Oh you have a pullman ! I would love to have a proper look around there. I only do steam none of this Dirty Diesel stuff ! lol
Dave.
Why This Hobby ??
- Thread starter TheDaddy
- Start date
Dave.
LOL next time I go to the warehouse I will see what else we have I know we have had a lot of new steam & diesel locos arrive and I shall send you pics if you want ? Also, we did have in the past an open day/weekend where the public was allowed to see all the locos an over two days we had over 5,000 people.
Yeh would be great !!! Its about a 5 hour journey one way for me !!
Dave.
PM'ed as I am derailing my own threat ! lol
I'm trying to write something about my love of aracades and my local arcade scene, although it's proving quite difficult at the moment 
I have so many good memories of arcades, starting from when I was a kid playing Hyper Sports at my local youth club, or getting my mum to drop us off at the local swimming pool only to ignore the pool and play Final Fight for hours. Later when I was at college and Bristol still had a few decent arcades. I really fell in love with the Capcom games of the time, and would sit for hours in the Golden Nugget (RIP) and blow my meagre finances on Xmen vs Streetfighter.
There was event a small fighting game 'scene' at that time that revolved around Marvel vs Capcom. I was there when they put it on the Megalo 50 for the first time, and I can recall the 'oooooooohh' from the crowed when someone put Ryu into 'Ken mode'. People would come in and put their 50p down, or just come up and interrupt your single player game to challenge you! The feeling of playing with a small crowd or friends watching is something, especially when you win.
Also just like playing online, there are lots of funny stories of people doing the 90s equivilent of rage quitting, which are also ingrained in my memory. One bloke stood up pointed a finger directly in face and bellowed 'CHEAP!!!' and walked out. I also recall playing Tekken (maybe 4) in the Trocadero and some random guy comes up and puts in his money in, We ended up in this very odd cycle that kept repeating without saying a word to each other - it went somethiing like this.
- He puts money in
- I hit him with a move and he starts agressively nodding, like he knows exactly what i'm up to.
- He loses, (although he did get a few rounds on me)
- He hammers the control panel with his plam, sort of slowly 3-4 times
- Cycle repeats
Eventually I just started losing on purpose as I wanted to get away from him
Anyway add those feelings, with a love of tinkering and fixing things and there you have it.
I have so many good memories of arcades, starting from when I was a kid playing Hyper Sports at my local youth club, or getting my mum to drop us off at the local swimming pool only to ignore the pool and play Final Fight for hours. Later when I was at college and Bristol still had a few decent arcades. I really fell in love with the Capcom games of the time, and would sit for hours in the Golden Nugget (RIP) and blow my meagre finances on Xmen vs Streetfighter.
There was event a small fighting game 'scene' at that time that revolved around Marvel vs Capcom. I was there when they put it on the Megalo 50 for the first time, and I can recall the 'oooooooohh' from the crowed when someone put Ryu into 'Ken mode'. People would come in and put their 50p down, or just come up and interrupt your single player game to challenge you! The feeling of playing with a small crowd or friends watching is something, especially when you win.
Also just like playing online, there are lots of funny stories of people doing the 90s equivilent of rage quitting, which are also ingrained in my memory. One bloke stood up pointed a finger directly in face and bellowed 'CHEAP!!!' and walked out. I also recall playing Tekken (maybe 4) in the Trocadero and some random guy comes up and puts in his money in, We ended up in this very odd cycle that kept repeating without saying a word to each other - it went somethiing like this.
- He puts money in
- I hit him with a move and he starts agressively nodding, like he knows exactly what i'm up to.
- He loses, (although he did get a few rounds on me)
- He hammers the control panel with his plam, sort of slowly 3-4 times
- Cycle repeats
Eventually I just started losing on purpose as I wanted to get away from him
Anyway add those feelings, with a love of tinkering and fixing things and there you have it.
Last edited:
cliff_poole
Active member
Excellent thread !, look forward to reading all the replies.
Growing up near a seaside town in the 80's, I had a Spectrum at home which I loved, but nothing compared to the mind blowing experience of going to the arcades. I also developed an early interest in electronics at this time.
Later when I left school and studied electronics at a local technical college, most of my class were addicted to Nemesis in the front of a shop in the town. This was Amiga era and I had an A500 at home that I worked hard at out of school jobs to save for, always disappointed that there was no version of Nemesis (I know there is now). This lead me to wonder endlessly about the hardware and differences between arcade and home versions.
