In an arcade with only the following games ...
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 18532 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
Preview (Score:5, Funny)
Does the poll submission form not have a preview button?
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I'm <em>not sure</em> it would help. ;-)
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I don't think the current /. staff even know who Cowboy Neal is.
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Let th figure it out for thselves.
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I don't think the current /. staff even know who Cowboy Neal is.
That would have been the Boot Hill [wikipedia.org] option.
And my choice, since Joust was shamefully absent from the list, would be Star Wars.
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Tempest (I was no good, but it was awesome even to watch a good player on that game)
Spy Hunter (mentioned below) was amazing (and Peter Gunn doesn't get old)
Karate Master (two player) - I could beat down other humans, but the damn flower pots and the bull were not my friends
Gauntlet - 4 players worth of sci-fi maze mahem (meta-game: If you got to the door and didn't have the key, block it and hope the boss killed the keybearer so you c
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If you're going to italicize a title, it would probably be semantically best to not use either tag since the title isn't "set off from normal text". Just give it a "title" class or something and make it italic. Remember, 'i' used to mean "italics", but now the standard is different and it is merely there to set off text based on the context.
Missing option (Score:2, Informative)
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Pool would have been nice.
Snooker too.
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Pool would have been nice.
Snooker too.
I second Snooker... eight-ball is just too easy....
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Which is why your options are Snooker or 9-Ball.
I love 9-ball pool. I'd play it more if I didn't have easy access to snooker tables.
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I like to watch snooker on youtube, the commentators are even more coma inducing than golf commentators
Did that (Score:2)
I've been watching since 1973. I played Pod Racer and Need for Speed, just a bit. About two weeks ago I started learning a FPS.
I'm currently integrating a Steam Server.
Yie Ar Kung Fu (Score:4, Interesting)
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Yie Ar Kung Fu.was maybe the first game I was good at. I remember getting "perfect" the full cycle of opponents, and maybe the first guy on the second cycle. Tried playing it recently and couldn't understand what I loved about it. I think I'll stick with the nostalgia version.
Correction (Score:5, Funny)
I would play a mean pinball.
Re:Correction (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, that could imply that you are deaf, dumb, and blind.
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I was going to say something like that, but you beat me to it you insensitive clod!
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Three words which are only insults because of weird religious beliefs.
lol god lol
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I would play a mean pinball.
Sorry to hear you're only average at pinball. That is what you meant, right?
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Ms. Pac-Man (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah! (Score:2)
And what about Asteroids?
Cheers,
Dave
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Shitty arcade (Score:5, Insightful)
No Pac-man? No Dig Dug? No Galaga or Raiden or 1942/3?
I'll take my quarters and go home.
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Three syllables -> DE FEN DER
Re:Shitty arcade (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd look for Skee ball (Score:2)
I can tap buttons at home.
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Please tell me you don't have a donkey named "buttons". ;^)
Spy Hunter (Score:3)
Spy Hunter was great. Driving with forward-firing machine guns, running bad guys off the road or laying down oil slicks, all to the Peter Gunn theme.
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Missing option (Score:2)
I'd play <em>Entity Encoder</em>
Mmmm.... Pinball (Score:2)
I just never had the time, or the inclination to really learn any video games, and the same has remained true for 20+ years. I'll occasionally dabble with a game that comes my way, but I quickly realize that to be good at it would take way more time than I'm willing to waste. Or that the game would take hours and hours to com
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"Or that the game would take hours and hours to complete."
but that's exactly the point - to "waste" as many hours as possible. but I suppose if it's not sucking you into it then it's not worth the time.
but games are the future of low eco impact entertainment - they're also something that are sort of an equalizer; doesn't matter how much money you have you're still playing the same game as the dude with ten million dollars. kinda like books in that way. they're also the great time use multiplier, suppose roc
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No Gauntlet?! (Score:5, Funny)
This poll needs more options badly!
Technology (Score:2)
I made a free to play version in like 2011
Game Technology needs update badly.
Sent from my iPad
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Meh, not good as the original Gauntlet games. Slow too!
What! No Battle Zone? guess I'll have to be... (Score:2)
Pinball
Robotron (Score:3)
Oh man...I used to play that until there were Mikeys flashing on the backs of my eyelids when I closed my eyes...
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Oh man...I used to play that until there were Mikeys flashing on the backs of my eyelids when I closed my eyes...
Yeah, those old arcade games did always have a lot of problems with burn-in.
No Asteroids? (Score:2)
I would play em all (Score:4, Funny)
Discs Of Tron? (Score:3)
I've always liked pinball and to this day I'll play a game or two if I happen upon a working machine.
