Your first experience with a fighting game in an arcade.

Rodimus

Rodimus

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I was probably 10 at the time. I was in a movie theater and there was a crowd around a machine. Not sure what movie I was going to see (maybe Ninja Turtles 2 or Earnest Scared Stupid, some dumb kid stuff) 

It was Street Fighter II and I picked Blanka. I didn't know how to do special moves so I thought by mashing the buttons he would do something cool. My train of thought was: "Maybe if press jab, fierce & roundhouse the green man will do something special" But I kept jumping and kicking/punching like a scrub asshole since that seemed to work pretty well. Occasionally I would fire off his electric shock without knowing how I did it. Surprisingly I won!!!!  But quickly lost to a Ken who knew what they were doing. He SHORYUKENed me to death.

I begged my mom for another quarter but the movie was going to start. Leaving the theater I was still psyched about my puny win.

 
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I did the same thing with Chun Li, when I was about 10. This teenager kept on pumping quarters in, and finally said "you're just too good for me."

As soon as he left, the computer completely beat my ass.

 
10th Birthday, Mum and Dad took me to Chuck E Cheese. This is back when they had real games.

First time I ever saw a Street Fighter 2 cabinet. The graphics blew me away. I picked Ryu, cause he looked like a solid dood.

I had my ass royally kicked and handed back to me. But I was so intrigued by the kind of game I was playing, I thought about it a lot the next week. 23 years and 4 days later, I can recall that match like it was yesterday. Changed my life, no lie. It was the beginning of many days spent playing SF and MK in arcades with friends. It lead to a deep love of Killer Instinct. It made me ready to fall in love with Darkstalkers as a much more adapt player. It was the reason I spent every day after school for a year playing Samurai Shodown 2 with my cousin at the Big Lots across the street from the school. It was the first step on the path to finding Tekken, and spending more hours playing that with the same cousin (both at home and in arcades) than I should probably admit publicly.

It was fun. And it was the beginning of much more fun. It sparked something in me that became an obsession. It is the reason I am so sad when I think about or read about arcade games being released. It is also the reason I stop in front of any fighting game cabinet I find out in the wild, and feel obliged to pop in 2 quarters.

This may all sound a little sappy or over the top. But that day- that game- changed my life forever. If you don't understand, then you are probably too young to know what it was like to walk into an arcade and see a line of 12 SF machines surrounded by kids waiting to play. You just had to live it to get it I suppose.

 I can never thank my mother enough for the amount of time she spent waiting for me to spend my last quarter or finish my turn. She has the patience of a saint, I swear.

 
MasaTFC said:
10th Birthday, Mum and Dad took me to Chuck E Cheese. This is back when they had real games.

First time I ever saw a Street Fighter 2 cabinet. The graphics blew me away. I picked Ryu, cause he looked like a solid dood.

I had my ass royally kicked and handed back to me. But I was so intrigued by the kind of game I was playing, I thought about it a lot the next week. 23 years and 4 days later, I can recall that match like it was yesterday. Changed my life, no lie. It was the beginning of many days spent playing SF and MK in arcades with friends. It lead to a deep love of Killer Instinct. It made me ready to fall in love with Darkstalkers as a much more adapt player. It was the reason I spent every day after school for a year playing Samurai Shodown 2 with my cousin at the Big Lots across the street from the school. It was the first step on the path to finding Tekken, and spending more hours playing that with the same cousin (both at home and in arcades) than I should probably admit publicly.

It was fun. And it was the beginning of much more fun. It sparked something in me that became an obsession. It is the reason I am so sad when I think about or read about arcade games being released. It is also the reason I stop in front of any fighting game cabinet I find out in the wild, and feel obliged to pop in 2 quarters.

This may all sound a little sappy or over the top. But that day- that game- changed my life forever. If you don't understand, then you are probably too young to know what it was like to walk into an arcade and see a line of 12 SF machines surrounded by kids waiting to play. You just had to live it to get it I suppose.

I can never thank my mother enough for the amount of time she spent waiting for me to spend my last quarter or finish my turn. She has the patience of a saint, I swear.
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You went deep with that story. I love it

I swear I read it like 5 times.

 
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I think I played one of the Street Fighter games as a kid. I was really young so I don't really remember it too much. I haven't played many fighting games in the arcade sadly. 

 
Yeah, Street Fighter 2 took my arcade fighter innocence too.

Then after years of therapy I saw Primal Rage and was all "Fighting dinosaurs? Heck yeah!"

 
Original mortal kombat. Man did I drop some quarters in that thing.

Actually, probably karate champ.
 
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Street fighter 2 as I waited for a pizza with my dad at pizza Hut. I think I was 6. I asked for a quarter, he said no so I just watched. Than he bought it for me on Christmas.
 
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First fighting game I played in an arcade was Rampage. Fighting buildings like there was no tomorrow. 

 
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