Arcade machines for me as a child were a source of wonder. The imposingly tall cabinets surrounded by groups of older kids, bright flashy graphics and the amazing sound and music - they were the main attraction of a trip to the coast, for as we (well, mostly UK readers) will know, it was always the amusement arcades at the seaside that drew your attention. Jamie Lendino's book on the subject, whilst predominantly a US-centric view of the videogames arcade's heyday, is very much a trip down memory lane - and yes, gentle reader, I'm in a sharing mood today.
Summer of 1986 - the annual family trip to Scarborough in the six weeks school holiday. The usual Bed and Breakfast is closed due to a fire, so an alternate is found, one with the dining room/bar in the basement and, in the corridor leading to that room, a Space Invaders machine. Here, with the few 10p's I was allocated each day, I spent as much time as possible enthralled by the ever advancing alien waves. It also meant kind of fresh air as this was the 80's and it seemed almost every adult smoked. A win-win situation.
Presented chronologically, Attract Mode begins with a history of the arcade itself, from the electro-mechanical and pinball machines that attached players (and organised crime) to the coin devouring time killers, to the machines the youth of the 70's and onwards became familiar with. The format of the book settles into the familiar layout of the author's other publications - there is some background to the specific period being covered, then as each manufacturer comes along they are given an introduction and brief history, before each title within that period is detailed, usually with a screenshot. There are descriptions of how the games played, their technical specifications and interesting tidbits about sales figures, reviews, cultural relevance and the like.
Sometime in the very early 90's - it's lunchtime at Tanfield Comprehensive (think high school for those of you too young to remember or not from the UK) and a group of us walk the mile or so (the direct route through the Good Street estate, across Oakey's Field and then up Barn Hill bank) to Stanley. We grab food from wherever and congregate in the Roma Cafe near the bottom of Front Street, where we take turns playing Robocop, its battered cabinet evidence of a hard life. Along the way, we avoid groups of kids from South Stanley Comp, because obviously there was a rivalry that sometimes spilled over - I mean, not Sharks vs Jets level - there weren't as many musical numbers and not everyone could click their fingers and dance... Then, of course, we lost track of time and had to run back to school to avoid being late for the afternoon lessons.
It's only as you read through the games included that you realise how much of a formative experience actually playing an arcade game was. Not only were these better looking than anything you could play at home at the time, but they were available to play instantly (once you fed in your 10p coin anyway), and that fact alone was immense compared to a ten minute cassette load from a Spectrum or CPC. Ok, your game could last maybe seconds, but that just made you want to come back and try again. What is more surprising is that a lot of these games are still very playable today unlike many of the home conversions. For most of the 1980's, if you wanted to play the best version of an arcade game, the arcade was where it was at. Unless you were either very rich or monumentally in debt to have purchased an SNK Neo Geo as the 90's arrived (and paid £200-£250 per game!).
Spring 1998 - the student bar at the Kingston Hill Campus of Kingston University, London. After stocking up on pints for £1 during happy hour (prices went back up to the usual £1.10 afterwards and we were students after all), we settle down to a tournament of two player Cruis'n World. It starts off well enough, but after imbibing several pints, it becomes more a game of insult challenge as everyone's driving skills suffer from the cheap lager. The game brought us together, the insults made us friends.
Arcade games offered completely different experiences, audibly, visually and socially, to what could be had at home. Sure, there were conversions (and rip offs too), but standing in an amusement arcade/cafe/bar/B&B corridor was the real deal. It was gaming nirvana. This book captures the essence of that and what arcades meant during the early years of videogames. If you wanted the best, then the arcade was the place for you, and this book also brings context and history into play as well. The depth of research is superb and the 13-page bibliography is something I'll be working through for months (if not longer) to come.
Jamie Lendino, with Attract Mode, has written a fantastic history of the video arcade and the games that form its legacy. Both instructive and a nostalgia-laced tour of youthful memories, for readers of a certain age such as myself, this is a must read book. For those who never experienced the video game arcade of the 1970's to 90's, this book will tell you what all of the fuss was about. You can pick up a copy from Amazon here in either paperback or Kindle format.
No comments:
Post a Comment