The 1983 Star Wars was pretty nifty too but it ramped up to evil pretty quickly and I was never able to keep up past that point.
Yie Ar Kung Fu I was pretty good at. I don't remember any of the moves now though.
Defender... I never saw anyone who was actually good at THAT.
There wasn't much to Sea Wolf.
I didn't much care for Q*Bert but my dad and sister kicked ass at the game.
I was reasonably good at Galaga, but my sister kicked the shit out of the game. I mean she just beat it brutally. I could play Spy Hunter for as long as I wanted to on a quarter, and she could play Galaga for as long as she wanted to on one quarter.
I had a lot of fun with Elevator Action, too. That was a nifty little spy game and I could get it rolling for a reasonably long time.
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I was lucky enough to have a Dragon's Lair game to evaluate! Set up for free play in my office no less :D I worked for Taito and we ordered one to "evaluate" from Sega. I was able to walk through all the scenes without it costing me a million $$.
There were several PC versions of the game made, most sucked because they were 16-color graphics (or less!) even in the days of V/SVGA. They finally made a decent port of it eventually. Check some of the abandonware sites like theunderdogs, etc. you can probabl
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amazed by the graphic quality
That's because it's not computer graphics. It was hand-drawn animation on laser disc.
Karma Whoring Opportunity! (Score:3)
I know some -- but not all -- of these game titles. Many of us are in the same boat. Some of us are too old, some too young. Your mission, as a Karma Whore, is to provide relatively useful links for all the poll options. This message will not self destruct because the self destruct HTML tag isn't being interpreted properly right now, but please proceed as if it would . . . soon . . .
Re:Karma Whoring Opportunity! (Score:4, Informative)
My poll choice, Sea Wolf [wikipedia.org]
I know most of the games, but back in the day, quarters were very important to me so stuffing them in a machine was not a common option. I spent mroe time playing Space War from the HP3000/HP150 era, what ever game I could find for the C64, and I rolled my own a times.
I think the best "game" I played was programming. I loved (and still love) to take an idea and see if I can "win" by making it come to life. I even wrote some simple games, but mainly to play at learning. As I think about this now, back when I started out in programming (late 70's early 80's) it seems more fun then it is today, the learning part. That's 30+ years of working I guess. It stops being a game and becoming just work. (Geeez, that went dark in a few sentences).
Not on the list, but an arcade game I enjoyed was Moon Buggy. A fun crawler game that did not involve a monkey or a plumber.
Frogger & PacMan... (Score:2)
...while taking breaks from pinball.
And Tetris of course! (Score:2)
No-one (including me) has named Tetris so far?!? Unbelievable.
Tetris Creator Claims FOSS Destroys the Market (Score:2)
Gauntlet (Score:2)
Run Coward! (Score:3)
Sinistar.
Tempest (Score:5, Informative)
poll option count (Score:2)
Is there a limit at 7? Seems like there are a lot of missing options. I think everybody just chose pinball because that's the 2nd best option to their favorite game that is missing. I would've chosen Spy Hunter, Pole Position, or the full motion Afterburner cabinet. Never heard of that Kung Fu game though, even after looking it up.
The arcade I went to the most also had a go kart track though, so that's the real winner.
Meh choices (Score:2)
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memories (Score:2)
Yie Ar Kung Fu. But only if it's the MSX version.
Pinball because limited options, but... (Score:2)
Pinball, but... (Score:2)
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Gorf!
I loved that game. As a kid, I always felt it was a great bargain, since you got to play different games in it.
Donkey Kong Anyone? (Score:2)
The third annual Kong Off [denverpost.com] will run this Friday through Monday.
Cheers,
Dave
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Lots of places to play even if you're not competing.
Denver, CO: The 1-Up [the-1up.com] (official Kong-off location)
New Hampshire: Funspot [funspotnh.com]
Portland, OR: Ground Kontrol [groundkontrol.com]
Vegas: Pinball Hall of Fame [pinballmuseum.org] (might not have Donkey Kong, but it sure is fun.)
SF Bay Area: Pacific Pinball [pacificpinball.org] and High Scores [highscoresarcade.com], and many more [simoncarless.com] smaller spots.
Who's missing from this list? Where's your town's reboot of the vintage arcade?
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If in Denver, don't forget about 2-Up either, their spin-off bar that's (IMO) a more relaxed place to drop some quarters. LoDo (where 1-Up is) has too many frat-bros and NFL entourages picking fights.
Some random picks (Score:2)
Not many of them are arcade classics. These were mostly the 2nd and 3rd options when you couldn't get on the good machines.
Defender (Score:2)
In college, I shot my heart rate to near 200bpm playing Defender. I stopped at that point...but I'd do it again now 30 years later.
