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What is your best ARCADE memory?

Bigrx1

Bigrx1

Banned
Maybe you have to be a certain age to have really enjoyed the golden age of arcades but for those of you who used to frequent them when they were really popular what is your best memory? For me I was 15 at the time when MK2 came out and my mom used to drop me off at the mall arcade and I would stay there for hours. I remember when MK2 first came out to the arcade it was a version where the secrets weren't in and not too many characters had fatalities yet. Then one weekend the new/final version was in and word must have gotten around because by evening there were literally 20-30 people all surrounding the MK2 machine putting their quarters "ups" to mark their place, fighting it out all night long. All of us going nuts as new fatalities were happening, yelling, screaming, it was just this awesome social atmosphere where everyone was having a great time, competitive and just blown away by the game itself. Miss those days.
 
Mine was probably playing the cockpit version of Atari's Star Wars back in '83 and experiencing the Death Star tunnel run.

As a kid, arcades in the UK were too expensive to spend any considerable amount of time in unless you were just standing watching and, from memory, the ones I used to visit were rather unsavoury places.
 
Definitely the "lock ins" at my old arcade. Up front entry on a Friday night gave you 5 hours of unlimited games. I can remember many weekends playing The Ocean Hunter and Gauntlet Legends with my friends for hours on end.

This was all around the mid 90's. I remember when my arcade got The Lost World game and thinking graphics would never get better.
 
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For me games like Double Dragon, remember playing it for ages whilst on holiday at a small Uk getaway. Me and my brother pounding 10ps to eventually finish it, all with a massive crowd behind us in the family club. Miss them care free days.
 
Seeing Space Harrier for the first time.

Beating Midnight Resistance on my very first try. Yes you read that right, the very FIRST time I put a quarter into it, I played all the way to the end(of course I have beaten the Genesis version numerous times and the arcade version is actually easier).
 
Oh yeah there was the time when I sneaked out from work everyday at lunch to play Capcom vs SNK 2 and other fighting games against the local pros....I even got to play against Ricky Ortiz (when he was still a he).
 
I loved the 3D light gun games. I had to look these up just now to remember, but Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Virtua Cop blew me away. This was in the mid-90s I guess? At the time, all I had at home was an SNES, and none of my friends had a PSX / N64.

I was also always jealous that MK2 and Killer Instinct looked so much better than the home console versions (I only had SNES MK / Killer Instinct at home), and it was always this weird treasure being able to experience them for short bursts at these magical, powerful machines blasting a wall of sound at you. My family only gave me $5 or so to play, and I only got to go maybe twice a year, so every time it felt like I was putting quarters into a time machine that was showing me what home console games would look like in 5 years. It felt surreal.

... Also pretty much anything Cruis'n or Daytona.
 
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My thing was anything car-based, ideally with a full seated cabinet and proper gear shift, force-feedback on the wheel etc. I just couldn't get enough of it. This of course led to me now having a full VR + wheel + pedals setup at home because I'm a nutter. Motion rig next I think..
 
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I've spent like $100 worth of parents money on this thing. They decided it'd be cheaper to buy me a NES and stop my arcade addiction, and it did, to a degree :)
 
Street Fighter II was very special but I was not that good. Too young. My special moment was when Marvel vs. Capcom came out. I was unbeatble. Remember people in line to try to knock me out.

Arcades are life.
 
I've so many! There was nothing like going to the local arcade after school with your mates, 10 regal filter, coke, meanies and listening to Lithium on endless repeat while playing games such as:

Street Fighter II
Snow Bros
Bomb Jack
Super Mario Bros
Golden Axe
The Simpsons
Toki
The New Zeland Story
 
I played Tekken 3 when it was brand new at an amusement park in Gothenburg. It was an experience I´ll never forget. The graphics was just off the chart and the gameplay was tight as a nuns... bible. I played as Eddy and was blown away by his cool moves and how user friendly he was. I even got a little crowd behind me that was cheering when I won matches, which was neat. Tekken 3 was such a powerhouse of a game, it literally kicked the teeth out of the competetion.
 
