- Why do/did you choose classic arcade games? Did you grow up playing them or is it something you have just taken up in recent years?
When I was 7, I dropped my first token into an arcade machine in 1983, it was Venture played at the Aladdin's Castle at the local mall. I thought the cabinet was awesome, huge and scary with snakes on the side art and the covered hood effect in the inner part of the cabinet. Later on that day while my mom shopped in the department store I would go under the clothing racks pretending they were the various rooms in the game. (Now I guess kids can just play Minecraft instead on their mom's smartphone)
They were also a way to pass the time at the supermarket as pretty much every place my mom needed to go that I had to tag along to, had a game or two. Dry cleaners, convenience store, hotels, everywhere, you didn't need to just hit the mall arcade. My favorite games at the time were Alpine Ski, Zoo Keeper, Elevator Action, Jungle Hunt, Q*Bert, Rally-X and Berzerk. In the mid 80's, the golden era games started getting converted more and more but at the time, I didn't miss Joust or Defender, I just wanted to see what new games came into the arcade even if they were kits of Super Dodge Ball, Pac-Land, Gladiator and Karnov, I didn't really care.
The next wave of Sega games really blew me away, Outrun and Space Harrier I thought were pretty incredible when they arrived, especially Space Harrier which had gameplay that was very unique at the time with very impressive graphics and sound. In the late 80's, my brother stopped playing, although I would still go to the arcade every once in awhile by myself. I don't remember anything noteworthy after that until I saw Street Fighter 2 at a casino arcade. I had enjoyed SF1 more than most as the pizza place near me had the crazy cab with the large pneumatic buttons that got fkd up quickly.
It was Mortal Kombat 2 though that got me back into gaming, however. My buddy Jeff was now working at the mall arcade and he would open the gate early so we could play MK2 every Saturday. I'd basically play it from open until about dinner time. The lines were massive, I hadn't seen anything like it since Dragon's Lair came out. We faired well in local tourneys and would venture down to the more populated boardwalk arcades to hustle MK2 on Friday nights. That went well for a few months until we got hustled ourselves and decided it was in our best interest to play for fun at that point. We still play it today and have some great heads up matches at the local arcade whenever we get a chance to meet up, though I only beat him about 25% of the time nowadays (we always use random character select), he still plays pretty competitively.
After that scene died out I pretty much stopped going to the arcade and it closed down in the early 2000's. I saw an ad for King of Kong playing at a local indie movie theater a few years later and convinced the wife to accompany me. While we were watching I was pretty amazed that people still played Pac-Man, Galaga, DK and all the games I enjoyed growing up and were still competing on them. Even though I hadn't touched a classic era game in years, I figured it wouldn't take long to get back on the horse. My wife got me a trip to Funspot for my birthday soon after and it happened to be during
's week of fun in November. I met Dave Nelson, Jason Cram, Donald and others there for the first time. I also think I met Ben and Vic even though I didn't know it at the time lol. Everyone was super friendly to me and Dave took a score down for me for TG, a 6th place score on Berzerk slow bullets lo. I tell Robert all the time that if he, Dave and others hadn't have been so nice, I likely would have never progressed past visiting Funspot that time. Pretty neat how it worked out. I didn't even know MAME existed until a year or so after I made it up to Funspot in 2009.
- Why do you prefer CAGs over modern games? Do you play modern games?
I think as a society we are always trying to find things that make us happy, most people would agree that would mean being young again I think. Which I think are the same reasons I watch baseball, listen to certain music and play certain games, it creates a nostalgic moment in time of my youth where the only worry you had was if so and so was around to play catch that day or go to the arcade, come over and play NES, etc. I imagine 20 years from now people will feel the same with CoD and other modern games of the current period. Case in point, I went to a 90's party recently and it made me feel old, but to them, that was their 80's, just like Ocarina of Time is someone's Legend of Zelda NES.
That being said, I play modern games every so often. I own a Wii and very much enjoyed Twilight Princess, Zack and Wiki and Resident Evil 4.
- How long have you been playing CAGs?
See Above
- Do you have "real-life" friends that play CAGs too? What do your non-CAG friends and your family think about it? Do they know?
Yes but mostly as a casual thing. My brother likes to bring his kids over to play my arcade cabinets because it's a cheap day out for them and they enjoy Ms. Pac and Star Wars. My co-workers are interested in how I do in tourneys as I have some Funspot posters up in my office as well as my Berzerk certificate from Walter. One time at a large departmental meeting one of the VP's asked if anyone had ever edited a Wikipedia listing and I said that I was going to because they had my hometown city incorrect but that I never got around to it. That got them interested in my progress I suppose. My wife plays a decent amount especially if we go to Funspot. She is a good Zoo Keeper player (over 1m) and Bubble Bobble player (over 2m), lately she's into the Dr. Mario though. She'll get on kicks and then quit for extended periods of time then get back into it, etc.
I don't think anyone in my friends or family think it's weird, seems to be the opposite they are usually intrigued and usually asked questions about kill screens and what happens with certain games.
- Do you think arcades will ever make a resurgence in any significant capacity? Why/why not?
They already have big time in my neck of the woods. I have about a half dozen arcades/barcades within 2 hours of driving distance from my home. People my age are now entrepreneurs and they have the same affinity for classic gaming that I do so I think you're seeing those folks turn that love into a business if possible. Most will need to also have a bar I think to be able to survive although one arcade near me does not and seems to do well with mixing cabs and pins with a bunch of flatscreens and modern consoles for the younger generation.
- And lastly, if you had to choose just ONE (1) game to play for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Elevator Action. I think it is a perfect blend of strategy, action, reaction time, planning and randomness. There are a variety of ways to play it and play it well so it's neat to see different styles being used. I think it's pretty similar to DK in that way, go for a huge game and take big risks or play it a bit safer and have that consistent scoring range.
