Hey Mikie you're so fine...

[Il Postino]

From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all.
But I ain't seen nothing like him, In any amusement hall.

Okay, so I'm mixing up my pop/rock references here, my point?

Well as a young lad I spent a lot of time in arcades (cruising for male ass, etc), for me it was all about the arcades (and male ass of course).

I actually joined a running club simply because one of the race meets was at Blackpool and I'd be able to visit the Golden Mile (this is not a euphemism) after the race. I'm not really sure what that says about my childhood.

I'm glad I was about for the "Golden age of the coin-op", maan, I long for the days when every major town/city had a bustling arcade, full of Electrocoin Goliath's.

Anyway, one thing I never came across on my adventures was a Mikie coin-op. After playing Jonathon "Joffa" Smith's (can you sort an interview out with this guy Strider? He was the ****ing daddy) excellent Spectrum conversion of the game I became rather fond of it, but could I ever track down the real thing? Could I bollocks.

Thinking about it, ignore all of the above, what I'm trying to say is did anybody ever see a Mikie coin-op in the UK?

Opening things up a bit, which other classic coin-ops did you never get to meet in the flesh?

[Ish]

Defender. Though I played the excellent Acornsoft conversion on the BBC to absolute death.

[Mad Gear]

Still yet to taste the delights of Scud Race and F-Zero AX. Old/er stuff i've never 'found' are Robotron 2084, Sonic the Fighters (didn't miss much after playing it on Gems), Sonic the Arcade game (trackerball) and Moonwalker (hardly classics but it's all i can think of at the mo).

I was actually thinking about this the other day. The fact that i'm lucky to be the age i am and have been able to play these games as they were properly intended. It's a real shame that most peeps younger than around 25 have missed out on some fantasic coin-ops.

Sometimes being an old fart has it's advantages

[Mu5]

Im sure I played Mikie in Coral Island on Blackpool Pleasure Beach back in the day Those were the days [sniff]

[Il Postino]

Defender. Though I played the excellent Acornsoft conversion on the BBC to absolute death.

Planetoids?

I loved that game.

[Ish]

Yeah thats the one. It was an excellent conversion.

I think they also actually released it with the Defender title too.

[Kubrick]

Never seen the Mikie coin-op before, but I did have this game for the C64. It was on a 10-game Konami compilation I forget the name of along with Green Beret, "Nemesis" etc.
I didn't care for it too much, but one of my friends really liked it.

Classic coin-ops I've missed out on? Hard to say really, I was lucky/old enough to be around when coin-ops were really popular - I mean they were ****ing everywhere, not just in arcades. And unlike today, they were a million times better than what was sitting at home.

As a result I got to play some real legendary games when they were the latest **** - Asteroids, Galaxians, Defender, Pac-Man etc (and later, Robotron 2084 too). A genuinely exciting time - It doesn't matter what happens to gaming in the future, or how good graphics become, I don't think anything will ever eclipse that first time I dropped an old-style 10p coin into Defender...

That said, I never did get to see/play a Gradius II GOFER coin-op. That's one I would've liked to have played "back in the day".

[Mayhem]

Anything classic from pre-crash I think I've played or at seen had my hands on in some form in the last 25 years. There's a number of brilliant arcade machines from the mid 80s however I have only have been in contact with once; these include the twin duo of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, plus Bionic Commandoes and LED Storm.

I've only play Ghouls 'n Ghosts twice (though Ghosts 'n Goblins was all over the place) as well. Ditto Strider and other coin-ops (as above) that US Gold converted to home formats in the late 80s/early 90s.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Vigilante & Mr Heli. Would love to get these 2 JAMMA boards for my cab. Also the dedicated Midnight Resistance cab would be nice. Only seen it once, on holiday in France back around 90/91

[Vince]

Its funny actually as i managed to play quite alot of those mentioned many years ago:

Sonic Arcade (trackerball) - They used to have this in Oriental City (then Yohan Plaza)
Gradius II (Vulcan Venture) - I only saw this once, it was in a chip shop in a place in Devon called Dawlish. I thought it was amazing at the time and had to beg my mum for coins.
Strider - They had this in Aylesbury bus station along with Out Run and a number of others which i played regually as a young lad
Midnight Resitance - Again this was in Aylesbury in a place called the crown cafe which had loads of classics 15 years ago, Bubble Bobble, Golden Axe, SFII, Outzone, Raiden and a full sit down Galaxy Force II. I bunked many days off school to go there!

The ones that i never got to see were Area 88, Gradius III, and any of the parodius games, but i don't imagine any of these were exactly common over here.

[Leon Retro]

Never seen the Mikie coin-op before, but I did have this game for the C64. It was on a 10-game Konami compilation I forget the name of along with Green Beret, "Nemesis" etc.
I didn't care for it too much, but one of my friends really liked it.

That must have been a different compo, but this is the one I remember!


' Konamis Coin-Op Hits '

It contained: Green Beret, Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Mikie, Hyper Sports and Ping-Pong!




I played it as a kid in 1990 on an Amstrad. It's a great compilation and introduced me to some real Konami classics. Yie-Ar Kung Fu was my favourite. Green Beret is a cool, but tough game, and Ping-Pong is excellent. Mikie is a cute fairly fun title, but not really my type of thing. HyperSports is a nice multi-event sports title that I enjoyed.

It says the compilation was released in 1986 for ?10. What an amazing bargain, and probably a highlight for many 8bit gamers.

[Big Seany]

Strange - I can remember playing a Mikie coin-op in Netley Working Mens Club near Southampton, back in the day. One game I always wanted to play but never saw was Total Carnage. I had played Smash TV (Paultons Park) and NARC (Southsea Clarence Pier), so was desperate to play this when it first came out. Never saw it.

[Mayhem]

How about all three in a row at one arcade? Found that one year down by the seaside. Carnage and blood galore playing them with my brother

(Smash TV was just rock though. I did complete it in the arcade once with my brother, but the machine had been, for some reason, set to free play! )

[Mu5]

One game I always wanted to play but never saw was Total Carnage.

Good shout mate - Unlucky you never played it

I was a huge fan of Smash TV - and TC was even better - especially the bosses, they rocked



Top 2 player fun

[Mu5]

Hey Seany - check this out

http://streamingmovies.ign.com/cube/...web_wmvlow.wmv

Looks like it comes with Midway Arcade Treasures 2 I will need to get it