Monday, June 23, 2014

Arcade Games

Some friends of mine brought up the question of what arcade games do you remember the most. I remembered a ton of them, apparently, and figured I would briefly discuss them here on Game Monday, which rightly sounds like gay Monday when spoken, because we were all happy shoving quarters in the slots back then.
The first arcade game I ever played was Commando at Mike's corner-store a block behind my house. I was pretty good at it, for being so young. I distinctly remember my dad giving in and handing me a quarter. He expected me to die quick, but the ADHD was a gift back then and I could move around the screen for awhile, as my dad sat there talking to the owner. I'd finally die and we'd head back home. Dodging bullets and grenades while mowing down the enemy was such a blast back then.
Then there was the pizza place (Pizza Town, I think) where I got to be the Conan-esque Rastan, or Shinobi the ninja. Both of these games bring back awesome memories. Rastan had a certain creepiness to it, from the music, to that one scene where you get chained to the wall and have to fight off bad guys. Shinobi was so fast paced for the time that it made the old King Fu movies look lame in comparison. You could order a hoagie and play games. No complaints.
Next we went to another corner store we called Barb's, after the owner. They never changed games much, but I do remember Choplifter, where you went into enemy territory to rescue I think POWs, armed only with a helicoptor, before having to return to base. Also, they had Karate Champ, which everyone should be familiar with, since it only had knobs and no buttons. I distinctly remember taking on Ray Jackson and Frank Dux and beating both of them before they invited me to the Kumite, where I was disqualified.
But the granddaddy of them all was the actual arcade at the Florence Mall called Tilt. So many games were played there, but the most memorable ones were Gauntlet, Magic Sword, Smash TV, and of course, Mercs. I distinctly remember beating the latter, because the mercs drove off into the sunset in a jeep, with one of them sitting in the back relaxing as they drove away. It was an amazing time. 


Blog Archive

Keywords

13 1984 200 2012 2013 2014 300 4G 9/11 911 Abercrombie abortion Abraham Lincoln addiction adoption Affleck AIDS Alec Alex Trebek Algeria. alive Amazon american express... well Amy Grant Android Andy Griffith Angelina Jolie Angry Birds Annoyances App Arabic Armstrong Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger Aron Ralston Asia assault Australia bacon Bahamas Baldur's Gate Baldwin banished baseball beans Belgium Ben Ben Affleck Benjamin Wade Bible bidet Billy Corgan birthday Black Sabbath Black Sunday blank blind Blu-Ray Blue Oyster Cult Bob Marley Book books Bowser Brad Pitt braille Brazil brendan hood Brett Michaels Bruce Willis Bullet with Butterfly Wings calculus California Canada cancer Captain Ahab card Caribbean Carl Weathers Cat in the hat cellar cellphone cellular Challenge Challenger Charles S. Dutton Che Guevara Chevy Chick-fil-a China Christianity Christmas Chrome chronotype Chuck E. Cheese Cincinnati Cincinnati Bengals cleveland Colgate comedy communication Cookbook Corey Hart credit Crest Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Cypress Hill Dan Severn Danny DeVito danzig Dave Brockie david icke DC death debit Dell democracy Denmark Dennis Quaid Denzel Washington Dew Claw Die Ding DNA dog dollar Dolph Lundgren Doomsday Dr. Oz dr. seuss drive duck dynasty Dungeons and Dragons eHow Elbert Hubbard English Etsy Eva Mendes farewell fat Father's Day feminism feminist fields Fierce film finals Finland Firefox Fish Fitch flashback food Ford Ford Bronco Foreign Forrest Gump freaky friday Friday the 13th FU game gay gay marriage George Clooney German Germany Ghost Hunters ghosts Glenn Danzig God Google Greece groucho marx guardians of the galaxy Günther GWAR hail Hallmark Harrison harry potter hate Haunted heaven Hell Heracles hero heroes high-end advertisers Hindu Hippo Hispanic history hogwart horoscope horror House of Leaves Houston how the grinch stole christmas Hunter S. Thompson I think I'm cool ID India indians infernal insanis Insanislupus Internet Explorer Japan Jeopardy Jesus Joe Johnny Cash Joseph joy Judaism Judas Judy Garland Keanu Reeves Ken Shamrock Kentucky Kevin Bacon Kevin Matthews Kevin Sorbo kids Kill Kruger Lance Language lard Last Supper Latin Latino latte Lawrence Legion Limbaugh Lion Loki Lomax love LSD Lucy Lawless lupercalia lupus macy's mad magazine Magnum P.I. Insanis Mars Mary Marylin Monroe mastercard Mayan mayeb not american express. McDonald's Meatballs Media Monday memorial Metallica Microsoft Milton Mitt Mobile monday monster Moon Moon Monday Morgan Freeman Morse Code Mother's Day motor Movie movie monday MSInfo multimedia Monday murder music music monday Myspace Napster Neil Nelson Mandela new york News Night Watch Norse Norwegian Black Metal notre dame Oakley Obama October Olympics one organ donor owl Packard Bell Paul Paul Ryan Paul Templer Paul Walker peace PETA pharmacy phone pig pit bull Pittsburgh Penguins poetry Politics poverty Powerball President quote rack Rainbow random rat Ray-Ban Read reddit reggae religion Republican Revelations review richwood rob zombie Rocky Rolling Stone Romney Royce Gracie Rush Russia Russian Ryan Ryan Gosling Safari Saint Matthew Salma Hayek santa Satan saturday Schwarzenneger science science sunday Seagate sex Slayer Smashing Pumpkins Sonic Soul Temple South Africa Spanish stake land Stanley Cup star Starbucks Steve Guttenberg stop sign study suicide sunday sunglasses supernatural supernatural Saturday Sweden Swedish Sweetest Day Sword in the Stone Sylvester Stallone T. Rex taxes Terminator Texas thankful thanksgiving The Book of Five Rings The Catcher in the Rye the Grapes of Wrath They (2002) Tiger Direct Tom Tom hanks Tour de France Toys ‘R’ Us traffic Turkey TV Tyrese Gibson UCI UFC UK US USADA USDA Utah Valentine's Day vampire Venezuela Vevo Vice video Vince Gill vinyl visa vodka voting Wailers Wal-Mart Washington water fountain weather wednesday Western Digital Western Sky Western Union wiki wiki wednesday Wikipedia William Fowler Willie wine wizard wolves Youtube Zimbabwe