The "Great memories of Arcade days" thread

Not my favorite game by far, but I've probably spent more total on "Choplifter" than any other arcade machine. I got so good at it that it was unreal. It was a sad fucking day when the 7-11 type place down the street from my grandparents got rid of that machine.

I spent a lot of time in arcades but I never really stuck with one game for extended amounts of time, other than stuff like "the Simpsons" which just HAD to be beaten, money be damned!

Mr. Do's Castle. Like Peggle's Ode to Joy, there was something magical about finding a diamond in the levels and hearing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...which gave you a credit for another game.

Star Wars. So many hours spent engorged in the arcade cabinet, wowed by the vector graphics as I destroyed the Death Star.

Night Driving. More vector based gaming. I was too young to play it, but was wowed and amused at hitting roadside objects.

I sunk a lot of cash into various Capcom games. Final Fight, Street Fighter II , Darkstalkers and Strider.

I tended to like the arcade more when I had no idea what I was playing. There would be a minute or two of chaos trying to figure out what the game was about before all three lives were gone. Later you'd realise it was Ghosts and Goblins and you never had a chance.

I also played a fuckton of "Gauntlet" in my day, and lots of random shooters I really wish I knew the names of.

Nothing beats Ninja Turtles, X-Men, or The Simpsons.

But in later years, Die Hard Arcade was a fucking gem.

What sean bateman said. And some gun games like Time Crisis 2, the point blank and House of the dead series. Good times.

I love arcades, primarily because it was there that I had my two 'in the zone' experiences. The first one was finishing R-Type after being stuck forever in the level with the giant spaceship. The other one happened with Tetris. I was pretty good at it anyway, being on the high-score list regularly but as I was playing one day something clicked and Tetris suddenly became the easiest game ever. I just could not lose. My friend started geeking out and people even started to gather around the cabinet to watch. It was absolutely nerdgasmic and sealed my eternal love for video games.

Come to think about it, it's strange that similar 'in the zone' experiences haven't happened even once in the thousands upon thousands hours of gaming I've done at home.

Mongycore beat me to the mention of Star Wars, but the Star Trek cabinet unit was almost as awesome. It was set up like a Captain's chair, with buttons and knobs on the arms. I blew a lot of coins on that. Tron was another big one. I never could master anything past the fourth level (Cobol?), but that didn't stop me from wasting my time trying.

My proudest moment was probably finishing Cliff Hanger. I don't know if a lot of people are familiar with it, but it was one of those laserdisc animation games that came up in the wake of Dragon's Lair. I didn't know it at the time, but the animation was all lifted from Lupin features, including Miyazaki's work. When I finally saw The Castle of Cagliostro, a friend and I looked at each other during the opening heist sequence and said "Holy shit, it's Cliff Hanger!"

Mom? Dad? Can I have 20 bucks?

Yeah, arcades were great at burning through your parents' cash. 'Discs of Tron' and 'Tempest' were my favorite single-player games, with 'Ikari Warriors' and 'Contra/Super Contra' for two-player games. Nothing beat the discovery of the token eater that was 'Gauntlet', though. We discovered one that had the health settings turned up too high (each token gave you around 10X the normal amount of health), so we'd hog that one for hours and just marathon through levels.

Good times.

eta: I remember 'Cliff Hanger'. We had the exact same reaction when we finally saw 'Castle of Cagliostro', too. The ninja fight in the game was impossible to pass.

Reason #12 that my dad is awesome: he discovered video games before I did. The guy was a Pac Man wizard. He would take my brother and I to the arcades all the time, and he was right there playing next to us the whole time.

The absolute wonderment I experienced when walking into an arcade and seeing MKII for the first time is something I still remember vividly to this day. There must've been 15 people standing around it, all trying to figure out the fatalities. It was great.

And the sad thing is that, once you do get past it, there's nothing else remotely as challenging after it. I finished the rest of the game on the same quarter.

Street Fighter II ultimately wins this thread for me. Just so many days huddled among crowds, a long row of quarters on that thin edge of the screen, wincing at combos, nodding and smiling at good matches, tips, tricks, and moves being whispered among the waiting. And that crowd, no matter the arcade, was always big, up till the arcade's dying days, and the only place you could see that crowd was the bowling alley on the second floor of Port Authority.

