At the Arcades: your favorite memories and moments

Hopefully every gamer has in him (or her) some profound gaming memories thanks to the arcades. I think some of my favorite gaming memories stem from being at the arcades, specifically the early-mid 90s.

Here are some of my favorite moments:

-Playing SFII for the first time in late '91 at the local card shop (remember when trading cards were the fad?) Me, my brother, and like 5 of our friends surrounding this new machine in utter awe.

-Going to Chuck E. Cheese's with that coupon "Buy one large pizze get 50 free tokens." About 20 of those tokens -- I used it to beat "King of the Monsters." Shit was that game hard. I remember standing there playing it for like an hour. When I finally beat my first arcade game, my hands were sweating like hell.

-Just anticipating the latest SNK games on the MVS machines. That was cool. Too cool for words. In particular, when I saw World Heroes 2 came out, not having a clue it was scheduled at all, I shit my pants.

-One time I was watching this 20 year old guy play Fighter's History in 1994. I was just 11. I had run out of quarters so I couldn't play, just watch. He was fighting against Karnov IIRC, and he had just lost the first round to the fat flaming Russian. Suddenly he hands me a dollar bill and says, "Hey, please cash this for me alright?"

I took it and nodded.

The thought of running away with the buck and never returning never crossed my mind. I was pretty ethical kid back then, and still am, in some ways.
Anyway, I came back and handed the 4 quarters to him. He thanked me and handed me one of the 4 quarters.

And as we all know, BACK THEN, one quarter was all ya need.

I ended up using it on "Martial Champion."

That's probably my favorite memory. Those good old days sure will never ever be duplicated again.

Off the top of my head:

Game-wise
Just can't beat playing Fatl Fury for the first time at a Pizza Hut. Just a magical experiance

Yung Burnout-wise:
On a field trip when i was in the 7th grade sitting in a Out Run booth/cab with my first crush, yeah I lost since i wasn't able to think straight with her sitting so close to me.............. ah memories

My arcade golden age was in '93/'94 when our arcade got in a Neo Geo 50 inch MVS, and the 2 games that were in it was Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special. It was so awesome to sit down and play for hours on end and crush the competition. That bench probably still has my permanent ass print on it to this day, wherever it is.

Couple of really good memories...

Playing Fatal Fury 2 for an hour and using Terry to wipe the floor with all who dared oppose me (here's one case where having the game at home to practice on really paid off )

Driving 45 minutes just in order to play Samurai Shodown when it was first released. Myself and a bunch of other kids just spent hours hanging around the machine, trying out different characters and sharing what we would discover with each other. It really was the absolute best time I ever had in an arcade.

It's so sad that, with the almost complete demise of the arcade scene here in the U.S., the chances of reliving those kinds of feelings are pretty much non-existant... crying

Aah, the arcades. If it wasn't for the arcades, then I wouldn't be the gamer that I am now. Although the first game I played was Donkey Kong, I was 5 at the time and had no clue what was going on. My favorite memories were...

-Playing SFII for the first time, damn was this game revolutionary or what? But there was always a crowd of people playing the latest version, so I hardly played it, which lead to...

-Playing FF2. Damn, if I thought SFII was good, then this was on a higher level. It was seldom played so I had the cab most of the time. After many tries and wasted quarters, I finally reached Krauser. I was so excited at the time, hearing his "Chisel your gravestone" qoute and his bad ass music gave me goose bumps. Oh man, you should of seen me when I finally beaten it, I actually jumped up and down, screaming with excitement that I finally beaten Krauser.

-Playing SamSho for the first time. To describe it, take my FF2 experience and multiply it by 10. I was so excited that I could shit my pants. I practically beg my mom and strangers to give me quarters. At the time I thought no other game came even close to this perfect game. How wrong I was when SamSho 2 came out.


Well, thats all I can think off the top of my head. Such sweet memories, too bad the age of arcades is gone. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

The arcade ruled. Great place for gamers, punks, girls, ahhh. We could smoke, we could cuss, we could be high, we were free.

I was big into pinball since I was a kid, and being at the arcade when new machines came in like Terminator 2, The Addams Family, Gilligans Island, Star Wars was exciting. Those were great pinballs.

Or Cyberball tournaments.

way too many great memories.

