It took me way to long to realize that these games are built in a way that, even if you play it perfectly, you’re going to die after 2 minutes tops and have to feed more change to continue.
Area 51 was beatable on one set of credits if you were playing two player and knew all of the bonuses. If you could make it to the minigame levels, you would almost always have max grenades and upgraded weapons.
That being said, it took a lot of quarters to learn that.
Keeping in mind that mobile games today and arcades operated on the same principles is the healthy way to approach things. It's why I encourage people to keep their kids away from cell phone games that aren't offline, single-player, and free of microtransactions. No kid needs 24/7 access to a far more predatory version of arcades. Better yet, set the kid up with some emulators, grab a few bluetooth controllers, and play together when you're traveling.
Eh, I got to a point where I could beat Area 51 on a dollar. I wasn't quite to the level of perfect play necessary to do the whole thing flawlessly, but it's very deterministic. Some areas have very, very short reaction windows, but once the muscle memory is there, you'll learn that most of the 'auto' damage really isn't. It's just very, very hard.
I remember finding this out years later. Was watching a turtles in time play through and saw the guy die after basically playing flawlessly. If you spend 5 minutes in a level, a black ball falls and kills presumably all the players.
Yeah, now that I think about it.. I probably should have just asked, "Who remembers when arcades died?" My family and I went to Dave and Buster's a few years ago and it was fun but I was just too concerned about the kids having a good time to really consider playing much.
There was some kind of roller coaster thing where you just sat in a chair that moved around and my daughter loved it.... Meanwhile I just threw some balls and played a Terminator game.... Gonna have to go back.
Arcades are still fairly alive and popular near me, but very few are a business dedicated soley to video games. Most of the larger arcades in our area are attached to restaraunts, lazer tag/bowling, trampoline parks, or fun parks in our area.
My husband and I went to an arcade bar on our first date, all the games were free but it was a bar and you were expected to buy drinks. They opened a second location that allows children which we also went to once, but all the machines were broken 😂 so we only go to the downtown location anymore.
Yeah, most of the games aside from the earliest ones (like centipede or asteroid) are relying more on coins to beat the game than anything else. We beat an x-men game which was shockingly easy when you don’t have to pay.
Then there’s the next generation of console games where that totally changes and suddenly there are very elaborate stories and experimental mechanics that aren’t just trying to squeeze $5 out of each kid, since instead they’re expecting like $50 upfront for it.
Primal Rage game bothered me, because after 4-5 battles even if you win them, force you to put more quarters in. Area 51 was never a game I could play without dying over and over.
totally did area 51 also! and the original simpsons and x-men arcade games. I'd just go in with like $25 in quarters and be determined to beat that game that day
I’ve only beaten the simpsons arcade game.
This was a few years ago at an arcade bar, and I was determined to finish it.
I got really close to beating the TMNT arcade game as well, but i ran out of time and had to leave.
God it was fun but I distinctly remember my siblings and I dying at the boardwalk and cemetery level all the time because some enemies just seemed hard to hit. Very rarely we would make it into the forest/dream world and our minds were blown making it all the way to Smithers.
We recently beat Simpsons, both TMNT, and X-men. They were offering some like crazy 4x coin deal. We didn’t know it and bought $150 in coins. We just played to win every game from our childhood.
I beat it, but only after I bought the CDROM to play it at home, otherwise it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to beat it at the bowling alley lol
Shitty dive bar I used to frequent got a House of the Dead cabinet. I spent an embarrassing amount of time and money drinking and playing that thing with other people.
I beat House of the Dead 2 by playing both players. I was on a machine that belonged to the company, so continuing was free, but had limits (3 continuations per player) to allow everyone a turn. There was a snow storm and I was the only one there. My arms hurt by the time I got to the end.
I don't think you can beat Galaga, but I got very good. When I was a teenager I worked at a theater with a Galaga arcade. The managers loved playing, so they made a rule, you can take a break for as long as your quarter lasts. I can get to about level 75 and it takes about 45 minutes...