Much fun as I've had with SFIV, part of me still sheds a tear or two inside that those days are dead.

I played several games in multiple arcades. Capcom's The Punisher, Dungeon and Dragons 1 and 2, Street Fighter II, Marvel Vs Capcom 1 and 2, SNK Vs Capcom, Konami's X-Men Arcade, Sega's Star Wars, Star Wars Arcade (1997) encompasing the original trilogy, Afterburner 1+2, Streets Of Rage as well as Double Dragon, Gauntlet 1 +2,Tiger Heli, Bump And Jump, Break Thru, Captain America And The Avengers, Maximum Carnage, SNK's Metal Slug, King Of Fighters, King Of Monsters, Pac Man and sequels etc. I used to go to arcades in Westport, CT Arnie's Place, Milford Connecticut Nathan's Arcade, a deli in downtown Stamford, Ct had Time Pilot (another fave). In Southampton, NY I played Berzerk and Ikari Warriors in the 7-11. In NYC I went to The Broadway Arcade, XS, a few 42nd St Arcades including one owned by the grandson of the owner of The Broadway Arcade (it closed last year). I have been to Dave And Busters, but it doesn't compare to the better arcades I have been to. Did anyone ever go to Gameworks? I went to the one in Las Vegas and it was a 5 story arcade with a whole floor devoted to 80's era games

Killer Instinct.

My friend's mom worked at the Town & Country Mall, and on days we were off school, before the SNES version was released, she would take us with her and let us hang out in the mall all day. This comprised of me going to the Tilt, putting my two quarters on the machine for next, and proceeding to decimate all comers for the next eight hours. I was the feared and fabled Asian kid on the KI cabinet, despite being very pale and freckled. I even bought a strategy guide with every single combo, and at night I would go home with my SNES arcade pad, and practice the moves in the guide with my eyes closed in order to dominate at the arcade. I will still pull out B. Orchids 101 hit combo on your ass.

Lining up at my local arcade to play Ninja Turtles, and The Simpsons. They even had a TV on top of the arcade so people can watch. I never did play Mortal Kombat, much too shy to jump in with the big kids and get my ass kicked. Later on a buddy and I would sink in token after token into Gauntlet Legends, the fact that the machine saved your player was the deal breaker. Much later I made it my mission to beat the Star Wars trilogy arcade...Which I finely did.

Sadly don't go back to the arcades as much, besides to play some first person shooter. Now it's just DDR and other type of off the wall type of game.

mother of god...you had to be unstoppable.

I remember that the game had 2 buttons: one for hands and one for feet. The cheat was that you could hit both of them at the same time and it would record the correct move. Even THAT little cheat didn't help in that ninja fight: coordinating the joystick moves with the button moves was pretty much impossible.

I applaud the fact that you were able to get past it; we never could.

Who else was into pinball?

'High Speed' and 'Pinbot' were my mainstays in high school; I could generally get free games over and over again on those particular machines. In the 90s, I was into 'Star Wars' and 'The Addams Family' machines.

The Jurassic Park pinball machine was the bomb yo.

My dad managed the rec center at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, and on days when I had to stay after school for extracurricular stuff, he'd pick me up and let me hang out at the arcade in the rec center until he left for the day. He'd give me a roll of quarters and off I went. I too blew many a quarter on that Star Wars game -- they had the big sit-down version, and it was absolutely glorious. I also played a ton of Warlords, Crossbow, Zaxxon, Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom, Galaxian, Crystal Castle, Battlezone, geez, the list goes on and on.

And while not an arcade, we had a convenience store in our neighborhood that was our mecca during summer vacation. We'd scour the neighborhood for empty soda bottles and turn them in for deposit. That would usually give us enough to get another soda or two, buy a comic from the metal spinning rack, and still have enough quarters to play the Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man and Jungle Hunt machines the store had. The owner didn't care that we stood their playing the games all day, since we were good for buying soda and snacks while we were there. Nowadays, I doubt you'd find a cabinet in a convenience store, but back then, some even had a little alcove with four or five games in them. That's how pervasive these things were at the time.

