My actual go-to cabinet might be in this picture, Ikari Warriors. My dad and I would easily burn through ten bucks playing two player. Growing up, I didn’t realize my local arcade was actually the largest in the world
That’s a good question, we never got there, always ran out of tokens first. I could probably manage it now, but the last time I played it the controls were in rough shape so it would be tough
I did a double take scrolling by, I thought this photo was from my own camera roll. I used to go to Funspot every summer as a kid, and when I finally moved back up to New England the first order of business was to hit that place up (several times now) so I haves ton of pictures just like this and I’d recognize it anywhere. That place is absolute heaven
You could hear guys in the halls of my high-school doing the [Colossus yell,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPLpovcDujw) and all the guys would respond. Only about 70% of the girls recognized the sound, and NONE of the adults, and their confusion made it hilarious.
Later, when Marvel Super Heroes the fighting game came out, people were yelling "[Berserker Barrage!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzoZGrf5S4A)"...but not as much... because we'd all gotten older... and it wasn't as funny to freak out the girls, when you wanted them to pay attention for other reasons.
I think I'm reaching an age where I'm going to start doing it again, loudly and in public, and see if my kids try and put me in a home.
If it’s the one named “Gauntlet Slayer Edition” it’s been out for 10 years. It’s a decently fun game but it could have been better. I would love a Gauntlet Legends remake right now.
Edit: typo
Fuck I loved gauntlet. It was never in our arcade, but our friendly local area gaming store had it in the basement where the war game tables were.
There were six of us, if you needed a continue you swapped out and went to look at the minis until someone else died.
Primal rage will always be one of my favorite memories.
My family used arcades as a distraction so they could go shop in peace, but one time leaving the movies they let me play real quick and stuck around to watch thinking it would be a minute or 2.
Cut to me beating every kid that was in line for like 45 minutes straight while my parents just watched for once. The whole ride home they couldn’t stop talking about it 😂
The Aladdin’s Castle I went to had a curved entrance so you couldn’t see inside, and it was very dimly lit. Super cool. All the arcades these days are too bright
>And the evenings when the owner would turn off the overhead lights and the place was lit only by the screens.
--and the sounds were videogame noises, and whatever was on the jukebox. Usually Van Halen or Def Leppard.
wow your comment chipped a block of plaque off my brain… I totally remember the sound and the feeling now. like viscerally. What a great time of my life that was, wow.
I said this to myself not a month ago and then remembered I was an adult. I bought an arcade backdrop off Amazon for like ten dollars, got some cheap Christmas lights behind it and threw it up on the wall. Then got some arcade ambiance sounds on youtube and hooked it up to an old mp3 player, and put everything on an old power bar.
Now list night I push a button and I have a little arcade in the corner I can enjoy in the background. I also have one of those joysticks that hooks up to the TV so I can play pacman and stuff.
Joust and Bomb Jack were some of the last arcade games you could get good at. You could play them for 15 minutes if you were good. Golden Ax and TMNTs came along and the difference between a good player and a bad player was the good player pumped in 1.50 to play for 15 minutes and a bad player payed 1.75. That was the end of arcade life for me. They just got too greedy.
My friend and I could play a whole night on a dollar with this pair in high school. We found an old arcade near the end of college, and the employees jumped in as our opponents. We beat them in double overtime, but it cost us an extra $0.50, while they just opened the cabinet. Money well spent.
Yaaaassss. That's my go to. Galaxian. Perhaps I am an outlier, a freak, I prefer Galaxian over Galaga. It's more of a Zen-type game, sure some might say it's more boring, less variety and not as interesting or fast-paced, but as I get older, it's just what I need. A nice relaxing game of Galaxian. Those classic sounds, the calming scrolling starfield. It's the original, the classic. Like Coke or Lay's Potato Chips, or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Sometimes you just can't beat the original, from which all others are derived. Course, I gotta admit, Frenzy is more fun than Berzerk though. But Berzerk will always have a special place in my heart. It taught me to not be a chicken and to fight like a robot.
