If you are too young to remember arcades, then this article will be of absolutely no use to you. It is dedicated to “old” guys and girls like myself who have spent hours and days in their local arcade, playing the most addictive video games ever made. Sure, I may not be the most suitable to talk to you about the very beginnings back in the late 70s and early 80s as I am too young for this, but I can definitely tell you what it felt like in the late 80s and 90s when arcades were the place where young people (honestly, mostly boys) met and spent their lives. I think this is a trip down the memory lane that everyone who has ever spent a second in arcades will know how to appreciate.
It all began the very moment your school day was over. Hundred meter records were broken during those runs from the school to the arcades. Kids from all walks of life, poor, rich, dumb, smart, good, bad, they all rushed straight to arcades where they could once again feel those run-down and often cigarette-burned buttons under their fingertips and where they could once more tug and pull at the joystick, trying to beat the game and become just a tad more respected among their friends.
Arcades were also the places where you had to employ all your social skills in order to navigate them without getting beat up. Somehow, the arcades always attracted the worst from the local adolescent society. There were all kinds of kids there (or at least at mine), from the glue-sniffers to pot heads, from local thugs to the squeakiest kids from huge houses. It was the place where you had to know whom to stand up to and whom to let take your coins. It was just such a place and no one minded it.
It was also the place where you could become someone else for at least half an hour or so, playing your favorite game. You could fly a plane and shoot down aliens, or you could fight your way through exotic locations populated by things that want to kill you. It was place where you could play basketball without having to press against someone’s sweaty back on the court. It was everything you wanted it to be.
And these days, you can recreate the best part of it all, the games, thanks to MAME ROMs which will enable you to play all your favorite games for free. You can once again relive those memories and have as much fun as you did back when you were a kid. There aren’t many things that can do this and that is why MAME ROMs are such a beautiful thing. They truly turn back the clock and make you forget about the worries of the real world. With no strings attached.