Very true, Richard: I miss going into the local convenience store/supermarket and seeing 3-4 cabinets off in a corner. I remember getting to play Xevious for a half hour each week at Safeway while my mom bought groceries.

Those of you that didn't grow up in the 'golden age of the arcades' should really watch 'Tron'. Flynn's arcade in the film is a really good example of just how PACKED those arcades could get.

Anyone else remember the line of quarters/tokens on top of the machine to mark your place in line to play?

God yes.

Remember trying to smooth out the corners of one dollar bills so that they'd be accepted in the token/quarter machine?

The sit-down console version of Spy Hunter was heavenly. Also kind of loved Joust as well.

I also remember the cheap metal ash trays some arcades would bolt to the front of the machines so people wouldn't set their cigarettes down on them and burn marks into the surface.

We didn't have this thing with the quarters here, it was basically a gentleman's agreement. However, I remember some old dude trying to pick me up as I was playing Terminator 2. I guess your arcades were cleaner places but here in Greece they were absolute dives.

The Killer List of Video Games (KLOV) is a great site to check out for arcade cabinets. It's scary how many of these I recognize...

It depended on where they were. The ones in the malls were usually pretty clean, but I went to one in a strip mall that might as well have had a sign saying "The games are just to cover the drug deals going on in back".

And Chuck E. Cheese! You go there now and it's a glorified Whack-a-Mole/Skee-Ball convention. But back in the 80s? Holy god, it was Mt. Fucking Olympus.

The first Time Crisis was the game of choice for a time. Back in high school, a friend and I set out to beat this sucker. We had gathered a small crowd around us when we came to the last couple of levels. I ended up running out of quarters but some random dude who was watching us just gave me a couple dollars so i could finish the game. After we beat it we got a little round of applause and whatnot. It was amazing.

There was this arcade I used to go to where we would joke that once the sun went down you couldn't play billiard because all the bags of heroin would get in the way.

I would be pretty mortified as I parent if my kid went to some of the places I used to hang around as a kid. And still nothing bad ever happened to me there. Strange.

I also loved pinball to death, my favorite being the Indiana Jones machine. There used to be a small burger place right down the street from me, and they had a few pinball machines, one being Indy. I loved going down there after school and playing.

I haven't been to a Chuck E Cheese since...shit, TMNT2 came out in theaters? It was indeed an epic place for arcade gamers. Just lines of TMNT: The Arcade Game and Lethal Enforcers.

Ah the Arcade! Sweet memories of walking into the "Barrel of Fun" (The entrance to which did in fact look like a barrel). That "new" smell that would greet me going in, the noise of ACTION! Crowds of teens swarming the "hot" games. The clink of the tokens after I put in my dollar (or on a good day a $5 bill!). Then the thrill of entering brand new worlds where I would battle space armadas, nuclear war, ravening giant Apes, and hungry ghosts. Always to be defeated, until the next time....

Favorites include the Sit down Star Trek game (with the Captain's chair), Tron (the one with the multiple games, not the discs), Chopper Command, Scramble, Battlezone, Stargate Defender, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, D&D, and best of all....

GORF! What other game would give you FIVE different action packed games for one token/quarter? Space Invaders, Laser Attack, Galaxian, Alien ships coming at you out of the Black Hole thingee, and the Mother Ship attack. Still my favorite olde time Arcade game (though the Star Trek game is pretty close)

Anyone remember After Burner? I grew up an Air Force brat obsessed with Top Gun, so wielding that flight stick was like heaven. Plus, John Connor trained to be a "great millitary leader" on it in T2!

Remember After Burner? I took two buses to reach the arcade that had it, my friend.

I remember 'After Burner'. If memory serves, THAT was the first game that I ever saw that required 2 quarters/tokens to play it. From then on, the arcade got a lot more expensive.

Samurai Showdown was always a favorite of mine. Ditto to Ninja Turtles, X-Men and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade mentioned earlier.