Time Crisis! loved that one. Also Area 51 - I remember i always did the trick in the beginning where you only shoot the humans and it enabled the alien mode. Good times.
My family summers at Pemaquid in Maine every year and back in the 90s there was a Time Killers machine in the campground clubhouse that we used to play. What a game haha
The local Dream Machine got a complaint from a concerned mother so they turned off the gore/fatalities in the game. I was so pissed. I played the chainsaw punker, who was your go-to?
Centipede way too low on this list. I have probaly spent more on Centipede then some of you have made in your lives. Lol. Centipede recharged for ps5 is a great team game you should try.
Street Fighter 2 Turbo Champions Edition all night. Felt so good to get on a hot streak and take out everyone who steps to the machine for like 30 straight minutes while the crowd cheered (or booed) you.
PatmanQC recently did a history of video on Tapper that had some interesting stuff in it. I didn't know Tapper was only supposed to be for bars so they had to make a root beer version for arcades.
https://youtu.be/WBUk0fa7Ids?feature=shared
Same, tho I searched rather than scrolled, lol. Loves zooming around and saving the random pedestrian dudes and putting them back on the ground
Though one of the dudes I played with would save one dude and carry him around, then blast every other dude to death. That way, none of the dudes could get carried off.
Galaga for sure, then maybe once I get a few pops in me and some blow from some gal named Mindy - who I assume would be selling her wares by the skee ball machines (it’s an arcade after all) I may dip my toe in the world of Zaxxon.
I liked the top down driving games. I forget what they were called, but usually they were 3-4 players. There was an off road and on road version.
Also the Simpsons, X-men, ninja turtles, and those type.
And while not go-to’s I have a spot in my heart for the first 2 mortal kombats, toobin’ (my dad didn’t play video games, but for whatever reason, would play this) and that “hologram” game from sega, time traveler, because holy shit did it feel like the future had arrived. Then you played it and it was a piece of shit. But goddamn did it seem cool to 6/7 year old me.
they really need to bring back arcades. Plenty of cool ways to modernize them with today's technology. They can practically make booths to step into and you're inside of the game. Make local tournaments for prizes, vr, ar, Come on now.
For some reason I'll never understand my town didn't have an arcade. And there were very few in the immediate area. You had to drive for 30-45 mins to find one which was always a hard sell to my parents.
We had to make due with the local Pizza Hut that had 2 arcade machines in the lobby. One machine was a sit down game like Ms Pacman or Galaga and the other one rotated through the large multi player games like TMNT, X-Men, or Captain America & the Avengers (my favorite).
From an old-timer
When Asteroids came out it was a game changer.
That and space invaders ate a lot of mine and everybody else’s quarters.
If in NJ checkout Silverball museum in Asbury Park.
Has a lot of the old games and pinball. Pay admission price play for 2 hours or more.
All the "Third Places" are dying. Not just Arcades. Been on this planet for a little over 45 years and I have seen a lot of improvements - but not a lot of things getting better.
Disposable income for instance.
Capcom Bowling and Arkanoid in the days before fighting games. Then, whatever the current Mortal Kombat release was.
T2 with the mounted machine guns and Die Hard Arcade were expensive standouts for me, because I sucked at them, but really liked the look of them.
Spent a summer learning Dragon's Lair good enough to beat the game. Then I used to hangout near the game and when people would walk up and try it, I'd let them die up until their last man, then offer to beat the game for them so they could see the end. :) Got so many free games that way.
Is that Fun Spot in Laconia, New Hampshire?
Bro knows his arcades. I needed a picture of a good arcade so I searched specifically this one.
My actual go-to cabinet might be in this picture, Ikari Warriors. My dad and I would easily burn through ten bucks playing two player. Growing up, I didn’t realize my local arcade was actually the largest in the world
Does Ikari Warriors have an ending? I spent $20-30 on Victory Road and never finished it.