Playing Galaga as a kid in 1984-5.
Playing Golden Axe, Street Smart, Flashgal
Finishing various beatemups with a friend in the 90s
Playing House of the Dead and Lost World, finishing Ocean Hunter
Watching a one credit playthrough of Wonderboy in Monsterland and Shinobi 3 and an expert play of Shinobi 1
 
1. i was in the canary islands went to an arcade and with 1 coin i completed street fighter 2 turbo using blanka and spamming his electrical attack

2. my dad had a restaurant like a summerplace with an arcade he had a beatem up arcade dont remember the name but u have to rescue ronald reagan from a helicopter on the final boss. with 7 coins that i got from my dad i completed the game.
 
Working Space Harrier machine, well into the 2000s, at Southwold. That and playing games like Metal Slug and Darkstalkers, 7 credits for £1, in Great Yarmouth in the late 1990s.

Beating VF3 on an arcade machine where the punch button didn't work.
 
ljubomir said:
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I've spent like $100 worth of parents money on this thing. They decided it'd be cheaper to buy me a NES and stop my arcade addiction, and it did, to a degree :)
Click to expand...

That and the Simpsons arcade machine hold some of the strongest memories for me. I can still smell the chlorine and taste the salty fries (they were located in the restaurant of the swimming baths, and my friends and I would play after swimming). It's hard for younger people today to imagine, but the arcades were so far ahead of the home consoles/computers. It would be like being able to go into an arcade today and play PS6-level games.
 
I played arcades only a few times when I was a kid, but two games come to mind :
Turtles in Time
Top Hunter

These two games left some very strong memories. Nowadays I can play Top Hunter as much as I want on my Neo Geo CDZ :)
 
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We used to go on family holidays to Wales and there was a specific pub the family would all go to each time - obviously being a kid at the time, I couldn't drink, so it was pretty boring. But one day, they installed an Area 51 cabinet in the games room, and every year for the next three years, I'd take a pocket full of change and beat the full game each time. Was awesome. I really want one of those cabinets.
 
Popping quarters into a Galaga cab for the first time after my dad telling me about him playing it when he was younger.
 
I only saw saw the tail end of the arcade craze, but I do remember play Metal Slug X with my brother a lot. MSX was a great game.
 
Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Street Fighter II., and Super Street Fighter II Turbo era. To me, this was the golden age of arcades and the scene.

Myself and a couple of friends traveled as much as we could to compete in the SF arcade scene. At the time, I worked at Aladdin's Castle and had free use of SF machines. We played the hell out of those things. This was during the era of Tomo Ohira and Mike Watson. We (three of us) drove from New York to Chicago to compete in the Mid-West tournament at Super Just Games in 1994. Tomo was a no-show, but we had the pleasure of meeting Mike Watson and a few of their crew. We didn't do half bad, but were completely shocked at the disparity between what we perceived as "great" SFII players. Mike Watson and another crew mopped the floor with everyone.

Capcom was showcasing and introducing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo at the tournament. It truly was an awesome time in arcade history.

The funny thing, was that Mike Watson and his boys had no way to get to the airport to fly back to Cali. We ended up giving them a ride so they could catch their flight. Good people.

 
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Long win streaks in Samurai Shodown. SS was one of those games where if you were bullying people off the game, especially if you weren't from that arcade, people fight you there forever to get you off the game.
 
Sneaking into the local pub to watch mates play Space Invaders, the landlord used to turn a blind eye to us but as soon as the pub started to get busy he'd kick us out. All so Double Dragon, Outrun and all of that era really, i'd mostly watch as i couldn't afford to play them. Any money i got chocolate came first, they don't know they're born today :-)
 
Oh yeah, absolutely the first time I saw TMNT in the arcade. Loved Beat em ups, and to see this with true to the cartoon graphics, and 4 player simultaneous play with each player controlling one of the turtles. It was a pure nerdgasm for my 5th grade self back in those days- literal wish fulfillment of the game I most wanted to play. STILL love it, BTW
 
Arcades weren't super prevalent in my part of the country when I was growing up, so my experiences were largely based on cabs in movie theaters or day trips to other cities that did have them.

