bite sized: Arcade Nostalgia w/ Wes

Hey listeners, welcome back to another bite sized episode of the backlog breakdown. We got something a little special for you this week. This was sent in by a good friend of the show, Wesley Ray the Henshin dad himself. If you are interested in submitting anything that you like to talk about, reach out to us. Check out our link tree, go to one of our social medias or just email us and reach out and we'd love to talk further. If you have something that you'd like to submit or that you'd like to talk about with us on the podcast, love to hear from you that way. But without any further ado, here's Wes talking about arcades.

Well hello there. Maybe I'm a familiar voice to you, or maybe not. But I am Wes and I am the host of the retronym podcast, which is on the Playwell network. And I'm coming at you today with a nice short bite size that you can just chew into and really help it to just like, I don't know, inform your day. Maybe you're listening to this in the morning on your way to work. Maybe you're listening to this during your lunch break. Maybe you're listening to this when you're supposed to be working, but you're not actually doing it. Yeah, you. I'm talking about you. What are you doing? Get back to work. Those spreadsheets won't make themselves. But you know, I haven't done a bite size on the backlog breakdown like very much in the last couple years, honestly, because it's just been like insanely busy and finding time to record like when's that gonna happen? But I was recently thinking like what kind of topics could I talk about? And I decided to just ooh, this one, this one would be pretty good. As I was know, kind of thinking about and brainstorming episodes I could do for my own podcasts. I figured, well, this topic, it's kind of retro, but it's also just kind of like general gaming. And I don't know, I think I wanted to talk about it and that is about the arcades. You know, I don't think there's been a bite size about arcades. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sure I've listened to all the episodes, but you know, maybe I've missed something. But just talking about arcades and my personal arcade memories and just some things about it that I find fascinating because it is such a fascinating time. Honestly, in the like the eighties and nineties. And were there arcades in the seventies? I don't know. The older people in the playwell network can tell me whether or not they had any in the seventies, but yeah, so for me, like, I went to a lot of arcades as a kid. Like you're talking about like Chuck E. Cheese. Yep, did that. And you're going to the mall and you just see like this little arcade like in the corner. It's kind of maybe a little dingy, maybe really neon and flashy and all that. But, oh, it just really like hits all of your kids senses. Like at the same time you're just like, ooh, flashing lights. Ooh, really loud music, you know, all that stuff. Mmm, smells like pizza. Maybe. Or maybe it smells like, I don't know, dust and magic cards or something. I don't know, magic cards have a really interesting smell. I think arcades also have that same smell, but I digress. So arcades, I love going to them as a kid, I can't say I was ever very like, good at any of the games in the arcades necessarily, but it was always just fun to go, you know, whether you're playing like an actual like video game or one of those little novelty games where you win tickets and get prizes. It's just, it's all good fun and everything. And so I'm trying to think, like, there's a few malls that I went to as a kid that were like nearby. I was born in Idaho and I lived for the first ten years of my life in Idaho. So, you know, we were always kind of behind the times a little bit. So when I would go to the nearby mall, I would see a lot of like older arcade games from the eighties. But, you know, they were still popular. So I guess, you know, there's probably a good reason as to why they were still there. You know, if, you know, it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I can just remember like just so many hours, like Miss Pac man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, just so many different games. A whole bunch of like different light gun type games. It's just such, it's bringing such good like, memories and feelings to me even now. And so, like, one time in particular, I was at an arcade. Well, I was at a mall with my mom and she actually let me just go to the arcade by myself. I guess I was old enough. I don't know, maybe I was like six or seven. But you know, it was the nineties. Parents were just like, yeah, just go do whatever you want. You know, I could still like, you know, bike around and do things like on my own. It was crazy. But she let me go to this one arcade while she was shopping for clothes. And I was like, oh, well, I'm not gonna pass that opportunity up. Like, I'd be a fool if I didn't. And I don't think I'd been in this arcade very much because I was just kind of looking at all the games and taking it all in. And there was one machine in particular that caught my attention. No, it wasn't polybius. You know, that. That's an urban legend. It didn't really exist. Or did it? I don't know. Stranger things have happened, I guess. But there was a arcade machine there for