Cabinets Were you an arcade junkie?

[DjQuick2008]

big money on street fighter champion edition and wwf wrestlefest. unbeatable 1991 92

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I played crazy taxi via the arcades, my friend first played it on the Dreamcast. I was surprised that we had clashing nostalgias.
I also played Daytona and a few other fighting games.

 

[ThatOneLum]

Yeah but only on holiday.
In the UK the largest arcades with the best selections could only be found in coastal seaside resort towns, so when I was a kid I'd sink so much money on games like Ghost Squad, or Crisis Zone.

These days it's actually way easier to find arcades as long as you live in a city. There's a bunch of Star City locations in the UK as well as a bunch of smaller chains like Arcade Club, so it's pretty easy to get into the arcades these days. Plus, these modern places seem to mostly charge you for entry and let you play as many games as you want for like 4+ hours. It's dope AF.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Plus, these modern places seem to mostly charge you for entry and let you play as many games as you want for like 4+ hours. It's dope AF.

What a deal!

I would have killed for something like that as a kid with very limited resources.

 

[ThatOneLum]

What a deal!

I would have killed for something like that as a kid with very limited resources.

Yeah when I went to one of these places it was close to the pandemic so it was restricted to half a day, but apparently in normal operation you pay once and have access from opening until closing

Wish I lived nearer to the place to be honest, I'd be there every weekend haha

 

[Isegrim]

I used to stop over any arcade whenever I pass by one and look around. But I wouldn't bleed money on it unless it was a a new game that particularly interested me and it would be one time only.

The three exceptions to that rule were Monster Maulers, Red Earth or Gaiopolis. I loved those games but I only found them in malls that I rarely visited. And they usually get switched out with something more popular.

If there was a machine of Simpsons, X-Men Arcade, World Heroes 2 Jet, Captain America and the Avengers or Bucky O'Hare, I'd often 1 cc it since they were also favorites of mine but unlike others, can be found easily. I'd sometimes draw a crowd of onlookers, have people join me and pass on afterwards. To a lesser extent, I'd sometimes 1 cc any version of SF2, Street Fighter the Movie arcade game or a Street Fighter Alpha 1, 2 or 3 machine. I tended to favor Super SF2 Turbo since there was no home port of it in a mainstream console which isn't overpriced and I really wanted to beat Akuma (which started my dislike of secret bosses) on it which I did eventually.

 

[Mileena]

Yes but I was partially lucky lol my brother and I used to get to the arcade at the mall before it opened so we would wait at the doors for an old guy who worked there to open the doors and he was so cool and nice he’d use his key to let us play some free games before the crowds came and then we’d have to use our money. I’m sure that guy is long passed away now but he was a hero.

 

[DjQuick2008]

earliest memories probably 1990 or there abouts bubble bobble for sure and other things like pacman

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

No, i think that only visited a arcade like 2 times in my entire life.

 

[DjQuick2008]

No, i think that only visited a arcade like 2 times in my entire life.

ya really need to make it your mission to find 1 on the planet.

 

[Majora Fi]

I never went (it didn't make sense to me to spend money on quick matches when you could rent a console for an hour or more).

 

[DjQuick2008]

Why sad face it arcades are making a comeback theres one in an indoor mall about 9 miles from me plan to visit august when summer calms down a bit.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Why sad face it arcades are making a comeback theres one in an indoor mall about 9 miles from me plan to visit august when summer calms down a bit.

Oh, the arcade market is reviving at Ireland it seems.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Oh, the arcade market is reviving at Ireland it seems.

it is i know of at least 3 of them in the capital city my city needs to wise up my gaming cafe closed. why i dont go out anymore.

Post automatically merged: Jul 8, 2026

it is i know of at least 3 of them in the capital city my city needs to wise up my gaming cafe closed. why i dont go out anymore.

I would open 1 myself if i could do it in a way i could open it but not have to pay the government anything lol

 

[Jdan-S]

Tokens were roughly the equivalent of 20-25 cents each in the 2000s, and most games were 1-2 tokens per play. I'd spend an average of 5 per visit to the arcade. Met some people who were also regulars, and we focused mostly on rhythm games: Dance Dance Revolution, Pump it Up, Guitar Freaks, DrumMania, Dance Maniax, etc. I also remember other games like Ghost Squad, Police 911, and Planet Harriers.

 

[zacharinolongpants]

I was born just early enough to watch then die out before I was old enough to afford going crazy on cabinets in the heydays. But there has been a pretty cool resurgence in my neck of the woods and we have a really cool arcade with House of the Dead, Afterburner, Tekken Tag Tournament, and many other amazing classics.

There is a bar nearby that only has one cabinet, and it's Centipede. Oh my god my buddies and I have put so many quarters in that damn game. Something about controlling it with the trackball is so satisfying and addicting.

 

[bcdusk]

I used Arcades a lot as a kid but the only games that beat without way too many quarters were Street Fight II Rainbow Edition and the Punisher Arcade game.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs in the Arcade was amazing and while I never beat the game until I could emulate it, it was one of my favorites.

 

[Amphineura]

Nope. Either too young to catch the 80/90's arcarde wave or too poor to play the mall arcade games. I don't think I've ever played anything other than air hockey.

Nowadays I'm saving up my money to travel and visit a pinball arcade bar. I've only played a physical game once or twice and fell in love with the digital version via Pinball Arcade.

 

[Cuestionador]

Not at all, but i did my last birthday in a bar with a couple of arcade machines playing Sunset Riders, Marvel vs Capcom and a couple more. I remember playing Carnevil when I was 13 years old: it was an scary experience, that game feels cursed, like a fever dream.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Not at all, but i did my last birthday in a bar with a couple of arcade machines playing Sunset Riders, Marvel vs Capcom and a couple more. I remember playing Carnevil when I was 13 years old: it was an scary experience, that game feels cursed, like a fever dream.

That was a great birthday

 

[NeonKnights]

Yes, mostly when I was a young kid. I was lucky enough to be able to play full cabs of Atari Star Wars and Tron. My favorite arcade that I've ever been to was Neptune's Kingdom, in Santa Cruz. Nowadays it has been denigrated to a mere ticket center, as have most of the arcades I remember that weren't closed. I was able to go there quite a few times in the early and mid 90s. There I got to play MKII (arcade) when it was first released, as well as Sega's Hologram Time Traveler among many others. In fact the first risque content I ever saw was on an old hand crank Mutoscope (or similar) in a corner of the arcade there, the film was also from the late 19th century.

 

[Antaeus]

For a time when i was little i was obsessed with beating metal slug 3 so every time i go to the arcade i was spending like 80 coins but the game was hard as fuck and i sucked at the game i gived up when i reached the space section thinking i was doing the wrong route and getting ''the bad ending'' and got a little trauma that i got over it some years later beating the game on a emulator

 

[bcdusk]

I remember playing the firsr Tekken in the Arcade back then it looked so impressive.

 

[TinRattler]

Not really only ever went to an arcade when we had to go to town which was once or twice a month when I was a kid. The arcade Timezone had unlimited play for 2 hours for $10 back in the 90's