Chase HQ - Dearest game ever???

sengoku wrote: »

Thats right! The carpark was half tarmac, half boreen and was at a 45 degree slope. If you were playing snooker or pool in the place the oul dear behind the counter would give you a cup of tea, you got FA if you were playing the arcade games. It wasn't much of an arcade, it was more of a reception area for a snooker hall. They seemed to get all the arcade games that the bowling alley was finished with.

I remember the managers name now from the the bowling alley, Robin Leatherhead. A bloke once told me that he seen him smile once, but I didn't believe him. "If your not playing games, you have to leave." What a cnut.

Not all bad though as the bowling alley was one of the best arcades around especially for fighting games and they extended the area at some stage and got some NeoGeo SNK fighters in. There was a great selection there..
Turtles Arcade, Off Road Racer, Final Fight, Hard Drivin' in the awesome sit down cab and U.N Squadron amongst others

mondeo

Ye tallaght leisure plex was a place I hung out abit during the early to mid 90's. The last time I was in there I played a sega rally 1 cab. That's going back now a long time... I was never into the bowling thing but I did stuff my face with alot of pop corn in that place. Haha... I remember the bald fella but never knew his name.

pdbhp wrote: »

Not all bad though as the bowling alley was one of the best arcades around especially for fighting games and they extended the area at some stage and got some NeoGeo SNK fighters in. There was a great selection there..
Turtles Arcade, Off Road Racer, Final Fight, Hard Drivin' in the awesome sit down cab and U.N Squadron amongst others

They had all the SFII's up to and including Super SFII and then later on they got Super SFII Turbo. Not an Alpha SF to be seen after that. Don't get me wrong, all the best games were in that place. There was a time that you had to go to the city center to try new games, that time was ceased when Sports Bowl became Leisure Plex. My original statement still stands, Leatherhead was a cnut!!!!!:(

I do remember the extension of the arcade, that's when they repositioned the front door. That was a lot later than when they got in the SNK stuff, but I'm not going to be trivial about when and where they placed their cabs. Even when new stuff came out they still got it in (Killer Instinct, Sega Rally 1 and 2, KI2, to name a few ...my mind is dwindling) and they also brought in some old stuff e.g. out of nowhere Bombjack just appeared for about two months ........ and then ......."why did it have to leave".........????? I did like to play Hard Drivin'. I prefered the upright one you could sit down at (if you played Hard Drivin' you will under stand that comment), I also played the three screen version that I think your on about, if not they also got in the three screen version of Stunt Drivin'. On the high score screen you could see "JOHNER IN A COSSIE", "MICKO IN A CIVIC" and "GOD ON A FORKLIFT"; god was always there, but I never met him???????:rolleyes:

I don't remember U.N. Squadron being there because I was a big fan of Airwing Carrier and they are pretty much the same game, but hey, we all had our niche games and now have different memories. We could try to list all the games that were there, BUT, that would be a long list, especially with hazy memories. A LOT of arcade games did go through that place, it would take about two or three pages of MS WORD to list them all.

mondeo wrote: »

Ye tallaght leisure plex was a place I hung out abit during the early to mid 90's. The last time I was in there I played a sega rally 1 cab. That's going back now a long time... I was never into the bowling thing but I did stuff my face with alot of pop corn in that place. Haha... I remember the bald fella but never knew his name.

I did a lot of the Bowling and Quasar stuff, but only because there was a plethora of vouchers at my disposal. Between knowing people that worked there and the vouchers that came free in the Tallaght Echo, I had a near endless supply of two for one vouchers.:cool:

I went up recently and was asked to pay the entrance fee, I just said that I was going in to meet my brother, they said "Go ahead", no fee incured (I do not have a brother). It's a sh!t hole now, full of slot machines and some obscure simulators. There was nothing there worth mentioning, not even **a** * *o**.

sengoku wrote: »

It's a sh!t hole now,

Actually it was a **** hole then, it's just worse now!!!!!!!:pac:

CiDeRmAn

I used to go to Ricardos on Aungier St, up near Whelans I think.
It was a cinema at some point, then a snooker hall, the lads would play that while I got to play Altered Beast, lucky me!
Now its a high class pub or something.

sengoku wrote: »

They had all the SFII's up to and including Super SFII and then later on they got Super SFII Turbo. Not an Alpha SF to be seen after that. Don't get me wrong, all the best games were in that place. There was a time that you had to go to the city center to try new games, that time was ceased when Sports Bowl became Leisure Plex. My original statement still stands, Leatherhead was a cnut!!!!!:(