Off the top of my head, the Korean girl that played as Nakoruru.

Going to Neo Geo World and seeing Last Blade 2 and Asura Zanmaden for the first time ever, and on the big screen nonetheless.

Breaking 80 million in Medieval Madness - it was a fucking fluke. I managed a ton of death saves to stay in the game too. It helped that the tilt was far from feather.

One day I'll own a Medieval Madness machine. I want it more than Metal Slug and Chibi combined.

One of my favorite moments was when I first beat the obnoxious bragger of the arcade in SS4...

He wasn't really good and he was really asking for it...

So I gave it to him... good. wink Humiliated by a Rimmy...

One time back in the High School days (about 5-6 years ago), I hit up an arcade with some friends to kill time. I put a quarter into the resident Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter machine, and racked up about 11 wins in a row from some passerbys. One of the female aquaintances remarked "You're still on the same quarter?!?!?

Had it not been for a pressing engagement later that day, perhaps the count would have been higher. But alas... I passed my game to some kid, leaving the mini-legacy to fate's cruel hand... crying

Here's a few I can think of, though I know there's too many to list them all here.

. Me and my Dad playing Robotron 2084, and having the machine glitch up, giving us each about 200 or so extra lives. We stood there playing that sucker for at least two and a half hours. Now if only something like that could've happened on Smash TV several years later... wink

. The Reverend 330 Mega and I playing Art of Fighting when the game was new at the arcade, and just figuring out how to beat Jack Turner with no problem. We were yelling "Take that you fat fuck!" so loud and so many times we were almost thrown out. This, and the first time I beat Mr. Karate on the same MVS unit (with some considerable saves from The Rev).

. Me and my cousin spending a butt load of cash on the game Steel Gunner 2 to play it all the way through. Why this beauty of a game never got a home release is beyond me. We did something similar to the game Time Soldiers. Time Soldiers should've got a 16-bit release, damn it...

. Playing Nam '75 at a Wal-Mart with a total stranger. This guy would hit a button and skip those way too cool cinemas, and I asked him to stop doing that, because I had to geek on those pretty lil' cinemas. He didn't stop, so I proceeded to steal every single power-up and point bonus that came along in the next round. I lasted all the way through to Dr. Muckley, and this guy spent at least a buck or so. By the end of the following stage, Mr. Cinema Skipper humbled himself into moving his hands away from the controls and letting my nerdy-ass drool over the same cinema and stories I'd seen a ton of times before.

Back in 1994/95 my friend had a party at the local Sega World arcade, every machine was FREE PLAY for 2 hours. We played 8-player link up Daytona, Went through the whole of Virtua Cop 2, got to try out Time Crisis (brand new at the time, only place that had it), Sit-Down Manx TT Superbike, shit man it was like heaven on earth for 2 hours.

Another favourite was going to a far away arcade 2 years ago with a friend (and the only friend that like 2d games) and we set eyes ont he first MVS machine ever. It still had Metal Slug 2 in it, but we still laughed our asses off at how fun it still is. We also found a WWF WRestlefest cab in the same arcade,and we puit so many credits into that as well.


Hopefully i'll pass my driving test soon so i can drive down to the beach and check out the aracades again, at long last.

Playing World Heroes 2 for an hour at the Millers Grocery while my mom got some food and stuff back in like 92-93. Mudman I love you.

Playing Pac-man at Pizza hut after school until my mom got off of work. That is until they got rid of it and put in Off-Road. I could never get good at that game for the life of me.

Playing Spy-hunter for the first time at the arcade in Palatka, along with SF2, Double Dragon.

The large amount of spectators and lines. One time I was playing Tekken 4 when it was still knew at the arcades and my opponent knocked me in the air and hit me with Lee's just frame and everbody was like "oooooooohhhhh". When the crowd gets wowed those become magic moments.

When Virtua Fighter 2 was the shiznit my dad took me to the arcade to play it and some lady in her early mid 30's starting using Shun with like fuckin expertise. I was like 12 years old trying to be all hardcore butting mashing and thinking I was all badass then this lady comes and shows how to use him with finesse and beat my ass repeatedly. Good times.

When Mortal Kombat II was the hot title in the arcade/pizza parlor in our town, I schooled everyone I played at game.