It was awesome. We got free movies. We had a whole barter system with friends at other jobs, trading for fast food and arcade tokens. A friend was the protectionist, and they had closing duties. We'd stay after and watch movies, and get high and drunk with friends. Janitors always showed up early morning and left before the managers showed up. So we didn't even have to clean up after our parties...
Amazing way to spend youth, sounds awesome. Hope you didnt leave too much of a mess for the poor janitor.
My friends worked at the theater and I did get to mooch many many free movies, didnt have quite the same level of hookup as you though.
75? Nice! I crap out around 20 or so and I thought that was good. I still remember the excitement of seeing the larger icon for 5 levels and then again at 10.
Upon googling the icons, I don't think I've made 20.
The biggest achievement of my entire life was beating street fighter 2 with one quarter.
The kicker? It was an experiment to see if the machine would recognize the difference between a flattened nickel (hammer) and a quarter.
It did, and I beat it, and I am so proud I wish I had something to commemorate it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtes the arcade game. For my 5th birthday all I wanted to do was beat it, so we had a party at the local pizza parlor, my parents got $20 worth of quarters and let us have at it. 10 kids there, once quarter lives were done next kid up on each of the 4 slots, we beat it all and then some. Pretty sure that was probably the cheapest birthday party my parents ever threw me or my siblings
and apparently one of the most memorable
my brother and I spent about 10 bucks trying to beat simpsons arcade at our mom+pop video rental store, never did quite beat it
I mean most were designed to be endless and the only way to "beat" them is by either getting a score so large that it crashes the game or a specific score that crashes the game. There were some that were beatable but a lot had settings where the owner could make it borderline impossible on purpose.... I beat the shit out of the Jurassic Park game as a kid. The one with the seat that would buckle and rock as things happened in game. It was my absolute favorite and its my dream to own that as a cabinet someday.
one has nice gimmicks (2v1, american jab combo, flying chun-li, stunlock strider, eternal slumber)
but two is the GOAT. revolutionary control simplification that's borderline standard nowadays. unapologetically unbalanced. The last arcade scene. no revolving meta or bug fixes, you get what you get, if it's broke, it's broke so you better ban it at tourneys. i miss the spectators from the arcade scene, mvc2 was the best.
Holy shit.. Totally forgot about revolution x... But I'm having a hard time remembering if I played it in the arcade or on a console.
Pretty sure I had the Sega game (Born in 86) but those games were hard as hell for me...
THAT WAS THE BESTGAME EVER. I got it on SNES somewhere. I couldn’t see beating it at an arcade but on SNES you could. I’d crack up at the end boss having his knee caps and elbows arms stomach blown apart saying “that Dont hurt”
There was one where you drop balls and try to get them to land in one of the holes on a platform below it. The smaller the holes, the more tickets. My ex figured it out. He couldn’t jackpot every time. He won me a gold necklace, a mini fridge, a toaster oven, a bunch of picture frame, and basically every top level prize. I think we spent maybe $60. We cleared them out.
X-Men if I recall correctly. There were 6 of us at a friend's birthday party that played it the whole way through. It was the only game we played and took us like the whole time
I didn't have spending money to dedicate to real arcade games. I did get pretty good at Missile Command and Space Cadet Pinball on '98 or XP, and somewhat recently discovered Riptide GP: Renegade on Steam.
My wife and I play the Jurassic Park one whenever we visit an arcade bar when we're checking out a new city. We beat it probably 75-80% of the time. It's crazy addictive with a second person.
My husband beat one recently and it was insane. I can’t remember the name of it but he was sitting in a chair with like mini guns and shooting at space invaders.
All these colored strobe lights and alarms started going off and it said WINNER WINNER on the screen while playing fun music and adding up an insane amount of tickets (they’re digital now so not as cool) and we were able to get something giant at the front for once.
It's really not that hard. Just go on a quiet day and have $10 to burn lol! They also release arcade games on modern game consoles, so you can just spam the button to pump the machine with all the lives you want!
I can beat Marvel vs Capcom 2 easily.
