Does anyone in this forum play video games?

[BogDog]

First time I ran across a "Computer Space" machine was in 1971 or 1972 at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in one of the smaller of several arcades there back then. I was 11 in '71. The one I played was red but apparently they came in other colors. I saw my first PONG arcade game a few years later at a bowling alley.

https://youtu.be/4iOInwYmWRg

[BogDog]

I played Pong when it first came out. Have they improved since then?

As a matter of fact, they did! It was called "Flim Flam" and used a joystick instead of a knob that allowed you to move the paddles left and right as well as up and down to access the entire court on your side of the "net".

This is the cocktail version but the one I played had a standard upright cabinet.

https://youtu.be/AVKOjKl3dPU

[Mynock]

It must've been cool as hell to be there at the very beginning. The arcades were already starting to die out when I was a kid and I never had money for them anyway. My first console was a Commadore 64, it had Centipede and Asteroids. After that was the Atari with the "wood" console. After that came the NES, the Genesis, the 64mb plug in for the Genesis, first time I played Doom was on 64x.....after that it was PC because my dad could score free systems from work when the company did upgrades.

[BogDog]

No more arcades around here anymore either, and we had some good ones. But the Boardwalk still has the big arcade I played at in the 1960s with nickles and dimes. I still recall when pinball went for a nickle, then a dime or 3 games for a quarter, then a quarter a game and it sort of settled there. I HAVE played some arcade games that required 4 quarters per play though (Atari "Race Driver" for one).

This is the big arcade today (Click on the "SEE ALL 126 PHOTOS" link)
https://www.yelp.com/biz/casino-arcade-santa-cruz-2


I found this photo of the Casino Arcade in the early 1960s. I actually played some of these including the driving game on the far left as late as the early 1970s. I assume they are all in private collections or game museums by now.

[Mynock]

Here we go.....great old school vs new comparison. 1st Iteration of Doom (90's) vs the 4th iteration (2016) set to a kick ass song!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kjIVkl34V ... VuZCBkb29t

[schlamm]

Red Dead redemption II currently on PC, but I date back to the Atari 2600 (which I still have and it still works), a Commodore VIC-20 & Amiga, Super Nintendo. My last console was an N64 which I also still have.

[sixgunzloaded]

I date back to the Atari 2600 (which I still have and it still works)

Atari 2600s seem to have been really well made. Mine still works just fine as well. It's actually the Sears Telegames Video Arcade version (same exact console, built for Sears by Atari). The only minor issue I ever had with it was the little leaf switch under the trigger button on the joystick got a little squished after so much use. I opened it up, bent it back out, and it was fine again. Most dependable system I have.

The Intellivision, on the other hand... Nice system but everyone I've ever known with one has had the wires pull loose from the controllers. Back in the day, if you didn't know how to solder, you had to send it off to Mattel to get it fixed. Which could take weeks. And if you weren't careful when you got it back, it could happen again.

And I remember many of my friends with the original N.E.S.s having lots of trouble getting their cartridges to read inside the console. Not sure what that issue was.