Arcade and Tavern games

[Rich46yo]

This is for the oldsters here. There once was a time when you had to go to an arcade or a Gin Mill of some kind to play the available games of the day. There were no PCs, and not even dreams about PC games. Instead we had to play games like foosball, pool, pinball, and eventually the Atari company was formed and games like Pong and Pacman came out. If you wanted to play a game at home you pretty much had to play board games like monopoly.

                       And the rest is history. And now we are able to fly virtual combat flight sims against anyone in the world in as close to real time as can be. 30 or 40 years ago we didn't even dream of such things.

                     Anyway what was you favorite arcade or tavern game? Back in 1960's era Chicago it was common for working men to bring their sons to taverns. Back then Taverns were more of a neighborhood meeting place and people behaved more responsibly. I would sit there drinking orange soda playing a pretty mean game of pinball. I also loved the bowling game, "the one with the bowling ball like a hockey puck".

                   And remember the coin op submarine video game? I was a killer in that to. But I never got any good in foosball. Pool of course is still popular but it was really huge "back in the day".

                So what was your favorite? Its been a long strange trip to sitting at your desk playing AH hasn't it?

[midnight Target]

Loved the old shuffleboard game with the 20 foot table and the heavy metal pucks.

[Modas]

I'm dating myself here...

My first video game that I played was called DRAW (two cowboys facing off in a shootout).  Was black and white, had resolution of about 2x2 and cost I think 10 cents a game.  I played it at a pizza hut in Rice Lake, WI.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was hooked and it was all downhill from there....

[JB73]

My father and mother got divorced, he got re-married to a woman who's father was 100% Sicilian mother was Polish.

Her parents house was right out of Goodfellas in the early to late 70's...

he Owned in his basement one of those hockey-bowling-shuffleboard games things. It was about 20 feet long, heavy metal puck thing, and I LOVED playing that thing as a kid. I can't count how many times I smashed my finger and I didn't cry, or even tell dad as I didn't want to get in trouble for "screwing around"


Once I learned billiards that has been my favorite bar game though ever since.

[ChickenHawk]

Ahh, the good 'ol days.  I remember watching people play Phoenix, Defender and the other early favorites for hours.  My parents thought arcade games were a waste of money and would rot the brain so I wasn't allowed to play.

It wasn't until the late 80's that I could go into an arcade and play.  One of my favorites was Galaga.  I once played for about 40 minutes on one quarter and got well over level 100.  My other fav was Toobin.  One of these days I'll pick up an old console.

To be perfectly honest, I think all the arcade games today suck.  The only decent thing to be found today is pinball.

[texasmom]

Qix

(I think that was the name. The one where you had to "shade" in a percentage of the board to advance to the next level, traveling only on the existing border lines.  There were two traveling "flashes" which you had to avoid... and the thing flipping around the middle that looked like a moving stack of pick-up-sticks).

[bsdaddict]

old school - shuffleboard (or possibly darts...)
new school - Golden Tee

[JB73]

Originally posted by texasmom
Qix

(I think that was the name. The one where you had to "shade" in a percentage of the board to advance to the next level, traveling only on the existing border lines.  There were two traveling "flashes" which you had to avoid... and the thing flipping around the middle that looked like a moving stack of pick-up-sticks).

I spent a whole day in the arcade of a hotel playing that

http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=2096

[texasmom]

thanks so much!
I'm totally playing that later today!

[Rich46yo]

And lets not forget Darts. Ever been to England? They are mad about darts over there. I had a lot of fun throwing darts in English Pubs while guzzling beer by the pint.

[Airscrew]

Lets see,  besides pool, I fed plenty of quarters into Asteriods, Lunar Lander, Missle Command, Space Invaders, Tron, Galaxian and Galaga, Zaxxon, Afterburner, Tank, and others.... so many quarters... so much time lost... but it was fun...

If you need some help or just curious

http://www.klov.com/

[texasmom]

Our family still has most of the board games. Our boys do the whole game cube, ps2, xbox, gameboy deal.  But we still also play checkers, chess, monopoly, stratego, chess, clue, connect4, risk thing.  

As soon as I figured out that the life of a boy revolves around one-up-man-ship (I have all sons), I'll roll my eyes & say "Palleaaaaze, don't even act like you can top me. You can't even beat me at a game of (insert whichever game I've got time to play at the moment)."  Then we sit & play. And even better if it's a short game and we have mini-tourney's.   It's all about one-up-man-ship.

[Shuffler]

Pool.....I made lots of money playing. When arcades came out I was an Asteroids junky. I still play pool. I have always loved a good game of Chess.