ARCADE MASTER RACE GTFIH

[My Spot]

Then there was the dreaded "cheap" label. "That character is so cheap", "that move is cheap", "throwing is cheap", lol. Just universally thrown around whenever you got beat. Except when I said it, because I was right.

Playing as a cheap character (Eddy Gordo in Tekken 3 comes to mind) and pissing the other dude off was more fun than winning.

 

[Crimson Fury]

 

[Dizzy]

Grew up a 90s kid so of course arcades were a staple of my childhood. Had an arcade called Jets that I went to almost every weekend. I can still remember every inch of that place.

Arcades really were everywhere. My first experience with Mortal Kombat was at a Pizza Hut, there was even an MK2 cabinet at Walmart.

There are still some incredible cabinets being put out there but it’s just not the same. My state is one of a few that has the full Star Wars arcade machines and it’s so damn cool. Still a bit of magic.

My dream is to own an original MK2 cabinet. It was my favorite of the series (as broken as it was) and left an indelible mark on me.

 

[rob mafia]

Then there was the dreaded "cheap" label. "That character is so cheap", "that move is cheap", "throwing is cheap", lol. Just universally thrown around whenever you got beat. Except when I said it, because I was right.

well, throws were kinda cheap (in mk3, at least... in mk2 they weren't too bad and i never got into SF)... but that's why mk3 had a code to disable it in the versus screen. haha

we (the core group) generally played with throwing disabled. and when we didn't, we actually generally apologized/gave a free hit if we had an accidental throw. we were oddly a quite civilized group, we didn't let the monocles get in the way.

 

[Crimson Fury]

well, throws were kinda cheap (in mk3, at least... in mk2 they weren't too bad and i never got into SF)... but that's why mk3 had a code to disable it in the versus screen. haha

we (the core group) generally played with throwing disabled. and when we didn't, we actually generally apologized/gave a free hit if we had an accidental throw. we were oddly a quite civilized group, we didn't let the monocles get in the way.

Lol, fuck that. We played with "throws encouraged." It was wrestlemania.

 

[rob mafia]

Lol, fuck that. We played with "throws encouraged." It was wrestlemania.

lolz. we often sorta took it easy on other players, until someone tried to throw cheese. then it was on. lolz.

 

[Dizzy]

Lol, fuck that. We played with "throws encouraged." It was wrestlemania.

Rustlemania*

 

[Crimson Fury]

lolz. we often sorta took it easy on other players, until someone tried to throw cheese. then it was on. lolz.

Different arcades had different "rules." I knew a kid who got kicked out of an arcade for throwing too much and inciting a riot, lol.

Throws never really bothered me for the most part. X-Men vs Street Fighter was probably the worse, not because of the damage, but because they could lead to infinite combos or supers.

 

[My Spot]

"I miss arcades."
"So go to Dave and Busters."

 

[GtehMVP]

I would get dropped off with a friend at the mall at 7am with $10 each in our pockets and would get picked up around 9pm later that night. That $10 had to be used wisely between Sbarro, the arcade and soda throughout the day.

Looking back, it was pretty trusting of my parents to let a couple of young teens spend all day at a mall but it felt perfectly safe and I have zero memories of any issues. I still remember spending roughly $5 for food and then changing out the other $5 for quarters. That feeling of having $5 whole dollars of quarters in your pocket was awesome. Then, you had to careful choose your games to last all day.

Once the Saturn and then the Dreamcast came out, that really felt like the end of arcades. You no longer got watered down ports of arcade games and there was no reason to go anymore. When MAME came out, I finally got to play and beat every single game I wanted to play but didn't want to waste quarters on back in the day. It was amazing finally getting to play the actual arcade version of games when you had to settle for 16-bit ports of those games for the longest. Games like Street Fighter 2 were good on the SNES but it never really scratched the itch for me and I'd still play it in the arcade when I got a chance. MAME finally ended all of that.

Now, I have a Arcade Legends Ultimate cabinet in my media room. It's not perfect but it's still a friggin arcade cabinet and has virtually every arcade game ever made on it (via USB drive). Never in a million years as a kid I thought I would have an arcade cabinet much less the concept that it would have every game that ever existed on it.

