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The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

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Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#31

Post by ashark »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #10
deadmetheny wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least around here, arcades still had a strong social aspect. You could certainly play excellent games at home with similar graphics to an arcade, but you were limited to playing against your friends, where at the arcade you had all sorts of new potential challengers. I personally made a lot of new friends in the mid 90s fighting game arcade scene. Rhythm games like DDR, Para Para, or Bemani are something else enti…

Sigh ...your comment reminded me of the broken hearts my girlfriend and I endured when she bought me a brand new Xbox One for us to play Halo 5 together, only to discover that split screen multiplayer has been effectively smothered to death by the games industry (sans Nintendo). Although I'm not sure I agree 100% with your last comment. Many of my friends bought DDR home versions and Guitar Hero/Rock Band accessories…

You can play Perfect Dark with improved graphics and modern controls on a 360 or XBone. It's still one of the best console FPS games around, and includes some really cool and unusual multiplayer modes (campaign co-op and campaign versus!) and bots (to fill out those 2-player matches).

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#32

Post by greggman »

lolive wrote: post #3
emodendroket wrote: post #2

For my money it was the 90s explosion of fighting games or else the rhythm games of the turn of the century. But hey I'm biased by my actual experiences just like everyone else is.

Double Dragon -> Final Fight -> Street Fighter 2.

I'd beg to differ for that progression. Double Dragon and Final Fight are brawl games. A better progression might be Karateka -> International Karate -> Street Fighter

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#33

Post by mod »

intrasight wrote: post #22

I spent more money on arcade/video games in 1981 than any year before or since. Definitely was the golden age. The following year I stopped playing video games with the statement "I'll start playing again when they become interesting again". I am still waiting.

It's not them, it's you.

(Me too, but only recently)

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#34

Post by foobarrio »

mmjaa wrote: post #9

I was lucky enough to have grown up with computers, writing my first program in 1977, and then entertaining myself with the Arcades of the 80's as they released title after title .. while also having access to the internals of the cabinets, through friends of my Dad who owned an Arcade rental business .. without those halcyon days of burned fingers and EEPROM copiers I don't think I'd have gained the insight I then l…

Youngsters have access to those kinds of experiences but they will never be the same as your experiences. For you those experiences were in access to hardware internals but for youngsters perhaps these experiences are more in software internals. For people older than you, they probably lament VLSI and youngsters not having to access to lower scale integration chips and being able to actually "see" the transistors.

I can go online and see the source code of fully working games and even some older AAA games by just right clicking and "View Source" for html5 games or code dumps of older AAA games. Being able to access the source code for Super Mario Bros. was something of a dream to me when I was little! If you want to see what a full scale production 3D modeling/rendering package looks like you can go and look Blender's. I had to learn my 3D game programming concepts from books full of code that never linked or even compiled and hacked copies of POV Ray that never compiled or ran. Forget about even seeing the source for commercial packages like 3D Studio or Lightwave. For database stuff there is PostgreSQL and together with NodeJS, NginX can be set up in an evening to play with. I learned database stuff in a computer lab and some academic version of Oracle. Unfortunately I can imagine a future where software is much less accessible than it is now.

Even in hardware there are things like Arduino and Pi that make prototyping a lot more accessible than before.

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#35

Post by gr3yh47 »

harel wrote: post #21

Those of us who lived through those years have a priceless benefit of having witnessed technology history unfold in real time. We saw the evolution of technology beyond just a bigger screen size of slightly faster processor. We had actual leaps and breakthroughs. My kids today will never have that unless some sort of huge technological miracle happens that changes everything.

VR is pretty legit right now.

lots of fiddling for the current best experience but totally can blow you away. you can't imagine what it's like - you have to experience it to understand.

also... tesla/spacex... and tons of other things. tech is evolving very quickly. Tech history is being made much faster than it was back then

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#36

Post by jetti »

Grazester wrote: post #29
emodendroket wrote: post #2

For my money it was the 90s explosion of fighting games or else the rhythm games of the turn of the century. But hey I'm biased by my actual experiences just like everyone else is.

Definitely. That's when the 3d revolution happened. Sega's Yu Suzuki was putting out hit after hit of course staring in the mid to late 80's with Space Harrier and OutRun and peaked in the 90's with Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA.

I absolutely loved Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing. I want to get a Sega Saturn just for those two games (but can't actually justify the cost).

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#37

Post by Grazester »

jetti wrote: post #36
Grazester wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. That's when the 3d revolution happened. Sega's Yu Suzuki was putting out hit after hit of course staring in the mid to late 80's with Space Harrier and OutRun and peaked in the 90's with Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA.

I absolutely loved Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing. I want to get a Sega Saturn just for those two games (but can't actually justify the cost).

Yes Sega was ridiculous with the Saturn's price and its surprise launch. You can pick up a Saturn for pretty cheap(~$60) now if you are still interested and those games are dirt cheap. If you do get a Saturn then also get yourself the scart RBG cables and a scart to HDMI converter if your screen doesn't support scart(if you're in the US then it doesn't). This would give you the best picture.

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#38

Post by Deimorz »

petejodo wrote: post #30

I wish arcades were still a thing. And I don't mean a place with all the old cabinets like Barcade in NYC but a place with new games/experiences that are not easily accessible via a console or gaming pc. VR/AR seems to be a good fit even though you'd have to come up with a way to keep the goggles clean.

I don't think they're always called "arcades", but there seem to be quite a few places to play VR games popping up. I've seen multiple in a few different cities now.

Here's an example of one in Redmond WA, I think there are at least a couple more in Seattle: http://odyssey-vr.com/

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#39

Post by eoun23nntheo »

emodendroket wrote: post #2

For my money it was the 90s explosion of fighting games or else the rhythm games of the turn of the century. But hey I'm biased by my actual experiences just like everyone else is.

Ugh. For me, that's when arcades were no longer fun. Every game was a fighting game, and there was no skill involved - only memorizing combinations of buttons to press. (How is that fun?) Furthermore, no levels to explore, no secrets to find. Just non-stop mindless punching and kicking.

Re: The Golden Age of the Video Game Arcade: 1981

#40

Post by MartinCron »

Deimorz wrote: post #38
petejodo wrote: post #30

I wish arcades were still a thing. And I don't mean a place with all the old cabinets like Barcade in NYC but a place with new games/experiences that are not easily accessible via a console or gaming pc. VR/AR seems to be a good fit even though you'd have to come up with a way to keep the goggles clean.

I don't think they're always called "arcades", but there seem to be quite a few places to play VR games popping up. I've seen multiple in a few different cities now. Here's an example of one in Redmond WA, I think there are at least a couple more in Seattle: http://odyssey-vr.com/

Another Seattle one, in my 'hood, still haven't bothered to go.

http://www.portalvr.us/

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