Remember arcade machines?

Sitting here in the departures lounge of Pearson Airport playing Yesterday (impressions coming soon) on my iPad while waiting for my flight to board I suddenly found myself nostalgic for old arcade machines. Growing up I never really went to stand-alone arcades until I was a teen so my exposure to arcade games initially came from visits to the airport as a child. Being part of an immigrant family growing up in the UK,  my dad would often find himself going to the airport regularly to either pick up or drop off numerous relatives and family friends. I'm guessing most 7 year old boys liked to go to the airport to see the airplanes. Not me. I saved up my change and went to the airport to play games whose graphics and sound would blow me away.

In the mid-80s any and all my gaming at home was done on my trusty Sinclair ZX-Spectrum 48K - games on tape, monochrome graphics and tinny sound. So when I went to the arcades (er...I mean the airport) and got to play things like Gauntlet, Space Harrier, and Outrun I was completely blown away. Arcade machines were this magical, mysterious powerhouses of gaming that utterly annihilated anything you could experience at home. Playing them also involved 45-60 minute drive to get there which added to the sense of occasion and wonderment.

Arcade-ports (remember them?) were a major selling point for home titles but could never come close to the majesty of their cabinet versions. I distinctly remember getting Paperboy for the Spectrum as a gift and being delighted that I was playing an arcade game at home!!

As I got older, I started to hang out more at the local community centre which also had a neat selection of different arcade machines that would rotate every few months. I remember playing the crap out of Double Dragon (another gem I ended up getting the Spectrum version for) and it was the first arcade game I ever finished. Around that time more and more intricate cabinets would be on show when I made a trip to the airport. I don't think I've ever been more floored by a video game than the first time I saw Hard Drivin' and it's colored 3D graphics and the Afterburner cockpit cabinet was like something from another planet! I was convinced if I did really well at it then Centauri would reveal that it was all a training exercise and I was ready to be a real life fighter pilot!

I was too young to experience Walter Day's golden age of gaming when Pac-Man, Defender and Missile Command created an insatiable buzz around arcades but I was around to experience the madness that was Street Fighter II's appearance on the arcade scene. It was incredible - people literally crowded around machines like something from a movie. The game itself was also stunning - amazing visuals with these gorgeous, colorful sprites and detailed backgrounds....and why is that guy in the Guile stage jerking off? Furthermore, in the pre-FAQ era it was also something of a mystery - how exactly did you pull off those flashy moves? Would someone tell you how to pull off a dragon punch? Isn't that supposed to be Mike Tyson? How are you supposed to pronounce Ryu? (for the record, I think I spent a decade incorrectly calling him 'Rye-You')

I wonder, though, if it was Street Fighter II (and specifically it's port to the SNES) that marked the beginning of the decline of arcades. I know arcade machines were still doing okay a decade later but I remember that SF II on the SNES was the first arcade-port where I thought to myself; "Wow, this almost is as good as the arcade version." It was the first inkling that you could have a system at home that could produce visuals that matched those magical cabinets at the arcade/community centre/airport/chippy. And that is, in my mind, why arcades are pretty much extinct - you can now have those types of experiences at home without having to pump in quarters. In fact, your phone probably supports a version of Street Fighter II that looks better than the original arcade machine!

I daren't say it's a shame that arcades have died (its innumerably more convenient to play games at home) but I do miss that sense of awe and wonder that came with those cabinets.

Lavan