Retro games offer an alluring respite

Chicago Tribune ^ | 12/7/04 | Eric Gwinn

[ßuddaßudd]

My all time favorite.

[Nowhere Man]

I'm too deep into GTA: San Andreas to take the time now. But thanks - I will track it down.

I think my buddy is getting me GTA: London (I only have the first Playstation) for Christmas. I love the driving games too, I have "Need For Speed" and I like the "outrunning the cops" the best even though I get caught everytime, although I almost had them beat in a Camaro. The Camaro ain't as fast as a LAmbourghini Diablo but a lot more controllable. B-) One time, I banged up the Diablo so much that I arced and sparked down the road when I drove it, I think Lambourghini should have called it the "Hale-Bopp" instead of the Diablo since I resembled a comet going down the road. >B-) I did some cool "bootleg" moves though. B-) What scares me is that I try to drive in real life like I do there, accelerating in the middle of a turn and so on. B-)

I'd like to see a version where you have classic cars like a 1965 Ford Galaxie, GTO, Barracuda and so on.

[Slump Tester]

Have you played "pop'n pop"? It rocks!

My favorite though is Mr.Do - I love to turn it up whem I'm mad at the other half. The music drives her nuts.

[Hank Rearden]

I'd love to have a Missile Command console in my apt.

Spent MANY, MANY quarters in that sucker.

I felt exactly the same way about Tempest; it was the only video game that ever took more than a buck's worth of quarters from me. Many, many more quarters than that.

So a few years ago, I bought one on eBay. An original, early-80s, standup-console Tempest arcade game. In very good shape; very little paint damage.

Sits near my Ms.Pac-Man cocktail and the pinball machines.

Bliss.

[Hank Rearden]

I miss the old style pinball machines. Pinball was one game that was ruined by technology. I'd love to have one of the old 70's style machines.

If you're serious about that, FReepmail me and I'll try to dig out some links for you. The pinball-loving gang is still out there and incredibly active.

If you want to restore a beat-up pin, there are resources and parts to do so, and you'll save a lot of money. You can spend $500 - $7,000 on a machine depending on title and condition. Stern Pinball has been back in business for a few years; they've been the only manufacturer since 2001, and you can buy brand-new-in-the-box machines from them.

I own four pins, so I know your lust.

[HP8753]

Asteroids

[killjoy]

Have you played "pop'n pop"? It rocks!

Nope, I will have to check it out. I am still addicted to Elevator Action. Old habbits die hard.

[Slump Tester]

Pop'n Pop takes a pretty decent video card to play smoothly. The only rom I have for it is the jap one, so I can't read the options. You may have to turn "stereo" off to get it to run smooth. I have a PIII 1.1Ghz with a GeForce 2. It runs a lot better on this card than it did on my last one!

[Slump Tester]

Pop'n Pop takes a pretty decent video card to play smoothly. The only rom I have for it is the jap one, so I can't read the options. You may have to turn "stereo" off to get it to run smooth.

[bill1952]

Oh my God! You are the legendary QAM??

Too strange...

And Defender was the game that I played endlessly.
After that, Stargate Defender.

I still have a working Atari 5200 with a ton of games, and the new, vastly improved, keypad/joysticks.

[bill1952]

> and even 20 years later, old Mom can keep it going for 15 minutes

Damn, do I want to reply to that! 8^)

"Got nothing good to say? Come sit by me."

[asgardshill]

I bought one on eBay. An original, early-80s, standup-console Tempest arcade game.

The shipping must have killed you. But it would be nice to have a basement full of working arcade machines. (Even if I had to rewire the basement for the increased power requirements).

[theFIRMbss]

>Retro games offer an alluring respite

Now is a great time to do a re-issue of "Balance of Power."

[Hank Rearden]

The shipping must have killed you. But it would be nice to have a basement full of working arcade machines. (Even if I had to rewire the basement for the increased power requirements).

As I recall, the shipping wasn't too bad - I think it was truck-freighted for $125 or so from a couple thousand miles away.

When I built the basement, I think I installed two 20-amp circuits for the game room. So far, that serves two arcade video games and four pinballs with no problem - they don't draw as much power as you'd think; the four pins don't come close to maxing out even one circuit. But I wish I'd dropped a couple more circuits there, just in case. Cheap to do when framing.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I love my MAME emulator software. I can play "Berzerk", "Asteroids", "Warlords", "Space War" or any one of a dozen other original arcade style games...all on my PC and all free.

I am still rather hooked on Doom 2 though. Love to play Death Match over the home LAN with my kids. Sometimes Mom even joins in.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I could design a USB gaming console that had all the goodies, such as a ball and spinning wheel, for a PC to run those old games. Bet they would sell too!

There's a whole internet gaming sub-culture devoted to creating and building entire luxury consoles that run the original games on ROMS taken from the origonal chips. Some of them are quite elaborate.
This one is a homebrew:

[BigDaddyTX]

http://www.hanaho.com/products/ArcadePC/index.html

You all have GOT to check these out! I started off with a cocktail table and have since added a full size upright cabinet. I have over 3,800 games on each one! All the neighborhood kids (Dad's) love it. I have ALL the classic games from when I was a kid as well as sooooo many others. I told my son that I don't expect to hear "Dad, can we buy a new game?" for about 10 years.

The cocktail table may end up over at Grandma's house.

The owner of the company, Conway Ho, is a great guy to talk to about the industry and trends. Tell him BigDaddy_TX says hi.

[BigDaddyTX]

http://www.hanaho.com/products/ArcadePC/index.html Over 3,800 games on these. They're PC based so I use mine for web/internet access, email and PC games too.

[Benrand]

I got real good at Tempest too, it was maybe my favorite game for a long while.

Another that I liked a lot which not many others did was Xevious.

I had a friend who spent a helluva lot more time than anyone I knew at the Machine Shop arcade in South Hills Village and he mastered MachIII. Spent HUNDREDS of dollars doing it...

[BigDaddyTX]

My son just beat me at Galaga and set the hight score on our machine. He's 8 and enjoys playing the classics on this system. I was on a Berzerk kick one summer. It makes me feel pretty good, now that I own the machine, when I hear that "Coin detected in pocket!" "Kill the humanoid".

My son kicks my you know what on all of the Street Fighter type games on this thing. I just send him to his room. :-)