Since this thread has turned into a mini-bio section for MARP players, as well as an arcade history lesson, I thought I'd continue the theme.(posted 9902 days ago)I'm 29 and didn't really arrive on the video game scene until late 1981 or so. I recall playing some games before this, but hadn't really grasped the concept of becoming good at a game. I probably learned more games during the '83-'88 period.
I agree that there was a shift in the arcade scene around '84/'85, but the shift had not yet entered the fighting game era. In '84, the entire video game industry imploded (both arcade and home), which left many companies and arcades scrambling for a way to turn a profit. This is when the bulk of all new arcade games were cheap conversion kits, and in general, many games began clone one another. (Romstar comes to mind as the king of importing many of these from Japan - I'm not knocking Romstar, they were just the kings of the import)
The original Street Fighter was released in 1987, but was not nearly as popular as its successor. You may remember this game as being in a very large cabinet, with two pressure sensitive buttons for attacking (which ruined the game). Street Fighter 2 (in 1989?)started the final emergence of fighting games in the arcades today - which is when I began to lose interest.
There have been a few decent games released in recent years, but I agree that most of the Neo-Geo games just aren't all that great. Outside of a few puzzle games, they just never did it for me.
As for the great Neo-Geo debate, I could really care less about it. I think it's great that MAME emulates over 900 games, regardless if they ran on Neo-Geo, Capcom's CPS-1, Atari's System 1 or 2 - it just doesn't matter. Of the games emulated, there are so many good fun games that I find that I've never heard of that are sort of fun to learn. MARP has introduced me to some really good games like Mr. TNT, Amidar (which I knew from before, but never played until MAME), Bandido, Gypsy Juggler, Fast Freddie, and Jumping Jack.
I'm really looking forward to the upcoming addition of the Williams/Midway titles from '89 forward. NARC, Smash TV, Total Carnage, Trog, and Strike Force were all great games.
Well, I suppose I've rambled on enough. Happy scoring everyone. =)
=Angry=