Ever had a crowd of people around you while playing and arcade game?
 

This used to happen when a couple of friends were determined to finish a Co-Op platform or shooter, Or were in intense beat-em-up battles like Mortal kombat in the arcade back in the late 80’s to mid-90’s.
For me and my mate it was Astyanax. We’d have a stack of 10ps on our last day in Butlins determined to get to the end of the game… We never did but when we turned around we were surprised to see we had an audience LOL.

I can only ever recall such an audience before playing Turttles (or Simpsons) but they were 4 player and I think I was been carried a little by the random people who’d happily join in to see how far you’d get.. Happy days, don’t see that anymore in arcades do you..
It’s all carnival crap these days.

Yes, for more than one game (Bomb Jack, Xevious, Mr.Do, Hyper Olympic, ..)

The arcade manager had given me a time limit to play and then he would have turned off the machine, threatening that otherwise it would have increased the difficulty via the dip-switches, making the game too difficult for others.
So it was a good deal for me (for the little money I had available..): a bit easy levels to train me better ;)
Sometimes he would let me play longer to attract people.

In any case, even at the most difficult level, in some I managed to last for very long times (and create big audience) :D
(but I think this is even difficult to imagine for a today young boy)

I got barred from one of the arcades I used to go to for spending all day in Defender with one credit.

I used to get a few people around me playing Robotron, Bomb Jack, Hyper Sports and Side Arms.

mcgeezer

I got barred for Bomb Jack :D

yeah - what were the dip settings though.

:D

Yup, loads for me too. Games that I could finish in one credit such as:

... Double Dragon
... Shinobi
... Shock Troopers
... Shock Troopers 2nd squad
... Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
... UN Squadron
... Willow
... others I've forgotten ATM.

I was part of the crowd. :D
Never been that good in any of the arcade games. Never finished any of the game.

I had a friend that could finish Cadillacs and Dinosaurs with one credit.
It was amazing watching his play-through.

A lot of people enjoyed watching a friend and me complete Pang in 2 player mode

Had some crowd around me when was doing with a friend challenges at Xevious

What arcade was? In Rimini or Riccione?

In the 90s used to do "pilgrimage" in the main arcades there at least once at month to see new stuff - Central Park, Galassia, Sala 2000 in Riccione... :)

Bellaria (it seems to me it was called Kursaal).

Guess what, i think i have been there in 1987, when it hosted a Giro d'Italia leg goal - i remember they had Eschs'n'Aurunmilla there :) (and Cipollini won that leg)

Arcade games here in Oz in the 80s were on the pricey side (at least for a schoolboy like me of meagre pocket money!), but I do remember having a growing crowd of people around me one time when I was playing Speedball at a mate's place in high school. Speedball was one of a handful of original games I was able to afford on the C64. I thought it was the best thing since sliced cheese when I got it and played the crap out of it.

Anyway, I copied it quick smart for my best mate Tony at school up the road and he had a load of people over the arvo I delivered it to him. I ended up playing doubles against one of my other school mates (Gavin!?!), but I was given the shit joystick that only half-worked since I'd already played the crap out it after getting the game in the mail a few days earlier from the UK. To cut a long story short, I crushed it and took all the opposition to the cleaners with the shit joystick....only realising towards the end that the crowd had grown from only a few guys to over a dozen in my mate's matchbox-sized bedroom! :spin

I want a time machine.. Does anyone have it for sale?
I've a 1.21 gigawatts power supply ready for use.

It happened several times that 5+ people were watching me playing games (enough for a "crowd" ? :p) : "Out Run", "Shinobi", "Robocop".
Only 2+ people for games like "Karate Champ", "Vulcan Venture", "Wonderboy", "Dragon's Lair", "Golden Axe" or "Altered Beast". The arcade manager was a nice old guy.
On another arcade hall "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat" were often crowded (10-15 people waiting to play/watching). Not my favorites games so I was most often part of the crowd.

What about a Dolorean ? :D

Ok we can make a deal.
Does the car reach 88 miles per hour?

^ of course ;)

https://s14-eu5.startpage.com/cgi-bi...ticache=498901

Okay to go back to the eighties, but I'll take my PC laptop with WinUAE and MAME on it, just in case. And an external 3.5"" USB floppy to be able to transfer the data :)

That's really all I need also :p

I used to be able to complete Wardner, ended up with a crowd in an arcade I'd not been to before, I told them all I could complete it, pressure of them watching made me play bizarrely badly and I died on level 3. Super cringe.