Very 1st Arcade Game you ever played?

[Electric Grave]

Pac-Man in a Cocktail cab at my sister's Economist Graduation in Bogota Colombia. It was also my 1st day wearing a tie, my mom kept telling me that ties are cool 'cause Clark Kent wore them, it was red and I had a baby blue vest, pretty douchey, I hated it.

I was 7 and I didn't know what an arcade was back then but I was bored as hell at the ceremony, you know, blah blah blah shittty shits, so I skipped it and went around looking for shit to do, then in the cafeteria I saw this table thing, it had pac-man, I must off seen Pac-Man before in some paper or a picture 'cause I knew what it was but I can't recall now. All I remember was the setup was sweet and as I played I kept going back to ask my mom for more coins. I struggled on the 1st stage but then I went bananas with the cool effect the screen made when I cleared the 1st stage. I thought I was the man when I did it! It was one of those cocktails with the metal legs on the bottom. Pretty fucking rad!

 

[Hodor]

Asteroids or Galaxian, I don´t remember for sure. What I do remember are several places where I play.

 

[alec]

Probably Pac or Ms Pac Man since those are the only games either of my parents enjoyed.

Arabian is the first arcade machine that I actually remember playing though. My pediatrician had it in the waiting room when I was a kid. Still love that game to this day, though I haven't played it in ages. The waiting room was split in two and the healthy kids had an Arabian upright machine while the sick kids had an old Asteroids cocktail. I remember Asteroids luring me to the dark side at a check up or two and my mom freaking out. It wasn't until I got a bad cold that I really got a chance to dig into Asteroids. Amazing game as well, but the inertia still makes me a little woozy.

 

[Pasky]

Kung Fu/Spartan X and Double Dragon. One of those, don't recall which was first as I played them both the same night at a bowling alley.

 

[Jaelus]

Galaga. Love that game to this day. The theme music was boss too.

 

[Syn]

No idea, some pinball machine.

As far as a video game, probably Pong.

 

[GohanX]

I honestly don't remember, I've always been playing games. I'll take this opportunity to tell a story.

I remember playing this awesome game when I was 5 in the bowling alley. I have no idea what the name is, but I remember the visuals distinctly. The game wasn't there the next time, and I never saw it again.

I remember this game, but not the name, so years later with the emergence of Mame I figure I can finally play it again! Except,I don't remember the name.

A few months ago I was dicking around playing random games, and I FOUND THE GAME.

It was Rolling Thunder.

Ironically, shortly after this discovery I found one of those Namco classics cabs that had Rolling Thunder in it and finally got to play it on a real (sorta) cab again.

 

[Pope Sazae]

Tempest and it remains one of my favorite games to this day.

 

[hashiriya1]

The first arcade game I probably played was City Connection. It was back in 1985 or so in the Shirokiya shopping center in Honolulu. That is about as far back as I can remember.

 

[snkjoe]

Micheal Jackson moonwalker at my local pizza place. Rember been all excited v when I first saw it lol

 

[Ash Burton]

Centipede cocktail at a Straw Hat Pizza back in Reno. Man, I am pretty sure that one moment of my life in loop might actually be my heaven.

 

[FinalAttack]

The first memorable arcade game I played was Mortal Kombat, I remember my dad holding me up as I demolished some guy. But I'm pretty sure there was one before that, probably Pac-Man or Galaga.

 

[joecommando]

dont remember the first arcade game i played but i remember it was at a pizza place. The first game i have good memory of was mario bros

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

First for me was Rally Bike, by Toaplan.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

My first was Asteroids. My father held me up to the machine in one hand, and controlled the ship with the other. I took the job of slapping the fire button like mad. We did well enough to put my initials in. This made a hell of an impression on me as a little kid. Little did my Dad know what sort of monster he was creating.

 

[Bill Kilgore]

Little did my Dad know what sort of monster he was creating.

Seems like allot of people here lost their virginity to Pac-Man.

 

[CMS]

Terminator 2 in a video rental shop!

 

[Jimbo]

Donkey Kong 3 (1983) in a diner. But the first arcade game which got me really hooked was Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985).

 

[irvsmoot]

It's cool to see a lot of love for Moon Patrol. I definitely have early memories of playing that at the arcade in the mall called Spaceport. I think that place is still there, actually! Before that though, I remember my Dad standing me up on a milk crate to play Dig Dug in the back room at a local restaurant.

 

[zaneiken]

I can't remember if they were the first games I played or not, but I do remember playing a lot of Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja and Out Run in 1987/88.

 

[xamot13]

I can't remember what I ate for dinner three nights ago but I'll give it a shot. I'll bet it was probably Space Invaders at the super market in Gold Beach, Oregon. It could also have been Battlezone at Paul Bunyan Burgers down the street. Pac-man is not my cherry popper as I only played it once we moved from Oregon to Massachusetts, and that was at a Howard Johnsons restaurant near route 128.

 

[Moon Jump]

My mom and dad holding me up to play Ms. Pac-Man and Kangaroo.

I still remember my first time playing the Big Red. We had a mall arcade simply called "The Subway" and it came in one day. You could play four games in one machine. Naturally I put a buck in and played all four of them. I just remember Magician Lord being balls hard, loving Baseball Stars until the timer ran out, didn't care for golf so Top Player's didn't really mean anything. Loved NAM and I played the hell out of that. It was great every time I went in there you'd see a new game being added in. All the Fatal Fury games, Art of Fighting and SamSho. Then all hell broke loose in 94 when KOF came out. Lots of folks played it, most of the time I'd let the cursor hover over Mai just so I could watch her bounce. (Hey I was 13!)

 

[Galder]

Must have been Pac Man, Ms Pac Man or Ghosts 'n Goblins.

 

[K-2]

I remember vividly the Donkey Kong Jr. and Centipede uprights at Nick's House of Pizza in N. Falmouth, Mass. Wonder if any other citizens of the commonwealth played those machines on their way to Old Silver Beach.

 

[TikTekTak]

I think one of my firsts was Silkworm! I loved that game to the extreme! Dunno how many money I spent in our little arcade at my hometown.