video game lounge Part 2

[BeaTlesFan77]

3 minutes ago, Batya33 said:

I love BN and loved Borders -so awful when bookstores started closing.

Same.  Once Borders closed, BN started taking out their couches and sofas around the store which made me sad. 

[yogacat]

34 minutes ago, ShySoul said:

Last year was go-kart racing, though I spent the time at the mini arcade setting the high score for PacMan. Personally, I'd rather have the time off, but I'll make the most of it. The restaurants at a mall with a Barnes and Noble, so I may have to find a way to sneak out for some shopping....

I'll report back if I see any interesting games.

Ooh. Those are good. I have not been in one of those in years. You got to love those treasures that just pop out of nowhere.

Do you recall the game food fight? That was another good one from an arcade.

It's crazy to think how popular arcades were once, and bookstores, how they're kind of waning now. Not many people have real love for arcades anymore, everybody's into NBA TV streams or Fortnite these days.

Similar or even worse for books. There is something about papyrus and stiff paper though that you just can't replicate on a screen.

[Batya33]

12 minutes ago, BeaTlesFan77 said:

Same.  Once Borders closed, BN started taking out their couches and sofas around the store which made me sad. 

I actually like browsing in my local library which also has a used book sale  - $1/book

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/14/2024 at 6:40 PM, ShySoul said:

Had the Sega Genesis one. Only thing I remember using it for was to get past the Labrinth Zone in Sonic. The part where the stage does an infinite loop fustrated me to no end.

Going to Dave & Buster's Wednesday for an employee appreciation day at work. Haven't been since 2006. Any idea what games they have there these days?

How was the Dave & Buster’s event?

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/15/2024 at 3:59 PM, yogacat said:

It's crazy to think how popular arcades were once, and bookstores, how they're kind of waning now. Not many people have real love for arcades anymore, everybody's into NBA TV streams or Fortnite these days.

Similar or even worse for books. There is something about papyrus and stiff paper though that you just can't replicate on a screen.

I couldn’t agree more on both points. Thanks to the Internet now you can do both of those at home.  

I think the closest you can get to the old school arcades now are the barcades and by that I mean not the fun centers like Dave & Buster’s or Main Event. I’m referring to the mom and pop or independent bars that bring in actual old-school arcade games.  However, I still miss the experience in the 80s and early 90s of going to the mall and into the arcade that was dark and lit up by all the games. In addition to all the game sounds. It was also always fun seeing the new releases and everyone gathered around them.  

Yes, I also still love the feeling of having product in hand. There’s just something about the feeling of paper and listening to the pages turning that can’t be replicated by a tablet. 

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/12/2024 at 8:54 PM, ShySoul said:

Don't get me started on micro transactions. You shouldn't need to pay more to win. And I don't want to keep paying just to get new items that are all virtual and don't change the outcome of the game. Just let me buy the game and play it with everything I need included. (Yep, I'm already the grumpy old guy.)

Agreed I am also the grumpy old guy. Perfect example of how come I only play all the Street Fighters before numbers four, five, or six. All of the characters were included in the early games. None of this having to buy additional characters or outfits crap.  

 

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/14/2024 at 3:29 PM, ShySoul said:

Takes me on such an excellent adventure, especially compared to the bogus journies of today.

There's an arcade/bar ten minutes from me that has all the old the games - Galaga, PacMan, Donkey Kong, Mario, Space Invaders, several pinball machines and more. My go to is the Simpsons Arcade game. I probably played through the whole thing a half dozen times when I was child (always as Lisa).

That’s awesome!  I would love to have one of those within 10 minutes from me. Do they also play 80s music?  There’s one downtown which for me is about a half hour.  However, the music sucks.  It’s all rap or hip-hop.  Then an added negative was there was a shooting there one night last year. 

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/12/2024 at 11:41 PM, ShySoul said:

Simpsons was Bart vs The Space Mutants. You had to go through stages using a can of spraypaint to change things. Somehow that folied there plans. 