This is pretty much me. I just didn't bother with the cabinet. I like gaming from my couch and having nearly every game from PS2 (some Wii and PS3 too) down on hard drives/emulation. I had a great two person arcade stick too, but it eventually broke down. Fit perfectly on the coffee table

When I buy my new pc, my current aging beast will be solely for emulation

Anyway, like you sometimes I sit back and laugh at what 9 yearold me would think of my virtual collection, and how easy it is to swap between systems and thousands of games.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

I remember when MK and SF 2 came out. It was a crazy time. Though most of the arcades we had were in the bowling alleys, which would have a bar and pool tables too. All ages just going about, doing their own respective age group’s thing. That, and having a cool younger guy working at the Suncoast Movies which had two 4 game machines plus MK and SF2, who would open the machines and give us a bunch of credits.

Man, I miss those gaming days the most.

 

[Valhoven]

One of the GOATs!

Wow at seeing this and the flood of memory along with it; so long ago was my play that it was completely gone from mind. Remember those sack-toting goblins who would drop flasks when hit? So good. A like for you, sir.

​

 

[Crimson Fury]

This was a pretty fun boxing game based on Fist of the North Star/Hokuto No Ken.

 

[Bob Gray]

Wow at seeing this and the flood of memory along with it; so long ago was my play that it was completely gone from mind. Remember those sack-toting goblins who would drop flasks when hit? So good. A like for you, sir.

​

How bout this?

One of the GOAT pinball mahcines

 

[Valhoven]

How bout this?

One of the GOAT pinball mahcines

Of course. This the one if picture of machine were to zoom out, we'd see the T-800's red eye looking back?

 

[Holic]

well, throws were kinda cheap (in mk3, at least... in mk2 they weren't too bad and i never got into SF)... but that's why mk3 had a code to disable it in the versus screen. haha

we (the core group) generally played with throwing disabled. and when we didn't, we actually generally apologized/gave a free hit if we had an accidental throw. we were oddly a quite civilized group, we didn't let the monocles get in the way.

NYC Chinatown triads were legit known to fuck kids up irl if they used throws in SF.

I always felt that sorta exposed their weaknesses as players since you could avoid most throws by crouching.

Tech hits probably saved a few lives back in the 90's.

 

[Holic]

How bout this?

One of the GOAT pinball mahcines

I'm obsessed with twilight zone pinball for a very specific reason. When you start it up, the first thing you see is one of the intros from the original series; "You unlock this door with the key of imagination".

See that pyramid on the left of the backboard? The challenge for that thing on the table is called "Battle The Power". Your ball gets locked into the upper left corner of the table and you have to mash the flippers to activate magnets while countering OTHER magnets that are trying to steal the ball. If you manage to succeed, the door explodes and you get a jackpot.

The thing is, "The Power" isn't actually a thing in the Twlight Zone. It doesn't appear in any of the episodes. So when I first saw it added as a concept in the pinball machine it blew my goddamned mind. Like maybe the stories and cursed objects that we see in the Twilight Zone aren't just stories, maybe there's an actual force in the universe making all those things happen, and Rod Serling is it's prophet. Maybe there's a way to actually beat the power and escape from the nightmare that is the Twilight Zone. Maybe you can actually fight back against the horror.

I dunno. As a kid that excited the shit out of me.

 

[Bob Gray]

Of course. This the one if picture of machine were to zoom out, we'd see the T-800's red eye looking back?

Goddamn, right. I remember when I had the rented out arcade for my 12 birthday, I played a whole lot of that pinball game and this:

If memory serves, I actually managed to beat this one, but only because it was free.

 

[Crimson Fury]

NYC Chinatown triads were legit known to fuck kids up irl if they used throws in SF.

I always felt that sorta exposed their weaknesses as players since you could avoid most throws by crouching.

Tech hits probably saved a few lives back in the 90's.

Huh? Not in SF. In Tekken sure.

 

[Holic]

Huh? Not in SF. In Tekken sure.

I dunno. As a ken player i was always able to dodge most throw happy asians with a straight down crouch. The two exceptions to this seemed to be Chun Li and of course Zangief.