Any 'classic' Gamers Here?

[2084]

I really miss being able to play Star Wars properly (in MAME) - I have a controller from ebay but it just isn't the same. Same with Pac Man and the other games that just used a 4-way joystick.

 

PS I'm after a Star Wars cockpit if anyone has one (LOL), not paying 3k though for the one that's floating about online for the past couple of years.

[The Thriller]

I have a few old consoles hidden away, still in mint CON and in boxes with all the games. I gave my Mega drive and C64 away to a naighbour, wish I hadnt now :-(

 

I play some old games on the Facebook application

[Jimcalagon]

Inside they had operation Wolf, [...]

 

Operation Wolf was also available on the C64. The bloke who posed for the picture on the front of the box...

 

 

... was my best mate from the age of 5 in school in Liverpool. At the time he worked behind the counter in Probe Records in Liverpool and he had a constant stream of people coming in to the shop and saying "F***ing hell - Operation Wolf!!!"

[Barrie Stevens]

Yes! Funland! That old bald guy who was about 4' tall, remember him? Probably dead now..

 

He was called Jack Karran and yes he is dead now, a really nice chap.

 

There is a pool cup named after him as he was massively involved in the local pool leagues.

 

I worked three summer seasons in Funland as an attendant from 1991-92-93. The little bald man was Jack Karran who has a pool league and prize named after him. River Island now occupies the site. Capones used to be a T-Shirt makers.

 

The Arcade was once called "Feldman's Music Hall" in the tourist days and the workshop out the back was formerly the changing rooms.

 

Jack lied about his age to join the Army in World War Two. (They didn't bother checking when taking them off the Island then) And he trained at Ronaldsway, Manchester and was dropped on Arnhem (1944) as a sniper when he was seventeen. ("I had me a few")

 

He buried his sniper's gear when he saw the game was up (They shot snipers) and then was captured and in a prison camp but as the war came to an end the German guards marched them off and then gave up and let them all go. They worked in the fields helping get tatties and neeps until they met up with the Allies.

 

Jack was a butcher and after the war did a trip with Geest Line (Banana boats) and then basically stayed a Manxman for the rest of his life.

 

He was delivering a van load of meat over the Mountain Road when he was aged about 47 and a car in the opposite direction overtook on a bend and hit him. His spine was damaged and over the years he became paralysed from the waist down (Hence the job in the Arcade)

 

He was Landlord of either the Globe or Strand pubs in Strand Street before they were made one club.

 

He also had a hotel on the Prom in Douglas.

 

It was a friend of Jack's who crashed into him and for this reason he did not sue and only after six years did he realise that had he sued he would not be suing his Mate but his motor insurance. After six years it was too late.

 

Jack would take no cheek from the Arcade Cowboys and once, when someone called him "prick", he reared up on his bad legs and grabbing the lad pulled him head first through the cash desk window!

 

Jack Karran needed two sticks to walk.

 

I think in the end the Arcade closed and Jack stayed at home. His wife Ann died and as he got almost totally immobile Jack Karran too died.

 

Salt of the earth but I understand that he was a bit of street fighter in his young days and was certainly a bit of an old bugger at times!

 

I also worked at The Leisure which is/was the same ownership as Funland.

 

It was at Funland that a local Yobbo armed with an air rifle tried to stick the place up to get some money for a drugs debt. I thought it was a joke! Then when I realised it was real I called the Police and they came down with guns (This was 1993)

 

He got four years one of which was in the Youth Centre at the old prison.

 

Barrie Stevens.

[The Bastard]

Good times, seems funny to recall so many arcades in Douglas back in the day. First video game on the IOM I can remember was in the old Shoprite warehouse, across the road from where it is now, which had "Space Invaders" - had us glued to it for hours, which I suppose was handy for the mums who wanted to shop without dragging the kids around with them.

 

IIRC, "Super Locomotive" (a rare machine, only 35 PCB's actually produced) was in the arcade under the Strand Cinema, where the change booth was run by "Uncle" Roy, who didn't seem exactly keen on children which seemed a bit of an odd quality for an amusement arcade operative. My conversations with "Uncle" Roy at the change booth generally went along the lines of "Can I have some change, mister ?", to which he'd reply "CHANGE ??? Bloody kids always asking for bloody CHANGE, I'll CHANGE you you little *expletive*". I'm still wondering if there was a hint of irony about him.

 

The Strand had "Gorf", "Battlezone" and some rather "exotic" posters for the saucy late-night movies that they used to play. The one for "Emanuelle 2" was pretty cool.

 

Barry Noble's was a very slick operation, miles of gambling machines and brand-new, expensive stuff like "Wizard of Wor", "Dragon's Lair", "Pac-man" and "Q-bert" soon after release. Loads of money went into the place, it was pretty plush. IIRC, Barry Noble died quite soon after it opened.

 

The Leisure Inn was quite a challenge to reach during a school lunch-hour, but had a few classics that made it worth your while - "Pengo", "Mr. Do", "Space Ace", "Dig-Dug", "Space Harrier" and of course "Gauntlet" which took most of my money on a Saturday when I met the regular "Gauntlet" crowd. Kind of a primitive WoW, I suppose.

 

Funland had some odd stuff, cheap and nasty Pac-man clones and the like, but it had some quirky stuff like "Crossbow", which used to sit in the lobby playing the attract sequence at full volume.

 

The Rendezvous arcade always seemed empty, not much in there worth playing, a grumpy attendant and past-it tourist-era gambling machines - penny cascades and the like.

 

Summerland had a few cabinet-style sit-downs - "Star Wars" alongside some of the standards like "Defender".

 

The Crescent was a funny mix of shabby bingo and penny cascades, with some really rare video games in the back - they used to pick some real character pieces like "Tron", "Star Wars" and "Punch-out", and had some oddities like the eerie video-projection "Morgana" fortune-telling machine. I'd love to own some of the machines they had, as I expect quite a few collectors would too.