what's your fave era of arcade games?

[soop]

I was thinking about this recently, and after playing a lot of different games over the last year, I think broadly speaking, the 90's really hit the mark for me. I know a decade is a long time, but I feel like that's when gameplay really got figured out. Before that, controls and concepts were guessing a lot of the time, but by the late 80's it seems like things got nailed down a bit, and people started iterating on successful concepts. Then 3D came along, and the same thing happened, but more rapidly this time. After that, it seemed to be more about chasing spectacle, with big fancy cabinets, card readers in Japan to record progression and the like.

So I feel like for me, CPS1 had a lot of great games, but the CPS2 era was when games really started to get good. And it astonishes me how SNK managed to get the MVS system to be such an impressive platform for 14(!) years. Then I guess Naomi/ System 246 was probably the last really great era for me. After that, it feels like a lot of the experimentation died down, maybe even before then, and we got a lot more refined versions of successful concepts. Nicer looking versions of the same ideas.
And conversely, there's not a huge amount that really captures me from the early 80's Time Pilot is great, Armoured Car is .. interesting. Acrobatic Dogfight is quite cool. But I never feel much of an urge to play galaxian or space invaders or dig dug (actually I did play Mr Do the other day and that was really fun)

 

[big10p]

It's going to be mostly a nostalgia thing, I reckon, based on the age of individuals. E.g. I was born in 1967 so early 80s to mid 80s is my thing. Someone younger is likely to prefer 90s, MVS etc.

 

[Max...]

Yeah for me I guess most fondly Asteroids, Scramble, Moon Cresta, Defender etc was my golden era - then a little later Aliens, Golden Axe, Super Monaco GP etc.

I remember then a long break and going back to arcades when Sega Rally and Ridge Racer came out and being truly blown away not having been aware of how things had changed so much.

 

[Vorbis]

To be honest Pong is hard to beat 😁

 

[Vorbis]

My Grandstand version was played to death

 

[eliotcole]

My favourite just going on feeling is the late 80s and early 90s.

When I look back at it all, though, most of what I marvel at was *just* before my time. Where the designers had to push themselves to get the hardware to do anything close to what they wanted ... with some stunning art produced as a result. Some of the prettiest, coolest, games are probably just before my time ... from the early to mid-80s.

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

Best era i feel was around 87ish. Arcades had an amazing mix of the newer games and loads of the mid 80s and early 80s/late 70s classics and if you're lucky some 70s games, rides and electromagnetic gems dotted randomly around some arcades. Plus the earlier games were half price (10p) to play at that time! Which suited me..
A bit of Shinobi for 20p then maybe some Defender for 10p. 😄
Also the late 70s and beginning of the 80 arcades and the sea fronts were very special places, they looked and smelled so cool with a really exciting fairground feel with all types of machines, rides, shops and attractions everywhere.
Magical, you just had to be there.
Wish there was more footage from the arcades and seafronts from all these eras. Miss em.

 

[69er]

1960s you still got 240d big pennies for a pound (not that I ever had a spare pound as a teenager) pushers moved a long way (penny falls) roll a penny (1d wheel em in) paid out 3d & 6d would really clatter down the glass … e/m pinballs with bells and gongs just 3d a go (Williams Magic City one of my favourites) lots of ‘bet now’ random horse race games, Monte Carlo rally, & roulette etc. ….. Claw grabs were found in glass cabs Waist high so you could aim the crane from above the gifts ( usually just tacky whistles , black Jack sweets and a pound note wedged into a cup full of pennies so it stood up but impossible to grab & win)

Then arcades had lots of arm pull bandits and flick-ball allwins …. while odd ones had mechanical bowling lanes and drivers with seats began to emerge (Indy 500 a rotating drum with projector lit winding road, dinky race car on a steering wheel and crash sound was generated by a piano string in a record player stylus) I had one of those in the 70s!

Because pennies weigh heavy … 3 weighed 1 ounce a few space theme games in Rhyl were like a round rocket with moon surface craters on 4 sides .. coins dropped on to the surface and maybe landed and bounced into the craters randomly filled till they got heavy enough to tip…. You could win 10-15d if you had an idea which craters were close to weight limit? Lots of good centre pieces like that but in my opinion decimalisation in1971 ruined many similar themed games with the tiny penny and the 2p coin was effectively like spending 5d as the new coins replaced old ones at 12d suddenly became 5p… two and a half value adjust robbery!!!!

I did enjoy early 80s colour video games a lot too !

 

[soop]

Best era i feel was around 87ish. Arcades had an amazing mix of the newer games and loads of the mid 80s and early 80s/late 70s classics and if you're lucky some 70s games, rides and electromagnetic gems dotted randomly around some arcades. Plus the earlier games were half price (10p) to play at that time! Which suited me..
A bit of Shinobi for 20p then maybe some Defender for 10p. 😄
Also the late 70s and beginning of the 80 arcades and the sea fronts were very special places, they looked and smelled so cool with a really exciting fairground feel with all types of machines, rides, shops and attractions everywhere.
Magical, you just had to be there.
Wish there was more footage from the arcades and seafronts from all these eras. Miss em.

