it8bit:

Classic Ads: Star Wars (1983)

The game is available as a standard upright or a sit-down cockpit version, both of which are elaborately decorated. It features several digitized samples of voices from the movie, including Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, James Earl Jones as Darth Vader, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, the mechanized beeps of R2-D2, and the growls of Chewbacca. [Wiki]

Scan via:The Moog

…I saw this and immediately checked my pockets for quarters. >_>

(via Photos: The Oldest Remaining Bob’s Big Boy in the United States)

Bob’s Big Boy is the stuff of sloppy grin memories. I never went to the one in Glendale - but I do remember going to the Valley Blvd, Alhambra location now and again as a wee lass, and always ordering a burger, fries and chocolate shake. The brain freeze from that thick, chocolatey goodness was divine torture.

Arcades.

Not the extravagant affairs of places like Dave & Busters, where the games take up considerable space and cost considerable coin. No…I miss the dark, shadowy lairs, and even the tiny compartments in the malls. I miss places with names like ‘Time Out’ or ‘Aladdin’s Castle.’ I miss the excitement of having raided the piggy bank or the change jar and having a pocketful of quarters whose heft and weight whispered the promise of an hour or two of fun.

I miss walking into an arcade, and hearing that grand cacophony of sound - of midis and effects, and being able to stand stock still for a moment and make out the distinct sounds of certain games amidst the din. The sped-up tone when Pac-Man is chasing blue ghosts, the whine of ships descending in Galaga, the start of a race in Pole Position, the heroic narration introducing Dragon’s Lair, the hard spin of the Centipede track ball, Chun Li’s victory giggle…

I miss wandering the crowded space between the cabinets, looking for a free machine and maybe a stool, gauging my own mood to determine where I wanted to start, what challenge I wanted to take on. I miss trying desperately to flatten out some old, been-in-the-washer, wrinkled dollar bill in the hopes that it could be fed into the change/token machines. I miss watching the pros, the folks who had mastered the moves and the timing, and who you didn’t mind had been dominating one lone game for an interminable time because they were an awe-inducing spectacle to behold.

I miss the otherworldy allure of this veritable bazaar or pixels and light, and being able to while away summer afternoons and evenings after school trying to better myself, trying to get through one more level, trying to play just a little bit longer than last time and maybe get the chance to put my initials (or some 3-letter rudeness) on the scoreboard. To leave my mark as it were, to show I had been there and emerged with some modicrum of victory.

Most of all, I miss the giddiness, the wonder, the simple pleasure - from technology, yes. The arcade was a destination that promised an open door to adventure, with only a twenty-five cent cover charge.

The arcades now, nay, the entertainment centers, that are the norm are centered around group activity, and that’s fine if you have a good crowd to hang out with. But it’s the solitary sort of journey that I liked best and miss most. When you didn’t know who you would encounter, if you even crossed paths with other players (so focused were they on their own screens). When you didn’t know who you would be - fierce brawler, skilled racer, noble plumber, errant knight. When it was just you and the machine, and the radiant glow that stayed with you, like the echo of intro music, long after you returned home.

As seen in Previews.

I don’t think I realized that his first name was ‘Dick.’ >.>

Also, this needs to be packaged with a Muttley figure, and each should have sound chips. Dastardly needs to utter  “Drat, drat, and double drat!” and Muttley needs to have that wheezing snicker.

it8bit:

Happy Birthday Atari!

via: Atari

I never owned an Atari console, but as a wee lass, I managed to play on a system owned by relatives or friends (I felt vindicated later when I got an Intellivision II, with the Atari adapter). And in those youthful days, Atari represented all of the promise and wonder of pixelated technology - a way to shatter our concept of what “fun” was, and just where its limitations resided.

So a happy anniversary indeed, Atari. Now and again I miss those dragons that looked like ducks.

From Smithsonian.com - The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

I remember seeing a brief story about these robots way back in my youth and childhood (I want to say it was on That’s Incredible, or some such show). Sadly, I never ventured out to see these mechanized servers in action. 

And here is a brief moment where my eyes turn into sparkly stars and I make high-pitched giddy noises. Because yet again, The Retroist has reached into the dusty cupboards of my childhood and brushed off a lost treasure.

Pulsar was one of the few Mego-sized figures that I had. And I remember him vividly. I mean, a see-thru chest with heart & lung pumping action is going to make quite an impression on a young lass growing up with epic heroes of Amazonian, gamma, and bionic powers showcased on the television.

The article has some wonderfully retro commercials.

…I wonder what happened to my Pulsar fig. I wonder if he made it to a thrift store or if he is buried somewhere in the yard of my old house, along with IG-88 and a Shogun Warrior. Hmm.

“I lost R2…”

albotas:

A Little Bit On The Arcadey Side: Vintage arcade poster by Axel Pfaender. While there’s not an official version for sale, there is a hi-res 2250 x 3181px version here that you can print out onto some big-ass paper and, presto.

(via Nerdcore)

Apparently I am in a nostalgic mood this evening.

I miss wasting a slew of quarters on pixels.

From What’s on NBC’s Saturday Mornings for the 1975-1976 Season? on Retroist.

Ah…so much Krofft love in that lineup.