Yes, the TMNT was not the arcade one. The arcade one I could do fine with. Though it was nice to not have to keep putting quarters in the machine. 

Mega Man was my favorite series growing up. The first one was tough. Do you remember the Rock Monster boss? The one that changed into pieces that came flying across the stage? Don't think I ever beat it without the Elec Beam trick (hoping you know what I'm talking about and I don't sound like a crazy person lol).

Honestly, I never beat Mega Man so I don’t remember that boss. I’ll have to revisit that and The Simpsons one online. 

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/14/2024 at 4:51 PM, Batya33 said:

Yes but I was given a certain amount of $ and often I was lucky if I had a dollar for 4 games. I had a coleco handheld football game which used batteries! We never had any video games at home.  I got my first PC in 1992, used from a coworker. 

You were probably better off in the end. 😆

[BeaTlesFan77]

On 7/14/2024 at 6:19 PM, yogacat said:

Galaga was my jam.

I loved playing it at like a Dave & Buster's or something similar. Hitting the buttons super fast. That's the best part about these games—how quickly you can ramp up your skills and dexterity. I liked Donkey Kong but didn't get into it as much as some of the others.

I found it pretty tough, and a bit too competitive with the kill screen and everything. My brother was much better at it than me. I also loved air hockey.

There was another game that I recall, that I loved, but I can't recall the name of it. It was a bit like Galaga, but with flying food and flying dice. 

Strawberry is my jam. 😆 J/K  WWF Superstars, WWF Wrestlefest, and the 1983 Star Wars XWing game were mine.

That’s cool that you know about the kill screen. The only food related game that I can think of right now now is Burgertime.  Another arcade classic from the 80s.  

[ShySoul]

On 7/15/2024 at 3:45 PM, Batya33 said:

I love BN and loved Borders -so awful when bookstores started closing.

Had a BN within walking distance until a year ago when a fire broke out during a book signing. No one was harmed, but they temporaily closed due to the property damage. Then they decided to just close down the store permanently. Apparently they had an issue with homeless people camping out in front of the store.

I volunteer at a libary in their used bookstore. Most items are fifty cents or a dollar. We get flooded with donations all the time. Had a major sale at the beginning of June. By the end of the day we were offering as many childrens' books as you could fit in a bag for $1. And a box of adult books cost $2. Some people tend to go a little crazy. 😄

[ShySoul]

1 hour ago, BeaTlesFan77 said:

That’s awesome!  I would love to have one of those within 10 minutes from me. Do they also play 80s music?  There’s one downtown which for me is about a half hour.  However, the music sucks.  It’s all rap or hip-hop.  Then an added negative was there was a shooting there one night last year.

Went there in the daytime when it's more a family spot. At night it becomes more of a nightclub with arcade. Not sure what music they play, though they better at least have an 80s night.

1 hour ago, BeaTlesFan77 said:

Strawberry is my jam. 😆 J/K  WWF Superstars, WWF Wrestlefest, and the 1983 Star Wars XWing game were mine.

Grumpy old guy making dad jokes? Without even being a dad! I approve. Although I tend to go for the grape jam.

No surpise, but I was also playing the WWF games.

[ShySoul]

On 7/15/2024 at 3:59 PM, yogacat said:

Do you recall the game food fight? That was another good one from an arcade.

It's crazy to think how popular arcades were once, and bookstores, how they're kind of waning now. Not many people have real love for arcades anymore, everybody's into NBA TV streams or Fortnite these days.

Similar or even worse for books. There is something about papyrus and stiff paper though that you just can't replicate on a screen.

Not recalling food fight. 

There are so few arcades now it's sad. Only places find anything like it are the entertainment chains - D&B's, Boomers, Incredible Pizza. Then it's more about games that give you tickets (all virtual on a card now) and how you need absurd numbers of tickets to mine a prize that would have been far cheaper to just buy in the first place. Kids don't know what they are missing. Having my brother take me to an arcade was one of the biggest treats for me back then.

