Spectrum Computing

Remember when you waste your money in those lovely machines?

My fave are:

1.- Frogger (Sega)
2.- Donkey Kong (Nintendo)
3.- Scramble (Konami)
4.- Monster Bash (Sega)
5.- Pac-Man (Midway)

Track & Field, Kung-Fu Master, Tehkkan World Cup, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Green Beret, Commnado, Choplifter, Phoenix, Burger Time, Amidar, Karate Champ, Star Wars, Asteroids, Defender, Dig Dug, Joust, Galaga, Pengo, Spy Hunter, Arkanoid, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Out Run, ... what are your favourites?

I'm showing may age now:

1 - Sprint (Black and White) with 2 steering wheels. They had it in the arcade (or 'the machines' as we called it as kids) in Saundersfoot. When you finished you got a rating and the first time I played I was classed as 'A rioting Granny', much to my Dad's amusement.
2 - Original Star Wars Cab
3 - Space Harrier
4 - Wec Le Mans (I remember the first time I played it and was so impressed with the way that the sun set the longer you played)
5 - Big Run - It was an arcade version of the Paris to Dakar rally. It was in our local pub when me and my mates started drinking and we used to plough more money in the more drunk we got. Even back then in 1991 (I was 17 tut tut) it was 50p a go!!!

I was always impressed with how Dragons Lair looked, but, had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing in it. I remember seeing a woman play it in Saundersfoot and there was a big crowd round her whilst she was playing. After she'd finished I put my 50p in the slot, bashed the buttons, died several times and watched the crowd gradually disperse to leave me feeling ever so slightly embarrassed.

1.- Frogger (Sega)
2.- Donkey Kong (Nintendo)
3.- Scramble (Konami)
4.- Monster Bash (Sega)
5.- Pac-Man (Midway)

Juan, did you stop playing games after 1983?

My favourites would be probably much later games:

1. Street Fighter 2
2. Final Fight
3. Gun Smoke
4. House of the Dead
5. Metal Slug

(this list is a bit random, actually I could choose 5 other games that I loved as much)

1st Side Arms
2nd R-Type
3rd Beastie Feastie
4th Star Wars
5th Juno First

Star Wars was always the machine I wanted to see in the games room of any hotel we stayed at on holiday in the early/mid-80s.

Ralf wrote: ↑Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:02 am

Juan, did you stop playing games after 1983?

I lost interest on arcades in 1987 - 88 onwards, and I have fond memories of the videogames I used to play before getting my Spectrum.

I only ever played Phoenix.

PeterJ wrote: ↑Tue Jun 05, 2018 5:21 pm I only ever played Phoenix.

When we used to go on holiday to Tenby in the early 80's there was a pub that had a games room at the back next to the beer garden and that only had Phoenix, a pool table, a cigarette vending machine (obviously. Where else could I get the kids get their fags from ) and a one of those lucky dip vending machines.

Space War - first multiplayer game I played, with my brothers on holiday in Portrush, between fish and chips at the Dolphin and a round of pitch and putt.
Moon Cresta - there was a cocktail cabinet of this in the swimming baths near our house. We used to go for a swim with a friend and unwind with a game or two.
Space Invaders - first arcade game I played. I loved the multicolour plastic overlay, which I saw in the back of a pub in Donegal. I remember being surprised it would take British 10ps.
Donkey Kong - beautiful design. The only Mario game I like.
GTI Club - we had a cabinet at work and I spent hours at the weekends shaving tenths of a second off my best times. Then I walked into an arcade all confident that I could whip the high score only to find that the wheel and pedals were weighted slightly differently.

1 Smash TV
2 Star Wars
3 Moon Cresta
4 Mario Bros
5 Vanguard

1 R-Type
2 Tempest
3 Outrun
4 Defender
5 Space Invaders FRENZY

FRENZY is a new one, but I really love it as a modern twist on the classic.

1 - Pang
2 - Frogger
3 - Knights of the Round
4 - Tetris
5 - Track & Field

1. Street Fighter II (1991)
2. Sexy Parodius (1996)
3. Heiankyou Alien (1979)
4. Donkey Kong (1981)
5. Pac-Man (1980)

I'd put Street Fighter IV at a solid number one but I played that exclusively on console (as opposed to Cabs/MAME).

So many it's hard to say...
1.Galaxian
2.Ghost n' Goblins
3.Bubble Bobble
4.Psychic 5
5.KiKi KaiKai

These are what i would keep going back to.
Money spent i would say that MarioKart GP2 £1 for a single race dwarfs all the older machines at 10p a go.

Morkin wrote: ↑Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:17 pm [...]
5 - Track & Field

Curious that it's a superb arcade game, but the Spectrum version is crap. They should have only modified Hypersports code a bit, same graphics, sounds, a sort of Hypersports II, and we had had another Spectrum classic.

5. Wonder Boy
Astonishing visuals for the time, and a fantastic concept.

4. Pac Land
I actually rate this higher than yer Pac Man. I must have wasted pounds on this back in the mid-eighties. Do not touch the Spectrum version.

3. Bubble Bobble
A beautifully intuitive concept, as delightful and smart as yer Pac Man or Space Invaders, yet with plenty of eye-opening levels. You could get immersed into this on just one credit.

2. Golden Axe
It's pretty much a medieval/fantasy version of Double Dragon, and I recently learnt the creator wanted Sega to have a 'Double Dragon' but without the usual urban cliches, so it's a pretty fresh take that has enough originality in it. A very pleasing hack-and-slash-'em-up, I don't think there's any other example that can improve on it.

1. Double Dragon
The daddy. This, to me, is arcade perfection. I can't describe how good it feels to hit two buttons together to smash your elbow into a baddy's face. I love the bizarre Japanese interpretation of a gritty Western city. Really bizarre how your characters emerge from an English Tea Room to begin their bloody cavalcade of violence. The industrial areas with shocking health-and-safety violations. And I do trust the Scoop car manufacturer sold plenty of its Moto range. An utterly superb beat-'em-up that's never been bettered, even by its sequels (which really do define the term 'diminishing returns') and sadly the home computer conversions are disappointing in a way that invokes Out Run.

So many classics, and I'm one for the old 80s stuff...
Based on the first machines I always go for at retro events..

Gyrus
Tempest
Phoenix
June First
Star Wars

Dragons Lair
Star Wars
Terra Cresta
Moon Cresta
Sega Rally (two player)

1. Space Harrier - just awesome to look at and play, and the original moving seat.

2. Star Wars - the original sit-in cabinet with all the voice samples.

3. R-Type - big and bold colourful sprites, great weapons and amazing bosses.

4. Time Pilot - pure, intensely addictive shooting gameplay.

5. Ridge Racer - fantastic handling and graphics make for an iconic racer.

1. Spy Hunter
2. Mrs Pac Man
3. Centipede (gotta love the trackball)
4. Dragons lair (for the art style)
5. Star wars trilogy arcade

1. Time Pilot
2. Commando
3. Green Beret -- I have this vague memory of the sprites being huge
4. 1943
5. Star Wars

street fighter 2
golden axe

and nice description of double dragon pete

Playing daytona against friends was a lot of fun , but expensive

Games I've played the most in the arcade over the years:

Frogger
Street Fighter 2
WWF WrestleFest (my all time personal favourite arcade game)
Soul Edge
Metal Slug

Defender
Defender
Defender
Defender
Defender

All other answers are wrong