'Retro' mid- late 80's arcade games thread.

[Alcon]

Just seeing who's into the old skool...

I was a teen in late 80's playing Slap Fight, R-Type, Gradius & 1942 / 43, Commando in the arcades. Now as an 'older' shmupper I've got 2 arcade cabs with loads of pcbs.

I've been thru newer consoles to PS2 & Gamecube & an Xbox with all the emulators but for me nothing compares to standing at an arcade machine wiggling joysticks.

My fave games include:

Slap Fight / Alcon
R-Type
Flying Shark
Twin Cobra
Detana Twinbee
Cobra Command
Fixeight
Juno First
Robotron

I like Rez ALOT too, tried Ikaruga, liked playing it but ain't got 2 months to spare learning it.

I only really play games in my arcade cabs, cos emulators or consoles on TV don't work for me

I'm waiting on a delivery with P-47 & Carrier Airwing PCBs. I've not played either before but both look decent.

Just wondering if there's anyone else of here who's into playing the older games, and particularly playing older games off PCBs.

[emphatic]

Hi!

I was a teen back then as well and played lots of Flying Shark/Twin Cobra for example. I did play most games I could find, really. Playing them now is great, but mostly nostalgic. You might try playing some newer stuff for score, it's opened up a whole new world for me. Check my site (link in my signature) for some tips on nice shmup PCB's to pick up.

[Alcon]

Nice site. Enjoyed seeing your collection and mini-reviews and it killed a dull hour at work.

Looks like we share a similar taste in games, (own lots of the same pcbs), I'm v.open to the idea of newer shmups, just wish there were some people with some cabs and pcbs nearby so I could have a proper taste.

The newer pcbs are so expensive (in comparision to the older stuff) I'd need to know I love a game before spending those amounts.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I, too, am a grizzled arcade veteran from the early 1980s arcades...such cool times during that era. It seemed like every week or so, that there'd be a new arcade game brought in and lines of folks waiting to try it out for the very first time. Back in the day when it meant spending a quarter and trying to make it last as long as possible. Then when the arcades got those laserdisc-based cabs in like Funai's Interstellar arcade deluxe sit-down cab, the prices went up to 50 cents per credit. That meant have only the chance to play two LD arcade games as opposed to playing four traditional arcade games for a mere dollar at a quarter per credit. Since you spent real $$$, it paid off to try to master them as quickly as possible (unless the difficulty setting was cranked up too high thus nicknaming said arcade game to known as a "quarter muncher" or feeding it some more pocket change to continue to see/play the higher stages/levels).

Here are a sample of some of older 1980s Jamma based arcade shmup PCBs:

Capcom's Hyper Dyne Sidearms from 1986 -- has a faster default auto-fire rate than if you use an external auto-fire PCB hack on it. The flow (gameplay/game mechanics) of this particular game is legendary and even has some hidden sprite references/tributes/nods to the anime film of Nasicuaa In The Valley of the Winds. Was released in both Japan & USA region PCBs with the USA variant being released by American arcade distributor, Romstar, themselves. The first time I got to see it in action & play it was back in April of 1987 -- sure attracted a large crowd considering that it was a new arcade PCB conversion kit making the rounds in the American arcades during that "Golden Age of Arcades" era.

Konami's A-Jax (aka Typhoon in Europe) -- super smooth scaling & rotational effects for a 1987 arcade shmup PCB (even pre-dates the famous Mode 7 scaling/rotational effects shown on the SFC/SNES console circa 1991). Plus you can play in either mono or stereo for both sound effects/BGM -- how cool is that? Has dipswitch settings to accomodate both upright and cocktail table based cabs if it needed be.

Data East's Darwin 4078 -- interesting concept of transforming into various powered-up entities to face up to the final boss. This particular PCB was released in late December 1986 in the Japanese game centers.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[jepjepjep]

I'm into old-school arcade shmups too. I have Sky Shark, Sidearms Hyper Dyne, UN Squadron (prequel to Carrier Air Wing), and 3 Wonders on pcb. All great games. Here's another great old-school style shooter, Sorcer Striker from 1993: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dUB4Mfe7WI

There are definitely some quality shooters from the 90's on up that don't break the bank. Just stay away from CAVE ($$$) .

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For a while, it used to be that a full kit of Cave's SH-3 powered Ibara would set you back at like $280-$320 USD but nowdays, getting one at those cheap asking prices are long gone. Those were the going rates considering that a full kit of Ibara was considered to be the cheapest Cave PCB conversion kit with plently of them mass produced for game centers/arcades worldwide. The neat thing about an Ibara PCB is that it has a RTC feature that tells the current time on a certain demo stage...check it out for yourself.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[jepjepjep]

For a while, it used to be that a full kit of Cave's SH-3 powered Ibara would set you back at like $280-$320 USD but nowdays, getting one at those cheap asking prices are long gone.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

It seems like most CAVE boards have jumped in price in the last year or two. I was luckily able to find an Ibara bare board for $200 a year or two ago. It's a high quality shooter, but brutally difficult. It's a shame these newer arcade pcbs aren't produced in the numbers of the 80s-90s games. I wonder if they'll ever fall off to the lower prices of the older game boards.

