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NULL mag Issue 08 09 Arcade memories
lately i re-remembered mame and some arcade games i was playing in my
youth. so this gave me the idea to write down some memories of my
arcade experiences, not only from the games, but from the whole point
of view of the experience, by going to arcade rooms/shops.
i was playing arcade games since i was 9+, perhaps even younger, but
the peek of my "arcade career" was when i was going to high school. it
wasn't just because i was in the right age but also because at that
time, also in the market arcade games/rooms were in their peak. after
that... we all got older :)
so... at that time, i had enough money to go to arcade rooms/shops,
but the thing was that i wasn't allowed to. there was a law, that
forbids under-aged (18-) to play such games, or to say it better,
enter that kind of shops/rooms, cause in the same place there were
gambling machines. so as a teenager, i had to find ways to sneak into
that places or find the ones, that allowed (illegally) for younglings
to come in... they wanted money and we had plenty :)
in my area, closest to my home, there were a few shops, some further,
some closer. the thing was that distance wasn't a problem. the biggest
problem is to find which one, would allow me to enter. even those that
did allow for 18- kids to enter, they carefully choose the ones to
let. they only let teens that looked like grown ups, at least 18+,
they had beard or at least they had started shaving :), were tall
enough etc. my problem was that i was looking even younger that i
really was... and still am :) but back then it was a problem. so when
i and my friends went to some arcade room, all my friends would go in,
but sometimes i wasn't allowed to enter :( wtf? !!!! it was very
embarrassing at that time and my friends were making fun of me and
jokes. i was tall enough, but i had a "baby face" and looking very
"innocent", so with the first look the arcade room owner, wouldn't let
me in. so i had to go to other places. but also this was relevant,
depending the guy who was responsible for the shop at the particular
time. so sometimes, in the same arc.room, i was allowed to enter and
other times not.
the other big problem, was that in some specific arcade rooms, class
mates, with a very bad attitude and rumor, also went there. we didn't
had gangs back then, but teens with weird attitude that grouped
together and sometimes you got beaten up or got stolen by them. not me
though. i was very fortunate that it didn't happen to get their
attention... it was just luck, nothing else... just luck. but i do
remember that sometimes, when a "weird" guy was standing behind me and
"watching", i was leaving the game and told the guy to continue
playing it, even if i was doing grate. the guy, perhaps, he was only
watching, but because we all knew, who were the "good guys", we didn't
want to have any "bad experience" with them, so when we saw one, we
either left the shop or stop playing and pretending we didn't had
money/credits. the best practice was not to go to the places that
those kids were going all the time. some arcade room owners, if they
saw those kids, they didn't let them enter, because they knew that
they will cause trouble or scare the other kids and loose money. so
after a time and some try and error, we (my friends and i) found which
arcade rooms were the "right" ones for us.
by just luck and very good arcade room/shop opened very close to my
house. it was far from the school, so the "assholes" didn't prefer it
and we were lucky enough that even if they had come, the owner didn't
let them in. if you looked the place from the outside, you would
probably guessed that it was a brothel! the front was covered with
poster, sticker, graffiti etc. and only from a small crack in the
door, if you watched careful you could see the screens of the arcades.
also it was in a street that it had a lot of car traffic, but almost
none pedestrians... so if you were watching the place from a distance,
you would see teenagers come in and out of the place, satisfied and
some of them lifting their pants while exiting, by sitting and playing
the games and/or entering the cabinets from the emulators, like
Afterburner!
in the early years, or arcade machines were accepting real money in
coins... but just by coincidence, as those rooms were in their ending,
they were converting money to credit coins (chips/marks) and you used
them to play. they did that to avoid "hackers" :) from cheating the
machine to think that a coin was inserted, but in reality no coin was
inserted. there were money ways to cheat the cabinets/coin slots, but
the most "famous" was the one with the piece of string attached to a
real coin. after the owners and companies learned the trick, they
adjusted the coin slot not to allow the coin to be pulled back, but
some kids didn't believe it or they just couldn't accept it and still
tried the trick... oh boy... seeing the owner trowing the poor kids
out of the shop, was something that at the time was very amusing for
the rest of us :) the coin with the string was jamming the slot and if
the owner/employ seen that, at the time you did it... you were thrown
out, literally. another well known technique was pushing the pinball
machines, kicking them etc. to avoid "loose a ball". that technique
was also not accepted ;)
in my early "encounters" the arcade games were "simple" with today
standards. pacman, arkanoid, asteroids etc... but as the time passed
and things were evolving, seeing games like golden axe, raiden,
dinosaurs and cadillacs, was amazing! and even after, with simulator
cabinets like sega rally, after burner, some submarine sim. with
periscope... your head was blown away!!!! that machine gun in the
terminator cabinet was really amazing and the whole feeling of the
game, was making you "shit your pants" :) i can't remember how many
games and how money i got into those machines! hundreds of both them
:) you should try them all! you couldn't leave the shop, with out
trying a cabinet and if a new would come, that should be the first to
try playing.
some games were just "straight", you could start playing... no tutors,
no watching, no nothing... but others, needed some time... some time
to learn the moves, the techniques, tips and tricks. you didn't just
throw a coin in them, with out knowning something about the game,
cause the others arround you, would laugh with you or worse yell into
your ear, what you should have done or not :) "get this", "get that",
"re malaka ehases mia zoi" (you asshole, you lost a life), "go to that
corner and wait", "get that gum", "get the axe"... some times was
thrilling, all the kids trying to beat the game, but some other times,
was just annoying. when you were getting better in a game, you wanted
to get things get done, by your self, not because others told you how
to do stuff.
the worst disappointment was when you run out of coins/credits and you
were in a very good point in the game! "re malaka, dose mou ena
kerma..." (dude, give me a coin) you were yelling to a friend, just to
continue playing the game... but noooo... he didn't give you one...
instead he waited for you to get up and leave, while the continue
counter was still decreasing, and then... then HE would insert a coin
and continue the game!!!! arghhhh!!! what kind of friend does that? :)
but after a few times, you were doing the same to him... hihihihi :)
but noooooo... your friend wanted to reach 100% in the "asshole
scale", so he wasn't leaving the cabinet, before the countdown was
over, just not to let you continue his game!!!!! argghhhhh... but
fortunately, he needed your help in an exam and just then you were
reminding him, that he didn't let you continue that golden axe game in
the last level or that he didn't lend you a coin!!! Ahhhh... sweet,
sweet revenge! hahhahaahhaha...
most of the time, i was going to the arcade rooms after finishing
school. if we finished school early, was our best time, cause we had
more time to play. normally school was ending at 2pm so you should
have returned home at about 2.30pm. very little time to play some
arcades... but if school had finished early, we had plenty of time.
in greek schools there is a thing called "a walk". the whole school
was getting into a park nearby and we all played there. teachers were
seating in the nearest coffee shop, not paying too much attention to
us, so it was the perfect time to sneak and go to the nearest (or not
;) ) arcade room. the funny thing was, when two groups of friends from
the same school just by coincidence were bumping each other into the
same arcade room :) the stupid thing was that, if one of the groups
was getting late to return to the park and the teachers would look for
us, the "brainiac" of the other group would said that "oh, i saw them
in that arcade room"... so the teacher would ask "and how you saw them
there?" and then... some explaining was necessary :)
well.. that was a part of my "arcade memories" :) there are more but
those are the ones that left an impact in my life as a teen. i had
some goot times back then and returning to an arcade room, always
brings the memories back, the good and the bad ones... cause i still
keep an eye for the guy over me, watching.... hahahaah
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