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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I Don't Know Jack

I was trundling along on some gaming sites today (translation - I went to Gamespy, Gamespot and IGN out of sheer boredom) and I came up an an arcade game quiz that taught me that I really never did spend enough time in arcades.  Or at least my MAME box wasn't diverse enough.

Of fifty questions, I got twenty-four right.  Effing ouch.  And this was stuff I should have known.  What does it all mean?  It means that my next MAME machine better consist of more than just Capcom Beat 'Em Ups and Konami shooters.

Actually, now I'm wonderng what my MAME machine did have.  I know I had those DnD games (King of the Dragons, Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara.  Certain I had The Simpsons.  I had Aliens.  Aliens Vs. Predator...I think I had the TMNT arcade game, too.  Not sure though.  I know had Knights of the Round until I got Capcom Arcade Classics Vol. 2 (even pre-ordered it, the game list is effin' 1337, or elite for normal human beings.).  I'm certain I had Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, I even had Vendetta (and hated it after I beat it). 

I miss the old arcade days, and I miss some of the games.  I mean, there are few ports that add up to the original Double Dragon.  The NES game doesn't even count because it's practically a different game altogether.  A very good different game, but still incomparable.

It's funny, I can remember the first video game I ever played.  I can remember the first NES, SMS and SMD game I ever played.  Actually, come to think of it, I can remember every game for every system I ever played.  But I can't remember what the first arcade game I ever played was.  Maybe as much as I liked it, it just didn't hold the same importance.  Or I just played a crappy game (arcades in the early to mid-80's were full of those).

This is actually starting to bother me because I wanted to add a couple arcade cabinets to my business when I put it together, and I can't even remember the first arcade game that I ever played.  Screw it, we'll say it was Spy Hunter (it probably actually was).  That game sucked then (unless you were 6 and as long as it didn't lock up, the screen didn't go funky) and it sucks now.  I can't believe I went looking for it for the NES.  And I even owned it for a few years.  As I remember I got rid of it in a trade for Crystalis.  I was a lot happier after that, that I am certain of.  However, the arcade version did have certain aspects over the NES version; the cabinet actually made you feel like you were in a high-tech sports bar...well, the one at The Wizard's Castle did...I think that game had like three different cabinets. 

And considering all of that it would explain why I was having such a hard time remembering.  Now I have to ask...If it was gonna be a Midway title, why couldn't it have been Smash TV???

4 comments:

  1. omg the DnD arcade games were awesome, and the arcade golden axes were sweet too

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  2. Yeah, I was pretty happy that King of the Dragons found its way into Capcom Classic Vol. 2. It's not exactly Shadows over Mystara, but it's fun enough. The SNES port was pretty competent, too.

    You know, I'm not even sure how old I was when I first played Golden Axe, but I always loved it. I remember playing it at the convenience store when I was living in Sudbury, I was about 7 or 8 then, and they'd alternate between Golden Axe, Rastan and Renegade.

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  3. Nothing tops the original Mario Bros. arcade box.

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  4. The one with the POW box, or the arcade port of Super Mario Brothers?

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