Earliest Arcade Game you remember playing?

DublinWriter

Apropos of the 'What was your first computer' thread, what are the earliest actual arcade games you remember playing in Ireland and when and where?

I remember playing that Shark game back in 1976 in the Fun Palace off Henry Street. The same game appears in a scene in the flim Jaws for a few seconds.

I also remember the arcades out in Bray, and one particularly weird game called 'UFO' I think, where you sat at this periscope thing and it swivelled through 360. It was quite a physically big game and was enclosed by some kind of circular railings. Again from the mid-late 70's.

I'd love to play some of those old mechanical arcade games again, but I don't think they'd have the same level of playability for me now than when I was a kid.

wideangle

Asteroids, pacman,space invaders.

**elaine**

Pacman, space invaders and paper boy.

Bard

I remember playing Pong, Pacman and the original sit-in Star Wars game where you got to be Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star, in some arcade or other in Kilkee, Co. Clare.

Oh and I used to be addicted to Double Dragon. God knows how many 10p's I shoved into that one!

tk123

Bard wrote:

original sit-in Star Wars game where you got to be Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star, in some arcade or other in Kilkee, Co. Clare

I love that one - but you feel crap when you get killed and have to stat over "The Force will be with always..do doo do dede dooooo"

The first game i remember playing is Turpin aka Turtles you were the big turtle and had to avoid spiders, pick up the babies and bring them back home - i still play it on mame!

ro1798

double dragon in the winning post in wexford.... classic


ronan

Willymuncher

It was either outrun or double dragon, both great games.

ianmc38

Willymuncher wrote:

It was either outrun or double dragon, both great games.

Ghosts and goblins and final fight are two early ones for me.

Also a beat em up where you were kinda like a prize fighter and you picked up these little green pills during the battle that made you fight much better, but your enemies could pickt hem up as well. And there were loadsa weapons. I think it was called punisher or something liek that.

The Bollox

the first one I played was this Formula One game. I have no idea what it was called but I remember that it was ****e! I was there with the oul fella. when I was finished I said to him, in an attempt to sound mature, 'that was a waste of money' his reply was 'all of them are' that was the first and last time my father brought me to an arcade!

Blisterman

Street Fighter II.
You;re all old.

aidan_dunne

I remember it like it was yesterday. Was on holidays in Ballybunion in 1983, I think it was (I'm fairly sure it was '83 anyway), and my parents brought myself and my little sister to the arcades one evening after being on the beach all day. I was fascinated by all the video games machines and, as I walked past one of them, it "spoke" to me in a computerised voice challenging me to play it. I asked my parents if I could so they gave me the money and I played it. Lasted about 30 seconds, probably, before I got killed but it didn't matter, I was hooked. The game in question? 'Gorf', one of the many Space Invaders/Galaxian clones around at the time. I can pinpoint that game and that moment as being the the exact moment I became interested in all things computers. And here I am, almost 23 years on (God, is it really that long ago? :eek: ) and I'm still hooked on all things computers!

I've always said to myself that if I ever get a few bob together or win the Lotto or something that I'm going to try and track down a fully working 'Gorf' arcade cabinet to remind me of where my obsession with computers all began!

Pigman II

Probably Popeye(kind of a DonkeyKong type clone) or StarWars(the one that was all line-drawn and you flew an X-Wing)

DublinWriter

aidan_dunne wrote:

I've always said to myself that if I ever get a few bob together or win the Lotto or something that I'm going to try and track down a fully working 'Gorf' arcade cabinet to remind me of where my obsession with computers all began!

They're not all that expensive. You can pick one up in the UK for a couple of hundred quid, but transport would be a killer.

I loved Gorf as well and could immatate the voice effect in the game much to the annoyance of my parents "GEEEEEEEEEEERF".

There's quite a few places in the UK that specialise in old-arcade games. The most collectable are the first gen Space Invaders, Pac Man and Star Wars macines.

You can DL a Mame emulator for your PC with the appropriate ROMS for the games and re-live the whole experience.

I was tempted to get either Gorf, or Tempest now that I have the space and the money, but I think that the novelty would wear off after a while.

I was put off buying a pinball table by a guy in the business who said that pinball machines constantly break down and need specialised servicing due to all the moving parts involved.

But what I really, really, really want is one of those old 2p tabletop Bally slot-machines. Missed one in Cash Converters by about 5 minutes a couple of years ago. There's tons of them in the States and the UK, but it seems there's not many left in Ireland in decent nick.

aidan_dunne

DublinWriter wrote:

They're not all that expensive. You can pick one up in the UK for a couple of hundred quid, but transport would be a killer.

Yeah, I know. I've looked into it in the past and, as you say, they're not too expensive but transport is indeed the killer. It's not so much the money aspect of it, too be honest, but really a lack of space to put it somewhere which is porbably the bigger stumbling block for me.

DublinWriter wrote:

I loved Gorf as well and could immatate the voice effect in the game much to the annoyance of my parents "GEEEEEEEEEEERF".

You know, you're probably the first person that's said to me that they remember Gorf (well, first Irish person anyway! ). None of my friends or anyone else I've ever mentioned it to over the years seem to remember it. They can all remember the Space Invaders' and Pac-Man's and Pole Position's and the like, but nobody seems to remember Gorf. Maybe there weren't all that many Gorf machines around in this country at the time so that's why it's not all that well remembered here.

DublinWriter wrote:

You can DL a Mame emulator for your PC with the appropriate ROMS for the games and re-live the whole experience.

Yeah, I've done that but, I don't know, it just doesn't feel the same or something. MAME is great and it brings back loads of memories but there was always something about standing in front of an arcade machine for ages, getting so far into a game and thinking you're maybe going to go all the way and complete it only for your hopes to be dashed at some point. And you always said to youself "F**k this, I'm not wasting any more money on this thing! It's all a fix, it just can't be beaten." And you'd walk away from it only to turn back, look at it and think to yourself "Ah, what the hell! One more go" and you'd end up pumping more money into the thing. I think that's the one real thing that's missing from MAME.

I've often considered actually building my own arcade cabinet, sticking an old PC into it and setting it up to run MAME. I've seen loads of great examples on the net and often thought to myself how cool would it be to have an arcade cabinet that can play not just one game but tons and tons of all the games of your misspent youth. But, once again, lack of space for somewhere to put it and a lack of time to devote to building it is what's holding me back. Maybe someday, though!

MrSinn

Dig Dug on the Vic 20

byte

Space Invaders and Pacman were the first I remember playing in the local arcade, back in the day!