forums.marpirc.net

Interesing thread this.. I'm 22 and missed out on a lot of the late 70's/early 80's games. I do remember playing Space Invaders when I was about 4, I could barely reach the controls but I was amazed by the brilliant artwork on the machine and the frenetic sounds made by the Invaders as they got faster and faster. I also remember playing asteroids at an early age, but it wasn't until the mid 80's that I got hooked on video games- Kung Fu Master and 1942 were my favs at the time, god knows how much money I spent on those two games.
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The next era began in about 1987, when Double Dragon came out. I couldn't believe how good the graphics and sound were, and it was fun beating the crap out of your mate.. I think it was also the first simultaneous two player game I played. The wave of late 80's Data East games like Bad Dudes and Robocop blew me away.. but I was beginning to notice a trend, all these games had endings- I could finish the games relatively easily and in a short amount of time, unlike when I used to spend hours on one credit playing Gyruss.

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I like Capcom games, but Final Fight and SF2 basically killed off any advances in the video gaming genre. After '91 all you saw in the arcades were mindless Neo Geo fighters, hence my dislike for the system. True, not all Neo Geo games are fighters and there's been some innovative titles such as Windjammers and Puzzle Bobble, but for the most part I've never been interested. I was a bit surprised when I first heard that MAME was going to support Neo Geo, after all MAME is an acronym for Multi Arcade Machine Emulator and quite a few Neo Geo games are console only games, so the MAME name is a bit incongruous. Nevertheless, its good to see such advancements in emulation, being able to play a Neo Geo game with sound was but a dream a year ago.

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With all the games MAME supports, it's fun trying out games that I've never even heard of, all those old B&W games like M79 Ambush and Safari make for some good challenges. Sometimes I wonder though.. when I'm playing some obscure game from 1977 while the Playstation is sitting there gathering dust.. it's becoming a sign of the times that we increasingly look back to old favourites with the population of emulation and the various Classic Arcade Compilations, rather than play some whizz bang 3D eye candy game with zilch playabilty.

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Welp, thats more than enough nostalgia for one evening.. as BBH put it- Viva La MARP!

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jwilson@sv.net.au

This is very interesting...
I'm 23, and never played Space Invaders (except on my old Atari 2600).
The oldest game I played would probably be Galaxian, and sometimes I would play Donkey Kong, or Galaga.
But when I was in my teens, an arcade parlour opened nearby. I would play games every day after school. But I was really hooked on Bubble Bobble and Street Fighter II (btw, it was released in 1991). I would spend an hour and a half playing Bubble Bobble, racking up 5-6 million point scores (Highest score - 9,999,990, the highest possible).
I also enjoyed some Neo Geo games, including Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and Blue's Journey (although I don't normally like platform games).
I also like pinball games - even though they were so damn infuriating!
One particular pinball game I liked was Secret Service (Data East - 1987) probably because I got better at it, winning extra credits much of the time!

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bsr@hn.pl.net

Hi, I'm 29 and my era was probably from around '78 to '88. The first games I remember playing were Gunfight, Boot Hill, M-79 Ambush, Sea Wolf, Depth Charge and Guided Missle.
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I was totally hooked from about the age of 8. Then a year later I came across Space Invaders, Carnival, Galaxian and then Pac-man, my fave game of all time. Pac-man was just so playable and although it looked simple it was a very strategic game, only truly appreciated by those who had spent the time to fully understand it. Donkey Kong was the next big hit, again massive playability, this was followed by a series of hit games which relied on strategic gameplay with an impeccable level of progression in difficulty. Well I never looked back, I was totally addicted to games like Scramble, Ms.Pac-man, Donkey Kong Jr, Mr.Do! Bombjack, Paperboy and Star Force.

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When I was 11, my school project was about Pac-man and my creative writing exam was a fictional piece based on Stargate and Defender. I used to go to the arcades after school during the week, there used to be a group of people who would meet there, we were so into it, it was like nothing else in life mattered. We would work together on games, playing doubles and sharing tips to help everyone, appreciate and enjoy the games more.

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It wasn't until my teens that I started to master a few games and be able to play them infinitely. Starting with games like Track & Field, Commando and Terra Cresta, I soon began to master almost every game as it arrived in our local arcade. Some of them were Jap imports which I've never seen since, my fave from the mid 80s was "Hot Rockin' for You" from Konami, if anyone knows anything about this game then please let me know.