Funny seeing people twice to three times your age getting pissed because they just got owned by some little kid, priceless.

Playing KOF 98 at the arcades.I was playing this guy who was good at the game.I was good the game also.We both engaged in a super fast battle.I was using Iori, kyo and O.chris while he was using Terry, Iori and Blue mary.It was a blast playing him.We both knew what we were doing.We do combos and counter each other's attacks and stuff.It was fun.We were both at our last fighters respectively.O.chris was my last and Iori was his last.When his Iori threw out that fireball move, i quickly small jumped over his Iori and Used that Jump D which overlapped his iori.Then i proceed to do the Crouch b->stand b->fwd+a->hcf+D->follow-up with the DP+A.It was cool hitting that move especially with a well timed small jump.I beat his Iori and won the match.He was impressed and we challenged each other many times.He won a few matches and i won a few matches.It was an even fight but also it was a rush!
Playing 98 with someone who is just as good as you is always fun.The smooth gameplay and fluid animation of 98 made it a blast to play.

<small>[ February 19, 2003, 06:34 AM: Message edited by: Devil_Gans ]</small>

K_Dash:
Aah, the arcades. If it wasn't for the arcades, then I wouldn't be the gamer that I am now. Although the first game I played was Donkey Kong, I was 5 at the time and had no clue what was going on. My favorite memories were...

-Playing SFII for the first time, damn was this game revolutionary or what? But there was always a crowd of people playing the latest version, so I hardly played it, which lead to...

-Playing FF2. Damn, if I thought SFII was good, then this was on a higher level. It was seldom played so I had the cab most of the time. After many tries and wasted quarters, I finally reached Krauser. I was so excited at the time, hearing his "Chisel your gravestone" qoute and his bad ass music gave me goose bumps. Oh man, you should of seen me when I finally beaten it, I actually jumped up and down, screaming with excitement that I finally beaten Krauser.

-Playing SamSho for the first time. To describe it, take my FF2 experience and multiply it by 10. I was so excited that I could shit my pants. I practically beg my mom and strangers to give me quarters. At the time I thought no other game came even close to this perfect game. How wrong I was when SamSho 2 came out.


Well, thats all I can think off the top of my head. Such sweet memories, too bad the age of arcades is gone. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

Click to expand...

I haven't seen you for a long time man!

playing Mortal Kombat at the now defuct puddin heads

childhood memories:

1/ Beating Splatterhouse with 1 life - many times and i can still do it now on emulator

2/ beating shinobi with 1 credit - fairly easily

3/ finishing rad mobile whilst i was on tour down the Falklands islands

4/ Playing Mortal Kombat 2 as Shang Tsung and every level morphing into another character and using their fatality - i remember once at portsmouth i played it there in the little arcade hall near the sea front and the crowd i had around me was huge, i was even taking requests

'hey morph into baraka and cut her head off'

and i could do it - great days

5/ playing an old arcade machine called empire city 1931 in troon when i was about 10, great game and also available on emu - check it out, 2 buttons 1 shoot and 1 dodge and you saw the street thru the guys eyes and you had time limits to gun down baddies

adult times

getting a blowjob behind the local amusement arcade just across from the hamilton palace night club, best time i 'spent' there wink

Woah... there are too many memories, too many cool moments... just a few:

- A friend and I used to go to Little Las Vegas which was a small arcade in the cellar of a swimming hall (you had to pay to get in). We always took syringes full of water with us and enjoyed all the free plays we got by injecting the water into the coin slot... (it worked at some ticket spenders for our public transport too)... a lil' later, we found out that some cabs also give lotsa free plays if you zzap the coin door lock with one of those small electrical piezo ignitors (as used in lighters). In case you are wondering - no, it doesn't work anymore, too much electronics in modern cabs...

- I beat Yie Ar Kung Fu the first time on my 16th birthday in 1986 while I used my "free birthday game bonus" in a local arcade. They gave you five free plays if you came in at your birthday. It was the same arcade I played my very first Neo game: World Heroes, followed by Art of Fighting.

- Just around the corner of the area I lived in back then, there was a pub with two cabs, Defender and Centipede. There was also a music box... I must have spent a couple of hundred bucks on these two cabs alone. We got regularly kicked out because of our cheers and shouts.

