Favorite Arcade Memories?

[babyblob]

I know some of you youngens wont know what I am talking about but yhe older farts like me will vibe with this. I am talking about the Arcades of yester year. Not the Dave And Busters crap they have now. I mean the putting ten bucks into the change machine and trying to balance a hand full of quarters while walking around with an over sized Coke. The greasy joy sticks because that one jerk kid would not wipe his damn hands after eating the god awful arcade snack counter pizza. And why was the place always so Smokey? Who was lighting up in a room full of kids?

So tell me your favorite arcade memorires?

For me it was the place down the street. I would go there once a month on Saturday with a roll of quarters. I learned early on to stay away from street fighter because that bastard who was a monster with Guile would own every one. it was just a money drain. I would camp out at The Simpson game or Ninja Turtles game. I would have played the Xmen game more often but all the good players were taken. And who the Hell wants to be Dazzler? The Simpson was great. I love the boos fight against the bear. Because why not let's fight a bear. How about the dream land level where you fought the doughnuts? I loved Homer just beating the crap out of the doughnuts. I knew I had to get there early or I would get stuck with Marge or Lisa.

So what are your memories?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This is a good thread...I actually have 2 real nice memories.



- As a kid in my town there was a local diner/burger joint that everyone loved to eat at. It was around for 20-30+ years by the 1980's and everyone would eat their special sauce burgers they served. I as a kid never knew how special the place was beyond the 2-3 arcade machines inside the place. One I loved playing as a kid was OUT RUN. This was the game by the way....




As a kid I struggled at 1st with it. But whenever my mom went grocery shopping next door my dad would take to this and let me play awhile. It was one of my favorite things as a kid to do in late 1980's.



- My next memory was in 1990's. Our local mall had an Aladdins Castle arcade. A friend I knew back then (haven't seen in years) worked in there. He was a friendly cool guy and for a year or 2 worked there and we'd see him each weekend.

[babyblob]

God I remember Aladdin Castle. I loved the tokens and the prize booth. That place was so amazing. it is a shame that there is only one left. I cant remember if it is in Indiana or Illinois. But man That place was what Arcades were all about in the 90's
.

[Midvillian1322]

Xmen Arcade game was my go to. We would play at that arcades in Las Vegas casinos when we visited my Grandma.

[hyped78]

Oh, wow, the memories! For me there's two main ones:

- The beginning of a summer where I came out of the beach with my cousin to buy ice cream and we casually walked into an arcade room just next to the beach. There was a massive amount of kids huddling around an arcade cabinet and that is the first time I saw... Street Fighter II Champion Edition. I was blown away, a fighting game where you would go 1 vs 1 with larger than life characters, tight fighting mechanics and great graphics. It was an obsession for me that summer; there were other great games there, like Sunset Riders, but it was all SF II for me!

- Some months later, I picked up a video games magazine and it had this huge multi-page article with photos on this new arcade game named Mortal Kombat! It was the same as SF II but looked "real". And after a few months it came over to arcade rooms all over my town, so I became hooked on MK 1!

[Noodle]

-Going to the mall every weekend and checking Tekken 3 to see if any new characters were unlocked, then spending $20 just playing as Tiger because it was hilarious.

-Finally finding the Spider-Man arcade game again a few years ago and playing it to completion.

-My dad giving me a bunch of money and dropping me off at the arcade in the mall to keep me busy while he was Christmas shopping every year.

[Surf]

When MK II dropped, that predicated a trip to the mall for that alone. When it first came out not even everybody had all their special moves yet lol. The upgrade happened a couple weeks later. There used to be 5, 6 guys deep like next on the basketball court to play MK II. All three were MK games monsters but I specifically remember the days trying to make it work on II. It was kind of intimidating too when you got to the front of the line, man some of them cats were NICE with it. I don't know if they showed up when the mall opened but there were times a dude would cut through 4 or 5 dudes and he was king of the roost for that shift.

I also remember the barbershop my cousin used to cut at got a Samarai Showdown II machine. That game was dope too, when you found a cat that new how to play that, that was some real fun.

Loved the gun games too, me and my brother got pretty good at Leathal Enforcers and then bought the Sega version when it came out. House of the Dead, and Area 51 I know I spent 50 bucks on over the life of that machine. Good times.