16 Years And Counting

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Little bit of self-promotion here, but today marks 16 years that my arcade location inside of a mall, has been in business. Just a hat tip to anyone out there who has passed by and bought some tokens - thank you!

 

Also, since this is an Atari forum, here are the Atari/Atari Games titles I own or have owned over the years. Only Tempest doesn't truly count as that wasn't mine, but it was on site for a little while. First one I ever owned was Asteroids Deluxe, which I actually got for free thanks to a friend who found one being thrown out of someone's house and was on the side of the road. Cost me $80 to fix it at the time, but was an awesome grab.

 

[TampaBay]

Congrats.  Well deserved.   Your insight on here is awesome.   We all appreciate how much real world knowledge you provide, so THANK YOU.   Your YouTube channel is great too (for anyone not subscribed, definitely check it out and subscribe).  But most importantly, what's that about Battlezone?  You have / had one? With the periscope?

[Shaggy the Atarian]

I loved vector games so much that I almost name my arcade after them; I once had this silly notion (when I was a teen) that I'd have a huge row of vector games for people to play. How poorly Asteroids had done (and the high cost most of those had to obtain) kept me from going there. I grabbed BattleZone around six years ago and only had it for a year - it was down for most of the time. It seemed to be afflicted by little things, like rust on a lightbulb holder that would cause the whole machine to short out. I grew tired of fixing it that I sold it off - it was the open face version too (I wanted the periscope version but that's not what was available).

 

Hydra and Toobin' are currently prizes in the collection - I got them from Dennis Harper, the designer/creator of both. Hydra is a prototype model; unfortunately my Toobin' isn't working right now due to a weird monitor issue. Still glad to have something Atari around  

[TampaBay]

11 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

I loved vector games so much that I almost name my arcade after them; I once had this silly notion (when I was a teen) that I'd have a huge row of vector games for people to play. How poorly Asteroids had done (and the high cost most of those had to obtain) kept me from going there. I grabbed BattleZone around six years ago and only had it for a year - it was down for most of the time. It seemed to be afflicted by little things, like rust on a lightbulb holder that would cause the whole machine to short out. I grew tired of fixing it that I sold it off - it was the open face version too (I wanted the periscope version but that's not what was available).

 

Hydra and Toobin' are currently prizes in the collection - I got them from Dennis Harper, the designer/creator of both. Hydra is a prototype model; unfortunately my Toobin' isn't working right now due to a weird monitor issue. Still glad to have something Atari around  

 

That's so awesome.  I'm a huge fan of vector games myself.  Whenever I go to my 80s arcade, those are the first games I head to.  Battlezone is one of my favorite games.  Even though it was glitchy, I'm glad you had the opportunity to have one for a little while.  

 

Hydra is a cool one to have in the collection!  If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's the same yoke controller from the Star Wars arcade game.  Very cool.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

On 6/9/2024 at 8:21 PM, TampaBay said:

 

That's so awesome.  I'm a huge fan of vector games myself.  Whenever I go to my 80s arcade, those are the first games I head to.  Battlezone is one of my favorite games.  Even though it was glitchy, I'm glad you had the opportunity to have one for a little while.  

 

Hydra is a cool one to have in the collection!  If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's the same yoke controller from the Star Wars arcade game.  Very cool.

As I recall, BZ was the first vector game I'd ever played - I came across it at an arcade when I was 13. Even though it was already old by that point, I kept going back to it over some of the newer games that were there (it helped that it had the periscope). The vector effect was mesmerizing to me - and the game was fun  I think that's when I realized that a lot of games I'd played on the 2600 growing up were in arcades first.

 

Hydra I never came across in arcades, but apparently only 200 of them were ever made. I did know about it from the Lynx though. The Lynx did a heckuva job in providing as close to an arcade perfect port as was possible in that case. 

 

And yes, it used the SW yoke, which makes it extra cool:

 

 

 

[TampaBay]

22 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

As I recall, BZ was the first vector game I'd ever played - I came across it at an arcade when I was 13. Even though it was already old by that point, I kept going back to it over some of the newer games that were there (it helped that it had the periscope). The vector effect was mesmerizing to me - and the game was fun  I think that's when I realized that a lot of games I'd played on the 2600 growing up were in arcades first.

 

Hydra I never came across in arcades, but apparently only 200 of them were ever made. I did know about it from the Lynx though. The Lynx did a heckuva job in providing as close to an arcade perfect port as was possible in that case. 

 

And yes, it used the SW yoke, which makes it extra cool:

 

 

 

 

That's super cool.  Yeah Battlezone was something special.  Our local bowling alley had a little arcade room near the entrance, with maybe 10 games and Battlezone was one of them.  I remember just absolutely loving it.  It was decades ago and yet I can remember it like it was yesterday.  When you were done with Battlezone you could turn around and step right up to a Pole Position.  It was so great.

 

 

 

 

[Atariboy]

I think there had to of been more than 200 Hydra cabs. They seemed semi common back around 1990. 

 

Perhaps 200 was just the number of dedicated cabinets sold, with most Hydra's being sold as conversion kits to refresh an older machine that no longer was drawing in enough quarters?

[Shaggy the Atarian]

18 hours ago, Atariboy said:

I think there had to of been more than 200 Hydra cabs. They seemed semi common back around 1990. 

 

Perhaps 200 was just the number of dedicated cabinets sold, with most Hydra's being sold as conversion kits to refresh an older machine that no longer was drawing in enough quarters?

Apologies, that's what I meant - according to one sales chart I've seen, there were only 200 dedicated cabs, but something like 500~800 conversion kits sold. As far as I know, there are only 2 or 3 prototype cabs out there though. 

[Cynicaster]

Congrats on the 16 years.  I love when traveling for work takes me to a city that has arcades to visit, but we don't do much (if any) business in Utah so I probably won't be by anytime soon for some 25 cent classics, sadly.  

 

 

[jerseystyle]

On 6/8/2024 at 3:14 PM, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Little bit of self-promotion here, but today marks 16 years that my arcade location inside of a mall, has been in business. Just a hat tip to anyone out there who has passed by and bought some tokens - thank you!

 

Also, since this is an Atari forum, here are the Atari/Atari Games titles I own or have owned over the years. Only Tempest doesn't truly count as that wasn't mine, but it was on site for a little while. First one I ever owned was Asteroids Deluxe, which I actually got for free thanks to a friend who found one being thrown out of someone's house and was on the side of the road. Cost me $80 to fix it at the time, but was an awesome grab.

 

Congrats!