By the mid 90's I had left home for work, and got my first internet connection. Prior to this I'd been buying old home computers from bootsales, people were practically giving them away at this point (the Atari 800XL became a favourite). In searching the internet for information on which systems had a Nemesis conversion (I was seriously missing it, needed a game), I discovered RGVAC and then the UKVAC mailing list. Straight away I knew this was the hobby for me. Soon after this on a visit to my parents, I was wondering the arcades, a sad time when all the video games were being replaced by fruit machines. The last arcade I visited had a line of JAMMA cabs with For Sale signs, £75 each. I bought the one running Aliens. Next came Nemesis and Salamander PCB's from the guy that ran UKVAC. Nemesis was a non-runner which started me on repairs, and my buying of PCBs snowballed from there.
I agree, there is a sort of magical feeling seeing the graphics, hearing the FM synth tunes, the precision of digital controls, and I if younger generations get the same. I've always felt incredibly privileged to own, or at least be custodian of this stuff.
Growing up near a seaside town in the 80's, I had a Spectrum at home which I loved, but nothing compared to the mind blowing experience of going to the arcades. I also developed an early interest in electronics at this time.
Later when I left school and studied electronics at a local technical college, most of my class were addicted to Nemesis in the front of a shop in the town. This was Amiga era and I had an A500 at home that I worked hard at out of school jobs to save for, always disappointed that there was no version of Nemesis (I know there is now). This lead me to wonder endlessly about the hardware and differences between arcade and home versions.
By the mid 90's I had left home for work, and got my first internet connection. Prior to this I'd been buying old home computers from bootsales, people were practically giving them away at this point (the Atari 800XL became a favourite). In searching the internet for information on which systems had a Nemesis conversion (I was seriously missing it, needed a game), I discovered RGVAC and then the UKVAC mailing list. Straight away I knew this was the hobby for me. Soon after this on a visit to my parents, I was wondering the arcades, a sad time when all the video games were being replaced by fruit machines. The last arcade I visited had a line of JAMMA cabs with For Sale signs, £75 each. I bought the one running Aliens. Next came Nemesis and Salamander PCB's from the guy that ran UKVAC. Nemesis was a non-runner which started me on repairs, and my buying of PCBs snowballed from there.
I agree, there is a sort of magical feeling seeing the graphics, hearing the FM synth tunes, the precision of digital controls, and I if younger generations get the same. I've always felt incredibly privileged to own, or at least be custodian of this stuff.
Markitanis
Active member
I was big on gaming in late 80s and 90s. I guess it’s nostalgiaSo after a week of being in bed with covid and feeling very grim with lots of time on my hands I though I would see what gets people in to this hobby and what it generally means to them.
Remember there are no right / wrong answers so fire away with you thoughts below.
Bare in mind this is just for fun and everyone will be Different, We are all here for different reasons.
So for me its not so much playing the games as to be fair I am not realy that good, Although I do play them obviuosly. Its more the excitement for me I.E when i find a job lot of untested and unknown boards that have been boxed for may years and unloved. The finding out what they are , do they work and if not the whole repair behind them.
There is NO better feeling for me than when I power a PCB on that I have spend weeks or months repairing only to see that splash screen !!! I can not explain what goes on in my body its the nicest feeling ever it realy is. When I have boards on there way (Like now !!) my brain is always doing overtime and I even dream about unboxing and testing them, Sounds sad but last nights dream was just that and I woke with a smile on my face (Rare as I am known as ' Mr Grumpy ').
Couple that with a great community and I keep coming back and back.
Dave.
Look forward to hearing your comments
P.S I have other things I love , Model Railways , Flying in SIMS.
mysticmonk
Active member
There was always something magic about these gigantic arcade games when I was younger, I'd be into an arcade any chance I got.
When it finally dawned on me that I could have my own it was an easy decision.
Funny thing, I'd say like most people, I was a bit disappointed when I finally saw inside one for the first time and it wasn't millions of cog wheels and hissing steam and packed out with wires.
First cabinet I got was a bas silver line, 150 quid and the operator was literally piling pcbs into my arms for free. I think the first game I bought was aliens and I got it from the states for a princely 70 quid all in, and I remember thinking it was really expensive. But well worth it! Still have it too.
When it finally dawned on me that I could have my own it was an easy decision.
