1994-2000 was a great time for me. I still remember when the original KI came out and everybody was in awe of it. Looking back on it I forgot how Street Fighter was EVERYWHERE. Arcades, movie theaters, Pizza Hut, etc. Now there is a SFII machine at a ratty pizza joint in Scranton that is really bugged, totally unplayable. Part of me really wants to get an arcade machine, but I know that they need a lot of work done to be playable.
arcades need to return. VR is our only hope to rebuild 
Definitely the 90s was the time for arcades. I remember the one I’d go to every saturday after my piano lesson. You’d walk in and it was dark but with the neon on the walls, and there was that weird fried food smell, even though they didn’t serve food. 
I was the champ at Mortal Kombat. I bodied my entire class when we’d go on field trips and they had a machine. But it was awesome seeing SF2 machines everywhere. You could play so often it was ridiculous, and EVERYONE played, so competition was usually pretty easy to find. I remember playing at the local arcade, at skating rinks, even the Skylon Tower up in Ontario Canada once that had this HUGE arcade in it.
I played a wedding up in IL last year and my gal and I stopped at a Pizza Hut, and wouldn’t you know it, they had an SF2 machine in the back by the bathrooms. It wasn’t working and looked like it hadn’t been taken care of, but it was still there.
Speaking of which X men the arcade game that let up to 6 people play was a fucking kick ass game!!! I remember playing it at the circus circus arcade in Vegas when I was really young
I didn’t play xmen but turtles in time usually had a crowed around it. 90’s arcades was crazy
It’s kind of sad. Arcades vanishing is like not being able to go outside and play sports
Chucky Cheese used to have legit arcades, but around mid 2000’s they switched out all the good games with Fischer Price redeem machines. I say this because the midwest didn’t have China Town Fair or any real arcades, just places that had a slew of machines. My time when I was into it was 90’s maybe to 2000. I don’t really miss the sticky worn buttons/sticks, or the smell of pop corn and greasy head hair. Though shit was fun, and I had moments of being a “pinball wizard” on Street Fighter 2 and Tekken 2.
whenever a place had this game you could always hear Colussus’s special move over everything in the arcade
I think the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in an arcade was when Tekken 3 came out. You could barely get through the entrance. It was this huge knot of kids in the front of the room and you could just see the logo on the top of the machine over their heads. That’s hype at the most basic, primal level.
Only reason I loved chucky cheese back in the day was the jurassic park ride/game !!!
I also miss the Carnevil shooter, Tilt west co had it back in the day
you’re too old you bastard. Why the hell do you have daytona 2 and i don’t, damn it. I could have had 2 cabs of daytona 2 pe for 1200 eu back n the days, still bummed i didn’t buy them…
Since i’m not as old and crusty as you, my greatest arcade years 84 till 01. I miss the arcades. Snk was the shit even before the neo geo. Sega, capcom, snk were the kings of the cade.
I do wanna know if you are good at daytona 2, and is it power edition or battle on the edge? What are your lap times?
All about offroad challenge!!!
Nice rcaido! I posted way back in the day and recently in the “info on the old school scene”
I have not been able to find an arcade since 2000.
That’s too bad, I’ve lived near mine for almost 14 years