged in, Congratulations you won the item £86
I'm like oh shoot, what do I do now, machine was in Bridlington but listing said they would deliver for £50, so they arranged a night to drop it down to me, they turned up, jeez I didn't realise just how big these things were, couldn't start with much bigger upright cab, they brought it down on a trailer and had to get it through my Front Door, and then swing it around into the lounge and then we plugged it in, didn't work, just garbled screen, the monitor was arching around the anode cap, wether it had been working before they drove down I had my suspicions but they were very apologetic and said he wouldn't charge me for delivery, I thought that's not fair after there massive drive down so I rounded it up to £100 and both happy, I realised a few years after it didn't have original monitor glass, trust me to get only one without and took me years to get hold of that partAfter months of owning one and not being able to play it, I was constantly looking for another PCB, eventually one for sale from Arcade Warehouse, I bid and won it, £27 I think for working pcb, after days I messaged them as nothing had arrived, they hadn't posted still, said they would get it sent and was here next day in a Pizza box (old faulty one is still in same box lol) and sure enough it was working when swapped board and could finally enjoy playing it
So Operation Wolf started off my Arcade Collection, purely because you can't play the game properly with out the cool Uzi Gun so I needed original machine, even my Nephew was impressed with it when he played one last year, loved the recoil effect and said it's much better than the ones with plastic guns
From that day I then wanted Operation Thunderbolt and loads more classics from late 80s, then years later when I'm running out of space again I found they made the smaller Operation Wolf Single Site Cab, so I kept thinking I should get the smaller one, I managed to get one about 9 years back I guess because I picked it up in my HRV and again only paid £100, not working but was only because tube with lens missing from gun, had to take the cab apart though as it was falling to bits, then rebuild it, then sold my original to member here and it then went off to Arcade Club at Bury. Was shame to sell my first cab but needs must to fit in another classic
So were there any other Brilliant Light Gun Games before Operation Wolf, the graphics at the time was amazing, the game play was awesome, probably why I remembered it so well. You have Crossbow in 1983 deffo would of been drawn to it If i'd seen one with the big Crossbow gun on it, you have Duck Hunt and Sega Shooting Master 1984 but non are what you'd call super exciting and I can't think of anything else that's remotely well known before Op Wolf
So whats your memories of Op Wolf?
