Most memorable arcade moment

back2the80s

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Do you have a memorable moment when you were a kid at the arcade? My most memorable was at the Goldmine arcade playing my favorite pin in 1986, it was High speed pinball, I remember all the kids were playing punch out,paperboy,720 while at the time the pinball row was empty and kids didn't really care to play pins?My mother used to take my brother and I to New Park Mall which today is a total dump mall compared to what it was in the 80s,and she whould give my brother and I $5 to play all day while she shopped, most of my money whould go to play High speed, I think what drew me to that game was that becon light spinning in the total darkness it just looked cool and there was no other pins like it there, after many try's I was getting pretty good at it and got to the red light part and wow! I was hearing cops talking from the pin and chasing me, while I playing the pin! what I didn't realize was that I was drawing a small crowd behind me with curious kids looking on ( never Had that happened to me) well I ended up getting the Jackpot and the pin went crazy and pop! got a free cedit from the knocker behind the backglass, man! those awesome sounds! after I was done the kids wanted to play it and try to beat my score which didn't happen for a while but that was my most memorable great time that I truly miss!
 
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I have two.
In 88 I used to go to a Bowling Alley with my grandmother and cousins every Saturday AM. They had a Spy Hunter, Vs. Castlevania and Rampage. I played them ALLLLLLL the time and loved em! I also remember how SMOKEY it was there.

The other is playing the rare sit down version of Night Striker at Chuck E Cheese. There was a huge line just to play and it was worth it!
 
We had a toy store in our downtown that had an arcade in the back for a few years, from 1981 to 1983, they had a weekly high score contest for the 7 or so machines they had. The store owner would put each persons name in a box at the end of the week and then if he drew your name you would win a nice prize or sometimes even $50.00. I would often get the high score each week on Universal's Cosmic Avenger and once I even won the $50.00 for my high score. It was years later when I learned I was only a couple thousand points away from the world record according to Twin Galaxies.
 
OH YEAH playing a hard drivin upright at the tilt arcade in northtowne mall in rockford il.

THe bigger kids used to get pissed because i would play for so long :D

I also remember playing the hell out of a pp cockpit at the electronic experience that was in the machesney park mall in machesney park il


and for some reason i have an affinity for driving games.. hmm... :D
 
Picked up a girl in the local mall arcade when I was 16. Drove her home afterwards. I'm sure there were some classic games in there somewhere (was 1987), but I don't remember what they were. Sorry... I was distracted. :)
 
I mostly remember playing Donkey Kong, Pole Position and Tempest at the local Godfathers Pizza. We rarely had the pizza, just played the games - suprised we never got kicked out come to think of it. - Barry
 
The first, and only, game I ever completed at an arcade was The Punisher. I got about 3/4 of the way through it and then it messed up so I had to start over again. I ended up spending $20 to do it but it was worth it.

I was on a ferry where they had arcade games. I started playing Jurassic Park pinball and I don't know what was wrong but it was constantly giving out free games and balls. The trip takes about an hour and a half and I spent almost an hour playing the game with one quarter.
 
Caddyman just reminded me of mine...and it wasn't even at an arcade!

I played Hard Drivin at a science museum - the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA. They built a whole wing called "the future center" and it was really cool (back then). I honestly wish it was still around, but they had Hard Drivin because it showed the future of computing and virtual reality. They've since made the future center just another wing of the place, although the Omniverse (see: imax) theater is still there.

Fast forward a couple years and I was playing it at the Boardwalk Mall arcade in Wildwood, I could only play it a couple times because it was a buck to play and my parents were poor lol, but I couldn't believe that I finally had a chance to try driving a real (like) stick shift.
 
I've told this story a few times, but it's easily the most memorable arcade experience I've had...

I pissed myself playing Berzerk when I was like 8-9 years old. I was in the middle of a really good game (for me, anyway) and trying my best to hold it. As I lost my last life, I also lost control of my bladder. I was wearing shorts. The pee was everywhere: my leg, my shorts, the floor, etc. I didn't even fully realize what had happened until a buddy of mine was like, "Dude. Did you just pee your pants?"

As I walked back home in my soiled clothes, I wasn't even embarrassed. I had just put up 20K on Berzerk, which I still haven't been able to top- though my control of my bodily functions has improved somewhat.
 
The most memorial Arcade moment for me was the first time I ever went to Scandia in Kelowna BC in 1983. I was 13 and I remember it was a Friday night, the place was packed wall to wall people everyone was playing something it was the place to be. I even remember a pretty girl coming up to me and saying "hi i see your good at Centipede", it was awesome.
 
Mine was scoring 250,000 on Donkey Kong while wearing roller skates. It was probably about 150,000 more than I could usually score. This was way before I ever saw how to get past the 3rd elevators, so it had to have been blind luck that I got through it. That was the most fun I have ever had playing a game, and probably a big contributor to me still enjoying the games now. I just remember a great adrenaline rush. I scored about 150,000 points on my last man, and it was all past where I had ever been before. It was crazy. I don't think I ever did skate that day. Kinda like my second best memory: I played Stunt Cycle all day long at Disney Land. It was a blast, but everyone just thought I wasted the whole day. I have been to Disney Land on other occasions, and went on all the rides, but none of those trips were as fun as that da in the arcade.
 
