[nmg]

This game was so perfect. One thing I miss about this era was the cacophony of various games as you walked into the arcade. All those machines blaring their sinusoidal siren songs at once. The audio design of Galaga was extraordinary and a huge part of its charm in my opinion, but to truly experience it, you really need to be standing at the machine, fully bathed in it, with a backing chorus of all the other machines chirping and crooning their tunes.

[cainxinth]

The mechanic where you have to potentially sacrifice one of your lives by letting it be captured so that you can try and get it back later for double firing is a stroke of genius. It’s the perfect balance of risk and reward to make things exciting.

[beebeepka]

I also miss having a crowd looking at what you do. Some would cheer, others would try and get you killed. Practically grew up at the arcades.

[zxcvbn4038]

If your in the US there are a surprising number of arcades around that are loaded with the classic games. Just Google and you’ll find them. If you are willing to travel then probably the best two are https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/ (Illinois), https://www.classicarcademuseum.org/ (New Hampshire). There is very little parking at Galloping Ghost, suggest you take Lyft to get there. Plan to spend the day for either.

If your into pinball then https://roanokepinball.org/ (Virginia) Limited paid parking, take Lyft to get there. You can play everything in 4-6 hours.

All three are free-play, pay per head for admission, ok to leave and come back same day.

[darkwater]

Every time someone asks how's possible Twitch got so popular (or watching recorded videogames play on YT), I tell people how being in an arcade as a child in the '80s / '90s was.

[PaulHoule]

I got good enough at playing Xevious that I could (i) play for 30 minutes+ on a quarter and (ii) people would give me the quarter to watch a good player play.

[JohnBooty]

Those old arcade games almost always had a boomy, bassy sound that made explosions in particular sound amazing.

Emulators rarely capture this. My sense is that they more or less perfectly recreate the sound being output by the sound chips. But they are (understandably) not recreating the physical speaker drivers in the cabinets or other analog filtering steps (if any)

[layer8]

Emulators could provide audio filters similar to how they provide CRT graphics filters.

[deltarholamda]

>other machines chirping and crooning their tunes

Except the Sinistar game shouting at you "RUN, COWARD!"

[CWuestefeld]

Gorf's "Bad move, space cadet!" was one of my faves.

[donretag]

"Warrior needs food badly"

"Wizard is about to die"

[ourmandave]

And the Wizard of Wor's barely understandable taunts.

[tenebrisalietum]

A retro arcade near me has all kinds of old machines on and running (and in freeplay mode!) and it is wonderful. Indeed it is an important part of the magic

[spudlyo]

I grew up in Lacey Washington, and our local arcade "Star Base One" was a wonderful place, with lots of video games, pinball machines, foosball and pool tables. There was a magical moment when the arcade first opened, when the attendant flipped the breaker and all the machines turned on at once. There was an explosion of light and sound as the machines sprung to life and started blasting their siren songs. I was often the kid waiting outside of the arcade for it to open, so I got to witness it a number of times, and it was always memorable.

[jamespo]

Perhaps you’d enjoy these tracks recreating that: http://arcade.hofle.com/

[Waterluvian]

The video game equivalent of a live show vs. an album.

[prox]

Galaga also has that nice polyphonic stereo effect that is really cool.