Arcade Game Etiquette

Takumaji said:

This and not damaging the machines were the only etiquette thing we had back then.

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Same. I also remember this semi-retarded guy who used to hog the VF3 cabinet and when he finally ran out of money, he'd spew insults on the people waiting to play. "I can't concentrate with you bastards looking over my shoulder, etc..."

Late said:

Same. I also remember this semi-retarded guy who used to hog the VF3 cabinet and when he finally ran out of money, he'd spew insults on the people waiting to play. "I can't concentrate with you bastards looking over my shoulder, etc..."

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We also had one of those cab-hoggers in my fave arcade back in the Donkey Kong days. DK was his favorite game but he couldn't even finish the first loop and kept on pumping coins in it. This usually went on for an hour or two, then he ran out of money and started begging for more. He behaved like a drug addict and was annoying as hell. One day when he was broke again, his mom (or older sister, don't remember) came in and a loud argument ensued. Turned out that he had spent all the money his mother gave him to do some shopping for her on DK... we never saw him again after this.

My fave arcade was a special place and one of the few that we kids and youngsters were allowed to visit, arcades were 18+ over here back in the day. It was a narrow but long room in the basement of a public pool called "Little Las Vegas" with a row of cabs on each wall and some pinball machines. People went there in their swimming suits and it was warm and wet as hell so you sure can imagine how the cabs looked like after a year or two. I can't count how often my friends and I went there for playing games, we had to pay the entry fee for the pool but never went swimming, we just came to play... and everytime I play Donkey Kong, I still have the smell of chlorinated water in my nose...

I have a lot of fond memories of those days. Too bad there aren't any arcades left over here, at least none that I would want to visit. Most of them turned into gambling halls anyway.

Jonmkl said:

Back before the arcades closed down here, the quarter on the machine was beyond contestation. You did not break the quarter on the machine rule. As far as fighting games, if you were mid-fight with the CPU, cool players would wait until you beat them (or almost died) before they joined in, but there was definately no stopping challengers. Most of my fighting game time was spent on MvC2 and always went the same way, I would join in and beat like 2-3 other players, feel fantastic, and then someone who actually KNEW what they were doing would hop on and beat me so bad I wouldn't even know what happened.

They were always Asian or Hispanic. That felt like it was a rule too.

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Funny but true. A couple of us were playing a SF2 when a couple of guys came up and put their quarters on the control panel. We told them they shouldn't do that. They asked why. Then the control panel, which was loose BTW came up ever so slightly and their quarters fell in the crack between the panel and lower glass of the cabinet.

"That's why!" was our response and they had to go find the employee of the arcade only to have him tell them 'Sorry, no refunds!'

LOL That's completely opposite from the arcades we had. If you're still on a machine come closing time, they'd give you a voucher that's good for a dollar or two that you can use the next day.

SNKorSWM said:

LOL That's completely opposite from the arcades we had. If you're still on a machine come closing time, they'd give you a voucher that's good for a dollar or two that you can use the next day.

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When I was working in one of arcades, we made an announcement when we were closing; "We will be closing in 10 minutes. At that time all games will be turned off and no tokens will be refunded! Thank you."

You wouldn't believe all the moaning and yelling that occurred when we killed the power to everything

I've seen so many people lose their quarter after placing them on the game for next. On the machines where it was likely, I'd do what I could to make it happen.

Good times!

Arcademan said:

When I was working in one of arcades, we made an announcement when we were closing; "We will be closing in 10 minutes. At that time all games will be turned off and no tokens will be refunded! Thank you."

You wouldn't believe all the moaning and yelling that occurred when we killed the power to everything

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They had their fair warning. XD