MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - "For Amusement Only: The Life and Death of the American Arcade"

*gregf mode length...if dare to read*

>Nothing most people here don't know, and there's oddly no mention of e.g. CAX, but still
> a worthwhile time-waster.

A pretty good article. From this "post-baby boom generation" perspective, that went to arcades in late 1960s and maybe by age 3 first time ever put in a quarter and played one of the mechanical games in 1968....a few years before arrival of Nutting Computer Space...at one of the arcades in miniature golf course.

The first time I recall seeing a business setup that was exclusively for arcade games only was at Time Out when Westminster Mall first opened in sometime in 1974. Before first seeing a Time Out at Westminster Mall...the arcade games were usually within amusement park locales, miniature golf courses, movie theatres, pizza places, family fun centers such as go-kart or batting cages, bowling alleys and even a few adult place restaurants had a game now and then in customer waiting area.

To me, the concept of a business that was opened up exclusively for playing arcade games only wasn't a thing until early to mid 1970s when Time Out and other competitors started operations. That is how I saw it here in soCal LA/Orange county region.

There may have been other establishments that started earlier than what Time Out was doing, but that would be areas of US that I didn't travel to other than the family vacation to Colorado in summer 1973.

>"Bally Midway didn’t want Pong, so Atari decided to make the game itself. Pong was
>released in the end of 1972 and it was so successful that Atari.."

I don't agree with this part. I suspect it was more of a "let's wait and see if this might make money and if it does, build cabinets immediately and ship them." approach by the Midway executives. Midway was doing okay with pinball and gun-rifle games and could easily outpace number of cabs built compared to Atari since both Midway and Allied Leisure already had assembly lines in operation and could build and ship cabs in short order once the assembly line had all the tools and parts ready to put cabs together.

I may have first spotted a Winner cab around late May 1973 at one of the minature golf course arcades....either Long Beach's Shady Acres or maybe it was at another miniature golf course near Lakewood area next to horse stables along Carson Ave....west of 605 freeway.

Midway Winner
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=1369

I might have first seen a Paddle Battle cab either at Straw Hat or Shakey's pizza in middle of May 1973. The already established competitors weren't going to allow Atari to rake in all the potential profits.

Allied Leisure Paddle Battle
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=2449

And then obviously by late 1973 more competitors had various pong clone cabs marketed, but they all looked the same or had a few specific game features such as operator adjustable time limits where a pong game would conclude after 2 or 3 minutes of play compared to whoever could score 11 points or 15 points. Seeing the same pong playfield even though cabs were different was boring to me. That's why I still kept playing mechanical games or gun rifle games. Then when Atari Space Race first appeared at a Straw Hat pizza parlor in either December 1973 or January 1974, I then got somewhat hooked back on to video games....briefly. ;-)

Atari Space Race
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=1040

Space Race was a nice change of pace even though I still went back to spending more time on mechanical games or electro-mechanical games.

The video games had still yet to overtake non-video games and pinball games.

To me, it probably wasn't until about mid 1976 before videogames started outnumbering mechanical games at various arcade establishments until Allied Leisure and Chicago Coin were in process of going out of business.

It would be great if someone, older than me and also was involved in businesses during 1970s since I was only a kid then, would write an article about mechanical games or electromechanical games. It would have to be someone 55 or older that did actually work in arcades during 1970s that could properly tell what it was like then.

iirc These were some of the more popular mechanical or electromechanical where there would be folks standing around wanting to play the game. Midway's SAMI was probably the first game that I can recall where it would attract a whole bunch of kids pushing each other while fighting for first in line just to play the game. Being small and 5 or 6 years of age, I would find myself in back of the line or not even able to play the game at all....especially if it was at a place where my family would be for half-an-hour or less.

Midway's SAMI was like the prelude to Dragon's Lair or Star Wars line waiting experience. Or maybe a particular Nintendo film reel game that was roaming around in mid-to-late 1970s. ;-)

I never could understand the attraction with Allied's Super Shifter game. I mean a little tiny plastic car that players controlled...yet it still had a crowd of players milling about wanting to play the game. iirc one of the arcades I went to in late 1977, I don't remember which, may have had a Super Shifter cab in middle of arcade.

Video games had already started to outnumber mechanical games, but somehow Super Shifter still managed to attract a crowd of players. I would play Exidy Circus or maybe PSE Desert Patrol while friends still preferred playing Super Shifter over Exidy Death Race or Cinematronics Space War. I never understood the attraction of Super Shifter, but that is what I recall how things were then at places I visited.

My favorites out of this list was Chicago Coin Flying Tiger or Shoot Out.

Allied Leisure
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=ar...rch+the+Archive

Crack Shot
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=4

F-114
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=1657

Super Shifter
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=11

Chicago Coin
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=ar...rch+the+Archive

Flying Tiger
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=54

Shoot Out
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=65

Midway
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=ar...rch+the+Archive

S.A.M.I.
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=arcadedb&id=109