the one version of the Super Mario Brothers game, like the original Super Mario Bros. For the Nintendo. But I think it was like the versus Super Mario Bros. The one that was arcade exclusive. And it had a few little things here and there that were, like, a little bit different from the base game. And I found it absolutely fascinating because I very distinctly remember my brothers and myself playing, you know, Super Mario Bros. Honor Nintendo. And here it is in an arcade form. And it was just fascinating to me. I was like, huh? How do you make this into an arcade game? So I definitely spent a lot of time on that, and it is a blast. Like, there are some weird tweaks and things that are in this version of the game that's, like, if you were, like, a die hard Super Mario Bros. Fan, then you're gonna get tripped up a little bit. Like, it's. It's just slightly different. It's a little bit off. Not like it's like the dollar store version or like the diet version, but there's just something in particular about it. It's a little different. Okay. And, you know, of course I played some of the other favorites, like Street Fighter two and whatnot, but I was never very good at arcade games. I don't know if it was, like, the high pressure of, you know, people being around you. Like, actually watching you. Like, when you're at home and you're playing by yourself, like, obviously you can make mistakes and you're just like, oh, that was stupid. But, you know, you can shrug it off and retry and retry until you break your controller or throw it at the tv or whatnot and break the tv and. But I don't have anger issues. That's my older brother. And those are actually true things that happen. But when you're in an arcade, it's just like, oh, wow, the pressure is on. People are here, and then you actually have the investment of using quarters in order to continue your game as, you know, as long as you're able to. And that's just like, oh, man, you're actually putting, like, a monetary value to this. So it's interesting how much, like, the pressure is on at that point when you're playing an arcade game and, like, actually investing in it versus playing at home. It's like you can turn it off, you can go for a walk and stop playing and then come back to it. But when you're actually there, it's a high pressure situation. I've said that, like, three times, but it is. It's like you feel the anxiety and, you know, especially if somebody's waiting to play it, too, and you're just like, no, no, don't. Don't breathe down my neck. Don't. Don't look at me when I'm trying to play. Ah, it doesn't feel good when people are judging you, playing your game. But, yeah, I would go to a bunch of different malls, and my dad was really big about doing, like, sports card shows at this time. So there would be times where we would, like, go away for the weekend to, like, a completely different city, and we would stay, like, a Saturday and Sunday, or maybe it was like a Friday Saturday, and then we would go home on Sunday. I can't really remember, but he would just set up shop, like, right in the middle of the mall when they used to do that sort of thing. And, you know, we would all help as kids and everything, so we would make, like, little grab bag packs where we would, like, put a whole bunch of different, like, random sports cards together and little grab bags that people could buy for really cheap, help them set up all the boxes, all the rare collectible items and everything, the autographs behind the case and all that. But we weren't really necessarily supposed to stay there the whole time. My dad would, you know, talk up with a lot of different people around and he would, you know, hobnob and everything. So we would watch the table, make sure nobody stole any money. But for the most part, we were pretty much given free reign to be there, like, all day long from whenever the mall opened to whenever the cardinal show clothes. So we could be there for, like, eight to 10 hours easily. So we would pack books and stuff our game boys, but then we would also just, you know, walk around and play at the different arcades. So I can remember very distinctly, like, there are a couple times where my brothers and I basically planned to be at arcades, like, all day long and winning as many tickets as possible. And of course a lot of the prizes were pretty lame and you know, like they weren't that great, but it was the memory that really counted and it was fun to be able to have that bonding experience. Even though my older brothers have a bit of anger issues when it comes to video games and you know, I don't tend to have that. So you know, they would maybe get in fights and I'd just be like, nah, I'm just chilling, you know, I'm just playing these games right here. So that was really fun like that. I'd say that's like a really significant memory when I was growing up. So arcades, arcades are great. Like just, just think about them. You know, you walk in and like I said, like the lights, like assault your eyes, like with like the neon and the bright, like blinking lights and everything, it's like, oh, okay. And then like the sounds that you hear, you hear all the different like sound effects and such from your favorite video games around the corner and some that you had no idea about. Like you can hear