In Days Gone By….

To brighten the start of the week, here’s some pictures from the extremely innocent boom years of computer arcades. Yes, young ‘uns, in days gone by arcades looked like this. Guys took girls, dads took their boys, men went with work colleagues - and all to play classic games such as Victory, Battlezone, Zaxxon and Space Invaders.

Some arcades were dressed as space ships; some had some very strange high score prizes in place - ‘get the high score and win a free single/album’? Looking at these pictures, you get the feeling that arcade games in the late 70s to early 80s were seen as something for all ages to enjoy.

With the advent of online remote gaming and the possibility that someone in deepest London is playing Motorstorm or Warhawk online with a fellow gamer in Orlando, it seems strange to look at these pictures and imagine a different time when the local arcade was the main place high scores happened.

Thanks to www.timouttunnel.com for the pictures.