Great thread. Lots of memories with those cabinets. We used to be able to do late night all you can play lock ins at my local arcade. Only way to finish The Simpsons without it costing you the earth. Finished Time crisis 2 that way as well

davyK wrote:

The coins I put into this....

I cant put into the words the nostalgia rush I got when I saw this picture. Loooooved this game.

I used to spend all of my school days in the arcades in killmarnock wich is probably the reason I ended up in children's homes etc.
I was so addicted to the thrill and excitement of these new unexplored marvels.

Original street fighter was my first wtf is this wow moment that stopped me in my tracks on the way to the old killie swimming baths (only one I knew at the time that had a wave machine and was only 1 quid).
Never went swimming that day or again for months if at all.
This massive cabinet sat just inside the 1st set of double doors and led me to see the rest of the cabinets inside including stuff like defender, splatterhouse, etc etc.

This was in an arcade called the cabaret and was like a huge long room with 2 lines of arcade cabs and a separate room for gambling machines.
It was however mainly a snooker hall at the back thru some other doors.

Across the road further up there was lesuire land wich had all the latest machines as they appeared and were I discovered street fighter 2 and crowds waiting to play with a winner stays on and must have coin on machine to go next unspoken rule that everyone seemd to just know.

Later In lesuire land there was ridge racer, hard driving, race driving, power drift etc etc.
I was hugely addicted and spent most of my youth trying to get to know the owner and everything I could about games.
I loved the place.
Neither of these places exist anymore wich is a bit sad for me as they held so many great memories.

As part of my stag do earlier this year I went to Bury arcade club and was amazed at the amount of machines and stuff I'd played previous and not seen before.
Ones I remember from the past like ghosts and goblins, shadow dancer, robocop, gauntlet etc etc and stuff like darius in a huge cabinet with a super huge wide screen that almost wraps round you and stuff like bish bashi that was just super fun.

I love games and miss arcades so much.
Il definitely be going back to Bury soon as I have someone to go with.

Pole Position hasn't aged that well but it was another great arcade game. It had a sit down version which was pretty immersive for the time.  There was also a 3 screen behemoth called TX-1 that I only ever saw once. It played like Pole Position but didn't seem as good.

Specifically MK2. I spent some hours at the Quay in Glasgow trying to wrap my head around how it played different to SF2.

I don't like versus fighters but they re-invented the arcade and gave it a wonderful Indian Summer.  I think it's a superb genre in 2P but I can't play them for shit.

SF2 (CE,T et al) and MK2 were the pinnacle though I'm sure Alpha, 3rd Strike, IV et al are better games but for a more discerning player.

2D shmups had a brief burst when Cave were active but that was always going to be super niche. And they didn't get dedicated cabs either.

I really like the look of the Candy Cabs. If I had a games room I'd probably get one but I doubt I'd get into PCBs or anything - I'd get it hooked up to a MAME PC more likely.

digi wrote:

I used to spend all of my school days in the arcades in killmarnock wich is probably the reason I ended up in children's homes etc. I was so addicted to the thrill and excitement of these new unexplored marvels.

With a classic mullet, right?

The Daddy posted F-Zero AX, that's thread over, surely?

When a new videogame was an event.

Which House of the Dead had shotguns? That was proper mint.

Gotta have the 4 player Daytona USA cab from thd Tracadero in london

Minkymu wrote:

Gotta have the 4 player Daytona USA cab from thd Tracadero in london

Daytona could handle up to 8 linked cabinets.  Lovely.

House of the Dead 2 was a regular during 6th form. We used to go to the cinema and bowling etc complex in Finchley and they HotD2. Used to get there early and play a bit before the movie.

Blue Swirl wrote:

davyK wrote:

Minkymu wrote:

Gotta have the 4 player Daytona USA cab from thd Tracadero in london

Daytona could handle up to 8 linked cabinets.  Lovely.

No, I mean, the arcade cab with plastic shotguns.

Perhaps that's HOTD?

My last real cabinet memories are the games room in the Student Union. 

I remember Wardner, Bank Panic, Return of the Invaders, Double Dragon and Sky Kid but there were plenty more in that room that I can't remember now.

But I also remember the early days - rows and rows of Space Invaders. Later on arcades that were organised by genre with all the sit down driving games in one area for example.

The bored girl in the change booth.

The noise of a good arcade. Nothing quite like it.