year of your first arcade contact

fighting mania · Dec 8, 2005

Not sure if this topic has been done before ,but i've been having some arcade nostalgia.....

For those who can remember,what year was your first arcade contact ?
Also,if you want,jot down the arcade & location where you first inserted that coin :cool:

The first arcade machine i played was in 1987 and my memory serves me right, it was a trojan.
The 20 inch woodgrain upright was in the only laundromat in town together with ghost n goblins,galaga,skywolf,1942 and a few others .There was no other place in town with arcade machines :eek_2:

Kununurra is located in the far north west of western australia,in a region called the Kimberleys and has a population of 5000 .the nearest town was 100km away

Somehow i ended up working in that laundromat after school,giving out change and of course playin em for free :glee:

YOUR TURN :chimp:

PLECO · Dec 8, 2005

Dam, I don't even really remember.
Must have been something like Asteroids or some other stick figure game.

Tron · Dec 8, 2005

1980,Pac-Man arcade was Timeout :spock:

fighting mania · Dec 8, 2005

Tron 2.0 said:
1980,Pac-Man arcade was Timeout

I feel better now,i thought 1987 was fairly early

According to one guy thats about 45,he remembers being in line all the way down the street waiting nearly an hour to just to play a b&w space invaders ,only to lose
within 30 secs !

haaaa..... those were the days!!

I wish i stared playing earlier ,like in 84 or something when the arcading was still in its heyday :buttrock:

NEgO MANIAC · Dec 8, 2005

I'm sure this wasn't my first time in an arcade, but this is my earliest memory that I can fully recall. I remember being very young and I was playing Deadly Discs of Tron in one of those big environmental cabinets at the mall. I all knew was that by the time I finished playing, I was almost locked inside the arcade when the mall closed. I had no idea I was playing that game so long and the arcade manager didn't see me since the game was an evironmental cab. Of course it would have been any young boys dream to be locked up in an arcade for the night.

demirichris · Dec 8, 2005

My first time playing a true arcade game was at some department store here in indy that had a karate champ cab. I was so short that my dad had to hold me up to the contol panel, this was probably around 86 or 7. My second was at a place called boggie mountail, a water park...it was double dragon. Thats when I knew I was hooked.

There was a put put here in indy that had a special called super saturdays. You would get 50 tokens, a candy bar and soda plus a game of put put for 4 freakin bucks. That was awesome because I would get like 4 of those and be set for awhile.

I remember one time my dad gave me a HUGE bucket of quaters for cleaning my room. We beat double dragon together, it was awesome because he just kept jumping into the holes/water. Some kid was like "Whoa how many quarters do you have" my response being some young and pumped on the situation...

"at least a thousand"

Those where indeed the days...

Superfamifreak · Dec 8, 2005

The ealiest I can remember is around 1991 and was eitherin a hotel that had Final Fight and Midnight Resistance in the bar or it was a Neo 6 slot. Can't remember which was first though.

fighting mania · Dec 8, 2005

demirichris said:
My first time playing a true arcade game was at some department store here in indy that had a karate champ cab. I was so short that my dad had to hold me up to the contol panel, this was probably around 86 or 7. My second was at a place called boggie mountail, a water park...it was double dragon. Thats when I knew I was hooked.

There was a put put here in indy that had a special called super saturdays. You would get 50 tokens, a candy bar and soda plus a game of put put for 4 freakin bucks. That was awesome because I would get like 4 of those and be set for awhile.

I remember one time my dad gave me a HUGE bucket of quaters for cleaning my room. We beat double dragon together, it was awesome because he just kept jumping into the holes/water. Some kid was like "Whoa how many quarters do you have" my response being some young and pumped on the situation...

"at least a thousand"

Those where indeed the days...