I remember going to Minehead a fair bit as a kid, and my dad would give us like £1 of 10p coins, and I'd walk around and carefully monitor which games I thought were worth it. TMNT was 10p a pop and I could understand what to do. Guantlet we had at home on the spectrum, but the arcade one chewed through modey too fast. Yie Ar Kung Fu I looked at but it looked strange, never played it. And then they had the big fully articulated AfterBurner II and I think Thunderblade too. They were more expensive, but I loved After Burner especially. Then Street Fighter 2 came along, and I had to ask other kids how they were doing fireballs and such, and I still had no idea, so I picked Chun Li instead

 

[PAC-MAN]

1978 - 1985 for me, anything after 1985 I don't really have much interest in.

We had it almost too good in the early 80's and it was not the same after the ' Golden Age ' cabs disappeared.

I guess Quartet was ok in '86 and Enduro Racer wasn't bad but others like Outrun etc I had no interest in and missed the cabs that used to be there and I wanted them!

The impact those old machines had on us is unbelievable and the fact we're still doing it is crazy!

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

 

[kingtreelo]

late 80's early 90's for me, but i still played the early to mid 80's games even then, it was just a time where games were advancing ever so slightly and home consoles were improving a lot, so game advancement was coming on a lot at the time, but the old classics were still great to play

 

[Bods]

Best era i feel was around 87ish. Arcades had an amazing mix of the newer games and loads of the mid 80s and early 80s/late 70s classics and if you're lucky some 70s games, rides and electromagnetic gems dotted randomly around some arcades. Plus the earlier games were half price (10p) to play at that time! Which suited me..
A bit of Shinobi for 20p then maybe some Defender for 10p. 😄
Also the late 70s and beginning of the 80 arcades and the sea fronts were very special places, they looked and smelled so cool with a really exciting fairground feel with all types of machines, rides, shops and attractions everywhere.
Magical, you just had to be there.
Wish there was more footage from the arcades and seafronts from all these eras. Miss em.

Had to check I hadn't posted this

Pretty much spot on that, 86/88 in the arcades was awesome so many great games coming out while still older ones like Popeye, Green Beret, Kung Fu Master
our holidays at seaside was in arcades playing all the electro mechanical games was great fun.
Yes some good stuff in the 90s as well as the hardware got better but doesn't mean the games were anymore fun

 

[Body pop]

Mid 80s for me
You had everything .
Some of the old pensioner games from 70searly 80s were still there to be found
But you had all the very best stuff coming through then
Jamma games and deluxe cabs
Oh it was great
It can’t be replicated ever

 

[TheDaddy]

80's for me too.

Dave.

 

[Vorbis]

Late seventies to mid 80s. Will never forget first plays of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, DK etc. Still absolute classics now and I'm still absolutely shit at all of them

 

[big10p]

Late seventies to mid 80s. Will never forget first plays of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, DK etc. Still absolute classics now and I'm still absolutely shit at all of them

Me too. 😆

 

[Shipwreck Arcade]

If you was lucky enough to be around then, then you know.
People in the uk were definitely happier and freer. Probably because of all the awesome arcades about! 🤣 Plus we didn't have all the lies and crap dumped on us like now.

 

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

I’d say late 80’s to late 90’s.

For me, my first arcade experiences were Street Fighter II & Midnight Resistance on a school trip to France.

Following on from that I used to play mini golf with my old man at the local driving range and in the bar area they had a pinball machine and an Electrocoin MVS unit that housed Magician Lord, Baseball Stars Professional, Thrash Rally & Top Players Golf. That was a monumental moment in my gaming life and the start of being mesmerised by the Neo Geo system - something that carries on today.

Then as the 90’s carried on we had various Street Fighter updates, Neo Geo games getting more impressive year by year, the birth of bullet he’ll shmups, 3D fighters, racing games like Daytona, Sega Rally and the mind blowing Riiiidge Racerrrrrrrrr!

Unfortunately home consoles caught up and arcades slowly shut, one by one until we had no cabs at all in Loughborough.

Memories of going to Grafix to check out their latest imports and play Martial Champion, heading down to the nearby chippy to play on their 3 cabs - Usually a selection of some SF variant and a couple of MVS games - followed by Miracle Micros that had 5 cabs and ending up at Jive Consoles which had a row of cabs along the front wall and a load in the side room.

Later on when I was able to get in the showboat there was a huge variety of stuff. The 6 slot, a couple of Electrocoin Duets, a row of Goliaths, Killer Instinct 2, Sega Raaly and the only Cyber Cycles I’ve ever seen.

As much as I think the PlayStation 1 & 2 are incredible systems, I do resent that they, as well as the Saturn killed off the arcade.

I’d do anything to have those days back!

 

[Rogerio]

Mid 80s.