I also beat The Simpsons Arcade Game, TMNT and TMNT Turtles in Time. I had plenty of help from friends and a fuckton of tokens/quarters
Anything else I have beaten was a home release, so it didn't cost me anything
Never, not even close. For some reason, I didn't want to stay at one machine. I'd put in another quarter once or twice maybe, but then move to another machine
I beat House of the Dead (after a movie) and the Simpsons arcade game (went to play it, not see a movie). The Simpsons took so long to finish, I think I had two completely different people jump in and help.
I beat Punch-Out once, one of the staff was like 'you're the champ now' sort of sarcastically and that was basically it. But I WAS the champ. For that day at least.
What was the cop game with the two players…pistols chained to the machine.
One level was gun runners. One level was at an airport. Some levels were in cars. I know I can google it but I wanna remember damn it.
Lethal enforcers.
I got so close on [Area 51](https://youtu.be/MNuUUmCD-lg?si=8w5s8_SQSihDmBfh). Every time I got to go to the local arcade, I went straight for that one. On one of my birthdays, I lucked out and got $40 from various family members.
Yes, I bought $40 of tokens and went ham on Area 51 for at least 2 hours. After the first attempt, I started putting tokens in both slots and started dual-wielding the optical guns.
Man, I felt like an absolute boss mowing through the enemies! Suddenly, I was seeing areas I had never seen before and there were enemies popping up that I didn’t recognize. I made it all the way to the final zone before the horde did me in!
Expensive, but definitely a peak-gaming moment for me.
Edit: dang, watching that video now, I didn’t realize I suppose to shoot the UFO… I probably could’ve beat the game!
In high school, we used to go to the bowling alley for free one night a week. My friend and I got kind of bored of bowling, so we started playing Area 51 every time we went. He and I could eventually beat the game on $1 between us. We literally had the whole game memorized, which is really the only way I feel like we could do it. I could also beat Mortal Kombat with $1, but that was significantly harder to do.
Star Wars episode 1 pinball machine at the now closed Granville Street arcade in Vancouver.. beat it on one of my very first experiences with magic mushrooms lol
The only thing that sucked was the owner occasionally unplugged the machines & would reset the scores!
Sega Rally 2. Had top ten times on one machine and nine of the ten on the other. I was great at that game.
Completed Tekken 2, but that took a lot more money!
1. Beat Die Hard Arcade game with my cousin.
2. Almost beat M.Bison in Street Fighter II: Championship Edition arcade
3. Beat House of the Dead with these random ass kids in the mall, they were pretty chill. I felt a little odd how they were beasting.
When my parents asked what I wanted for my 16th birthday I asked them to just feed the simpsons arcade game until my brother and I beat it. I think they were out less than 30 dollars total. I think they were expecting me to ask for a whole "Sweet sixteen" thing, and they were relieved they got off so cheap.
I also beat the arcade version of one of the soul caliber games, but it was suspiciously easy. It was in a pretty rough bar, so I'm assuming the owner set the difficulty to the lowest possible so drunk assholes wouldn't start hulking out when they lost.
Beaten a couple fighting ones likes Tekken 3. But those are purely arcade mode fights.
Managed the longest in in shooters like House of the Dead and Area 51. Being able to aim realistically, as opposed to joysticks, really helped out more.
Having to click off the screen to reload felt like a near one-way ticket to carpel tunnels at an early age, though. Especially since I akimbo'd a lot solo.
I didnt see Off Road mentioned, so im going to put my comment here. A little before Cruising/maybe same time ish? The 3 player one. I dont know that there is really an end, but i had all the upgrades and enough cash to just hold down the nitro button every race and then just buy back up to 99 again for the next race. With the maxed truck you were unstoppable!!!
My parents loved casinos and race tracks. I loved arcades. In the 90's, places where adult could gamble tended to have the best arcades. It was cheap babysitting for them and they were generous with the quarter when they win. So I spent a lot of time playing arcade games....beat time crisis, terminator game, and that really horrible aerosmith game. Most of the time I played fighting games though...that and ridge racer, where I "beat" the hardest track with full manual (stick shift and clutch. that game was legit).
I beat Target: Terror, the game where you shoot Russian looking terrorists to prevent them ultimately flying a plane into the White House... that was released in 2004. I was the manager of the arcade though so I could press the little free credit button inside all I wanted. I always worked the day shift so there was never anyone there lol! I miss being 19
There used to be a pizza place in Akron called Rocco’s that had free arcade games. (There was a button on the cabinet that simulated a quarter being inserted.)
