Dude, I never made it to this screen before!

March 13, 2009 9:19 AM

The niftiest thing at Coin Op World?The mp3 files of Classic Arcade Sounds.

"We recorded our video game experiences from 1982 until 1988 in a variety of locations on the east coast. Most of the recordings come from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY and Ocean City, MD. Other locations include Lancaster, PA, Falmouth, MA, Rehoboth Beach, DE and Key West, FL.

Luckily I stored all fourteen audio tapes in a safe place and rediscovered them when I moved the rest of my stuff out of my parents house in 1997. In the last several years I digitized these nostalgic recordings to preserve and share them."

posted by Miko (27 comments total)

Fuck, I meant to post this when I came across it a little while ago.

Highly recommended. Those beeps and buzzes are like a box full of madeleines.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:22 AM on March 13 [3 favorites has favorites]

http://www.metafilter.com/46321/Arcade-Sounds
posted by gman at 9:22 AM on March 13

Neither URL showed up in preview.
posted by Miko at 9:23 AM on March 13

Wow - at first, I thought this was the Arcade Ambience Project (re-creating the sounds of the era with MAME), but it's original recordings from the era! Nice find!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 AM on March 13

What's an arcade?
posted by interrobang at 9:42 AM on March 13

funny thing is...it doesn't sound like these guys are any good...at playing video games. the guy playing joust died like 6 times in one round....ha-HA!

What's an arcade?
*yawn* i'm sure there's some 'retirement syndrome' website you could go to if you reallyreallyreally want to hear people kvetch about how old they feel. you know what an arcade is. do not be a DICK.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:25 AM on March 13

What's an arcade?
posted by interrobang


It was a phenomenon that happened about ten or fifteen years after everyone gave up on the interrobang.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:37 AM on March 13

Sorry. I'm 33, guys! I was just joking, even though I've only been in an arcade once.
posted by interrobang at 11:12 AM on March 13

Ahhhh...Zaxxon!
posted by Thorzdad at 12:05 PM on March 13

Ah yes, this is a double. Sorry Miko.
posted by JHarris at 12:21 PM on March 13

(Although I notice it has 18 favorites vs. the older post's 3....)
posted by JHarris at 12:27 PM on March 13

We didn't have favorites then...
posted by Miko at 1:04 PM on March 13 [2 favorites has favorites]

...we wore onions on our belts. The more onions, the more you liked the post.
posted by Miko at 1:04 PM on March 13 [3 favorites has favorites]

Awww yeah. Good times, good times. Needs more bass though. I remember those cabinets would kinda thump with the bass sounds.
posted by chairface at 1:46 PM on March 13

Miko, back then I wore a fish about my ankle to ward off the plague and double posts.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:58 PM on March 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm sitting here feverish, nauseated, and dizzy. The sounds of Galaga put me into a brief state of contentment. Thanks.
posted by neuron at 2:02 PM on March 13

What's an onion?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:54 PM on March 13

Since this thread's minutes are numbered anyway:

Ms. Pacman sings MAME!
posted by Zed at 3:07 PM on March 13

I knew this was going to happen as soon as I clicked the link, so excuse me while I slip into some comforting nostalgia.

Saturday, early-90s, Harare, Zimbabwe. A friend and I are dropped off at the only water park in the city. After a few hours of death-defying fun we head next door to the minigolf course which was also home to the awesomest arcade I've been to. Mid golf-round it starts raining the kind of downfall only Africa can produce.

We still had a few hours before a parent would come to pick us up, so we conspire to skip lunch and and instead pool our money, transmuting the bills into the largest collection of coins I had ever seen. It wasn't the largest aracde by any means, 20 or so machines + a couple of pool tables, but it wasn't like we cared. Our pockets were gleaming with extra lives and the games were so damned hard the machines gleefully consumed coins as we tried to finally reach the ending of games X, Y, and Z.

Naturally we overestimated our coin reserves and ended up having to wait an hour for the parental unit to arrive, stomachs loudly reminding us that skipping lunch was a dumb idea (the parents reminded us of this as well).

As arcades fade from existence, this memory will always remain with me. Bliss was a pocket full of silver and a 10-second countdown asking me if I wanted to continue. And continue I could, if even for a short while.
posted by pyrex at 3:37 PM on March 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is really good. Thanks Miko :)

(it is so funny to hear the kids comment on the game in the background)
posted by vronsky at 4:11 PM on March 13

Number 4 has Xevious. I spent a lot of money on that game. I think I finally made it to the 3rd mothership. The kid is priceless. I'm sure I sounded exactly like the same.
posted by vronsky at 5:51 PM on March 13

Bob Moog was the man.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:58 PM on March 13

"I Hunger!"
posted by humannaire at 6:43 PM on March 13

I've started using classic video game sounds for alerts on my phone. If anyone knows of a good resource for the audio (without having to play through the game in MAME, and without the ambiance) pls hope.

This is definitely delightful background. I like to leave it running while I'm playing flash games on my computer. I can deceive myself just that little bit.
posted by Eideteker at 6:56 AM on March 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

Ha ha ha, another person who thought the name of the game was ARKANOW.
posted by Eideteker at 7:22 AM on March 14

exactly like the same? Me stupid.
posted by vronsky at 4:15 PM on March 14

My favorite thing about this site is that they have the extra life tune from Frogger, and they describe it like:

"This is the subtle tune that indicates bonus frog. Everything's better with bonus frog."

Everything's better with bonus frog! It's become a catchphrase in our circle.
posted by JHarris at 4:22 PM on March 20