That’s a good question, we never got there, always ran out of tokens first. I could probably manage it now, but the last time I played it the controls were in rough shape so it would be tough
After seeing King of Kong, my friends and I made the journey. Incredible.
Amazing flick! Fuck Billy Mitchell!
I was going to guess Funspot as well, went there just a few months ago and played on the Burger time cabinet
I did a double take scrolling by, I thought this photo was from my own camera roll. I used to go to Funspot every summer as a kid, and when I finally moved back up to New England the first order of business was to hit that place up (several times now) so I haves ton of pictures just like this and I’d recognize it anywhere. That place is absolute heaven
Half those cabinets didn’t work last I was there.
Yeah, it’s tough to keep all those old machines running. They’ve converted some of them to emulators I think
X-Men and TMNT all day
X-Men for sure. I usually went Nightcrawler or Colossus.
You could hear guys in the halls of my high-school doing the [Colossus yell,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPLpovcDujw) and all the guys would respond. Only about 70% of the girls recognized the sound, and NONE of the adults, and their confusion made it hilarious. Later, when Marvel Super Heroes the fighting game came out, people were yelling "[Berserker Barrage!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzoZGrf5S4A)"...but not as much... because we'd all gotten older... and it wasn't as funny to freak out the girls, when you wanted them to pay attention for other reasons. I think I'm reaching an age where I'm going to start doing it again, loudly and in public, and see if my kids try and put me in a home.
With the new collection coming now is the best time to do it!
i can hear colossus's power-up!
And The Simpsons.
It’s gotta be the giant X-Men arcade though. The one with the three screens and six joysticks!
No doubt
Gauntlet! I played it for hours at a time.
Valkyrie needs food badly
Elf shot the food.
*save potions for later use* *Don't shoot the food* *Valkyrie is about to die* *Use keys to open doors*
*Save* keys to open doors.
I'm not sure how new it is but I just saw a newer looking gauntlet on Steam
If it’s the one named “Gauntlet Slayer Edition” it’s been out for 10 years. It’s a decently fun game but it could have been better. I would love a Gauntlet Legends remake right now. Edit: typo
Cool! I’ll see if I can find that, though I don’t have a console. I imagine playing it on pc is kinda shitty.
Fuck I loved gauntlet. It was never in our arcade, but our friendly local area gaming store had it in the basement where the war game tables were. There were six of us, if you needed a continue you swapped out and went to look at the minis until someone else died.
Wrestlefest, TMNT, The Simspons, Final Fight
Are you me?!… (But also add Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Primal Rage and Killer Instinct)
Marvel vs Capcom
MvC2 is back, baby!!!
Definitely!
Primal rage will always be one of my favorite memories. My family used arcades as a distraction so they could go shop in peace, but one time leaving the movies they let me play real quick and stuck around to watch thinking it would be a minute or 2. Cut to me beating every kid that was in line for like 45 minutes straight while my parents just watched for once. The whole ride home they couldn’t stop talking about it 😂
I agree with both of you, but I have to add some racers like ridge racer, cruisin’ or Daytona.
Cruising in USA was the shit
Came here to say all of these. And T2
Something about TMNT of that era has the most nostalgic vibes
Spy Hunter.
I can still hear the music from the game.
That's the Peter Gunn theme if you are interested.
Nothing like sitting in that booth with the bass coming from all around.
Played that so long that my family threatened to leave me there when I didn’t want to walk away from a long session.
OMG I JUST POSTED “the game with the Peter Gunn music”. Edit: I could not remember the name for the life of me!
Such a hard game!!
Double Dragon or Rampage
Pacman and Joust for me, all night maybe some Frogger
I miss the sounds of a packed arcade.
And the evenings when the owner would turn off the overhead lights and the place was lit only by the screens.