Funny thing, I'd say like most people, I was a bit disappointed when I finally saw inside one for the first time and it wasn't millions of cog wheels and hissing steam and packed out with wires.
First cabinet I got was a bas silver line, 150 quid and the operator was literally piling pcbs into my arms for free. I think the first game I bought was aliens and I got it from the states for a princely 70 quid all in, and I remember thinking it was really expensive. But well worth it! Still have it too.
Retroman839
Senior Member
Retroman839
Senior Member
Easy to answer that one, Some best memories of the good old days
We used to play all the pushers, old type cranes, wheel em in, shooting games on holiday
We had a Novex pong type console in very early 80's my dad bought off his mate when he bought ZX80
Brother got an Atari 2600 of school mate, then school mates were getting ZX Spectrum and Vic 20, didn't like Spectrum so I was looking to get 2nd hand Vic 20 untill another mate got C64 and we were playing Chiller and Ghostbusters so I got a second had C64, arcade games were next level, I just wanted Double Dragon machine at home so much, it was like when your older and you would love to own a Ferrari
Playing the conversions on C64 and Amiga was good but just wanted to play the original machines, when you don't have much money to play them and spend more time watching, mame and owning them is a way I can now play all the ones I never did.
We used to play all the pushers, old type cranes, wheel em in, shooting games on holiday
We had a Novex pong type console in very early 80's my dad bought off his mate when he bought ZX80
Brother got an Atari 2600 of school mate, then school mates were getting ZX Spectrum and Vic 20, didn't like Spectrum so I was looking to get 2nd hand Vic 20 untill another mate got C64 and we were playing Chiller and Ghostbusters so I got a second had C64, arcade games were next level, I just wanted Double Dragon machine at home so much, it was like when your older and you would love to own a Ferrari
Playing the conversions on C64 and Amiga was good but just wanted to play the original machines, when you don't have much money to play them and spend more time watching, mame and owning them is a way I can now play all the ones I never did.
Example of that was playing Renegade on C64 if I remember right, had to use keyboard key as well as joystick button which was fun when you have Konix Speedking and need 2 hands to use
, just wondering why now I didn't make a holder for it or something
John Bennett
Senior Member
Yeah, depending on the cost of the PCBs.I had a thought yesterday. It was as if the arcades were at least a generation ahead of anything available at home. It was like they were PS5 and we were stuck with PS3
The scaling/rotating stuff in the mid 80's wasn't really matched by home consoles until the 90's, and stuff like Galaxy Force 2 (1988) wasn't 100% until the PS2
I think it's diminishing returns these days though - PS5 throws lots more polygons around than the PS3, but for a 14-year gap, it's nowhere near as striking-a-difference you'd have got comparing something from 1994 to something from 1980.
John Bennett
Senior Member
I still wonder how anyone could've sanctioned the release of the Megadrive version of Galaxy Force 2 (for sale for around £40 at the time).
At least you could sort-of get away with the empty-looking nature of Afterburner and Super Monaco, but
vs.
Otherwise, the Megadrive was incredible as it suddenly felt like I had arcade-quality games at home. Kinda ties-in when arcade games started to get bigger and grander to keep the players coming in.
At least you could sort-of get away with the empty-looking nature of Afterburner and Super Monaco, but
Otherwise, the Megadrive was incredible as it suddenly felt like I had arcade-quality games at home. Kinda ties-in when arcade games started to get bigger and grander to keep the players coming in.
mysticmonk
Active member
That's exactly the way I describe it to my youngest brother, that if it were today, it would be like public buildings with PlayStation 8's, and no other way to play them. Just blew you away.I had a thought yesterday. It was as if the arcades were at least a generation ahead of anything available at home. It was like they were PS5 and we were stuck with PS3
I agree with mystic monk, for me it was always the magic about playing these ‘gigantic arcade machines’ when I was younger, the communal experience with friends of playing them and seeing people who enjoy the arcade experience and being around it. Also, its was experiencing unparalleled graphics, technology and innovation that home consoles could never achieve at the time, which in my opinion all combined my the arcade experience totally unique and something that the later generations have missed out on. That's why I'm getting into collecting arcade machines because I I always wanted arcade machines and it was my dream to own some, I want my two boys, niece and nephew to experience the 'proper arcade experience on original arcade hardware', to help maintain and preserve arcade machine history and most of all to hopefully get my two boys into this hobby and so they can continue it on when they get older and pass it on.
councilface
Active member
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