There was also a double dragon cabinet at the laundromat in about 88 and i remember being ecstatic when i found out you could elbow your way right through the entire game! That was my first secret faq move :eek:

In 91 when i moved to the city there was about 5 timezones just in the metro area and on tuesdays they had timezone parties where you would pay 5 bucks
for two hours to play any game you wanted :drool:

NEgO MANIAC · Dec 8, 2005

Wow, I must be old. Most you guys had your first experience around the late 80's. Like I said earlier, my first recalled memory of a cab was Tron (early 80's), but the first time I came into contact with video games was a Pong system way back in the late 70's. It was in Michigan. You have to excuse me know, I have to take my Centrum silver.

BIG · Dec 8, 2005

1988....playing Shinobi,I believe.

B-

subzero · Dec 8, 2005

Early player

My first arcade experience was at 4 years old at Funcade around 1983. I loved the star wars arcade game at that time. My all time faves are still Bump N Jump,
Time Pilot, Timber, Tapper, and of course all Neo arcade titles. I truly got hooked on Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct back in the day.

NeoTurfMasta · Dec 8, 2005

Shit... the first game I remember playing was a Galaga cocktail in the early 80's. Tempest too. Many hours in Aladdins castle the following years....

fighting mania · Dec 8, 2005

NEgO MANIAC said:
Wow, I must be old. Most you guys had your first experience around the late 80's. Like I said earlier, my first recalled memory of a cab was Tron (early 80's), but the first time I came into contact with video games was a Pong system way back in the late 70's. It was in Michigan. You have to excuse me know, I have to take my Centrum silver.

I guess it also depends on how old you were when you started playing - i was a late starter at 12 or 13 and i wasn't allowed near any arcades in the early 80's as there were too many fights ,punks & druggies around the arcades in my city.

Then again maybe i was too sheltered,but thats ok cause i made up for the lateness when during 91 i estimated i spent about $500 just on street fighter championship edition

took me about 2 months just to master ryu's fireball :oh_no:

Hey the important thing here is that youre still at it today :buttrock:

ForeverSublime · Dec 8, 2005

My first quarter went in a Commando machine at a roller skating rink. The rink is run down, but still there... route 1 in Laurel, Maryland. If it's still open I'll check it out and see what they have today.

FAT$TACKS · Dec 8, 2005

as best I can remember 1980, one of the bigger stores near by had a pac-man game near the entrance. Looking back on it, the game was placed really poorly as it was in a corner and the same location as where they keep the shopping carts so there was little room around it. I could either save my two quarters and buy a matchbox car or play pac-man. By that time I had enough cars that pac-man got my little money.

Tron · Dec 9, 2005

fighting mania said:
I feel better now,i thought 1987 was fairly early

According to one guy thats about 45,he remembers being in line all the way down the street waiting nearly an hour to just to play a b&w space invaders ,only to lose
within 30 secs !

haaaa..... those were the days!!

I wish i stared playing earlier ,like in 84 or something when the arcading was still in its heyday

That's why i consider the, 80's as the golden years for arcades.
They were...pretty much every where back then :buttrock:

Gamefan · Dec 9, 2005

I remember going to the arcade and playing Gyruss. I think it was in 1984.

GAMEFAN

taitai · Dec 10, 2005

Tron 2.0 said:
1980,Pac-Man arcade was Timeout

TimeOut still exists as a arcade chain. Namco bought it out.

bigb32 · Dec 10, 2005

I had to play most of my games at the local skating rink. the earliest game i can remember playing was WWF Superstars, so i guess that was about 1989-90.

Arcademan · Dec 10, 2005

Would you believe close to the mid 70's for me. Went to the bowling alley with my dad. While he bowled in league, he'd give me a bunch of quarters to play the old pinball machines and the old Pong and cheesy B&W driving type games

fighting mania · Dec 10, 2005

Question : who used to get pissed at some guy wanting to challenge u at street fighter just as you were about to clock the game? :angry:

I had a few arguments about this very issue back in 91 onwards cause just as i was about to beat bison on SF champ edition, some asian guy comes up puts his coin in and presses start. Now this could be an annoyance because usually all the asian guys used to be the top players. There were no written rules but usually it would be expected for the guy to ask before joining in, especially when people were just about to clock the game. I remember $1 coins being lined up all the way across the bottom of the screen for people waiting their turn.

