I used to play Super Mario Bros. a lot in the arcade because I was not allowed to have a Nintendo Entertainment System. When I finally saved up and bought a NES of my own, I was able to beat the game the first night because the home version was a lot easier.
The only arcade game that I ever really played with my dad was Xevious. They had it at a Mexican buffet restaurant where we’d go when I was a kid. That restaurant chain used to have many locations in several states but now seems to be limited to two spots in Texas.
When I was playing Vindicators in an outdoor arcade with a friend, the game ate one of our quarters. A guy working there opened it up and hit a switch repeatedly, giving us more than enough credits to play through the whole game for free. That outdoor arcade was part of an outdoor mall, which was the first place I ever encountered pizza sold by the slice.
The arcade game I’ve played more than any other is almost certainly Victory Road. But these ones are in the running:
- Final Fight
- Forgotten Worlds
- Side Arms
- Smash TV
- Snow Bros.
- Strider
- Strikers 1945
- Time Soldiers
- U.N. Squadron