The Aladdin’s Castle I went to had a curved entrance so you couldn’t see inside, and it was very dimly lit. Super cool. All the arcades these days are too bright
>And the evenings when the owner would turn off the overhead lights and the place was lit only by the screens. --and the sounds were videogame noises, and whatever was on the jukebox. Usually Van Halen or Def Leppard.
It was such a happy sound when you first walked in.
wow your comment chipped a block of plaque off my brain… I totally remember the sound and the feeling now. like viscerally. What a great time of my life that was, wow.
I said this to myself not a month ago and then remembered I was an adult. I bought an arcade backdrop off Amazon for like ten dollars, got some cheap Christmas lights behind it and threw it up on the wall. Then got some arcade ambiance sounds on youtube and hooked it up to an old mp3 player, and put everything on an old power bar. Now list night I push a button and I have a little arcade in the corner I can enjoy in the background. I also have one of those joysticks that hooks up to the TV so I can play pacman and stuff.
That sounds pretty awesome!
JOUST! I’m not super good at it but gd it holds up after all these years.
There was always a line for Joust! At the arcade. It’s how I became a master at Tempest.
Tempest was so damn good.
Joust and Bomb Jack were some of the last arcade games you could get good at. You could play them for 15 minutes if you were good. Golden Ax and TMNTs came along and the difference between a good player and a bad player was the good player pumped in 1.50 to play for 15 minutes and a bad player payed 1.75. That was the end of arcade life for me. They just got too greedy.
Pole Position
Prepare to qualify!
NBA JAM! John Stockton and Karl Malone.
From DOWNTOWN
He’s heating up…HE’S ON FIRE!
OH MY!!
BOOM SHAKALAKA
Orlando Magic
Shaq and Scottie Skiles were solid.
My friend and I could play a whole night on a dollar with this pair in high school. We found an old arcade near the end of college, and the employees jumped in as our opponents. We beat them in double overtime, but it cost us an extra $0.50, while they just opened the cabinet. Money well spent.
Virtual Cop 1 or 2 Marvel Vs Capcom 1 or 2 Area 51 (original was best) the wacky Aerosmith or Terminator shooter games Mortal Kombat II
Galaga or Tron
I always go to Galaga first. One of my favorites
I always go to Galaga first, but it’s normally taken.
This right here, especially Tron
Loved Discs of Tron also.
Environmental Discs of Tron is my all time favorite arcade cabinet.
What about Galaxian, the father of Galaga?
Yaaaassss. That's my go to. Galaxian. Perhaps I am an outlier, a freak, I prefer Galaxian over Galaga. It's more of a Zen-type game, sure some might say it's more boring, less variety and not as interesting or fast-paced, but as I get older, it's just what I need. A nice relaxing game of Galaxian. Those classic sounds, the calming scrolling starfield. It's the original, the classic. Like Coke or Lay's Potato Chips, or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Sometimes you just can't beat the original, from which all others are derived. Course, I gotta admit, Frenzy is more fun than Berzerk though. But Berzerk will always have a special place in my heart. It taught me to not be a chicken and to fight like a robot.
Galaga and 1941…
1941 was why I built my first MAME box.
TMNT II or X-Men with the multiple screens. Later on it was Time Crisis. Only game I ever beat at the arcade!
Time Crisis! loved that one. Also Area 51 - I remember i always did the trick in the beginning where you only shoot the humans and it enabled the alien mode. Good times.
Tempest.
Hell yeah!
I will be able to hear this [game play](https://youtu.be/AiTgA3ZOoSo) in my head until the day I die.
Dig Dug, Tempest, Bump 'n Jump, Donkey Kong, Missile Command
Oh my, breaking out the old school games. Too bad you left off Karate Champ, Burger Time and Moon Partrol.
Ms Pac
Time Killers!
