Any Other "Arcade Kids"?

[racketboy]

I know most of us play most of our stuff on consoles now, but was there anybody else like me who didn't have a console during most of their impressionable years, but got most of their gaming fixes in the arcade?

I did play some NES at friends' houses and such, but my parents wouldn't buy me games, but said I could have them if I bought them myself. So I didn't get my Genesis until I was 13.

So before that, I really looked forward to going to places like our local Little Caesars pizza place and the bowling alley that was attached to it. Back then, they had a ton of games between the two buildings.

I remember I used to read up on the gaming magazines at Meijer's (kinda like a Wal-Mart Supercenter) to learn tips (especially for Street Fighter II) and then try to remember them on the way to the arcade

[Curlypaul]

there never really were any arcades near here when I was a kid. After Virtua Racing came out and that brief flurry of great games that followed the local cinema got quite a few cool machines and so did the Shipleys although Shipleys soon decided that they didnt want the people that the games machines attracted. I also remember a couple of trips to this arcade in middle of Birmingham that was in some basement, full of smoke and had machines like Gauntlet, which were old even then and punks, which were also pretty old by then. The atmosphere in there was really cool and Its a shame that places like that are all gone.

[General Chaos]

I wasn't purely an arcade kid, but I did maybe 1/4 of my gaming in the arcade. There was a fairly good arcade at my local mall and one at a pizza place within walking distance. The pizza places were great b/c the games were typically cheap enough that you could spend some good hours of gaming there. When I go to the arcades now I usually just end up playing air hockey with friends--still a lot of fun though, especially the Sega one with multiple pucks.

As far as reading up on tips for arcade games, I remember the local Killer Instinct nut at the pizza place who would bring his tip book into the arcade and just stand there pulling off ridiculous combos. There's something about the arcade atmosphere that you just can't recreate at home--the greasy joysticks, the muddled cacaphony of sound from all of the different cabinets, and the eccentric regulars whom you both admire and fear.

[REPO Man]

No.

I was weened on an old NES, then moved on to Genesis, and now I play damn near everything.

But I FRIGGIN LOVE arcade games, so while I'm not a "real" arcade kid, I'm still just as dedicated. So all the arcades in Orlando when I went there for vacation a few years ago was HEAVEN. I played DDR, Mocap Boxing, Crazy Taxi (both upright and deluxe cab), House of the Dead 3, and all sorts of gr8 stuff.

Where I live, however, the nearest arcade is about 5-10 minutes away by car, which is about 45-60 by bike. And the arcade is part of a restaurant. I could explain the history behind it, but I don't have the time.

I have, however, been wanting to run my own arcade, like this one this town used to have back in the mid-90s (they had Tekken, MK3 and Primal Rage), but with a mix of old and new stuff.

[General Chaos]

I've always wanted to start an Arcade/Pizza parlor and take a different approach to the games (and maybe even the food). People would still have the option of paying for games with a card/quarters, but could also buy a "membership" and pay monthly to come in and play and eat as much as they wanted. Hell, I'd pay well to have access to something like that myself, and I think it would create a real community around the games, which is a big part of what arcades are all about.

[Ack]

My earliest cognitive memory is of my father buying an NES. I was...four years old, so it was 1989. So no, I played a lot at home at first. But whenever I'd go to the skating rink, Street Fighter 2 was there, just waiting for me to play. I couldn't ever get very far, but it instilled in me a great love for the fighter.

A few years later, I learned of a Killer Instinct 2 cab at a mini-golf place. I played a few times, but always got stomped by the third CPU fight. So I go to summer camp that year, and a bunkmate has a strategy guide for the game! I was so excited, I spent the week memorizing combos and special moves. I eventually get back to the place, but discover they'd removed KI2 because it wasn't "successful enough," and had replaced it with a well-known basketball game, NBA Jam. To this day, I cannot stand NBA Jam. For the record, that place also held my first foray into 3D fighters, cutting my teeth as a greenhorn on Virtua Fighter. Ah, good times..

[Doctor Fugue]

100 percent arcade gaming for several years until I broke down and bought a Genesis. Then it was about 90 percent arcade gaming until about 1998.

Now I just cry all the time. Nothing's filling that void.

[Gamerforlife]

I had an NES, but Arcade games always seemed soooooo far ahead of what I was playing. The jaw dropping graphics, the sounds, they were magical places with incredible games that could not exist outside those hallowed walls. Arcades were like a luxury to me. Playing the NES port of TMNT with its downgraded graphics and sound really convinced me that arcade machines were made of some divine substance that my NES could never provide

[glynnahab]

Although I spent most of my time on the NES, I have fond memories of a local place called Pizza Playhouse. It was basically like Chuck-E Cheese (back when Chuck-E Cheese was Show-Biz Pizza) but with arcade games only. I made many friends playing the old TMNT arcade game.

I wouldn't define myself as an arcade kid (more of an NES kid), but I definitely had some great times in the arcade.

[All Hail The New Flesh]

I grew up in Bristol, CT there was a place called Scooters, that place had everything, they had the 6-Player X-Men, Dragon's Lair, Samurai Shodown II. It was one of the best places in the world, sadly it was closed down because some lady got raped in the Lazar Tag Arena and sued the place up the ass and went out of business. Now its just a Staples. Everytime I step foot inside there, I begin to see Scooters right before my eyes and hear the sounds of Arcade games and children laughing and have a good time.

I really missed that place.