Arcade: How did you burn your quarters?

[sHayden]

what games did you put the most money into back when arcades were popular?
and what did you do marathon sessions for, pumping quarters in till you beat it?

I put a lot of money in Tekken 3, X-men Arcade, Virtual ON, & Silent Scope.

I only ever paid enough to beat TMNT and Pitfighter.

[Aziz Abbasi]

I remember I was a fool once 12 years ago and spent over $120 on "Sonic the Fighters"
I spent much less on the second of the "Street Fighter" & "Mortal Kombat" franchise throughout the years, and those are two of the games I play the most on consoles

[Enterprise E]

My favorite arcade game was a pinball game called Revenge from Mars (I think that was its name). It was my favorite because it was fun, funny, and had a loose storyline. My favorite levels in the game were the battle over the White House and the Robo Lincoln level. I also played Lethal Enforcers, both games, T2 Judgment Day, the X-Men arcade game, Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, and Area 51. However, I only put in enough quarters to beat the game.

[AllisterH]

Fun topic.

Put enough quarters into the original TMNT (one of the greatest arcade games EVER) that I got good enough I could BEAT the game with one quarter with my man Donatello (and 2 or 3 with Raphael - the fact that he couldn't do the jump and swing like the rest made it pretty damn hard to beat the "highway riding on skateboards versus the footcopters" stage. Always would lose a life there)

Put enough quarters that I could beat Street fighter:CE with just one quarter with either Guile, Chun-li or Sagat.

On a good day, I could beat UN Squadron, Altered Beast and original Double Dragon with less than 5 quarters.

The T2 gun game is the only game I remember actually simply putting quarters in JUST to beat and see the endcredits...THAT was a mountain of quarters that day.

[cactusmaac]

Streetfighter 2, Double Dragon and Final Fight.

[The Black Guardian]

My arcade days kind of came to an end around 1985. I'm pretty sure most of my quarters went into Galaga/Galaxian machines. I never seemed to get tired of playing it. Way past 1985, if I ran into the game, I would pump quarters into it.

Other highlights:
Space Invaders
Missile Command
Asteroids
Defender/Stargate
Pac-Man (and family)
Zaxxon
Tempest
Tron
Discs of Tron
Qix - Original concept
Q-Bert
Robotron 2084 - Loved the controls of this fast-paced shooter.
Elevator Action
Spy Hunter - Only driving game I ever liked.
Xevious
Joust
Thayer's Quest - Coin-op interactive RPG. Full keyboard, save game, and actually spoke your name. Required lots of quarters and time to play. It was $0.50 per credit, which hurt sales, but I played it a lot before its brief life was over (preferring it to Dragon's Lair).
Gauntlet - One of the last games I remember before I stopped caring.

[Ronald Bryan]

Street Fighter 2 with my boy Ryu, Mortal Kombat with Scorpion, the Addams Family pinball game, the X-Men arcade game as well as the fighting game, Lethal Enforcers 2 "posse", Time Crisis 2, TMNT, and of course Spider-Man with the 500 Venom finale.

[Michael P]

Anybody remember Captain America & the Avengers? That game was tight.

[GozertheGozarian]

Anybody remember Captain America & the Avengers? That game was tight.

That and Punisher got a lot of play from me. Too bad the console versions sucked.

[Eric D.]

mach 3
crystal castle
dragon's lair
Play Choice 10
A.P.B .
Tubin'
Double Dragon
Galaga/Galaxia
Qbert

[psychic_therapy]

Yie Ar Kung Fu

Double Dribble

Cyberball

Terminator 2

Star Wars (first the original, vector graphic game based on ANH, then the recent OT game)

Dragon's Lair

Street Fighter 2

[Ronald Bryan]

That and Punisher got a lot of play from me. Too bad the console versions sucked.

The NES Punisher was great. It was a game that needed dual sticks, and used an NES controller. That's a game that would work as a rerelease with new controls as a downloadable game.

[KiFF86]

Liked most have said, the X-men side scroll game and Star Wars trilogy.

Super Street Fighter and Capcom vs Marvel (When my family would go to Memphis.)

I would play pinball every time I would go to the movies, but the theater that had them closed down, and it also had an awesome arcade that I recall having Mike Tyson Punch-Out, Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunter and Tetris

Oh and the Simpson's side scrolling game, Homer kicked ass in it.

[sHayden]

Oh and the Simpson's side scrolling game, Homer kicked ass in it.

I liked that quite a bit. I saw an operational cabinet for that a few years ago.

Anybody remember Captain America & the Avengers? That game was tight.

Enjoyed that, The Punisher, and The X-men.

The T2 gun game is the only game I remember actually simply putting quarters in JUST to beat and see the endcredits...THAT was a mountain of quarters that day.

Did you ever notice the games like T2 that had a machine gun vs. games like Time Crisis that had a pistol were much harder? I always felt like I was just spraying gun fire all over the screen.

[AllisterH]

Did you ever notice the games like T2 that had a machine gun vs. games like Time Crisis that had a pistol were much harder? I always felt like I was just spraying gun fire all over the screen.

Oh hell yes.


I think the thing about Pistol games was that there wasn't as much activity on the screen, thus any movement was noticeable and thus you could focus and evaluate the threats. As well, they simply weren't as twitchy in that most of the enemies on screen would have a "wind-up/get set to fire" animation allowing you time.

T2 was horrendous in that there was always activity on the screen AND the enemies would start firing as soon as they came on screen. (the truck ride stage was always a toughie because of this)