How far would you travel before considering MAME?

[VectorGamer]

I would only travel to an arcade if there's a tournament or some other event going on.

For example, a few years ago Funspot would have their annual tournament. For me that's an 8 hour drive but me and the family would make a vacation out of it.

Or I would go to ReplayFX and stop by Pinball PA (roughly 45 minutes west of Pittsburgh) for the day.

The closest arcade to me is about 45 minutes away and there's nothing there that would get me to travel. Everything there is common and some of the machines aren't even authentic - for example a Galaxian cabinet running a 60-in-1 board with Galaga and Galaxian enabled and connected to an LCD monitor. Fuck that shit.

 

If there was a classic arcade in my area that had some rare games I would probably be there every week.

[The Mr. Video]

All of the local arcades I've visited so far only have redemption games, so I get my arcade fix from Mame and arcade compilations.

[Flojomojo]

To me it doesn't matter much what's inside the cab. And most everyone here knows I prefer modern hardware anyways.

 

So.. IMHO to get the original 80's experience there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. You need:

 

Arcade games of the period

Music of the period

Most likely be dating or discovering women

Be transitioning out of grade school, high school, or mom's basement

Having cool computer hardware to look forward to

Have a social area in the arcade itself

Have neon lighting and dark carpeting

Have the clean electric oxygen smell

Be able to enjoy the transition from walking in the mall to walking into the arcade

Anticipation of new games, especially movie tie-ins, or new vector stuff

Anticipation of consoles that could be as powerful as the arcade

A certain innocence

 

All of that has to come together and perhaps more.

 

 

Those are just aesthetics. To have the same urgency as when I was twelve, you'd need a bunch of other things:

 

URGENCY. You don't get to spend all day in here, your time is limited and you don't get to visit as often as you'd like.

SCARCITY. You have maybe $5.00 (20 quarters) to spend, and when it's gone, it's gone

NOVELTY. Some of these games you've never seen before, which is exciting, and there's no way you'd be able to take them home with you

EPHEMERAL. The games get switched out from time to time, and it's outside your control. You are the ants in Sim Ant. Food drops from the sky, you don't know or care where it comes from.

MYSTERY. No internet. Maybe some pulpy magazines with muddy screen shots. Playground lore. No wikipedia.

 

In other words, forget that stuff. I prefer the present day.

[JBerel]

I would love to be able to play an upright environmental discs of tron game again, and the Star Trek SOS captains chair, also the original Afterburner motion cockpit. Unfortunately, even if ya came across those these days, something will be old and busted about it, or you realize you're too old and fat to fit on them like you did in the day. Been thinking about making another cab similar to the StarTrek SOS with a nice chair, spinner and buttons on one arm control, an analog flight stick with hat and buttons on the other arm, and racing controls in front. Somebody talk me out of it.

[Cynicaster]

Somebody talk me out of it.

 

Please post a build thread when work commences.

[JBerel]

That's not helping talk me out of it.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

The only arcade I've made a special trip to visit is Funspot, and even that was a side trip that was part of a larger trip to New York and Boston. But whenever I travel, I make a point of looking for an arcade to visit.

 

It's been years since I touched MAME. Not because I'm a purist or anything, just that setting it up on a Mac is sort of fiddly and even when I did have it, playing an arcade game on a laptop just doesn't appeal to me for whatever reason. There are two good arcades here in town that have most of my favorites (Mr. Do, Q*Bert, Robotron, Ms. Pac-Man. No Time Pilot though.) so we have video game date nights pretty often.

[Inky]

I play on MAME on an every other day basis. I like it. I do make a semi-monthly trip (or try to) to go to Underground Retrocade, Pixel Blast, or Galloping Ghost. I enjoy that too.

To me it boils down to whether I'm looking to play games, or socialize with friends. One thing I am really turned off by is the constant world record / high score chasing sub-culture in the current arcade environment. It takes the fun out of going to the arcade, as I know I'm not good enough to do any sort of high scoring on arcade machines. The cards on top always remind me that "you're not good enough!"

[Keatah]

I directly observed how the hi-score sub-culture is a turn off. I counter it by saying just have fun with your favs and compete against your own score, or mine.

 

I also note that these hi-scorers play for like hours and take themselves too seriously. Not my cup of tea.

[jhd]

Arcades are effectively extinct here in Western Canada -- I am not even aware of any Barcades.

 

I have no interest to travelling to another city specifically to visit an arcade, but if I am aware of an establishment, I will visit it while I am there. Sadly, this has not yet happened.