I must add that as I fully mastered bison as a character, i didn't mind it so much if someone wanted to challenge me, even as i was about to clock SF of course except for the masters :eek:

Oh well .......... I miss all that

Tron · Dec 11, 2005

taitai said:
TimeOut still exists as a arcade chain. Namco bought it out.

Well now i know what happen to them.

Around here they.. left in the early 90's and was replace by, Fun'N Games :annoyed:

Btw they are the worst arcade chain i ever seen in MD :angry:

Mike Shagohod · Dec 11, 2005

my first arcade experience (contact) was in 1984 @ the Valley High Mall right outside of Lackland AFB here in San Antonio Texas. The arcade was long gone by 1987 and the mall itself got imploded and bulldozed to make way for a much bigger H-E-B Grocery store than the one that was connected to the mall originally in the fall of 1990. Can't remember if it was a TILT or Diamond J's but I'm almost positive it was a Diamond J's Gameroom.

Anyhow as for the games, shoot I still remember the lineup like it was yesterday I was so awestruck by it all, and shit I was only 6 at the time... but I still remember that place.

THE GAMES:
----------------

Galaga
Missile Command
Ms. Pacman
Kung Fu Master
Centipede
Cloak & Dagger
FireFox
Dragon's Lair
Robotron 2084
Dig Dug
Pole Position

there were about 5 or so other uprights in the place but I don't remember those games. Along with the arcade games were a few pinball games and a skeeball. A Television set mounted in the wall showed "Dragon's Lair" outside the arcade itself. I remember a snack bar right next door to it (the arcade).

Further into the mall was a Pizzaria that had a few games as well one of them being Mr. Do! that was actually @ that same location until the summer of 1990.

Man this thread brought back those memories. Makes me wish I was a kid all over again. Those were the days indeed.

GK

fighting mania · Dec 11, 2005

Grizzly King said:
my first arcade experience (contact) was in 1984 @ the Valley High Mall right outside of Lackland AFB here in San Antonio Texas. The arcade was long gone by 1987 and the mall itself got imploded and bulldozed to make way for a much bigger H-E-B Grocery store than the one that was connected to the mall originally in the fall of 1990. Can't remember if it was a TILT or Diamond J's but I'm almost positive it was a Diamond J's Gameroom.

Anyhow as for the games, shoot I still remember the lineup like it was yesterday I was so awestruck by it all, and shit I was only 6 at the time... but I still remember that place.

THE GAMES:
----------------

Galaga
Missile Command
Ms. Pacman
Kung Fu Master
Centipede
Cloak & Dagger
FireFox
Dragon's Lair
Robotron 2084
Dig Dug
Pole Position

there were about 5 or so other uprights in the place but I don't remember those games. Along with the arcade games were a few pinball games and a skeeball. A Television set mounted in the wall showed "Dragon's Lair" outside the arcade itself. I remember a snack bar right next door to it (the arcade).

Further into the mall was a Pizzaria that had a few games as well one of them being Mr. Do! that was actually @ that same location until the summer of 1990.

Man this thread brought back those memories. Makes me wish I was a kid all over again. Those were the days indeed.

GK

Yep memory lane :buttrock:

- good stuff /91-94 my best years! .there was a whole crowd behind you watching you play sf champ or mortal kombat , to either learn your combo moves ,challenge or if you were real good they sit back & watch till you clock it,when there was a high class challenge between two top players you felt the tension grow,some sore losers would punch the cabinet in frustation.no celebrations were allowed as that was be uncool .it was a real achievement when i got better i beat some of the top players after months of losing,it felt like i won a real fight :multi_co:

2Dfan · Dec 11, 2005

I think the first game for me was Toki. I played it to death...also my first SNK experience as Beast Busters.

year of your first arcade contact

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