Finish the sentence!

[Hucklebubba]

Any given arcade cabinet in use today is either completely shot, or only has one out of four working buttons, and a joystick that only accepts "left" commands, because.....

a) The video arcade as an entity has gone the way of the dodo, and it isn't practical to keep up what's left.

b) Kids these days have no respect for blah blah, and I sound old.

[duckie]

c) Games are shorter when the machine is screwed up, so the kids will pump more money into the game during a given time period.

Not knocking kids today - this is what I saw when I was growing up. I can't tell you how many of my friends would complain that a machine wouldn't work 100% right, but would then drop another quarter into the machine. If the joystick didn't go left, well... it was just a handicap...

[DocD83]

I can attest that joystick problems are in fact caused by overzealous players, because my parents used to have a little home business repairing old MicroProse arcade games (they basically handled the existing warranties when MicroProse cancelled its arcade game development). We had dozens of spare joysticks, and the one thing they had in common? At the very end, deep inside the machine holding the entire joystick together, a 1/8" diameter brass rod with a c-washer on the end. That thing snapped off all the time. So:

d) People don't realize that the joystick doesn't record the force with which you're holding it against the stops, but they'll still lean on the thing with all their weight to dodge that missile.

...also:

e) Arcade owners havn't the foggiest idea how to maintain their equipment, forcing them to call someone out to do minor tasks, which costs money, which makes them not want to call anyone until the problem is huge.

One time we got a board set from an owner who managed, somehow, to burn a hole the size of a fifty cent piece through three computer boards (spaced 1" apart) using nothing more than a voltmeter probe.

Found a link. I had that round sticker on my trash can growing up. It also showed up on a spanish class assignment. And that lighted rectangular plexiglass thing on top? I have the Japanese version right here. I used to use it as a lap desk. We also did this one. I kicked ass in both. It's easy when you don't have to put quarters in.

[DarthToad]

f) Arcade machines are good and all, and still should be used in some situations, but they have one main flaw: it's cheaper now to buy a game.

Though I have many good arcade memories. First, when I was in this theme park somewhere in Pennsylvania called Sesame Street Land and I was about four years old, my parents thought I was lost when I was really playing Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time at the arcade.

The next one is the Captain America game at the JCC. I used to play that all the time, and slowly, throughout the years, I got better and better. One day, when I was about nine or so, I finally beat it. I got in with another person at about the second level, and we both got up to the last boss, Dr. Doom, but he died early on in the fight. I won though, with my Iron Man skills. Iron Man rocks! That was a good memory.

Also, beating the Simpsons game 500 times when I was about 10. That was fun.

[TheLuckyOne]

DarthToad said:

Though I have many good arcade memories. First, when I was in this theme park somewhere in Pennsylvania called Sesame Street Land

Sesame Place. Where my girlfriend worked for 3 years as a teenager. (Ha ha!) Man, I used to love that place... my first arcade memory is of playing Rampage there for the first time on a big screen, instead of the Nintendo, while eating pizza. It just doesn't get any better than that.

-D

[jamus34]

DocD83 said:

I can attest that joystick problems are in fact caused by overzealous players, because my parents used to have a little home business repairing old MicroProse arcade games (they basically handled the existing warranties when MicroProse cancelled its arcade game development). We had dozens of spare joysticks, and the one thing they had in common? At the very end, deep inside the machine holding the entire joystick together, a 1/8" diameter brass rod with a c-washer on the end. That thing snapped off all the time. So:

d) People don't realize that the joystick doesn't record the force with which you're holding it against the stops, but they'll still lean on the thing with all their weight to dodge that missile.

...also:

e) Arcade owners havn't the foggiest idea how to maintain their equipment, forcing them to call someone out to do minor tasks, which costs money, which makes them not want to call anyone until the problem is huge.

One time we got a board set from an owner who managed, somehow, to burn a hole the size of a fifty cent piece through three computer boards (spaced 1" apart) using nothing more than a voltmeter probe.

Found a link. I had that round sticker on my trash can growing up. It also showed up on a spanish class assignment. And that lighted rectangular plexiglass thing on top? I have the Japanese version right here. I used to use it as a lap desk. We also did this one. I kicked ass in both. It's easy when you don't have to put quarters in.

I can't tell you how many dollars I pumped into F15. Probably the only fighter simulation arcade game ever made.