I do remember the extension of the arcade, that's when they repositioned the front door. That was a lot later than when they got in the SNK stuff, but I'm not going to be trivial about when and where they placed their cabs. Even when new stuff came out they still got it in (Killer Instinct, Sega Rally 1 and 2, KI2, to name a few ...my mind is dwindling) and they also brought in some old stuff e.g. out of nowhere Bombjack just appeared for about two months ........ and then ......."why did it have to leave".........????? I did like to play Hard Drivin'. I prefered the upright one you could sit down at (if you played Hard Drivin' you will under stand that comment), I also played the three screen version that I think your on about, if not they also got in the three screen version of Stunt Drivin'. On the high score screen you could see "JOHNER IN A COSSIE", "MICKO IN A CIVIC" and "GOD ON A FORKLIFT"; god was always there, but I never met him???????:rolleyes:

I don't remember U.N. Squadron being there because I was a big fan of Airwing Carrier and they are pretty much the same game, but hey, we all had our niche games and now have different memories. We could try to list all the games that were there, BUT, that would be a long list, especially with hazy memories. A LOT of arcade games did go through that place, it would take about two or three pages of MS WORD to list them all.

I did a lot of the Bowling and Quasar stuff, but only because there was a plethora of vouchers at my disposal. Between knowing people that worked there and the vouchers that came free in the Tallaght Echo, I had a near endless supply of two for one vouchers.:cool:

I went up recently and was asked to pay the entrance fee, I just said that I was going in to meet my brother, they said "Go ahead", no fee incured (I do not have a brother). It's a sh!t hole now, full of slot machines and some obscure simulators. There was nothing there worth mentioning, not even **a** * *o**.

Now that you've mentioned it I think it was Airwing Carrier that I was on about. Aslo it was Stunt Drivin' 3 screen sit down cab aswell (damn your amazing memory). They also had a Street Fighter -v- XMen cab aswell which I loved.
Used to do a lot of Quazar aswell especially because of the two for one vouchers.
I'd say our paths crossed regularly there in the 90's

pdbhp wrote: »

I'd say our paths crossed regularly there in the 90's

Probably bumming Jonny Blues off each other!!!

sengoku wrote: »

Probably bumming Jonny Blues off each other!!!

Correct, the cigarette of champions :pac:

pdbhp wrote: »

Used to do a lot of Quazar aswell especially because of the two for one vouchers.
I'd say our paths crossed regularly there in the 90's

Did you join the Quasar grading system? You could get tons of free games from that. Sometimes when there were no games on, the staff would let you go in for free. You wouldn't get a scorecard from it because the game wouldn't get logged on the computer.

Now and again, some of the machines in the arcade would get messed up and give out free credits, Space Gun is one that comes to mind. The control panel (for want of a better term), wasn't latched in properly, which gave access to the little electronic box inside that would give you credits. The last level on that game is a difficult one, you had to fight all the boss' again, while trying not to shoot the background by mistake. Eventually I could "one credit" that game.:cool:

o1s1n

pdbhp wrote: »

Correct, the cigarette of champions :pac:

Champion car thieves!

o1s1n wrote: »

Champion car thieves!

Basically Pdbhp & Sengoku were the folks who we all honed our inner ninjas on.

[Deleted User]

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The arcades in dublin airport, Dr. Quirkeys and Leisureplex Santry where my arcade haunts. There was also the legendary Budgy Bissetts in Balbriggan.

We never had a Leisureplex in Santry?

I worked in Atari Expo, is that where your referring to?

o1s1n wrote: »

Champion car thieves!

Would you be stereotyping?:eek: I did not partake in that activity. My only vice was Jonny Blue and what ever was on special offer in the Off License. Usually Royal Dutch. The Beverage of Champions. Six for a fiver, what a deal.

EnterNow wrote: »

Basically Pdbhp & Sengoku were the folks who we all honed our inner ninjas on.

I wasn't the type of person who leered or tried to intimidate people. So I hope I didn't have that effect on people. But if you left a box of Jonny Blues unattended............:p:p:p

sengoku wrote: »

But if you left a box of Jonny Blues unattended............:p:p:p

There'd be a Sengoku shaped hole in the wall

EnterNow wrote: »

There'd be a Sengoku shaped hole in the wall

Never got caught.

sengoku wrote: »

Never got caught.

Lol, as was mentioned...arcade life was a different realm of existence. Brilliant.

EnterNow wrote: »

Lol, as was mentioned...arcade life was a different realm of existence. Brilliant.

I never stole anything, I just found stuff and never handed it in to Lost and Found. You can take that statement for what it is, there is no double meaning in it.

Arcade life was made a little bit difficult by people that hung around in large groups and never spent a penny in the place. It's amazing that you would meet people on a one to one basis and you would get along fine. As soon as all their mates came along, they just completly changed and try to treat you like a d!ck. That is the kind of small mind that made arcade life different. I think thats what you were referring to? Scumbags!

sengoku wrote: »

I never stole anything, I just found stuff and never handed it in to Lost and Found. You can take that statement for what it is, there is no double meaning in it.

Arcade life was made a little bit difficult by people that hung around in large groups and never spent a penny in the place. It's amazing that you would meet people on a one to one basis and you would get along fine. As soon as all their mates came along, they just completly changed and try to treat you like a d!ck. That is the kind of small mind that made arcade life different. I think thats what you were referring to? Scumbags!