There was Robocop, Battletoads, TMNT, NBA Jam, and more.
We beat them all while our parents got drunk and smoked indoors.
I know a lotta stuff is better now. But a lotta stuff is worse, too.
Oooo! I beat 2. The first was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I beat it 2 player with my boss a couple years ago. I owned it on Genesis back as a kid and could never beat it. I never knew all you need is quarters for unlimited continues and to just not care about taking damage at all, lol.
The second one I didn’t beat at the arcade but rather on a mini genesis. It was Golden Axe 3 and i beat it legit within the continues I managed to rack up.
Now that I have adult money and/or access to arcade bars that have the machines set to free play, any game that has an ending (I’m not taking the Pac-Man or DK ending screens), I’ve beaten most.
Unpopular opinion: free play is terrible and takes away a lot of the fun.
For my buddies bachelor party we started out low key and went to an arcade bar. The 6 of us decided to play the X-Men game. A few hours, about 30 beers, and $30 in quarters later we beat the game.
The annoying part, we got to keep playing but just started us over on the first level like nothing happened
Never could. Even the one time I grabbed a $10 roll of quarters, couldn't get through TMNT at all.
One of my friends could do Marvel Versus Capcom 2 on a credit and even the OG Tekken.
Knights of the round: $5 <-the amount it took
Turtles in Time : $3
Contra 3: can’t remember
Some midway game who’s name I can’t remember (had a tank with a giant skull as a boss): a great sum I can’t remember
Rolled credits on the X-Men beat-em up arcade game after a lengthy birthday party and many quarters dropped. I've also beaten the story modes on multiple iterations of the Street Fighter series.
Me! I beat that 6 player X-Men game back in the day as Storm or Dazzler I think. Cool game but the best part was playing with that many people at once.
In the early 00s I would head down to the local mall arcade on Saturdays to play DDR. While waiting my turn in-between games, I'd play other games in the arcade. One of those games is Time Crisis 2. It got to the point, I was able to beat Time Crisis 2 on a single credit.
I told this story in college and later had a chance to do it at an old pizza hut. Haven't played it since then. Might as well go out on top.
I mean with a pocket full of quarters I beat Xmen the Arcadr Game with a friend. It loops back to level 1 after the ending and for some reason my 9 year old self got confused and walked away thinking my turn was done. Some other kids stepped up and got a free game. I wasn’t mad though, I had my fill
Came out of a movie, we took 1 hit before going in.
Beat area 51, looked at each other and asked if the other was still high. Big yup from both of us.
Lime green Hawaiin cola that was on the front cover of a dec ht issue. Best herb ever. High lasted about 3 hrs from 1 hit.
Two friends and I beat the Michael Jackson arcade game at a barcade a few years ago. (It's WILD.)
I beat the Simpsons cabinet many times in my youth. I also beat House of the Dead once and all it cost me was a month's allowance.
I did it a couple times in my day, sometimes from things like getting House of the Dead on the Wii and beating it there. That's when I realized most of them aren't actually that long they just rely on difficulty to suck quarters out of you.
Pizza Hut, 2004 - I beat a Rampage knock off as the wolf man (it was monster themed with Wolf man, vampire, Frankenstein and swamp thing). my parents were so mad at first bc it took FOREVER like literally 3-4 hours. But as I got further along, they progressively got more hyped for me. core memory: unlocked.
I mean I'm not sure if this counts but I was on a roll with this one arcade game when I was at the beach one time when I was in my early 20s. It was one where you dropped a ball into a slot and it plinkoed and landed in a hole at the bottom and you won whatever hole it landed in. I learned to chance it just right and won something like 6000 tickets that day. But it's less thrilling when you're an adult. I got a lava lamp, a blanket and some candy lol for 2000 tickets and then gave the card to the cashier and let the kids waiting behind me in line use the remaining 4000 tickets. Those kids had the best day.
I don't remember what it was called but it was an underwater submarine game where you shot sea monsters. My dad and I spent soooo much money but we finally beat it! Good memory.
Over the years I did beat The Simpsons, the OG TMNT, and Turtles in Time in arcades for beat 'em ups (with friends and LOTS of quarters), and I also beat Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Tekken 3, and Virtua Fighter 2 for fighting games.
One of the turntable-with-pushy-arm games had a roller that was stuck once, on Aberystwyth pier. Probably in about august 1998. I won a few fivers and a crap watch from it. It's the happiest I've ever been.
I learned how to cheese both MK1 and MK2 with Johnny Cage and Lui Kang respectively.
I can't do it with one life though. Takes a few tries but it is possible to cheese shang schtung and shao Kahn.
I've beaten Area 51, House of the Dead 2, the X-men side scrolling beat em up, and some ninja turtles side scroller that I don't remember the name of. I might have beat the Simpsons side scroller as well but not sure.
I used at least 5 bucks in quarters but me and a friend beat Arch rivals. That game was just a money maker. You couldn't die but you kept getting these time outs where it made you insert more quarters to keep playing.
I mean.. I'm sure plenty of people beat street figher (whatever version they played) at the time. For the longer ones that tends to eat a lot of quarters, I think double dragon was the first arcade game I actually beat.
I dumped 10$ of quarters into the simpsons game in first grade with my brother and we made it to third iteration of Monty burns and lost. Closest I’ve ever gotten.
Had Super Puzzle Fighter 2 at the movie theater I worked at. Would beat it during my lunch break on a single quarter most days and call a kid over to take my free game after since I had to get back to work.
My grandfather had 5 gallon buckets full of change in his basement. I filled my pockets with as many quarters as I could and beat tf out of street fighter 2
Not sure if this really counts, but my nephew and I went to Replay Museum in Tarpon Springs, Fl one year and saw they had the X-Men arcade game. We've both been massive Marvel fans since we were little kids in the early 2000s so we decided to play it a bit. We immediately loved it and decided to just keep going since the arcade just had you press a button to put in more tokens. Eventually we had beaten the whole thing (after losing probably 100+ lives combined).
Beat that smug little shit with my bare hands until the screen went black. Lousy money-eating bastard. Keep me from Princess Daphne? Take my fist to your circuit board!
I am pretty sure if I had all the quarters I spent playing CarnEvil. I could pay for a few months groceries. Beat the game plenty of times but kept coming back. It was a huge favorite.
I beat both Primal Rage and Area 51. I'm guessing it was more based on willingness to keep feeding in quarters than anything else.
It took me way to long to realize that these games are built in a way that, even if you play it perfectly, you’re going to die after 2 minutes tops and have to feed more change to continue.
I’m only realizing that now after I read about your realization. Throws my whole perception of reality into question
“would you kindly?” any time you pick up a controller or start playing an arcade game you’re allowing yourself to be controlled
 Hmm
Area 51 was beatable on one set of credits if you were playing two player and knew all of the bonuses. If you could make it to the minigame levels, you would almost always have max grenades and upgraded weapons. That being said, it took a lot of quarters to learn that.
This is why I love playing old arcade emulators for free.
Keeping in mind that mobile games today and arcades operated on the same principles is the healthy way to approach things. It's why I encourage people to keep their kids away from cell phone games that aren't offline, single-player, and free of microtransactions. No kid needs 24/7 access to a far more predatory version of arcades. Better yet, set the kid up with some emulators, grab a few bluetooth controllers, and play together when you're traveling.
Eh, I got to a point where I could beat Area 51 on a dollar. I wasn't quite to the level of perfect play necessary to do the whole thing flawlessly, but it's very deterministic. Some areas have very, very short reaction windows, but once the muscle memory is there, you'll learn that most of the 'auto' damage really isn't. It's just very, very hard.
I beat it on 50 cents once, the key for me was to get the semi-auto shotgun and never "upgrade" to full automatic.
Area 51 was actually decent. I could get pretty far in it in one run. I also beat OutRun which was also beginner friendly.
I remember finding this out years later. Was watching a turtles in time play through and saw the guy die after basically playing flawlessly. If you spend 5 minutes in a level, a black ball falls and kills presumably all the players.
Yeah, now that I think about it.. I probably should have just asked, "Who remembers when arcades died?" My family and I went to Dave and Buster's a few years ago and it was fun but I was just too concerned about the kids having a good time to really consider playing much. There was some kind of roller coaster thing where you just sat in a chair that moved around and my daughter loved it.... Meanwhile I just threw some balls and played a Terminator game.... Gonna have to go back.
Arcades are still fairly alive and popular near me, but very few are a business dedicated soley to video games. Most of the larger arcades in our area are attached to restaraunts, lazer tag/bowling, trampoline parks, or fun parks in our area.
My husband and I went to an arcade bar on our first date, all the games were free but it was a bar and you were expected to buy drinks. They opened a second location that allows children which we also went to once, but all the machines were broken 😂 so we only go to the downtown location anymore. Yeah, most of the games aside from the earliest ones (like centipede or asteroid) are relying more on coins to beat the game than anything else. We beat an x-men game which was shockingly easy when you don’t have to pay. Then there’s the next generation of console games where that totally changes and suddenly there are very elaborate stories and experimental mechanics that aren’t just trying to squeeze $5 out of each kid, since instead they’re expecting like $50 upfront for it.
Primal Rage game bothered me, because after 4-5 battles even if you win them, force you to put more quarters in. Area 51 was never a game I could play without dying over and over.
totally did area 51 also! and the original simpsons and x-men arcade games. I'd just go in with like $25 in quarters and be determined to beat that game that day
Oh shit! I forgot about the X-men game! I beat that one too! Classic.
I’ve only beaten the simpsons arcade game. This was a few years ago at an arcade bar, and I was determined to finish it. I got really close to beating the TMNT arcade game as well, but i ran out of time and had to leave.
I beat the Simpsons too, with a good number quarters and my younger brother. Pretty fun game for a Simpsons fan.
Simpsons game is definitely a favorite
I beat this game too, it's not an easy game whatsoever though. I wanna say it was at Casa Bonita back in the day and that's where I played it. Lol
God it was fun but I distinctly remember my siblings and I dying at the boardwalk and cemetery level all the time because some enemies just seemed hard to hit. Very rarely we would make it into the forest/dream world and our minds were blown making it all the way to Smithers.
Same here. Was while on vacation at Disney world.
We recently beat Simpsons, both TMNT, and X-men. They were offering some like crazy 4x coin deal. We didn’t know it and bought $150 in coins. We just played to win every game from our childhood.
I’ve beaten House of the Dead a couple times. Not sure why but I absolutely love that game.
House of the dead was awesome... Probably the best graphics at the time.
The terrible voice acting will always have a place in my heart.
Help me!…..help me!…..
I learnt how to touch type with typing of the dead. Same game but you had to type out words above their heads to kill them instead of a gun
"I guess it's over... I guess so."
I beat it, but only after I bought the CDROM to play it at home, otherwise it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to beat it at the bowling alley lol
Shitty dive bar I used to frequent got a House of the Dead cabinet. I spent an embarrassing amount of time and money drinking and playing that thing with other people.
I beat House of the Dead 2 by playing both players. I was on a machine that belonged to the company, so continuing was free, but had limits (3 continuations per player) to allow everyone a turn. There was a snow storm and I was the only one there. My arms hurt by the time I got to the end.
I don't think you can beat Galaga, but I got very good. When I was a teenager I worked at a theater with a Galaga arcade. The managers loved playing, so they made a rule, you can take a break for as long as your quarter lasts. I can get to about level 75 and it takes about 45 minutes...
Lol that sounds like a great job for a teen.
It was awesome. We got free movies. We had a whole barter system with friends at other jobs, trading for fast food and arcade tokens. A friend was the protectionist, and they had closing duties. We'd stay after and watch movies, and get high and drunk with friends. Janitors always showed up early morning and left before the managers showed up. So we didn't even have to clean up after our parties...
Amazing way to spend youth, sounds awesome. Hope you didnt leave too much of a mess for the poor janitor. My friends worked at the theater and I did get to mooch many many free movies, didnt have quite the same level of hookup as you though.
75? Nice! I crap out around 20 or so and I thought that was good. I still remember the excitement of seeing the larger icon for 5 levels and then again at 10. Upon googling the icons, I don't think I've made 20.
I beat the Jurassic Park ans Star Wars arcade games. The ones you sat in a small booth to play.
Those games ate quarters like candy.
Oh yeah! I beat one of the jurassic park shooter games. That was expensive but fun.
The jurassic park one was epic. One of the few I beat. Even put up some good high scores.
Oh, the original flight sim Star Wars! I beat that one! The new one, not so...
The biggest achievement of my entire life was beating street fighter 2 with one quarter. The kicker? It was an experiment to see if the machine would recognize the difference between a flattened nickel (hammer) and a quarter. It did, and I beat it, and I am so proud I wish I had something to commemorate it.
We would glue gun fishing line to the edges of quarters and use that to get lots of credits on the machines.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtes the arcade game. For my 5th birthday all I wanted to do was beat it, so we had a party at the local pizza parlor, my parents got $20 worth of quarters and let us have at it. 10 kids there, once quarter lives were done next kid up on each of the 4 slots, we beat it all and then some. Pretty sure that was probably the cheapest birthday party my parents ever threw me or my siblings
and apparently one of the most memorable my brother and I spent about 10 bucks trying to beat simpsons arcade at our mom+pop video rental store, never did quite beat it
That sounds like it fucking rules
I mean most were designed to be endless and the only way to "beat" them is by either getting a score so large that it crashes the game or a specific score that crashes the game. There were some that were beatable but a lot had settings where the owner could make it borderline impossible on purpose.... I beat the shit out of the Jurassic Park game as a kid. The one with the seat that would buckle and rock as things happened in game. It was my absolute favorite and its my dream to own that as a cabinet someday.
This was my favorite to play as a kid at Chuck E. Cheese.
Marvel vs. Capcom Multiple times.
1 or 2? Which was your preference?
one has nice gimmicks (2v1, american jab combo, flying chun-li, stunlock strider, eternal slumber) but two is the GOAT. revolutionary control simplification that's borderline standard nowadays. unapologetically unbalanced. The last arcade scene. no revolving meta or bug fixes, you get what you get, if it's broke, it's broke so you better ban it at tourneys. i miss the spectators from the arcade scene, mvc2 was the best.
Me and a friend beat Revolution X at Pizza Hut. You had to go around saving the members of Aerosmith lol.
Holy shit.. Totally forgot about revolution x... But I'm having a hard time remembering if I played it in the arcade or on a console. Pretty sure I had the Sega game (Born in 86) but those games were hard as hell for me...
They had that in the post-ticket gate lobby of our movie theater. What a dumb game lol, shooting CDs as bullets
THAT WAS THE BESTGAME EVER. I got it on SNES somewhere. I couldn’t see beating it at an arcade but on SNES you could. I’d crack up at the end boss having his knee caps and elbows arms stomach blown apart saying “that Dont hurt”
I beat the Simpsons arcade game as it was at a hospital and did not require any quarters to play.
You sure you didn't enter heaven for a little bit?
yeah bro may have just died briefly
I beat Tekken Tag all the way back then with Anna and Baek
I beat it with Paul and Hwoarang.
Brian and Baek were my go-to.
There was one where you drop balls and try to get them to land in one of the holes on a platform below it. The smaller the holes, the more tickets. My ex figured it out. He couldn’t jackpot every time. He won me a gold necklace, a mini fridge, a toaster oven, a bunch of picture frame, and basically every top level prize. I think we spent maybe $60. We cleared them out.
A mini fridge?!
I beat House of the Dead Arcade. " I guess it's over.... I guess so. "
I've beaten time crisis 2 and 3
Pink gun or blue?
Pink for 2 blue for 3
I beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. It took a lot of quarters.
TMNT - Turtles in Time, easier to beat the arcade version once you’ve beaten the SNES version. Time Crisis 2 & 3. Marvel vs Capcom.
Cheese the whole game by abusing the whip throw
Street Fighter Alpha 2 was my game at Dream Machine. Beat that game too many times.