Count me in on preferring the feel of turning pages or holding a book in my hands. Unless my eyesight really starts to fall me, I'm sticking to paperbacks. I'm either reading or doing a puzzlebook on my bus trips to/from work. Whenever I look around, I'm usually the only person with a book. Everyone else is staring at their phone. Between phones, computers, and TV, it's like people spend all day just staring at a screen. I like having time when I'm not dong that.

[ShySoul]

2 hours ago, BeaTlesFan77 said:

How was the Dave & Buster’s event?

Go on your own and not as a group event. Part of the package is a team building event where we were broken up into teams and given a three page list of questions to answer in 45 minutes. Each question was worth a certain number of points, most points win. The questions were all about games they had or about D&B's in general. Problem was that might you had little time to actually play the games as you were too busy trying to run around a loud and busy arcade to find the games you wanted and answer the question. I can tell you there are 16 characters to select in Mario Kart, but I didn't have time to play as any of them. I can tell you that if you eat an orange on PacMan you get 500 points. I just couldn't eat one myselt as it was on to the next question. But the group did have the joy of taking a picture, putting it on social media and giving the place free advertising for 50 bonus points!

I did get away for a few minutes after while everyone was sitting and talking. Did well in skeeball and basketball. Surprised myself by winning 500 tickets throwing tiny balls into a row of fishbowls, so close to the 1500 ticket grand prize. If I had more time I would have gone for PacMan, SpaceInvaders, Rampage and the giant Connect Four.

Ah, just take the grand tour:

 

[Batya33]

7 hours ago, ShySoul said:

Had a BN within walking distance until a year ago when a fire broke out during a book signing. No one was harmed, but they temporaily closed due to the property damage. Then they decided to just close down the store permanently. Apparently they had an issue with homeless people camping out in front of the store.

I volunteer at a libary in their used bookstore. Most items are fifty cents or a dollar. We get flooded with donations all the time. Had a major sale at the beginning of June. By the end of the day we were offering as many childrens' books as you could fit in a bag for $1. And a box of adult books cost $2. Some people tend to go a little crazy. 😄

Yes I can relate in my city.  I volunteered at my son's school library for a year when he was in kindergarten.  I had to volunteer where he couldn't see me otherwise he'd cry and want to go home with me!That's so good of you to volunteer. I've been a bookworm since I learned to read at age 3.

[yogacat]

12 hours ago, BeaTlesFan77 said:

Strawberry is my jam. 😆 J/K  WWF Superstars, WWF Wrestlefest, and the 1983 Star Wars XWing game were mine.

That’s cool that you know about the kill screen. The only food related game that I can think of right now now is Burgertime.  Another arcade classic from the 80s.  

Not lingonberry? 😅

WWF? Who will Elizabeth choose? 🤔 The hulk? Or the slim jim bloke (R.I.P. Randy and Elizabeth...).

I ran into the hulk at a restaurant in Florida once. 

Burgertime was fun too!

[yogacat]

10 hours ago, ShySoul said:

Not recalling food fight. 

There are so few arcades now it's sad. Only places find anything like it are the entertainment chains - D&B's, Boomers, Incredible Pizza. Then it's more about games that give you tickets (all virtual on a card now) and how you need absurd numbers of tickets to mine a prize that would have been far cheaper to just buy in the first place. Kids don't know what they are missing. Having my brother take me to an arcade was one of the biggest treats for me back then.

Count me in on preferring the feel of turning pages or holding a book in my hands. Unless my eyesight really starts to fall me, I'm sticking to paperbacks. I'm either reading or doing a puzzlebook on my bus trips to/from work. Whenever I look around, I'm usually the only person with a book. Everyone else is staring at their phone. Between phones, computers, and TV, it's like people spend all day just staring at a screen. I like having time when I'm not dong that.

Indeed.

I'm in the middle of reading the "Swerve" by Stephen Greenblatt and it talks about a collector both to valuable classical literature from destruction by monks and amateurs along with a great deal of garden variety fiction. Mind shifts and hidden meanings in Epicurus and Lucretius.