Well there is that nastly element to them, but the inner ninja would always be wary of friendly ruffians too, best to keep them at a distance back then. Once you kind of became semi-regular in a place though, it was easy to just blend in & watch 'arcade life' as I call it unfold. You'd see the same characters in the same situations all the time, & it became funny I guess. It was like a little universe in itself, where only things in the arcade were important

Scumbags are scumbags though, and you didn't only get them in arcades.

EnterNow wrote: »

Well there is that nastly element to them, but the inner ninja would always be wary of friendly ruffians too, best to keep them at a distance back then. Once you kind of became semi-regular in a place though, it was easy to just blend in & watch 'arcade life' as I call it unfold. You'd see the same characters in the same situations all the time, & it became funny I guess. It was like a little universe in itself, where only things in the arcade were important

I never looked at it like that. :rolleyes: Your like an Arcade Attenborough.

EnterNow wrote: »

Scumbags are scumbags though, and you didn't only get them in arcades.

TRUE, very true. They were always there though. Trying to scab my Jonny Blues.

sengoku wrote: »

I never looked at it like that. :rolleyes: Your like an Arcade Attenborough.

TRUE, very true. They were always there though. Trying to scab my Jonny Blues.

I just need to perfect my husky voice, & I could do a narrative on indigenous arcade wildlife...pdbhp would make an excellent season opener

:p

All in all, looking back, many many more good times were had in arcades than bad ones...& if they were still the same today, I'd still be going.

EnterNow wrote: »

I just need to perfect my husky voice, & I could do a narrative on indigenous arcade wildlife...pdbhp would make an excellent season opener :p

All in all, looking back, many many more good times were had in arcades than bad ones...& if they were still the same today, I'd still be going.

Most manufacturers have neglected the traditional cab and concentrated on making simulators. They certainly don't resemble the arcades of old.

I look forward to your first episode of Arcade Attenborough and seeing pdbhp in his native habitat.

sengoku wrote: »

Most manufacturers have neglected the traditional cab and concentrated on making simulators. They certainly don't resemble the arcades of old.

I look forward to your first episode of Arcade Attenborough and seeing pdbhp in his native habitat.

Agreed, & dancing seems to be the new Tekken

I can picture pdbhp in his prime, shifty eyes & smoking away looking for prey

Andrew76

EnterNow wrote: »

All in all, looking back, many many more good times were had in arcades than bad ones...& if they were still the same today, I'd still be going.

Here here. Some of them had a great atmosphere: dark, dingy, the odd manky whiff of cigarette butts left in ashtrays on control panels, some freak working behind the counter handing out change, the noise of all the cabs in the background (except you Tetris, nearly fcuking deafened me!), the odd ole geezer playing slot machines wasting away his last few bob no doubt. Great stuff.

Andrew76 wrote: »

Here here. Some of them had a great atmosphere: dark, dingy, the odd manky whiff of cigarette butts left in ashtrays on control panels, some freak working behind the counter handing out change, the noise of all the cabs in the background (except you Tetris, nearly fcuking deafened me!), the odd ole geezer playing slot machines wasting away his last few bob no doubt. Great stuff.

It was like Cheers, only your life was in danger

Retr0gamer

Fieldog wrote: »

We never had a Leisureplex in Santry?

I worked in Atari Expo, is that where your referring to?

Sorry meant Coolock.

Was in Atari Expo a few times was decent enough. I remember my friend spending a fortune on some gambling game that gave out tickets so he could win Rise of the Robots there. The disappointment when he finally got to play it was heartbreaking.

Far too lazy to read back all the posts I missed yesterday , knew I shouldn't have went out:(
@ Sengoku I'd love to find out who you are I'd say we do know each other because we were moving in the exact same circles at the time.

Just have to say that the arcade scene no matter its downsides was brilliant, I met some great people throughout the years in arcades and have remained friends with them since.

o1s1n

pdbhp wrote: »

Just have to say that the arcade scene no matter its downsides was brilliant, I met some great people throughout the years in arcades and have remained friends with them since.

Indeed it was. Its loss is one of the biggest tragedies of modern gaming. I doubt most people care as they're too caught up in online gaming.

It's a right shame as no matter how much fun it is to play online, it still comes nowhere close to being in the same room as people - and being able to abuse them in person

o1s1n wrote: »

Indeed it was. Its loss is one of the biggest tragedies of modern gaming. I doubt most people care as they're too caught up in online gaming.

It's a right shame as no matter how much fun it is to play online, it still comes nowhere close to being in the same room as people - and being able to abuse them in person

Exactly my thoughts o1s1n playing either against or in co-op with someone beside you makes gaming all the better as the banter and slagging adds to the overall product.
I always notice on my XBOX nights that I enjoy playing it more because people are there to enjoy the experience with... that or the drink!!