Growing up, I had a long fascination with arcade games. When my parents moved us to Roanoke, they ran a business in Salem. At the same plaza, there was an arcade place called Magic Ballroom, one of several stores in a chain around the valley. I remember playing the game “Firetruck” with my sister in the back, and myself in the front. We didn’t do quite well, thanks to my inexperience at driving (after all, I was 5.) My sister also could only get a half of a screen worth of dots on “Pac Man” before dying.
Throughout the years my parents had their business, I would be there on Saturdays, heading out to the Magic Ballroom after doing some chores around the store. I hated doing the chores. Everyone who’ve been in the arcade would know about games such as “Dragon Lair“, “Space Ace“, and all of those laser disc games. However, I wasn’t interested in those games. I would play games such as “Rolling Thunder” — huge characters, loud music, and enjoyable yet difficult play. Once, I had the blessing to play “Psycho Soldier“, incredibly hard game with an actual vocal singing soundtrack, a rarity in those days. My early racing love bloomed with games such as “Pole Position II” — Test track, of course! — and “Super Sprint“. Finally, who could forget but the awesomeness of “Xenophobe“, a 3-player game, clearing out ships of aliens.
As I got older, Valley View Mall opened, with a new arcade room. That, along with Tanglewood Mall’s arcade compromised of the arcade experience I had in Junior High and High School. “Double Dragon“, “After Burner“, and “Out Run” are some of the highlights early on in the arcade experience at those two places. I remember playing Out Run by standing on top of the gas pedal, and whenever I need to brake, I would pull myself up and stomp on the brake with my other foot while bracing myself on the steering wheel. My best friend at the time, Stephen, noticed this one day, and having turned 16 himself, told me to try using my gas pedal foot to hit the brake instead. The final link fell in place, and I started beating that game consistently.
Then “Street Fighter II” came out. It was so popular, we were actually figuring out how to take turns to play this game. Informal rules were formed, and people had a grand old time. Then “Virtua Racing” caught my attention. It was a precursor to the greatest game ever, with its 3d graphics subpar, yet so fascinating, drawing so many dollars from my wallet. Soon afterward, I ruled the roast with “Virtua Fighter” using Sonya’s knees. There was several notable games during this time such as “X-Men” 6-players 2-screens version, and “Final Lap“.
Several summers, I was able to go to different places for my education. One day, our group went to Ocean City, Maryland, where we had a fistful of quarters, and a large amount of time on our own. We ended up playing “Smash TV“, “Operation Thunderbolt“, and “Klax“. However, I saw a game there that I have not seen ever since in its original incarnation, “The Ninja Warriors“. The thing that made it so unique was the huge 3 screens width providing great visibility as the two Ninjas fight their way to the tyrant of a President.
Once I was in college, playing at the arcade became much more frequent thanks to the all-time best arcade game: “Daytona USA“. A racing game that perfectly balanced the fun with the serious, I became so good at this game that for years afterward, I remain undefeated. I became so good that I am confident that with a week warm up, I probably can hold my own against the best in the world especially with the Medium track. Quite a few people talked up their skills and capabilities, but I learned far too many tricks to consistently pass them at critical points to win the race without letting the game speed them up past me again. Daytona USA 2 was such a great disappointment due to its increased complexity and not much new gameplay, and its popularity quickly burned out. Daytona USA was so good that I have seen 8 players arcade versions as recently as last year in Sydney, Australia. (Naturally, I outlasted everyone there that day.) As earth shattering “Virtua Fighter 2“, “Tekken” series, “Dance Dance Revolution“, and “Mortal Kombat” was in the arcade, Daytona USA still hold the top tier for the best Arcade game of all time.
While at college, I would travel by air to Pittsburgh International Airport. It was a revolutionary airport at the time, containing a mall (with regular prices – unheard of in a captive market at that time). The mall had 4 arcade rooms, one for each concourses. There were two games I made a point of playing while going through during the college years. The first game is “Bust-A-Move“, a reverse-Tetris game using bubbles. Link 3 or more bubbles of the same color, and they fall off, along with other bubbles that hangs on to those original bubbles. A single quarter for this game could get me to maybe level 30, and over 50 minutes would go by, perfect for a layover between flights. The second game is “Starblade“, a very neat concept done so well that I continued to play it for years, despite beating it several times. It is an on-rail shooter, where you just aim and shoot while the animation flows by. The screen was output from a monitor above your head, and reflected off a big mirror in front of you, giving a sense of looking out a big window to space, important for battle.
A few times, I would go to Niagara Falls, and there were several tourist-specific arcade rooms there. One at the tower had a game that I only heard about for years to that point, leading me to an undying quest to go to Japan or somewhere where they would have it: “Galaxian 3“. Think of Starblade, but with 6 players supporting each other in front of two projector-created screens 110 inches huge each. With the Bose speaker system pumping out the bass, you would feel as if you are there, helping your crew mow down the enemies in space and on planets. The sheer size of that machine made it cost prohibitive for most arcades, regulating it to a few locations that have a large influx of players.
One game that must be noted during this time and revolutionized the two aspects of arcade machines: it’s cabinets, and its sound system. Before this, most arcade machines were relatively small and self-contained, containing muted sound system that can be heard only when you are underneath the tiny speakers. Mortal Kombat took a huge leap with the sound system, but on the same traditional cabinet. The game is “Primal Rage“. It was a horrible game, poorly balanced, and clearly a ripoff of many fighting games. However, Atari at that time took great pain to experiment with the cabinet design, and came up with a winner that results in this design used to this day for arcade games everywhere. First of all, they put out a very large screen with two large columns of speakers to the side. To adopt to this size, the controllers were set on a pedestal a couple feet in front. This extra room encourages two-players play without having to rub shoulders with your opponents. The extra space provided by the relocation of the controllers (and coin deposit slots) yield a new spot for a sub wolfer — producing a very deep bass that vibrates not only through the machine, but yourself as you play the game. This superior sound system and cabinet design was seized upon and used for other games. In fact, the cabinet itself was re-used after the lousy Primal Rage game was ripped out, and new games installed.