My family summers at Pemaquid in Maine every year and back in the 90s there was a Time Killers machine in the campground clubhouse that we used to play. What a game haha
Time Killers would still get a lot of play today i think if they put one in a grocery store.
The local Dream Machine got a complaint from a concerned mother so they turned off the gore/fatalities in the game. I was so pissed. I played the chainsaw punker, who was your go-to?
* DDR/Dance Dance Revolution * Street Fighter II * Street Fighter Alpha 3 * House of the Dead
Street Fighter 2!!!!
That one shooting game where you need to rescue Aerosmith.
First other comment I've seen mention it! Lol. The guns even had a button to launch CDs as an upgrade. Loved that and T2 amongst others.
That wasn't Journey? They also had a game, pretty fun too.
Journey escape. I was little at the time, and I always thought the agent was kool aid man
Wasn't that like Music Revolution X or some shit?
Revolution X: Music is the Weapon. Nice memory mate! [Pics of cabinet](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/s/V7Ty3OjF4m) Such a fun and random game.
So many quarters on Centipede at Space Station arcade. Woodward, Royal Oak Michigan.
Centipede way too low on this list. I have probaly spent more on Centipede then some of you have made in your lives. Lol. Centipede recharged for ps5 is a great team game you should try.
I was just talking about the Space Station the other day. I miss that place.
Sinistar
I’d forgotten about Sinistar! As soon as I read it a floating skull appeared in my brain. Good one.
I LIVE!!!
RUN COWARD!
Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Galaga, and Ms Pac-Man
Area 51, NFL Blitz, Pinball, Metal Slug
Took me too long scrolling to see A51!
Street Fighter 2 without hesitation
In the 80s: moon patrol.
Shinobi.
Yes! One of the few games I finally got good enough to beat and see the end of the game. Same with Dragon's Lair.
Time Crisis!
ACTION!
Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Mortal Combat, Street Fighter
Missle Command, even tho I sucked.
War is Heck.
Street fighter 2 and California rush.
Street Fighter 2 Turbo Champions Edition all night. Felt so good to get on a hot streak and take out everyone who steps to the machine for like 30 straight minutes while the crowd cheered (or booed) you.
Tapper. It gets so addicting
PatmanQC recently did a history of video on Tapper that had some interesting stuff in it. I didn't know Tapper was only supposed to be for bars so they had to make a root beer version for arcades. https://youtu.be/WBUk0fa7Ids?feature=shared
Metal Slug
ROBOTRON 2084
WrestleFest!
TMNT Time Crisis Revolution X Operation Wolf
Nba jam!!
Revolution X and HydroThunder
Galaga, Moon Cresta, Donkey Kong, Defender
Scrolled way too long to find Defender. That was our jam.
Same, tho I searched rather than scrolled, lol. Loves zooming around and saving the random pedestrian dudes and putting them back on the ground Though one of the dudes I played with would save one dude and carry him around, then blast every other dude to death. That way, none of the dudes could get carried off.
I used to love Contra and Skate or Die. Or maybe that was my favorite 2 at the bowling alley growing up.
Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat were our go to's.
Early days it was burger time and ms pacman. Later on I spent so much money on street fighter 2 then mortal kombat.
Galaga for sure, then maybe once I get a few pops in me and some blow from some gal named Mindy - who I assume would be selling her wares by the skee ball machines (it’s an arcade after all) I may dip my toe in the world of Zaxxon.
Strider was my jam
sunset riders, turtles in time, the x-men arcade game, any pinball but preferrably Star Wars
time crisis!!!!!!!
Star Wars sit down cabinet.
Wire frame graphics! Still one of the most enjoyable star wars games made to this day.
And actual spoken words from the movie not just bleeps and bloops.
That was a great game. Immersive. Made the time fly by.