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Then it happened, game manufacturers started adding endings to their games! Even worse, some games allowed you to continue by adding credits, where's the challenge in that? That's when I started to loose interest, I started writing my own games and I have worked in the games industry since. It's still pretty exciting and there is a lot of influence in my work from the classic era, but I wish I had been a coin-op games designer 20 years ago.

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MAME is the best piece of software I have ever come across. Not only does it bring back all those memories of the games I loved, I now have the rest of my life to master all the classic games I used to see in the arcades but never had time to play. To make things even better there is a group of expert players online. MAME emulates the hardware but it's you guys here at MARP who emulate the community of players in my local arcade 15 years ago.

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Dith, England.

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dith@europress.co.uk

I guess, when it comes to videogames, I come fro ma different
perspective. I am now 44, which makes me around 30 when I first really
noticed the arcade games. I never played the b/w games, except for the
occasional game of pong.

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When the games like Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, pacman, Ms pacman, etc, came
out, I and my friends had Commodore 64's, and played many of the 64
versions of the games, so we didn't visit the arcades as much. Games I
*DID* love in the arcade though, were Donkey Kong Jr, (Never was
ported to the 84(, and Mario Bros. I hope that more of the Mario Bros
series are someday emulated with mame.

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It is so cool to use mame, because to be honest, I much prefer the
arcade versions. Really brings back the memories. My 2 1/2 old
daughter really loves them also, with Donkey Kong being her favorite.
(She always ends up on the high score.

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tesla@cyberverse.com

I might as well jump on the band wagon. rolling up on 31, I have
to say my addiction started when I first put a quarter in Cosmic
Gurillas. Then jumped over to Speed Buggy, and then this game (can't
remember the name) it was b/w and you controlled a mototcycle and all
you did was do jumps over ramps! Between these 3 simple games back
in 79' in a small little pizza parlor in Woodhaven, Queens NY was all
it took... Shortly after, (80') I moved to Boca Raton Fl. at the age
of 12. Scouring the neighborhood for any video game I can find to
play I went into a Cumberland Farms store (7-11 basically) and what
cought my eye was this game in the corner called "Galaga" This game
is what gave me the incentive to cut lawns and search for money back
bottles so I would have enought dough to play and master this game.
I did just that for about 6 months, untill just 5 stores down in the
same mall, a laundry mat put in about 4 games (pleides, moon cresta,
donkey kong, and defender) I bounced back and forth between the
convienent store and this laundry mat spending my hard earned money I
got from bottles and cutting lawns. About 6 more months went by, and
right next door to the laundry mat (actually joined the two store
fronts) went in a arcade called "Game Fever"! They had about 30
games! I was in heaven like no other! This was really where it
began. My skills increased dramatically, allready getting 4M on
galaga 1 year later at 13. Getting 7M+ on Defender around the same
time just 6 months playing it! and managed to find a robotron 2
stores down in a bar which I don't know how the hell I snuck in, but
I did and played to I reached my all-time high of 10M! at age 14. I
found a way to various locations within a 5 mile radious on my bike
playing to master a new game as I found one. Stargate and Joust were
another 2 to be added to my list and as time progressed by 86' the
year I gradutated and bought my first car! I got sucked down to this
arcade I was told about which was the largest in the world. My god
it was! They had about 500 games in this gigantic building with the
whole center of the room lines and lines of table top games! Around
the wall was the stand ups and the popular ones like donkey kong
pacman galaga, space invaders and burgertime there were multiple
machines of each one! I was now beyond heaven! I did this for a
while before changing the pace as I began getting older, I got turned
on to the club scene. That's when I spend more time on the home
systems and then went to clubs at night! After about 5 years, I got
sick of it and got back into going to the arcade on a daily basis.
Grand Prix had moved closer to my house and had doubled in size.
Since then (about 23) I've been going there just about every weekend
and sometimes during the week up untill today! Mastering not only
many more video games, but learning to master pinball which I've
accomplished today. Grand Prix has grown to over 1,200 games now and
I still can't believe I'm playing some of the older games as much now
as I did in the 80's and comparing scores on a game like Galaga from
day 1, untill now having 18 years invested on this one and a whole
lot of money back bottles! I can honestly say, I'm happy with my
20+M!... and thanks again to mame and marp, I'm getting better
every day on on all the others. :^)

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Regards,
Steve Krogman

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skrogman@concentric.net