It was the summer of 84, The Tagline read "If Adventure had a name, It must be Indiana Jones. I remember playing Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom alot. To me, that is still the quinnesential Indiana Jones game, a side scrolling arcade brawler. Just 2 months ago I went to an arcade in Norwalk, Ct that had the first TMNT arcade game, playing it was very cool indeed. I also played Xevious along with Choplifter, Capcom's 1940 series, Tron, Discs of Tron, Robocop, Heavy Barrel, Contra, Super Contra, Final Fight, Operation Wolf etc.

The fact that kids these days grow up without ever feeling the pain of pinching your skin on a rollerball (be it Crystal Castles or Marble Madness or what have you) saddens me. That shit toughens you up for whatever life may throw your way.

Dammit, can't believe I forgot about Robocop!

GAUNTLET blew my mind. At the time, I was into D&D, and the idea of a team-up video game stunned me. It was like paying 25 cents to have best friends for 10 minutes.

Dude, that sounds pathetic.

Not in the slightest.

It must be said: 'Gauntlet' had the best voice-over of any game, too.
'Wizard...is about to diiiiiiiiiiiiiie'
'Warrior...your life force is running out'
'Elf needs FOOD...badly!'
'Somebody shot the fooooooood'

and the all-time best:
'THAT was a heroic effort'

I always played the wizard if the spot was open.

Anyone remember when Nintendo did arcade consoles featuring 4-5 NES games?

My Favs:

Time Killers

Heavy Barrell

Speed Rumbler

The Main Event - I loved this one so much I bought it years ago, my parents eventually asked me to sell due to it cramping the spare room.

My friends and I still use this line if we're out and one of us is starving, or if the food is taking too long at a BBQ or something. Gauntlet shaped my life, that's for sure.

We were oh so clever, we'd say, "Warrior needs valkyrie ... badly."

Gotta give a shout out to Operation Wolf and the Konami Aliens game.

I also used to love all of those Konami 4-player simultaneous games (Simpsons; X-Men; TMNT)

I absolutely love these arcade nostalgia threads when they pop up. Cheers to ryoken for starting this one.

My younger brother and I were lucky in the fact our Dad loved to play in the arcades as well, so that meant we'd always spend one Saturday at one arcade or another. Got to play all the classics as well some obscure titles like GALAXY RANGER (a hybrid laserdisc/video game...which was later replaced by COBRA COMMAND), JAIL BREAK (Don't shoot the hostages! Oops.) and howabout the D&D inspired game DARK SEAL where you could charge up your energy and transform into different things? Like a giant boulder! A pillar of fire! And a...pig?!

I miss the days where I could go the corner store and plunk a few quarters into OPERATION WOLF, ALIEN SYNDROME, N.A.R.C. Then buy a comic and a Slurpee afterwards. Anyone remember this monstrosity invading your local 7-11 in the early 90s?



SEGA's Hologram machines were the FUTURE. Today! I'm still hoping for hologram games like the fighter plane game they show in STAR TREK III. Anyways, the last big arcade I remember going to had the deluxe sit down version of G-LOC (basically a Space AfterBurner) where it could go 360 degrees horizontal/vertical. That was a blast to play. I also wasted many quarters on MOONWALKER as well. Remember when you find those cocktail versions of games in restaurants? That was always fun playing GALAGA or MS. PAC MAN while waiting for food to arrive.

Hell, the Safeway my Mom and I would go to back in the day had a fucking SINISTAR machine in the back near the meat department. Being a kid in the 80s ruled.

Edited to add: The new version of the INDIANA JONES pinball machine at the movie theater arcade is my favorite machine right now. Opening the Ark of the Covenant for the multi-ball is insanely fun.

Nobody's mentioned my favorite, Robotron 2084. Two joysticks - movement and firing direction - and the game was you trying to save men, women and children from tons of different robots.

My Mom heard me curse for the first time playing this game. I went to the arcade in our shopping center while she shopped, and she came to collect me as I was caught up in particularly intense battle. When I died I shouted "MOTHERFUCKER!!!" not knowing she was behind me, and she responded with a shocked recitation of my full name. I jumped and apologized, and we never spoke of it again. I had just turned 13 so I'm sure she knew I swore, she had just never heard it before, especially from her straight-A's-in-English son.