So it's either gotta be paying double to play a game of P1/P2 dual-wield Area 51:

img_3841.jpg


Or discovering the goofy-but-awesome Fist of the North Star cab with the punch pads:

iu
 
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The first time i discovered the unlimited lives glitch in TAD Corporation's Blood Bros (my avatar).

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When i finished Metal Slug 2 with just two credits (never finished it with just one credit, and i trained A LOT at house with NeoRageX).

And the spanish translations of Capcom/SNK, they were so bad its hard to describe.
 
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has to be Out run when I played it the first time sat in the arcade car unit, then when Afterburner came out with moving cabinet it blew me away, another couple oh highlights were Gshock 360 I think it was called which was similar to Afterburner but the player could be spun anyway the plane could, upside down , sideways the lot. also Gti club which the cabinet span when you accelerated to feel like you where in a real car
 
MK2 was my game as well. i used to download movelists off of BBSes and print them off on my dot matrix printer and bring those to the arcade.

many memories of mine include just gawking at new games. i remember laying my eyes on Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. i remember tripping out at how awesome the TMNT arcade game was. it was kind of magic tbh. keep in mind that at home i had an Atari 7800. seeing an early 90s arcade game was like looking into the future.

but my favorite memory was, one morning my mom had to go to work for a few hours, and she worked next door to an arcade called Great Games. so she dropped me off there with a $20 and i went to town playing anything i want. i ended up playing all the way through The Simpsons arcade game that saturday morning.
 
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Playing Baseball Stars 2 on a Neo Geo cabinet at Skydome when I was around 13/14. My mom let me stay there and play for a while.

I also remember being fond of playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the arcade game in a bowling alley. I loved that thing.
 
- Playing Outrun in the sit-down cabinet for the first time

- Seeing Dragon's Lair for the first time, and the ridiculous crowd that surrounded it

- $5 Sundays at the arcade where you played unlimited from 12p-2p (that shit was my version of church)

-Having a crowd gather around me as I completed Space Ace

- The Star Wars Arcade game with the wireframe graphics in the sit-down cabinet - omg

- Kicking ass at Yie Ar Kung Fu at the sandwich shop next door to the arcade

I could go on for awhile...
 
Arkanoid
Star Wars
Ghost 'n' Goblins
Street Fighter (the very first one)
Super Don Quixote/Dragon's Lair
KoF 94

They all blew my mind for a reason or another.

Kind of sad that kids aren't gonna experience arcades as we did.
 
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deathsaber said:
Oh yeah, absolutely the first time I saw TMNT in the arcade. Loved Beat em ups, and to see this with true to the cartoon graphics, and 4 player simultaneous play with each player controlling one of the turtles. It was a pure nerdgasm for my 5th grade self back in those days- literal wish fulfillment of the game I most wanted to play. STILL love it, BTW
Click to expand...
Of course you do. It's objectively STILL a very good game.
 
*sigh* reading this makes me feel that we've lost something, the magic, the noise, the lights, the crowds, Twitch isn't quite the same is it...
 
Lining up to play Super Mario Bros at the grocery store or Street Fighter ll. You actually had to put your quarter up against the screen. There was usually line of quarters across cabinet sometimes things would get heated if someone tried to skip in line.
 
DDR. It was huge at the time , and for quite a while.

Runner up is Killer Instinct. That Ultra 64 ad still makes me want one of those.

Special mentions for Mad Dog McCree, Time Traveler and Simpsons/Turtles 4 player cabs.
 
