What was the first arcade game you played?

[alsmoneo]

Kong Fu Master was the first one I played

 

[@M]

Centipede. I remember I was given a bunch of quarters to play and my older brother was supposed to help me, as I was too young to really understand what to do on my own (not to mention so short that I had to reach waaaaaaaaay up to even touch the buttons and joystick), but his "help" consisted of spending the majority of my quarters on himself.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

Kong Fu Master

Is that the hack/bootleg version?

 

[potetoboy]

Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr. in my neighbors garage. We were really young (kindergarten or 1st grade) and would play for hours on end. His Dad owned a Chinese restaurant and would swap games out, keeping the extras in the garage.

 

[Gamefan]

The first arcade game I ever played was R-Type at a local bowling alley called Mowry Lanes in Fremont, CA. I spent so much money playing the game and learning how to avoid certain bullets.

GAMEFAN

 

[smokehouse]

Wow...I'm struggling to remember that...

I'm guessing a mid 80's title. Frogger? Pac Man? I seriously cannot remember.

I didn't have the option to spend much time in an arcade until the late 80's and y that time, most of those older cabs weren't readily around. A local Pizza Hut did have Rush N Attack stand up...I did play that...

 

[potetoboy]

The first arcade game I ever played was R-Type at a local bowling alley called Mowry Lanes in Fremont, CA. I spent so much money playing the game and learning how to avoid certain bullets.

GAMEFAN

holy crap, i remember Mowry Lanes! I grew up around there, but went to Cloverleaf more often and used to play a shit ton of Final Fight over there.

 

[alsmoneo]

Is that the hack/bootleg version?

I am not sure. I was 5yrs old at the time and my dad took to a local arcade in school uniform (btw i was living in Hong Kong at the time)...All i remember is the next day I got called into the principles office and asked why i went to the arcade in school uniform... So not sure if it was a hack of bootleg version

 

[Arcademan]

Since we're talking any game in an arcade, most definitely a pinball machine but remembering the name of it 40+ years later? Forget about it

 

[xxjimmypxx]

Hard to exactly remember... but the first memory I can think of is playing TMNT Arcade at a Chi-Chi's.

 

[Takumaji]

Played my first arcade game at a mall in the 70s when I was about 8 or 9 (so it must have been around '78 or '79), it was a Space Invaders-type of game but with submarines, you had to look through a periscope and shoot ships and stuff. I don't remember the name of the game, wish I would, I'd love to play it again in some way or another. There was a restaurant in the mall that had the game, my parents and sister were eating while I pumped tons of Deutschmarks in the cab... good times.

One of the earliest games I vividly remember playing is Asteroids. Great game, loved the vector graphics. It was the beginning of a life-long obsession with abstract shooters. My deepest obession in this regard is Robotron 2084. I wasn't so obsessive about it as with Wonderboy, but hey.

 

[hyper]

Original gauntlet 4pl cab
That was the jam

 

[StevenK]

I suspect there was an earlier game I played, but the first I vividly remember was Robocop at my local newsagents. He changed the game a few times a year and I remember playing Aliens there too. Good times.

Edit: another game springs to mind that seems like an early memory - it was like super skidmarks on the amiga but it was a four player arcade with steering wheels. Anyone know what this was?

 

[HDRchampion]

When i was living in Japan i walked to the arcade w/ my bro. I was too scared to play Space Harrier so i elected to play an arcade game called Ninja Kun instead. I think i also played Karate Champ that same day. Never did play Space Harrier, i just watch people play.

 

[GregN]

First arcade game, and first game I ever played was at the local arcade 6 blocks from my house my Dad took me to was the 1979 Taito game Alpine ski. I played it in 1981 as a 5 year old. It's on the 2nd taito collection on PS2.

 

[Opethian]

tie between Tron and Phoenix at the Gunter Youth Centre

 

[Mr Bakaboy]

Donkey Kong guessing around '82-'83. Bugged my parents enough to get a quarter. Though Math Grand Prix on the Atati 2600 was around then too.

 

[smokehouse]

I have been chewing on this one all day...

Before we relocated to Illinois, we lived in Phoenix. We had a local circle K that had a Spy Hunter machine...1984 or so. I clearly remember playing it...probably the earliest arcade game memory I have...

 

[ggallegos1]

It was either TMNT or Sunset Riders, I recall playing those at a laundromat around the corner from our building in Queens.

 

[Arcademan]

I have been chewing on this one all day...

Before we relocated to Illinois, we lived in Phoenix. We had a local circle K that had a Spy Hunter machine...1984 or so. I clearly remember playing it...probably the earliest arcade game memory I have...

The good old days...where EVERY Circle K, 7-11 and any convenience store had a pair or three games in the front or front side of the store.

 

[Syn]

Has to be Pong as far as video games. My first arcade game would have to of been a pinball.

 

[kuze]

Golden Axe...and the epic music is still stuck in my head.

 

[Gozer]

Popeye cocktail cabinet.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

Asteroids in a bowling alley. I was so young my Dad held me up to the machine and controlled the ship as I beat the hell out of the fire button. That one experience started all this madness.

 

[Taiso]