One older game I'd love to find on pcb is Fantasy Zone. I haven't seen a pcb for sale anywhere. Does anyone know if it was distributed in US arcades?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

At my local arcades, that particular Sega PCB of Fanasty Zone was a no-show (despite it's colorful overall presentation). The PC Engine port of FZ ain't too shabby.

One of my local arcades back in the mid-1980s did get in a PCB conversion kit of Konami's Time Pilot '84...so I was able to try that one out. I like it better than the original Time Pilot PCB release myself. And Konami's Gyruss was released in the USA by American arcade distributor/licensee Centuri...the stereo sound effects/music really drew me into it.

I used to watch some folks doing their best score runs at the Atari licensed PCB version of Xevious back in 1983-1984 (despite it's high difficulty factor in the later stages). Quite impressive plays considering some of the enemy bullets would home in on your fightercraft. The colorful cab sideart and monitor bezel artwork really added a cool sci-fi aestethic/vibe to it as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Drum]

A pretty large percentage of my fave shooters are from this era. I like how they tend to be more algorithm-based rather than pre-defined-pattern-based, especially earlier on.

[Alcon]

Good to see some love!

The most I've paid for a pcb was £60 for Alcon, though I once brought a cab for £150 which came with R-Type (& Track & Field), mainly for the R-Type board. Toaplan boards come up on Ebay UK fairly often and there's some bargains for £20-40 especially for the less well known games.

Haven't seen much local action (North West England) on the forums, and no arcades anywhere near, I would like to play some of these newer games.

[emphatic]

You could register @ http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/ as most members are from the UK. There are some meetings/events you can attend. Shmup meets is so much fun!

[grobda]

+1 for '80s stuff, 1942 was the first scrolling shmup I played for any length of time, followed by 1943 with my brother.

would recoomend ukvac.com and jammaplus.com as 2 more mainly uk forums to signup for - both fairly active friendly communities (apart form the fact the admins hate each other). J+ is more games and trade orientated and Ukvac having the edge on technical matters.

[S20-TBL]

First played the NES Galaga, B-Wings and Galaxian, then graduated to stuff like Magmax*, Exerion, Gradius and 1942 all on the NES. Then I played Life Force for the first time, and I was hooked for life. Recently I'm enjoying Forgotten Worlds, Last Duel, Varth and 3 Wonders (yes, including Don't Pull) on Capcom Classics Collection, alongside my stash of Irem shmups.

Playing them alongside modern danmaku, I find the 80's and 90's shmups refreshing. They don't really need to hook me in using complicated scoring systems: the content was superb and straightforward. It's something I really feel has been lost over time. Heck, although barebones Taiwanese arcade cabs are cheap over here, I wish I could grab a PCB or two if my finances permitted it.

*That combining-mecha game is both hard and weird. Especially the sword when you get all mecha parts. I really wanted to swing it around so bad but all it did was stick out in front of me.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

I played a lot of old school when I used to play games in the arcades, some of my favorites include...

Galaga
Robotron 2084
Moon Patrol
Sinistar
Gaplus (Galaga III)
Magmax (my first horizontal shmup that I looped, NES port is close but has a very annoying music sountrack when compared to the arcade)
Silkworm (I preferred the Jeep)
1943
Sky Shark (my first vertical shmup that I looped, also looped the NES version but it doesn't play exactly like the arcade)
Sky Soldiers
Twin Cobra
Truxton
Halley's Comet
Crater Raider
Xevious
Zaxxon (isometric perspective and yes, it's a shmup)

...and also some run and gun shmups like...

Ikarari Warriors
Heavy Barrel
Outzone

...along with Gauntlet, the maze/RPG type shmup.

I am happy that at least some of what I played in the past are in Capcom Classics Collection series, Midway Arcade Treasures series Namco Museum series, and the Taito Legends series for the PS2, and that Zaxxon is an unlockable extra in the Sega Genesis collection for the PS2.

[louisg]

This thread is coming at the right time.. I've been busy with Twin Cobra on PC Engine and thinking it's maybe underrated on this site considering it's responsible for so many conventions-- not to mention that it's a lot of fun!

[Alcon]

Pleased you say this thread came at right time. I reckon Twin Cobra's pretty well rated, I believe it's been in most of the Top 25 of all time polls, making it the highest rated old vert.

I got very lucky, got the pcb with my 1st cab, had never played it before, and didn't know about Toaplan, despite loving Slap Fight (Alcon) & Flying Shark.