With the release of the Game Room on Xbox Live, it occurred to me that many of the younglings on Xbox Live have no idea what an arcade even is. I spent many a day of my youth in the dimly lit, sometimes smoke-filled gaming meccas and I wasted many a quarter.
Those were the days of Star Wars Arcade, Nintendo Play Choice 10, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Asteroids. I never played Dragon’s Lair, but I watched the cinematic that would play automatically dozens of times, longing for one more quarter. Apparently, I didn’t miss much, but I wanted to know: do you guys have any arcade memories you are fond? Do you have any at all?
My favorite was pumping quarters into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game with my friends on my birthday and finally defeating the evil Shredder. It was literally a jump up and down, hug each other moment.
So…what’s your epic win? GO!
Oh man, even to this day I can’t resist walking into an arcade just to look around a little bit.
I think my favorites were the Ninja Turtles, X-Men and Simpsons arcade games. I also really got into Sniper Scope for a bit there, and Virtua Fighter was a big hit for me as well.
I really do miss those arcades. There was something really satisfying about standing at those controls and having people watch as you pulled off a fatality in Mortal Kombat or defeated the dragon in dragon’s lair(yes, i could do that). It was a much greater social experience than sitting at home and playing online. For me those were “the good old days”.
There weren’t any big arcades near where I grew up. My closest thing was the burger joint with 2 Arcade games and a pinball machine which all changed occasionally. The pinball machine changed frequently (Adam’s Family, Johnny Mnemonic, etc).
So my “arcade” experience was limited to some top-down space shooters, a beat-em-up game where you could use weapons, and some racing ones.
None the less, a great way to kill time while waiting for your burgers and fries.
Just going to the arcade at my local mall was great. I spent many a weekends there…felt a huge sense of loss when it closed down…mainly because of the restaurant built into it I think. The final nail in my balls was when it got turned into a FOREVER FUCKING 21 store. I hate that place to this day. ='(
Time Crisis 3 on a ferry from Ireland to Scotland. 3 credits, almost the entire game. I actually drew in a crowd! I used the pistol most of the time and heard people asking each other “Why doesn’t he use the machine gun?” Cue a BIG stupid grin on my face.
Also, Crisis Zone.
Thank you so much for writing this article!
I love playing arcade games when I was young! I used to remember when I was 6, my dad would my siblings and I to Chuck E Cheese’s to play games such as Jurassic Park Arcade, Star Wars Arcade, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! And I also remembered playing some other arcades such as Time Crisis, Street Fighter II, Tekken, and a lot of racing games! I would like to agree with Stewtoyou on arcade games being a better social experience than online games. It is way much more satisfying when you have your friends cheer behind you when you did that final KO! Ahhhh, good times!
I also have a question for people on this site: Has any of you played the Xbox Game Room and what do you think of it?
Dynamite Cop – man, was that ever fun!