Would you like to go to a retro arcade?

I worked in an arcade when I was in high school, and patronized many of them when I was a kid. But nowadays, there just aren't many around. (if any) The ones still around are mostly novelty type arcades that charge $1 for 30 seconds of a crappy game.

What if there was a pizza place that had a great pizza and beer, and a retro arcade with all the great games of the past?

We're talking Ms Pac, Galaga, Street Fighter II (and/or Alpha 3), Mortal Kombat 3, NBA Jam, Frogger, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Time Crisis, 1942, Shinobi, the TMNT game, etc etc.

That would kick ass!

(got a fav arcade game?)

fun game!

I loved that game!

yes that is definitely a classic!

I beat EVERYONE.

With Sindel, no less.

i practically grew up in those places...

i did have a friend from chicago who said there were still quite a few around his area -- but that was a few years ago

The only arcade within 50 miles of my house seems to be forever on the verge of shutting down, and is but a shell of its former self. I've been playing arcade games since I was 4 (28 years!) and it's sad to see what's happened to arcades. With the advances in home console gaming over the last 10 years, I guess it was inevitable.
To name a few favorites: Galaga, Gyruss, Joust, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Shaolin's Road, Rush N' Attack, Ikari Warriors, Virtua Fighter 1-3, Tekken 1-3, Killer Instinct, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam T.E., Mortal Kombat II, and my all-time favorite, Strider.

My buddy runs a night at a club.... retro video games and music. Works well.

at the Boardwalk. A big arcade with all sorts of games, and then they have a "classic corner" where old timers like me to go to play Asteroids and Qbert.

Tempest, Tail Gunner, Battlezone, Star Wars, Dig Dug, Spy Hunter, that game with the Godzilla and King Kong wannabes trashing a city...

not being a vid games afficionado...


and pinball machines....

pinball is awesome. But it would have to be the older pinball machines.....a lot of the newer ones have wider spaces between the paddles and way too easy to lose a ball.

:9

I remember Shinobi quite well, but prefer older games.

http://mamedev.org/

MAME is a program that allows your computer to emulate the hardware used to run arcade games. For those that don't know, arcade games were not unlike say an Atari 2600 or a Nintendo Entertainment System: they were designed with a computer structure that allowed cartridges to be inserted. The cartridges contained the game's ROM images that allowed the hardware to interface so you could play a game. The theory was, and still is, a machine operator could order cartridges of newer games and insert them into the machine to keep the kids coming back. This is why you would often see, for example, a Donkey Kong game in a cabinet painted up like Dig Dug.

Anyhow, some genius figured out you can trick your computer into operating as if it were the actual arcade cabinet (known to geeks as emulation). Other geniuses have built ROM readers so they can create software replications of the cartridges. One simply has to 'insert' the ROM images on your computer into the emulation software and PRESTO!!! You know are playing Ms. Pac Man or Street Fighter II. As is the case with anything fun, to obtain a ROM when you don't actually own the physical video game is illegal. But MAME as a program is free. Obtaining illegal ROMs is about as hard as downloading mp3's of the same nature. Oh, and if you're truly dedicated, you can actually build a complete arcade machine around your MAME'd computer. Do a google search to see some fairly elaborate examples.

i used to play the old games on it all the time. It was always my fantasy to rig up an old arcade cabinet and stick a computer inside running MAME.

It requires alot of time and an attention to detail in the wiring that really turns me off. Of course, you can just buy a pre fab for 3x's the price in parts and be set.

MAME itself is alot of fun. I forgot to mention that we're not just talking about a few games... MAME emulates I think upwards 5,000 games these days.

the boardwalk is filled with various arcades and many of them have all those old games. But they're not all kept up that well so it's a bit hit and miss on getting on a machine that works and isn't so dirty and grungy that you don't mind touching the controls.

It is cool though to play those old games, I wasn't able to keep up my mad skills as the game technology progressed so besides the nostalgia it's an ego boost to actually be able to handle a game :)