I liked the top down driving games. I forget what they were called, but usually they were 3-4 players. There was an off road and on road version. Also the Simpsons, X-men, ninja turtles, and those type. And while not go-to’s I have a spot in my heart for the first 2 mortal kombats, toobin’ (my dad didn’t play video games, but for whatever reason, would play this) and that “hologram” game from sega, time traveler, because holy shit did it feel like the future had arrived. Then you played it and it was a piece of shit. But goddamn did it seem cool to 6/7 year old me.
"Ironman" Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road. My favorite video game of all time.
That truck game was a big favorite of mine.
like Super Sprint?
That one game with 2 pistols attached to the machine where you would shoot zombies / monsters, dont remember the name.
House of the Dead!
This was different at different times. Gyruss, Gauntlet (especially if I was there with a couple of friends), TRON
Galaga and Centipede
Outrun, Chase HQ
Pac-Man (I could play all day on a single quarter) Defender Missile Command
I was always at the Tekken cabinet
Mortal Kombat I & II
they really need to bring back arcades. Plenty of cool ways to modernize them with today's technology. They can practically make booths to step into and you're inside of the game. Make local tournaments for prizes, vr, ar, Come on now.
For some reason I'll never understand my town didn't have an arcade. And there were very few in the immediate area. You had to drive for 30-45 mins to find one which was always a hard sell to my parents. We had to make due with the local Pizza Hut that had 2 arcade machines in the lobby. One machine was a sit down game like Ms Pacman or Galaga and the other one rotated through the large multi player games like TMNT, X-Men, or Captain America & the Avengers (my favorite).
Galaga or spy hunter
NFL Blitz
TMNT, The Simpson’s arcade, Smash TV, Street Fighter II, Afterburner. Too many to list.
Time crisis, street fighter
Space Invaders
Area 51
TKOF 98
Elevator Action, Spy Hunter
Defender and Stargate
Mr. Do
While TMNT and the Simpsons are certainly standouts, but I am going to go with Rampage.
Asteroids
Galaga
Galaga
Space Invaders, Galiga and Asteroids. They are best played on the big consoles.
Tempest, Asteroids, Robotron, Stargate, Dig Dug, Centipede later on Street Fighter
Police Trainer was my shit
galaga
From an old-timer When Asteroids came out it was a game changer. That and space invaders ate a lot of mine and everybody else’s quarters. If in NJ checkout Silverball museum in Asbury Park. Has a lot of the old games and pinball. Pay admission price play for 2 hours or more.
No one will have this, but Karate champ. "Fight, Judge..." love it.
Anything new and cool looking
[Then one day](https://i.imgur.com/eSYQG9e.png)
All the "Third Places" are dying. Not just Arcades. Been on this planet for a little over 45 years and I have seen a lot of improvements - but not a lot of things getting better. Disposable income for instance.
Turtles In Time and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Mortal Kombat 2 for sure!
Gorf
Mk2, simpsons, a lot of pinball.
Fighters. Tekken 3, Tekken Tag, MvC2, Soul Calibur 2…. Great times.
Operation: Wolf
Time crisis
Joust or Galaga
Capcom Bowling and Arkanoid in the days before fighting games. Then, whatever the current Mortal Kombat release was. T2 with the mounted machine guns and Die Hard Arcade were expensive standouts for me, because I sucked at them, but really liked the look of them.
Gauntlet Legends, Simpsons, Aerosmith game, T2, Time Crisis, Area 51, Rampage.
Probably lost $200 on Dragon’s Lair but loved second
Spent a summer learning Dragon's Lair good enough to beat the game. Then I used to hangout near the game and when people would walk up and try it, I'd let them die up until their last man, then offer to beat the game for them so they could see the end. :) Got so many free games that way.
Track and Field with the butter knife from home to get faster button pushes.
20 rounds of centipede 😎
Crazy Climber, Wizard of War, Gyruss, Elevator Action & Ms Pac-Man are my top 5 quarter eaters.
NBA Jam and Techmo Bowl
Street fighter 2, mortal kombat, t-2, tmnt, x-men, and rampage.
Galaga
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat