The Video Game Critic

I was especially obsessed with Yie Ar Kung Fu. Dropped many a quarter into that machine as a kid. Thing is, I've always been into pattern based fighters such as YAKF and Punch-Out. There's an addictive quality to figuring out strategies for all the different opponents.

YAKF might not seem like much today, but it still holds a special place for me and it's still fun. (Even after many attempts, I've yet to defeat Blues. He's a real cheap son of a...)

I Guess Im younger than everyone here, as I didn't grow up in the arcade Age.  Infact, for much of my life, including right now, my city didn't have an arcade.

But I remember that during the great arcade revival of the early 90s, I was about 8 back then.  I always had to play Turtles in Time every time we went to the mall.  It is my favorite beatemup game of all time, despite not being as deep as other ones, its just pure fun, and I really hope that with the new TMNT movie, (which looks horrible) more great Turtles games will come.  But I'm so glad the SNES got a great port of it. 

But when I was 12, I moved to Omaha for a year, and they had an awesome arcade there.   I always played Time Crisis 2, and that is probably the arcade game I played more than anything.  I convinced my mom to let me go there once a week, and I probably dropped most of my quaters into that system.  It was new at the time, and I believe they wanted three quarters, but it was worth it.    At least until the awesome PS2 port came out.

     I did not grow up in an area with an arcade nearby, so pickings were scarce. Probably a good thing, no doubt saved me some cash. But there was a place where they had the original Super Mario Brothers in the lobby, and that was the ticket.

     I sometimes look at old arcade machines on EBAY and am tempted, but I think that would push my wife too far. But I think they are the easily the coolest collectible in gaming, and I enjoyed reading your arcade page, VGC. They would really make a good wedding present for the right guy (or gal?), you can't go wrong with a home appliance, right?

     I sometimes look at old arcade machines on EBAY and am tempted, but I think that would push my wife too far. But I think they are the easily the coolest collectible in gaming, and I enjoyed reading your arcade page, VGC. They would really make a good wedding present for the right guy (or gal?), you can't go wrong with a home appliance, right?

TMNT (any) and the Simpsons took the majority of my quarters. I've also thrown quite a few into Galaga and Street Fighter 2.

The only machine i've played was one of those Neo-Geo cabinets that had like 6 games.  I played Samuri Showdown a lot, Metal Slug a few times, but most of my quaters went to a weird game called 'Windjammers"--it's like an insame version of Pong with frisbees and special moves (if you can imagine).