As far as I can tell, book collecting has had the same trouble every now and then. Floods are infamous. Fire. Rodents. Book eaters in ww1. Germany burned a lot of books. 

The thrift store is a great place to find interesting books. If you can put up with the stickers on the binding.

I agree, it's sad that there are so few arcades left. It's definitely a different experience. It's a shame that kids nowadays don't get to experience that.

I don't have children but my sister and her (now ex-) husband did not allow any tablets, or iphones, or whichever until their children were at least 17-18. It's hard now though because a lot of elementary and high schools incorporate technology as part of their learning platforms.

[Batya33]

3 hours ago, yogacat said:

don't have children but my sister and her (now ex-) husband did not allow any tablets, or iphones, or whichever until their children were at least 17-18. It's hard now though because a lot of elementary and high schools incorporate technology as part of their learning platforms.

My son would have had no social interactions during the pandemic and virtual school without being able to zoom with his friends and play video games.  He was 11 when it started in 2020. So thankful for  technology.  Also it means when he is home and can't go out - whether weather, logistics, etc  or for like his good friend who moved to the opposite end of the country they stay in touch through various technologies.  He didn't get a phone till his 14th bday and I'm glad we waited.  One reason was he wasn't driven around much or in other peoples' cars much etc so he didn't need a phone to contact us.

[ShySoul]

17 hours ago, Batya33 said:

I had to volunteer where he couldn't see me otherwise he'd cry and want to go home with me

That was me in kindergarten. I didn't want to be away from mom or home. I was beng read to regularly and loved learning math on my own already. Why did I need to go to this new place when I was already doing these things? I could have play time with my own toys at home. And why are they forcing me to have a nap time when I'm never tired during the day? Didn't make sense so I would cry and ask to go home. Didn't work though. Think I started to like school better in first when we started to learn more.

[ShySoul]

15 hours ago, yogacat said:

WWF? Who will Elizabeth choose? 🤔 The hulk? Or the slim jim bloke (R.I.P. Randy and Elizabeth...).

Too bad you couldn't play as Elizabeth. That would have been appropriate. As me, it's the Macho Man all the way. Ohh ya!

Randy and Liz was a great romance, at least on screen. I can't see anyone else having a wedding as the main event of a wrestling PPV and everyone being okay with it. Was such a different time.

15 hours ago, yogacat said:

The thrift store is a great place to find interesting books. If you can put up with the stickers on the binding.

Stickers are better then the writing they mark on some items. Actually, I'm seeing few books in the thrift stores now. And the best stuff is getting putting online. Though it's still fun going on the treasure hunt and when you do get a find it's a real treat.

Right now Goodwill has become my supplier for plushes. Between 15 dolphins, Daffy Duck, a penquin, and an axlotyl and other ocean based items, my room is slowly becoming SeaWorld. Oh, I can't forget one of the Toy Story aliens dressed up as Nemo. 

15 hours ago, yogacat said:

It's hard now though because a lot of elementary and high schools incorporate technology as part of their learning platforms.

It's the blessing and curse of technology. On one hand it's pretty much essential these days and you can have so much knowledge at your fingertips. On the other hand, it causes so many distractions and looks what happens when something goes down (thank you Microsoft for not being able to access half of the things I needed today....).

[Batya33]

On 7/18/2024 at 11:42 PM, ShySoul said:

Count me in on preferring the feel of turning pages or holding a book in my hands. Unless my eyesight really starts to fall me, I'm sticking to paperbacks. I'm either reading or doing a puzzlebook on my bus trips to/from work.

Same. I got my husband Will Short's puzzle book and he also clips the newspaper crosswords. I only read e-books on a plane or vacation.  My mom does Sudoku.  She is 89 and doesn't have internet and doesn't want it.  Love hate relationship with technology.  Love FB and LinkedIn although I never post photos (I have some on FB from when I first joined and my employer prefers we have a professional photo on the website so I also have that on LinkedIn -that's important to me for professional reasons.  We used to play a lot of board games at home as a family and also monopoly on the ipad lol . It's been too long!