Right after Street Fighter II came out, I watched a couple of college kids get into a real fight over it at a gas station in Houston. Most action I've ever seen in an arcade.
 
One of my most memorable moments was only about 5 years ago. I was playing Mr. Do's Castle at Flashbacks, a local arcade full of old games in Seaside Heights, NJ. It was the best game of MDC that I've ever played. There was a real stickler of a foreign exchange student working there. They were trying to close for the night, so he told us that "how you say - this is zee last game". I nodded and kept playing. I wasn't about to be hustled out by this grouchy clown. He stood behind me condescendingly, and he threw his arms up in the air and freaked out when I got an extra man right before his eyes. The game kept going and going, I continued racking up extra guys the whole time. I even grabbed a diamond for a free game at one point, which seems pretty uncommon for MDC. When I finally died, he reimbursed me a quarter for the free game and chased me outta here. What a grouch. But what a great game.
 
the crowds around time travler & street fighter 2's
 
the crowds around time travler & street fighter 2's

Yeah, I have so many good memories. I remember playing Time Traveler at a Wisconsin Dells arcade about 1995 when it first came out. Also remember going to a Waterslide park and playing SF2 all day instead of hitting the slides. Someone had left the coin door open, so kids played each other game after game.

Proudest moment was probably 56 wins in a row on MK2 at a local bowling alley. I was randomly selecting my character and I finally lost with Jax, but at that point my hands hurt and I didn't really want to play anymore anyway.
 
I had just bought my first arcade game, and discovered the rec.games.video.arcade.collecting newsgroup. I read through everything, learned about which machines were rare, the most wanted, etc.

Our town's last arcade holdout from the heydeys was a small one. Back in the early 80s, even this tiny arcade had an operator working in the back room full time whenever it was open `cause it was that popular. You walked up to the window and got tokens, or told him if a machine quit working. It sat right next to the movie theatre in the mall. But then the mall died, and the shops closed down. Soon, there was nothing left but a restaurant (Papa Gino's), the movie theatre, and the arcade. Then the restaurant boarded up.

I hadn't visited in a long time, and I didn't know if the place was even still open. Went to check it out - it was. Lots of Street Fighters, a Strider, old conversions running blind because of dead monitors, etc. The operator had populated the place with the final relics of his inventory.

And there, in the corner, was a Missile Command cockpit. Working.

I got in and played. It isn't the only way to play MC, but it's easily the best. I knew how rare the thing was, and I was psyched to get to play it by random chance.

The arcade closed soon thereafter - but, closing it on an MC cockpit is closing it on a high note, in my book. BTW, I got the operator's phone number and hooked him up with an RGVAC member, who ended up with the game. :)
 
My most memorable arcade moment was CAX 2009. It wasn't a single moment, but the entire event. :)

As a child there was a hotel I stayed at while on a ski trip, and I was about 12 years old. They had several pinball machines, but one machine would keep giving free credits so I could play all evening long for a dime. My brother played the other machine and was really pissed off he had to keep spending his money :D He didn't realize it was a glitch in the one I was playing... I spent 7 glorious nights playing on the cheap!
 
I remember I was playing a game back in the 80's as a kid inside Alladin's Castle in the Louis Joliet Mall. In back of me watching was some hotties. After I died it was time to put my 3 letter initials in the high score. I was so nervous with them watching that I accidently put in "JAY" instead of my handle "JAZ" and hit DONE. One letter from getting it right. From that moment on I had an allias. The girls called me Jay. Every once in a while I would hear someone call me Jay in that arcade. Boy, the stuff you can get away with with two names. LOL
 
When I was a young kid around 12 or 13 my cousin was the manager of Just Games, Inc in Downers Grove. I spent nearly every day after school and all day Saturdays there for years.

Gottlieb/Mylstar used to test games at this location (as did Williams) and I remember one day when i was there a woman who worked for Gottlieb came in to check on the game, Guardian (later renamed protector, then Argus which is the name you can play it in MAME under) and I was way into that game so she asked me a bunch of questions about what I thought about their games and what other games I liked and why.

When we were done having the conversation she told me I knew a lot about games and I should look into getting a job in video games when I get older. I just looked at her with big eyes thinking "yeah like that could happen in a million years".

Fast forward another dozen years or so and I ended up working for Williams Bally/Midway which was a job I just sort of stumbled into and have worked in the game industry ever since in various capacities which is either a blessing or a curse depending on the time period and where I was working at any given time.

Runners up:

Winning a "high score of the week" trophy at the arcade on Track and Field. It was a promotion that was running shortly after the game was released. I won it the morning of the cutoff for that week's scores. I still have it, though it once fell off a shelf a couple years after I got it and the top broke off and I had to repair it the best I could. I'd love to find a replacement for it.

Getting 1,999,990 on Punch Out (it rolls over at 1M) and being forced to stop playing because of complaints over the "paying customers" who had been waiting over an hour to play the game. At the time the world record was like 8M and I could have easily topped it that day. After so many matches the same 4 fighters repeat forever without getting any harder. I think I was in match 86 or there abouts when I was removed from the machine.
 
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