Help! 80's arcade info/memories needed!

[chocobokick]

My friend Rob pitched an idea for a comic series he had a year or so ago and we've recently revisited it. Now we're thinking maybe even enter Tokyo Pop's manga contest. The problem is that the deadline for that is less then a month away! Even if we don't make that deadline, there is a good chance he will be able to sell it if we get a good presence done by SPX, which is also September (5-7). Rob is already an Eisner nominee with his first work "the Castaways" so even though Rob is a friend there is some pressure for me being picked for this.
I'm going to put all my little free time into this monster, but I need your help! Even though I grew up in the 80's, it was mid 80's and a small town. This comic is set in the 80's around the arcade era, where different classes of kids could duke it out with tokens and skill. How did the emergence of home systems affect this, if at all? Were the kids prone to alienation welcome the Atari? What are your memories of arcades?
Serious questions, but this is going to be a fun manga. Main character is a girl, so I especially need girl's opinions, or guys opinions of girl gamers at the time.
thanks! :)

[chocobokick]

Please? :(

[Raedon]

Arades were VERY social. Here are some shots of me and my friends in an arcade at the height of 'cades.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade1.jpg
Here I am rock'n some Spy Hunter. My gameplay is so amazing it blinded one of my friends.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade2.jpg
Cobra Command.. I was never good at the game but it fasinated me. To my side looking all doofy is David Hill, my best friend until I went Metallica and he went Key Club. :)

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade3.jpg
David mixing it up with one of my classmates. Demolition Derby the way it should be played.. no emulation can recreate this.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade4.jpg
I'm over on the Green side.. Nice picture mom. :) Notice the sign in the back. Every Friday Alladins Castle had a free play (this was from 83-88 or so.) If you needed to find me on a Friday night there was a good chance I was there (or playing a C64 with friends spending the night.)

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade5.jpg
Some more classmates, The guy on the Tut was named Kevin, Most of the kids in these pictures were friends only up to 5th grade. When "Cliche's" hit in Jr. High most I lost touch with. That and there were 4 Jr high's in the area and most went to Foster or Judson, not Forrest Park.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade6.jpg
Rob Eager playing some Karate Champ, we were in Cub Scouts together. He died just out of high school in a 4 wheeler accident.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade7.jpg
Ok, this is the first girl I ever had a sexual fantasy about.. Her last name was Bingham, usually I can only remember the girls first name. ;) She was the first girl I noticed getting "mature."

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade8.jpg
Danial Tutt playing punch out, This guy was also a good friend up until 6th grade when he and his 5 brothers moved to Austin.

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade9.jpg
Wonder what ever happened to him..

http://home.cablelynx.com/~tsouthern/arcade10.jpg
Anthony, This guy went on to play football. Funny how sometime in Jr. High all my black friends stopped talking to the white kids (or vise-versa..probably both.) I remember I played a prank on a black girl named April in 7th grade and her mom tried to say I was being racist to her girl. I didn't even know what racist was until then. I was just picking on her because she had the thickest glasses I'd ever seen.

the SNES changed the landscape of gaming when SFII hit the market. This was in the 90's.

[den68]

ah yes, I've got fond memories of the 80's arcade girls.

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