I lost a lot of quarters to Time Crisis and I have zero regrets about it

Shadows over Mystara and The Simpsons game in the lobby at the theater downtown.

Popped a couple quarters into Arm Champs 2 at lazer tag and accidentally picked the hardest opponent. I held out long enough that other kids wouldn't let me lose, so like 5 of us together beat it.

Went to Texas on vacation and absolutely annihilated the high score board on a Star Wars: Phantom Menace pinball machine.

I grew up in the sticks, but we did have some arcades. Most were relegated to pizza huts, although occasionally we'd take a trip out to the mall. They had an awesome arcade, the kind with ski ball, every street fighter, that one Area 51 light gun game. I was part of a regular Soulcalibur 1 tournament they'd do every month. I'd go bowling with my grandma as a teenager too. The bowling alley had a very small, but extremely well curated arcade. Whoever was in charge of the arcade selection there really knew what they were doing, and I should have asked. Metal Slug, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Crazy Taxi, NBA Jam, etc. Just hit after hit.

I occasionally go to the retro arcade near me, although it's aimed at a slightly more retro vibe than I'm into. It mainly has games from the late 70s to late 80s, but it's still a cool time. I used to have the high score on the Bubble Bobble cabinet (trust me, jump a bunch of times in place on the first few levels, it's important).

I've been to a bunch of arcades in Japan and a few in China. It depends on where you go these days. In Japan a Taito or a Gigo are always good bets. There's only one Sega left, so that's a shame. Namco centers are also pretty good. They're harder to find, but little tiny arcades are always the best, but what can suck is people in there will absolutely be smoking. Every Japanese arcade I've visited that had Street Fighter III: Third Strike also had ash trays and permanent yellow stains everywhere.

Also, heads up, very large arcades in Japan will be set up on multiple levels. If you actually want arcade games, you'll have to find the floor you want.

• First floor is always claw machines (or UFO catchers).
• Second floor is often photo booths, or some kind of odd hobby-game like confusing card games or those simulators where you're a train conductor. Sometimes there will be VR stuff set up on the second floor too.
• Third floor will be rhythm games. Japanese arcades absolutely love rhythm games and you will see someone blasting their hands all over some buttons to a bouncy Hatsune Miku song or dancing like crazy on DDR
• Fourth floor will be stuff like airhockey, multiplayer stuff like the taiko drum game, etc.
• Fifth floor and above are what I call the otaku caves. They're where the nerds are pushed. That's where you'll see fighting games, more action oriented stuff, retro games, whatever.
• Top floor will be something like a place to play collectible card games or maybe even something like a theater for some local idol group, if you're into that kinda thing.

Hope you can visit a game center someday! There's really nothing else in the world quite like them. Shout out to that lady who destroyed me in Street Fighter 6 at the Taito in Nipponbashi a few months ago.

23 skidoo! Me and my main squeeze used to take the Model T down to the Nickelodeon with 20 cents in our pockets to play Shoot the Duck and Ten Pins see!

teenage mutant ninja turtles beat'em'up at chuck e cheese

DDR down at the putt-putt.

What came before was cool, TMNT at the pizza hut, etc. but DDR was peak.

Long lines for the machines, everybody having a great time.

People actually clapping when someone managed to get through a particularly hard song.

Thats what barcades are for. Drink and relive the nostalgia.

X-Men, Pac-Man, The one with the space centipedes that you have to shoot, Mario

My high school had a deal with the college across the street to let us use the bowling alley in their student rec area for a bowling class that me and my friends all joined together. It was pretty cool. We bowled right before one of our scheduled breaks so pretty frequently we'd all just walk over to the next door arcade. Crazy Taxi, Dynamite Cop, Time Crisis 2... honestly amazing times.

Sure do! In fact, my mom worked in an arcade when I was pretty young. She would hook me up with the quarters painted blue that they use to placate kids whose quarters were "eaten" by the game.

When my mom was dating my stepdad, we went to the arcade often.

When I was a young teen, I figured out you could eke out a few extra tickets if you gently pulled on the tickets that you won.

I liked the shooters the most. Driving was pretty cool too.

Side note, does anyone remember an Aerosmith themed shooter where you were the band, and you shot nondescript thugs? It was the kind of console that had the plastic gun. Pretty sure they were uzi style. I also remember the special button shot gold records.

golden axe at the pizza parlor baby

I really liked Burger Time. I felt like it wasn't mind numbingly hard and it was a good value proposition for a quarter. I similarly feel the same way about DigDug.

Spy Hunter was a revelation. But really hard.

Seeing Dragons Lair for the first time was mind boggling. But I sucked at it.

Street Fighter 2 definitely got me going back to the arcade.

Edited to add: look into the MiSTer FPGA project. I've had one for 5 or 6 years and it scratches an itch where most emulation falls short.

No way were my folks going to drive me somewhere to feed quarters into a machine. We had nintendo at home.

Pole position every Sunday night at Pizza Hut. I didn’t care for the fighting games at the time but man did I want to whiz around that track.

Full on Gen X. All we HAD was arcades. I mean.. the non-arcade versions of games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders was pretty janky.

Some of my fondest memories are spending Saturday afternoons at the arcade, back when $20 in quarters could last.

So many great games! First game I could ever finish was called Space Harrier. I figured out the pattern and could finish the game on a few quarters.

I admit I was sad when arcades started to shutter.