Your Favorite Arcade Memory

Maybe the younger ones don't have one, but lots of us have great arcade memories. Mine?

When I was 8, I decided I was going to play all of the X-Men arcade game by myself using only the Dazzler and I couldn't die. If I died once I started over entirely. It took me three days worth of continual tries and my entire summer allowance converted into quarters and by the third day I had an enormous crowd following me. When I finally managed to do it, the crowd picked me up and paraded me around the whole arcade, and they bought be a Burger King cardboard crown. One of the best moments of my childhood.

I\'m still really young ( ) so I don\'t have many arcade memories. Probably my most vivid and best arcade memory was while I was in Ibiza. They had a fair few arcade machines at the hotel I was staying in, and I spend hours and hours playing Bust-A-Move 3, although back then I only know it as Puzzle Bobble 3.

My only other arcade memory that stands out in when I played SEGASonic The Hedgehog at SEGA World. I just couldn\'t play it, the controls didn\'t make sense to me, so it\'s not a particularly good memory.

( Edited 12.10.2009 20:51 by SuperLink )

I've walked around in a fair few arcade halls, but I always thought playing games in my comfortable chair in my bedroom where I'm not distracted by other noises and am not watched by others while I play plus I can play as long as I want to, yeah...

It didn't make much sense to me.

Bart.... said:
I've walked around in a fair few arcade halls, but I always thought playing games in my comfortable chair in my bedroom where I'm not distracted by other noises and am not watched by others while I play plus I can play as long as I want to, yeah...

It didn't make much sense to me.

You're not wrong. I don't think the arcade was for everyone, but it really did, to me, feel like a fraternity of like-minded individuals. There was something alive about the gaming in arcades when I was young, the noises, the laughter, the crowds. It made me want to play better, to win acclaim. I made friends, I made enemies, I made fans.

I remember wasting a lot of coins in a TMNT: Turtles In Time Arcade Machine. Never beat the bloomin thing, but loved every minute.

I remember the Simpsons Arcade game around 95/96. Wasted so much time and money on that thing, but never finished. I was really awesome.

Also spent ages on Crazy Taxi, so I was extremely happy when the console version was released (and I guess my parents were as well, meant they weren't spending so much money on it

I remember playing Gauntlet Legends over at this burger joint. I actually got my Warrior in the 90's and was a few tries from beating Skorn!...Until the idiots replaced it with more ripoff prize garbage.

Lrrr said:
I remember the Simpsons Arcade game around 95/96. Wasted so much time and money on that thing, but never finished. I was really awesome.

Also spent ages on Crazy Taxi, so I was extremely happy when the console version was released (and I guess my parents were as well, meant they weren't spending so much money on it

Oh man, the Simpsons arcade game. I think I spent a huge chunk of my youth playing that. The arcades sure took a lot of my parents' quarters.

Hmm, Big Bertha with my mum (I was 7) throw the balls in the mouth

Other than that, was on holiday in Andorra when I was 11 playing Time Crisis 2

God i used to love playing Gauntlet Legends ALL THE TIME!! I would always make my friend play it with me.

does this count?

Well I one BALLZ!

Ahhh...NOE!!!!!!!!!!!1

There was this one time where there was a fireman game with two hoses attached where you pointed then at the screen to shoot water onto the fire. All I remember is this guy put in his last amount of money he had on him, and right when he did that, I pressed the 2P Go button, essentially stealing his money. He flipped out, and being the 8 year old I was at the time, I was scared sh*tless.

Echoes221 said:
Hmm, Big Bertha with my mum (I was 7) throw the balls in the mouth

Other than that, was on holiday in Andorra when I was 11 playing Time Crisis 2

Whooooooooooahh. That brings back a lot of memories, I remember playing Big Bertha for hours. Is that a politically incorrect game? I think that's a politically incorrect game. I love politically incorrect games.

That Big Bertha thing looks absolutely terrifying! Almost like that (evil) clown bed that Homer made for Bart in that old episode.

Bart.... said:
I've walked around in a fair few arcade halls, but I always thought playing games in my comfortable chair in my bedroom where I'm not distracted by other noises and am not watched by others while I play plus I can play as long as I want to, yeah...

It didn't make much sense to me.

I'd totally agree with this now, but in my youth (I'm 24 in a month) you simply couldn't get the games in the arcade for your home console, and if you could it was scarcely anywhere near as good. Back then, home consoles were very primitive in comparison to the best arcade machines of the time, which were often more powerful by several orders of magnitude. I went to the arcade to play breath-taking games that you just couldn't get on the Mega Drive or whatever.

These days though - sure. Home consoles are completely on a par with arcade machines (in fact, they're often more powerful!), and so arcades have become somewhat pointless. They've been completely relegated to sea-side towns, in my country (England). Ever since the Dreamcast, arcade machines have lost their place, pretty much. I'll still pop in the arcade if I'm at the coast, if only for old time's sake. Light gun games are still a moderate favourite in the arcade, since a lot of people can't be bothered to lay down the wedge for Time Crisis and two guns for their PS3 or whatever.

I think the moment I realised the arcade had had it's day was when I first got House of the Dead 2 for my Dreamcast. It looked and played exactly the same as the arcade machine, which seemed really amazing to me. Oh, and Virtua Fighter 3. For years that game represented something that was completely impossible to do on any consumer hardware. Then came the DC, and we had perfect home versions of HotD2, Crazy Taxi, etc.. the arcade died.