Dragon's Lair and other arcade games...the first time

[mightypirate]

The first time I saw Dragon's Lair was not in public gaming room...
It was on TV...an italian program called "Tandem" (some kind of italian version of Starcade)...on this program there were many kind of  "spartan" video-games (custom made video-games, probably they were using a Commodore 64) and two players comparing their ability on these games. At a certain point of the show they were showing a beautiful cabinet  and the players (one by one) were holding the joystick and play...
Then...what was happening ? They were showing a beautiful cartoon : a castle by night, surrounded by plant spines...a knight getting in...Wonderful ! Is that a videogame ? Impossible, I was thinking ( I was just a kid...), but then I saw the order of the rooms was changing and the cartoon was "stopping"  sometimes (no black screen thanks to the magic of TV)  and the scene was changing if the player wrong...they were also showing a blue screen with the score and some "rectangles with a sword inside" representing lives left...
I was breathless, I was watching this TV show "hypnotized" by that game...
Is there some other Dragon's Lair italian fan who remembers about this show and maybe hold some video-tape ?

I needed to be waiting almost 1 year before I could see that game, on the arcade room near home...Stunning beautiful, I was feeling like living a dream...the rest is history...

[DarthNuno]

That's interesting.  The 'first' for me was at the kermess party in my little village in Belgium, that (still) occurs every year during the summer holidays. I can't remember the exact year (83, 84, 85 ?) but when I saw that cartoon 'playable'    It was amazing...  All my money went for that game... Even if I spent a lot of coins for it, I wasn't able at the time to beat the Dragon  
I've a picture in my mind : Dragon's Lair & Space Ace cabinet together... in the same room... The 80's was the best years  

...by the way, every year I go to that kermes party in the same village... and very year I'm expecting to see these games... but I never happens  

...scenes from a memory  

Hey... that kermess is in few weeks    I'll take a picture of that    

[jomm]

...by the way, every year I go to that kermes party in the same village... and very year I'm expecting to see these games... but I never happens  

...scenes from a memory  

I get what you mean Darth, here where I live, at the Belgian Coast, in those 80's we've had several launaparks, all stuffed with those magical cabinets. At the end of the 90's they started to transform them into casino's. Somethimes I'm dreaming that it will all change back to those gloriedays of the 80's but the only place those games are running in my hometown nowadays is on my Mamecab (and some real pcb's I own) in my livingroom. Just a shame it all had to end, but that's life and evolution is just a thing we can't and may not stop. So When I look back to those days I'm glad I did experience them and those memories will stay with me for ever, amen  

[Sonic 1992]

Hello Jomm,  What you posted rings soooooo true.  I miss the 80's soooooo bad.  I remember the very day our local arcade opened.

  It was like being in a magical world!!! You know what I'm talking about...     I know most of you videogame fans/nuts like me out there, when you hear a certain videogame sound/theme, BAM!!  You're right back in time when the game was new!!

Yes sadly as you said, that the glory days of your arcade will never return.  Sadly yes, due to fact that the way it was, The best videogames were in the arcade, and you had somewhat acceptable conversions at home to hold you over untill you got some more quarters!

  But now it's totally reverse... The best games are now at home, and at (what's left or at all) of your local arcade are those crappy ticket redemption games. And an occasional new standalone game, but it's always the same thing,  yet another driving sim or flying sim or fighting game.  (which will never be as good as SF2 & MK!!!)

And if you ask me, I don't know how they pay the light bill and pay their staff with those games, I never see anyone playing them.

Which is why just about everyone on this wonderful board is reaching back into the past and rescuing their happiness!!  This is the only way to keep on reliving those wonderful memories as well as creating new ones! (road trips to find games and goodies etc.)         Oh... and one more thing..  I just can't get enough of those awesome Videogame related movies...   War Games!!!!!   The Last Starfighter!!!   Cloak & Dagger!!!!  Arrruuggghhh lol    I was sooo jealous!!  I wanted to be in those movies!!!!          

[mightypirate]

Whoa boys ! Seems your memories about these Arcade Rooms are so beautiful !  
The public Arcade Room I went was a smokey place, smelling like after shave...  :cry:
Very dark and full of "gentlemen" that everytime they wrong a move on Dragon's Lair, were hitting the precious cabinet very hard...causing the machine need to be repaired very often...  
I also remember the Dragon's Lair panel sometimes was giving some little electricity shock to the players...
But it was beautiful ! Oh so beautiful ! I remember that awesome cabinet standing there...beside there were a clone of Break-out and on the other side "Bank Panic"(nice game...I was playing sometimes, when I was getting tired of loosing my money very fastly on Dragon's Lair, at least there with one coin I could play about 15 minutes...)
That room was so terrible, but Dragon's Lair cabinet was so wonderful (and it's still now!)...  

[DarthNuno]

As promised, I went yesterday at the annual party in my native village  

My god... a real time travel      

At the early years, I was of course too young to go alone... so I was with my parents. As far as I remember there was a lot of electro mechanic games, and of course very old video games (Night Driver, BreakOut, ...)

And years after years, I saw new games coming there... and It made most of my 'Arcade culture'      

So, like I did more than 25 years ago... here's the journey      

[Children voice = ON] YYYeeeeehhhaaaawwww !!! It is here !!!!    