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I will also second Double Dragon back at the old Show Biz pizza. To be able to say you beat the "machine gun guy" was a badge of honor, LOL.

Also, you move to the 90s (junior high and high school for me) and its all about the fighting games. I wasn't anything great, but where SF2 was concerned, I knew the moves and wasn't a slouch, better than a lot of the button mashing masses, and it was always satisfying to be able to "stay on the machine" for a long period of time with a line of challengers behind you. That was pretty cool too.
 
There was an arcade here with a $5 entry fee but the machines didn't require coins to play, so you could play all you wanted after that.

There was this older kid intensely fighting Shao Khan in Mortal Kombat 2 and I went up and hit the start button for Player 2 and he yelled "FUCK!" As a 10 year old, I was like O_O thinking I was about to get my ass kicked. Just in the game though, he proceeded to kick my ass in the game with some attitude then I quickly scurried off. Also remember playing After Burner and having no idea if I was really playing or not. Aside from that it was just fun going around and playing everything unlimited for $5. That place closed down not long after.
 
Spending like 20 coins each to finish Cadillacs & Dinosaurs with my cousin. Good times. Yeah we sucked.
 
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Playing my first tate shmup, Raiden II.

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(pretty sure this is from the first Raiden, though)

Some of my earliest gaming memories consist of frustrated-but-awestruck sessions in horizontal shmups like Gradius, R-Type, Defender, Darius II, etc etc etc

But to see Raiden II in a rotated cab blew my mind. Of course, vertical shmups ported to consoles with a proper tate mode were spotty at best during that era. That glorious 3:4 tate monitor was so cool. Many better shmups have released since then but Raiden II is stuck in my memory.

For a recent memory, shoutout to Galloping Ghosts in Brookfield, IL. Recently I spent all day there with two buddies and I will be visiting many more times. Without question, it was the highest number of cabinets crammed into one building that I've ever experienced. Highly recommended.

Most of my fond arcade memories as an adult took place in "home arcades" playing on a buddy's handful of cabs. I discovered many new excellent games in those various basements and dens and man-caves.
 
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Playing Street Fighter is probably my favorite arcade memory, but I recall having a lot of fun with NBA Jam, TMNT, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Golden Axe, Killer Instinct and several others. Gauntlet was a fun one. Shoot I remember playing Moon Patrol and Dig Dug.
 
I have a handful, but I'd say Tekken Tag Tournament - What an amazing cabinet. The music, graphics, and the people it brought to the arcade. I always felt like people were going to show up to play. It was a one of a kind experience.

Before that it was Street Fighter II. I loved the feeling of performing a dragon punch and a hadoken. It taught me command moves that I have used in all the other fighting games. I enjoyed it so much my parents bought it for me on SNES.
IMG-4848.jpg
 
I'm pretty old and grew up in NYC, and got to experience the arcade era from start to finish. Broadway, Coney Island, Chinatown... Manhattan, Brooklyn... an endless sea of arcades... I got to be there.

I have so many memories, but in general I have all these wonderful images and sensations of what arcades were like back then. There was this visceral grittiness, an almost magical smell that wasn't really a smell, bright neon glow colors eminating out of blackness, and the sounds, the sounds. Some, but not all, were very dark and felt like being in some forbidden cave in a fantasy world, and for quite a few years there was always something new and different around the corner.

I was really lucky to have been a kid back then.
 
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Have you ever been the guy that your friends bring to the arcade to beat someone else in Street Fighter? What we called "taking someone off the sticks

feels good man.
 
The arcades were my second home in the 80's. I have fond memories the dark game rooms with all the blinking screens, spending time playing Joust, Tempest, Q-Bert, Qix, and loads of others. But when Gauntlet came on the scene that was probably my favorite.

I spent a year as an over-the-road trucker in the 90's. I'd sometimes spend an entire roll of quarters ($10) on Mortal Kombat 2 at the truck stops. That added up to a lot of money at the time. Thank goodness for home consoles now.
 
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