Super Mario! (Score:2)
Some time ago I'd have said Defender (Score:2)
Back when it was still considered a modern game, Defender was my favorite in the arcade for a while. I was a fan of that old Star Wars game too, but for some reason I did better at Defender than others (maybe I'd only go through $1 in a 20 minute period - that's four games at 25 cents each - I wasn't very good) so it was my favorite for a while. Actually I was in high school around that time and had Defender and other Atari titles for the Apple II, so played them in the school computer lab too (unless I got
Missing Option: Cowboy Neal's nipples (Score:2)
Missing option (Score:2)
How 'bout them darts then? Throwing small weighted weapons through the air when slightly inebriated is always interesting.
What pinball? (Score:2)
Most arcades suck (Score:2)
Most arcades suck
They are full of first person shooters, combat games, and racing games.
I'm pretty sure most people have abandoned arcades because they can get better versions of those things at home, do, and play them for hours on end.
If you had the older arcade games in an arcade, it would see a lot more business; so there are basically only 3 or 4 options in this poll (where the 4th would be the Star Wars game, and that would be being generous) that are worth the quarters.
I go to 5 different movie theate
Star Wars! (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's a taste -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm_gg7geX_c#t=1m18s [youtube.com]
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And with no bugs, therefore.
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Some pinball machines also have bugs in their software...
And pinball for me it is also, that's why I have them at home :) :)
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The others with the "em" are game titles, where pinball is a genre.
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Thanks, <em>Professor</em>.
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Which is a mistake of the poll. Six options refer to actual games, and one option refers to a genre. A potentially interesting poll is completely ruined.
How I would vote depends on WHICH pinball games where there. Faced with Black Knight or F-14 Tomcat the choice between whether to hit up the pinball or the video side is pretty easy.
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The only one lacking emphasis.
You need to save your <em> for tilting.
Oddly, I often did play pinball, because it had a lot more action than anything else in there.
Re:Where is Pac-Man? (Score:5, Insightful)
seriously. and where is Galaga. What self-respecting arcade doesn't have Galaga?
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JFK has friggin' Galaga on the concourse. Too bad I don't travel with cash, but next time, I'll know.
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I think you are forgetting foosball.
I miss pinball, foosball, and soda fountains. Double squirt of Dr. Pepper 1 Cherry 35 cents {15 cents for the first squirt and 10 each for the rest so yeah a plain Dr. Pepper was 15 cents when I was a kid}
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You could walk? Back in my day, we didn't have LEGS, we had FINS and were happy for that.
Re:Arcade games? Sorry, I'm going home. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes, that sucks when you grow too old to have fun any more.
The simplest things make my one year old son happy. Happy to the core. A simple toy, a little game, the cat, a stuffed animal. He will smile and giggle in a way that I wish I still could.
My own father told me when I was a child that I was the most free I would ever be. It took another 30 years to really understand what he meant.
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Yes, that sucks when you grow too old to have fun any more.
Did the OP say he didn't have fun anymore, or just that he didn't enjoy arcade games anymore?
You seem to think the two things are one and the same, which is kind of a shame. There's a whole wide world of fun out there for you to enjoy once you step out of the arcade!
Re:Arcade games? Sorry, I'm going home. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow. I'm sorry for your loss. How old are you, anyway? I'm in my 50's and can still enjoy a nice game of Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Missile Command, and many more. I hope the day never comes when I'm "too old" for having fun.
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Wow. I'm sorry for your loss. How old are you, anyway? I'm in my 50's and can still enjoy a nice game of Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Missile Command, and many more. I hope the day never comes when I'm "too old" for having fun.
For me, it's not the age, but the lack of arcades.
Re:Arcade games? Sorry, I'm going home. (Score:5, Funny)
I've got no time for blinking lights either. I'm too busy doing grown-up stuff like sequencing LEDs with an Arduino.
Re:Arcade games? Sorry, I'm going home. (Score:5, Insightful)
So not interested in playing arcade games. Haven't been interested in wasting my time in the arcade since I was very young and got over the fascination with blinking lights.
I'm sorry for your loss.
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1) Needs an all of the above button. Seriously.
Okay, which would you play first?
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Most had 3 types, rolling ball, pendulum and slam switches in various places. Yeah, in unattended locations you could sometimes get away with putting matchbooks under the legs but it would move the pendulum that much closer and make the tilt that much more sensitive, but it would counteract the greedy asshole location owners who jacked the hell out of the back legs to make the average game time less than 30 seconds. THAT was like playing pachinko!
I used to love Xenon too, one of the first talking games, a
why pinball? because it's so retro /triangle\ (Score:2)
Online, no one can see these hipsters' fedoras and PBR.
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