Quick ... quick.... let's go inside & check out what's new this year      



Holy Jesus... Burt (aka my wingman for the Galaxian3Theater roadtrip) is already here, playing with the son of his sister on a coins pusher...    Opps ... we are not teenagers anymore    ... but the spirit is still present...



...on that last picture, they are some 'ghost games' behind us, invisible for you on the picture... but still there in my  memory     I can see them all    Tron, Burger Time, Frogger, Kung Fu master,...

Let's take a ride...



... the following picture was the best spot for me, back in the days        ...



... because, just there : Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Xevious, and at the corner : StarBlade  (later of course)      

Now.. the era is over... only things like this :



...sad picture ...    ... arcade games, but no kids playing on it    :



...we were almost alone inside the luna-park... Back in the days, during a saturday afternoon, It was almost impossible to move because of the crowd  



Something great happens   It"s always the same guys who are working here... since the begining        And of course I can recognize them all ! Impossible to not discuss with them    They are great and very cool... I never talk to them before because... I was young, and they were 'old' for me at the time    Now I'm old too...  ... I told them how crazy I become because of them... They injected me the Arcade virus... And I told them about all the crazy thing I'm doing for Arcade : crazy roadtrips,  private gaming room in order to look like their game room, meeting, rennovation,...      
I really enjoy to talk with them... I give them the link of this website, and hope they will see this  

As I said, a real time travel    And here's the best thing I've done... Back in the days, my biggest dream was to work inside this Luna Park... Now I've at least a picture where I'm behind the scene      



... I used to be in front of this desk and asked 'please mister, gimme coins to play games...'
I would give a lot of money in order to have a similar picture, 20 years ago  

Well.. it's time to leave... go back in the real world... a last picture ...



It was a great day  

[vib_ribbon]

that's a bloody amazing photo story, thanks for sharing with us!! i get the feeling of incredible love you have for your childhood memories and the games you played when you were young!! same here!! but for me, all the arcades i used to go to are no more, all taken down or refurbished into other establishments. i still long to go back to the annual travelling fun fair back in my home town, but i know they wont have any arcade games there anymore, and the nostalgia wont really be there because of that.

once again, thanks for sharing! i'll try coming here more often.

ps- i know what the sound of those raised metal panel flooring makes when you step on them, they had them in the fun fair which i mentioned above. ah... such great memories!

[scr33n]

Oh my God!!!
A tear come down from my face  :cry:

I remember very well the Luna park that came in my country (Italy,  near Milano) during summer of  '78-'89 era  (the best arcades years for me!!!).

The gameroom was very similar that one of your country, Darthnuno...
I remember the position of the games perfectly and I remember the sound of  the metal panel floor, the sound of every games inside the room and the taste of spun sugar and ciambelle.

So...  inside on my left: Space invaders (with colorful  glass), Galaga and Excitebike  - on the right Yie ar kung-fu, Pitfall II, Wonder Boy, Track & Field, Popeye - in front of me Commando, Green Beret, Pacman, Dragon's Lair (Italy Version with 2 monitors) , Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Carnival, Asteroids, Defender, Elevator Action, Jungle King, Jail Break, Marble Madness, Moon Patrol, Out run, Pac Land, Arkanoid, Bomb Jack, Burnin Rubber,  Circus Charlie, Crush Roller, Gun Smoke, Guzzler, Karate Champ, King Of Boxer, Lady Bug, Mikie, Moon Cresta, Mr.Do, Pooyan, Qix, Rock,n Rope, Super Basketball, Time Pilot, Tron, Xevous and Zaxxon.

I remember everything... great memories,  great days  of my chilhood  and great summers!!!

Thanks Darthnuno for this site!!!!  
Ciao

[DarthNuno]

...and once again, I had to visit the place where I have 90% of all my 'Arcade' memories 

At this time, I had the pleasure to speak with the same women who worked already at the time, in the 80s.
I came in front of her, and like I used to do looooong time ago, I said : "Sorry, but I've a coin blocked inside the Dragon's Lair cabinet" 
...and then we chat together about the old days... it's was really nice 
Of course, I cannot resist to join her for a nice pic'   



Now, let's take a ride with me for a short walk 


(do not forget to select the HD720p video setting  )

I would die to have a similar video of the place, filmed in the 80s 

 

[Muerto]

wow! - an Out Run 2..........

[scr33n]

Nice video  Thanks Bruno

[Superully]

thx bruno! both interesting and sad at the same time to read / watch. wouldn't we all give a lot of money for going back to our childhood arcades only once to relive that experience?

[scr33n]

wouldn't we all give a lot of money for going back to our childhood arcades only once to relive that experience?

+10000000000000000000000000000000 

[Belike]

I can imagine the feelings you had there Bruno, thanks for sharing this piece of arcade history with us.

[vib_ribbon]

earlier in the month, i coincided a trip back home to see my mum with the annual travelling funfair in town. i haven't been for over 20 years!! sadly, the fair is not a shadow of what it used to be... in the 80s, there would be at least 5 - 6 stalls like this all full of the best games there were, and the fair would be so busy as it was a highlight of the summer, every child and their parents would go!!

this is the only stall left of this sort and it didn't have any videogames in it, just some pushers, ufo catchers and fruit machines. it did have my favourite 2p roulette and mechanical horse racing machines, but they were set at 10p a go... still, i was happy to have gone, but disappointed that there were no games left.


(that's me on the left of the picture looking at the skittles machine)