something completely random and you're like, oh, what is that? I've never heard that before. And then you go searching for the game that's making that sound and you're like, oh, well, I definitely want to try this. Gosh. And people are there all the time from like, you know, young kids like me who are like bright eyed and bushy tailed and we're just like looking at all the games and we're like, whoa, this place exists. And then you have the teenagers smoking in the corner and they're just like, you know, acting all cool and tough with their backwards hats and their skateboards and everything. You know, it was a good time, even if it wasn't necessarily the most friendly places for children now that I think about it. But it was pretty fun. But yeah, we would travel across like the different states around us, in Idaho, Washington, Oregon. We would go set up at these malls and we would just have a lot of fun playing all these different arcade games. So I really enjoyed that. That was a great like significant memory for me. But yeah, arcades are just fun. Like, and it's just too bad that we've reached this point in our culture where they're just all disappearing because, well, I mean, it definitely was starting to disappear. I think I would say like the late nineties, early two thousands. It was, it was hopping pretty well. Especially with like the introduction of Dance Dance Revolution. Those definitely help the video game scene, but I feel like, you know, once the mid two thousands, like early two thousands, early to mid two thousands. It's hard to say that because you're like, are you talking like 2500? That technically be mid two thousands? But I digress. You know, 2004 onward, arcade started to die off a little bit. Probably with like the rise of, you know, cell phones being pretty like ubiquitous, especially with kids and everything. Like people started buying like smartphones. First smartphone came out in like what, 2006, 2007, maybe 2005, I don't know. I think that's when the iPhone came out. At least I'm not really sure. But you know, as kids started getting used to having those with them all times and then you have like consoles becoming a little bit more prevalent. Like, you know, we always had our Nintendo and Super Nintendo and Sega's and everything at home and even with the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, but once I started getting like that PS, two PS, three generation gamecube to wiihdeh, Xbox, Xbox 360, I guess that's where a lot of like the social gaming took place, you know, so I don't know. It's really interesting when you think about like the rise of the consoles and the deaths of arcades and obviously, you know, with the way that malls have been going lately. Like malls have been closing down all over the United States, probably in Canada and Mexico too. Probably all over the world, honestly. Maybe even in Australia, I don't know. But like, with malls shutting down and things becoming, you know, seemingly more dangerous for kids to be out and about and all that, I would definitely say that probably contributed quite a bit. Like, even in my town that I am in right now, I remember there was a mall here when I visited in 2009, but when I finally came back and visited again in like 2012, it was completely gone. And it did have an arcade and now it's totally on and there's like no arcades here at all within like a 50 to 60 miles radius, you have to travel all the way up to the bigger cities for that up north and you know, like, what kid's gonna be able to do that now? Obviously in like the big cities, the malls seem to survive, but they've just kind of become a little scuggy. I don't really know how to, how to say it, but it's like, eh, you don't really want to pee at the mall. It's become a little bit like, I don't know, maybe a little like it's like simultaneously sanitized and gross at the same time. Like nobody really wants to be there but I'm definitely saying like, there is a big push to get arcades back. And you know, like, I was saying like with this nearby town that we can go to the big city. Big city in quotes because it's not really a huge city, but it's a big city to us. Like, there is a mall that is still existing there and they've been able to, like, incorporate like different types of like, arcade experiences. And it seems like a lot of these different arcades are actually importing like cabinets and such from Japan. And they're also trying to incorporate like virtual reality and everything to that. And, you know, with laser tag being what it is. Like, laser tag was popular in the nineties and the early two thousands, don't get me wrong, but like, just seeing like, the types of laser tag that they have now. Oh, my goodness, it's like night and day. It's like completely like surreal, immersive experience. So I think that's cool. And you know, with a lot of the nineties, eighties and nineties kids growing up and everything, you have like those barcades and everything. So what is it? Like, Dave and Buster is like all these, like, you know, not adult, but like mature establishments and everything. Like, you know, actual like upscale restaurants and everything having these types of different, like, arcade rooms and whatnot. Like, obviously it's being like, carried on with like the eighties and nineties kids