Your very first arcade game?

[PatmanQC]

We're going back a number of years but if memory serves correctly Mine was an old black-and-white bowling game which coincidentally enough was at our local bowling alley.

How about you?

[ross]

Invasion, Italian pirate release of Taito's Space Invaders, 1979, at my grandfather's Bar.

[gimbal]

I really wish I had an answer to this because I want to play those games again. But I was just too young, probably around 4 years old. I have only flashes of a memory about it, two arcade machines standing in some cafe or shop when we were on vacation, presumably in Spain. The only detail I have left is that one of them was a top-down driving game at night time and you had to dodge other cars. I remember that because when I tried to play it I found it a really stupid game because the car was really high up on the screen, making it really hard to dodge anything. I rejected the game and played the other one, and then my younger brother figured out you could in fact, move the car backwards which made the game quite easy...

The first arcade game I have a vivid memory of playing was Final Fight, in a proper arcade hall. I can remember just walking around the machines for ages, only a few coins to my name so I had to really choose my game carefully. Final Fight, Moonwalker and Thunder Blade were my choices (Thunder Blade I owned on the Amiga, Final Fight not long after that), I did not feel sorry.

[DamienD]

This is a very hard one for me to answer; as I played sooooo many arcade games

Probably:

• Shark Attack
• Xevious
• Moon Patrol
• Star Wars
• Roc'n Rope

...but could have been any of another 5 - 10 games really.

[Pfloyd]

Space Invaders, Frogger.

[drHirudo]

Pole Position, Contra, Ghosts 'n Goblins.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by ross

Invasion, Italian pirate release of Taito's Space Invaders, 1979, at my grandfather's Bar.

You lucky guy!

I remember i got interested in arcade games when in 1978 went to Micropark - an arcade in Senigallia, italy close to my cousins home and the place had at least six Space Invaders machines (the Model Racing version, by the way Model Racing is from Marina di Montemarciano, close to Senigallia so guess that arcade was their beta testing field).
Tried one and life was no more the same.

Before that, i think a mechanical arcade, called if i remember good Last Mile (still from MR) might have been my very first machine.

[Stewcumber]

First I remember playing was Crazy Taxi (hey hey hey!) but I did probably play time crisis.

However a few years later I was on a family holiday in some tiny old camp site on the Isle of Wight and they had a small out building with a dirty pool table, a couple of board games and... An Outrun arcade machine. I spent quite a few (of my parent's) 50p's in that and I thought it was great fun despite "looking old". I didn't know it was an arcade classic!

Edit - this would have been 2003/4

[Misclegend]

the oldest members of the forum as ross , me and others surely
the first arcade games we contacted were "Asteroids" or space invaders or some clone space invaders (there were lots of bootlegs of this game in the era)

in my case the first arcade game I played was in 1979 was "Asteroids" and the 2nd "space invaders"

thos were vector games " high resolution but monochrome"

but 1 year later become very popular the game "carnival" and pacman and phoenix

[Tigerskunk]

For me it was Space Invaders, 1981 at my fathers restaurant.
One day, this was standing in the entry lobby of that place, and I was mesmerized..
After half of a year that was replaced by Galaxians, which was even more magic to me, because of the colours...

[Retroplay]

Man, that's a tough one.
Some of my earliest memories tells me it's got to be one of these.

Sprint One
Defender
Scramble
Moon Cresta
Centipede

[nobody]

Probably Pacman.

[coder76]

It was Scramble, at least this is the first arcade game I can remember. It's still a pretty good game, the meteor swarm part was difficult to navigate through, and only a few players could get past that.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Retroplay

Man, that's a tough one.
Some of my earliest memories tells me it's got to be one of these.

Sprint One

Ah, I do remember playing this too

[PortuguesePilot]

Pac-Man.

[Retroplay]

Originally Posted by coder76

the meteor swarm part was difficult to navigate through, and only a few players could get past that.

The "trick" is to stay as low as possible to the ground without crashing into the mountains.
I found the city part where you have to navigate through some tight spots and timing has to be just right or else you'll crash into the buildings a lot more difficult.
But yeah, it's a still a game I enjoy playing in MAME once in a while.

[jotd]

Agreed with Retroplay. Also was probably one of the first arcade games I played. Pinballs were much more frequent where I was.

I never completed it. I could never complete the last stage (drop a bomb then go up to avoid the building)

[PatmanQC]

I used to play pinball a lot as well at the bowling alley but there is also a black-and-white fire fighting game I seem to remember early on.

[Mikerochip]

I think it was Golden Axe.

It was *AMAZING*. I never played anything so fluid, or graphically rich and detailed.

Followed very closely by OutRun.

I played the upright, with gear shifter and pedal. It seemed so fast! And realistic!! (I mean, as real as I thought driving a Ferrari might be)

And the music was amazing. When I eventually got a machine that could play it, (The Atari ST) I loved the home version.

I don't think anyone can convince me it was a bad game to play. It wasn't super, but, it was as close as I could get to the arcade. (Which I only got to visit once or twice a year, so, I really had to cram in a lot of gaming while I was there. Pfft, who needed to see the beach, when you had arcade games!!)

[jotd]

About Outrun: I fire "Cannonball" on my PC with a force feedback Microsoft steering wheel from time to time. Even better than the arcade.