[Batya33]

7 hours ago, ShySoul said:

That was me in kindergarten. I didn't want to be away from mom or home. I was beng read to regularly and loved learning math on my own already. Why did I need to go to this new place when I was already doing these things? I could have play time with my own toys at home. And why are they forcing me to have a nap time when I'm never tired during the day? Didn't make sense so I would cry and ask to go home. Didn't work though. Think I started to like school better in first when we started to learn more.

My son on his first day of kindergarten hid under the table for over an hour (so it was reported to me) and he told me it was so he could observe first lol.  In pre-k he flunked nap. He still napped but not at 1pm.  He was told he could get up but had to stay by his mat. Then he got in trouble for hopping on one foot around his mat -but that was a skill he said he was trying to practice LOL.  

I taught kindergarten in the late 80s. It was very obvious which students had never attended school lol.  I'm still in close touch with one of my former students! My most hilarious kindergarten substitute teacher story is this -they still had a nap time (it was done away with in large part however) so I had this boom box with quiet music except after I got them settled on their mats I guess I didn't check which tape was in there -it was that really loud Van Halen song.  Cue huge dance party for a couple minutes.  Sigh.

[ShySoul]

12 hours ago, Batya33 said:

My mom does Sudoku.  She is 89 and doesn't have internet and doesn't want it.  Love hate relationship with technology... We used to play a lot of board games at home as a family and also monopoly on the ipad lol . It's been too long!

My mom is 79 and went the opposite way. If she didn't have internet or couldn't check Facebook I'm not sure she would know what to do with herself. 

Love board games, though I get a competitive streak in me. Might have to pull out Clue and play a game or two.

I got tired of Sudoku and had to try out all the varients and other Japanese puzzles. Think my favorite is Kakuro. It's like a crossword puzzle only you place the numbers one through nine and add them up to get whatever sum is in the row or column. Still easy to understand, but a little more thought then Sudoku.

[ShySoul]

12 hours ago, Batya33 said:

My son on his first day of kindergarten hid under the table for over an hour (so it was reported to me) and he told me it was so he could observe first lol.  In pre-k he flunked nap. He still napped but not at 1pm.  He was told he could get up but had to stay by his mat. Then he got in trouble for hopping on one foot around his mat -but that was a skill he said he was trying to practice LOL. 

Your son is clever. I think I like him. LOL. Think I only napped once the whole year. The rest of the time was me lying there wondering when we would get up again so I could learn something or go back to the sandbox.

Mother was a teacher's aide for awhile in the 70s/80s. Sister taught second grade for a couple of years. Always appreciate teachers and all the effort they put in. I'm sure your students appreciated you as well.

 

[Batya33]

11 hours ago, ShySoul said:

My mom is 79 and went the opposite way. If she didn't have internet or couldn't check Facebook I'm not sure she would know what to do with herself. 

Love board games, though I get a competitive streak in me. Might have to pull out Clue and play a game or two.

I got tired of Sudoku and had to try out all the varients and other Japanese puzzles. Think my favorite is Kakuro. It's like a crossword puzzle only you place the numbers one through nine and add them up to get whatever sum is in the row or column. Still easy to understand, but a little more thought then Sudoku.

Oh! Clue!!!  My mom is so happy with Black Belt sudoku.  Online my husband, myself, my son and our cousin do wordle daily.  

I'm very happy my mom is not on social media as I'd have to monitor it for scams, etc.  I really dislike that she only gets to  see photos of her 5 grandchildren and 6 great grand children when someone comes to visit. My husband had been mailing her printouts of photos but we haven't in awhile. I could text her friends with videos and photos but I don't want to be a burden. 

My mom is busy almost all day every day - where I grew up and where she still lives since the mid 1960s now gets various grants to provide loads of activities for seniors.  She goes to so many of them ranging from exercise class to discussion groups to book club and field trips.  Then she hangs with her friends in one of the local sitting areas on the block.  It's awesome for her.  She I think doesn't read as much -her vision -but she was an avid reader for many years.