Right on, I’m right there with you. My mom told me a story about how she used to set my baby seat up on a pinball machine while her and my dad played stuff like Galaga and Dig Dug for the first time (I was born in Jan of ‘81), so we were always there as a family from even before I can remember. So much of my early life was defined by hanging out in the arcades. They were larger than life back then, right along with everything else in the 80’s. I spent every moment I could at the arcade. My local mall had a pretty rad one, and of course, as you know, the cool thing about the 80’s was that there were mini arcades at every grocery store, so I’d be sure to tag along with mom and beg for some quarters while she shopped.
Jeff, thanks for taking the time to answer that scaling question for me. Most of the mame/multicade stuff I’ve seen were in 19” or 24” monitor size ranges. Was curious how it worked on a 42” or 55”. I assumed there was something to handle that issue or everything would look like an Atari 2600 game. I’m glad folks are working to keep those old classics alive.
Talking about your folks brought back some memories for me. I was 11 in 1980. So the 1980’s were right in my wheelhouse for spare time and arcades. It was amazing where you would find machines back then. They were everywhere. I remember many restaurants/businesses that added additions on to their building just for arcade games. I knew multiple places that had a wall of pins, a couple walls of arcade games, a pool table or two in the center and a great jukebox. You could feel the electricity and excitement when you walked in. I can still hear the laughter, cursing, and cheers from people playing.
Jeff and Kolchak , you guys always put a smile on my dial !!! how simple life was in our younger years .
Very cool �� you’re right though, there were machines in all sorts of strange places!
Right on, boys. It truly was a magical time. I’m thrilled that we have all this great emulation, not only to keep the nostalgia alive, but so many of the games hold up extremely well. Even into the 90’s, the arcades were always a notch or two better than what we had at home (unless you were lucky enough to have rich parents to buy you a Neo Geo hehe...my buddies and I always drooled over them in the magazines, but none of us were fortunate enough to have one).
I cut my teeth on the early 80’s stuff (Dig Dug and Joust are still in my top games of all time)
I’ve just started watching Stranger Things season 2 (late to the party as usual ) and the opening section leading to the arcade really captures it perfectly. These places really were magical, with games like Asteroids, Millipede, Galaga and yeah... Dig Dug
Better late than never, eh? It’s funny you mention that as my wife and I are re-watching it for the 2nd time and just watched that episode tonight. They did a great job of capturing the atmosphere and feel, all the way down to the scene where they’re scrounging quarters in advance heh.
So I'm getting back into emulators after a few years hiatus now that I've dusted off my X-Arcade tankstick and just wondering who else is into them?
What front end do you guys use? I had MaLa set up years ago, but it was for a 4:3 monitor, so all my layouts look clunky on my TV.
Fiddling around with some others and kinda digging Attract Mode so far.
Seems like a lot has changed in 7 years or so. RetroPie and such seems to have really taken off.
Hey Jeff,
It's Brett. You need to clear out some messages before I can send you another PM. Thanks.