in spirit, even if it's not like, I don't know, everywhere. But I've been seeing a lot more showing up lately and I think it's been fun. Like just, you know, a couple weeks ago I was visiting my brother on the Oregon coast and we just happened to come across this random arcade that he had never known about. And just like, it was like a 98, like an eighties and nineties nostalgia area. And it had like this big section for arcade games. So you had things like bubble Bobble and the versus Super Mario Brothers game that I was talking about. All those other ones that you can remember. Pac Man, Galaga, you know, the whole kitten caboodle, basically. So it was really cool. I didn't actually play any of the games when I was there because I'm like, okay, well, they're costing like a dollar a game instead of a quarter a game. It's like big investment if I. I lose, so. But yeah, it was just fun, like exploring that sort of stuff with him and kind of reliving some of our memories and being like, oh, yeah, I remember that one. Oh, and pinball. Pinball is definitely coming back in a big way. I've been seeing pinball machines like pop up like everywhere now. It's kind of weird. So I don't know if you've also seen pinball machines, let me know because it's pretty cool. But yeah, that's as far as I have to like talk about arcades. You know, I wasn't like the biggest arcade person. Like, there's obviously going to be other people that spent like their entire childhoods in arcade and everything. But you know, even though I wasn't particularly good at a lot of the games, I still enjoyed it. And I know that I put the. Okay, one quick story here. I know I put the skills that I made in Miss Pac man to the test when at my college, there was this one year, 2009 or 2010, there was like a career fair going on my university. And they had a whole bunch of like different booths in the like chapel area that we had because I was at a small christian university. But for some reason they set up a big projector and they had one of those plug and play arcade joysticks for, you know, where you have like the nine Pac man games in one and everything. And it was like a little joystick with a little button on it and everything. Well, they set one up for Miss Pac man. And people going ahead of me, they were just like trying their best and, you know, bless their hearts, they were absolutely terrible. But then I got up there and I'm like, oh, I like Miss Pac man because I would always play at my local pizza joint, the Miss Pac man and Galaga combo machine that they had. And so like, I got up there and I'm just like, boom, boom, boom. Knocking it out level after level. They eventually had to stop me because it's like, okay, you're taking way too long here, so you need to like, move it along. And I had people behind me cheering me on and it was, it was really funny, like heartwarming time for me because I was like, oh, I get to put those arcade skills to the test. And everybody's seeing me super cool now. And yeah, I felt really awesome that day. Kind of a loser, but I felt really awesome that day because I was able to do that. And without the use of quarters, I might add, it was all free. So there you have it. Like, that's my arcade nostalgic experience look back thing that, you know, just thought I'd talk about a little bit. It's fun. I like arcades. I'd really like to go to more arcades. They did just start up a new bowling alley in my town, and they have an arcade, like, you know, attached to it. So I should probably take my children there and let them develop their own arcade memories. But I can't be the only one that's been to arcades. I'm sure pretty much all the listeners have, too. So here's what you need to do. You need to go ahead and, I don't know, write in on discord or talk about it on Twitter or X or whatever you call it, or Facebook or wherever this episode goes out. You need to comment, and you need to tell the host, Nate and Josh, like, what are your favorite arcade stories? What are your favorite arcade cabinets? Do you have any, like, funny little stories like I did about my miss Pac man? Like, you know, championship, basically. Like, write in, tell them about that. You know, get the conversation going. You know, maybe. Maybe I'll revisit this topic in the future once people start writing in. But there you have it. I am Wes. I am the host of the Retronym podcast. I hope that this episode finds you well. I hope that it entertained you for whatever, I don't know, 17 minutes that it's been on. And, yeah, tell me what your favorite arcade game is. You can find me at the Retron podcast. Like I said, we're part of the Playwell network with a whole bunch of other cool guys. I'm sure you already know that by now because you're listening to this podcast. Why wouldn't you know about the Playwell network? You need to go find it. You know, you need to go listen to everybody like Paul and Nick and Nate and Josh as well. But you're already listening to their podcast because you're hearing me now. And me, you could find me. I recently passed 50 episodes. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm on a roll now, starting to record more. So, yeah, go ahead and check it out and let me know again what your favorite arcade game is. See you later. Keep enjoying the games you love.