- 1986 - Wonder Boy came out, my most favourite arcade game ever. This game changed my whole life.

- Highscore entries were very important back then. I remember that we regularly scrolled through our favourite places to check the lists for some "skilled stranger" and then tried to push him from the first place. I use the handle "ddt" to this very day.

- We spent lots of time finding easter eggs and cheats in games (like the famous Galaga cheat).

- When I was 12, I went on a holiday trip with my parents to the Tyrolian mountains, and in our hotel bar, they had Vanguard. The son of the owner was very good at it and showed me some tricks. Two weeks later, I had spent most of my pocket money for the game.

etc....etc....etc.....etc.....

Those were the days... drool

Happened numerous times :

Chinese twats older than me joining in 2player on Streetfighter II, kicking my ass then continuing playing my 1 player game as i was game over.

Beating Ridge Racer was a milestone, though it was a tad easy.

When we got a giant 8 player Galaxian 3, and an even bigger Ridge Racer with an actual Mazda Car full scale was rediculous, they took up so much fukking room next to each other that loads of stand up cabs were scrapped.

True, my local arcades never had any sense.

buster_broon:


4/ Playing Mortal Kombat 2 as Shang Tsung and every level morphing into another character and using their fatality - i remember once at portsmouth i played it there in the little arcade hall near the sea front and the crowd i had around me was huge, i was even taking requests

'hey morph into baraka and cut her head off'

and i could do it - great days

Click to expand...

Sorry for the double post but that is my arcade, clarence pier....the place of dreams....

well, it was good in like 84 - 94

Baseley09:
that is my arcade, clarence pier....the place of dreams....
well, it was good in like 84 - 94

Click to expand...

i was there in 1993 when i was onboard hms newcastle infact i was in pompeii from August 93 until September '94

The Mortal kombat 2 machine was at the back right hand side of the building, near a side door which took you out into a small funfair with one of those 360 rollercoaster thingies

My name was the complete top 10 - always crowds around me when i played it - probably because i wouldnt let anybody have a shot

Every 2nd Saturday i was around the fun fair playing that game then meeting up with the lads and going route 1

Starts at the pub across from pizza hut in town, towards the mucky duck and you always end up on the seafront, (remember this is 1993-1994) fanshaws, peggy sues then joannas - always grab a fatty night

i will be in portsmouth again for just over a year from July and my cousin has a house in Southsea, so i will be spending alot of time there - so if you wanna meet up

let me know
wink

I was very excited when I first saw a preview on TV of Fatal Fury... then I saw it on the Neo Geo in Switzerland ( on a game store ).

Then when the day came... I saw Fatal Fury Special! WOW!!! That game!

My Neo is more than justified just because of this title ! wink

buster_broon:

Baseley09:
that is my arcade, clarence pier....the place of dreams....
well, it was good in like 84 - 94

Click to expand...

i was there in 1993 when i was onboard hms newcastle infact i was in pompeii from August 93 until September '94

The Mortal kombat 2 machine was at the back right hand side of the building, near a side door which took you out into a small funfair with one of those 360 rollercoaster thingies

My name was the complete top 10 - always crowds around me when i played it - probably because i wouldnt let anybody have a shot

Every 2nd Saturday i was around the fun fair playing that game then meeting up with the lads and going route 1

Starts at the pub across from pizza hut in town, towards the mucky duck and you always end up on the seafront, (remember this is 1993-1994) fanshaws, peggy sues then joannas - always grab a fatty night

i will be in portsmouth again for just over a year from July and my cousin has a house in Southsea, so i will be spending alot of time there - so if you wanna meet up

let me know
wink

Click to expand...

Well needless to say , the MKII machine has "moved on" spock In fact the arcade is more of a general "amusements centre "now, as most seem to be, jus dedicated cabs and toy things etc...

The Mukky duck is back after years, fanshaws is gone, same for Pegy sues, they are still night clubs, but not those

Funny, chances are i could have seen you there, the older dudes were always hogging the MKII machine lol

Anyway, chances are i will still be here, not that the arcade ois one of my hot spots anymore

Playing Operation Wolf for the first time.

Also, on a ferry they had an Outrun cabinet, I was quite young but there was a really pretty girl playing it, older than me, who let me change gear for her.