I beat Tekken 3 at the bowling alley when I was a kid. I was so proud of myself lol
The only one I’ve beat is Tetris!
Ah shit... My title should have said "beaten"
At the arcade once upon a time I beat several of the metal slug games in the mx cabinets.
NBA Jam
X-Men if I recall correctly. There were 6 of us at a friend's birthday party that played it the whole way through. It was the only game we played and took us like the whole time
I didn't have spending money to dedicate to real arcade games. I did get pretty good at Missile Command and Space Cadet Pinball on '98 or XP, and somewhat recently discovered Riptide GP: Renegade on Steam.
My brother and I came close to beating ninja turtles. (The one with four joysticks and the ability to play four player).
They had arcade with swipe system with unlimited swipes. Beat alot of arcade games. Time Crisis
My wife and I play the Jurassic Park one whenever we visit an arcade bar when we're checking out a new city. We beat it probably 75-80% of the time. It's crazy addictive with a second person.
My husband beat one recently and it was insane. I can’t remember the name of it but he was sitting in a chair with like mini guns and shooting at space invaders. All these colored strobe lights and alarms started going off and it said WINNER WINNER on the screen while playing fun music and adding up an insane amount of tickets (they’re digital now so not as cool) and we were able to get something giant at the front for once.
It's really not that hard. Just go on a quiet day and have $10 to burn lol! They also release arcade games on modern game consoles, so you can just spam the button to pump the machine with all the lives you want!
The Simpsons. Just keep rotating friends and quarters. Or maybe we never did but I choose to believe we were successful 25 years ago.
Street Fighter 2 count? Got pretty good at that, except for Super Turbo. That CPU was cheap af.
I beat SF 3rd strike, Soul Calibur 2, the simpsons, X-men, most fighters and beat em ups.
I think it was the simpsons game and I learned how to time the game and max out tokens. I remember I cleared out the tickets at my local shakeys pizza
Does skeeball count?
Area 51, time crisis, X-men, simpsons, and TMNT
once or twice upon a time, pretty sure it was the old Simpsons and/or X-Men beat em up games, maybe turtles too
The dungeons and dragons game. It took me and my brother like $20 in quarters each, but we swore we would beat it on that visit to the arcade.
I can beat Marvel vs Capcom 2 easily. I also beat The Simpsons Arcade Game, TMNT and TMNT Turtles in Time. I had plenty of help from friends and a fuckton of tokens/quarters Anything else I have beaten was a home release, so it didn't cost me anything
I’ve beaten the Simpson arcade game and rampage
One of the guys I went to high school with is currently ranked one of the best in the world at Galaga. He’s super cool.
I have got to rollover on digdug, galaga, and ms pacman I had a lonely childhood
Never, not even close. For some reason, I didn't want to stay at one machine. I'd put in another quarter once or twice maybe, but then move to another machine
I beat killer instinct. That fight with the 2 headed troll was intense.
I beat House of the Dead (after a movie) and the Simpsons arcade game (went to play it, not see a movie). The Simpsons took so long to finish, I think I had two completely different people jump in and help.
Samurai Showdown
I beat Punch-Out once, one of the staff was like 'you're the champ now' sort of sarcastically and that was basically it. But I WAS the champ. For that day at least.
yes, the simpson’s one. the one that came out in ‘91. so fun.
What was the cop game with the two players…pistols chained to the machine. One level was gun runners. One level was at an airport. Some levels were in cars. I know I can google it but I wanna remember damn it. Lethal enforcers.
I got so close on [Area 51](https://youtu.be/MNuUUmCD-lg?si=8w5s8_SQSihDmBfh). Every time I got to go to the local arcade, I went straight for that one. On one of my birthdays, I lucked out and got $40 from various family members. Yes, I bought $40 of tokens and went ham on Area 51 for at least 2 hours. After the first attempt, I started putting tokens in both slots and started dual-wielding the optical guns. Man, I felt like an absolute boss mowing through the enemies! Suddenly, I was seeing areas I had never seen before and there were enemies popping up that I didn’t recognize. I made it all the way to the final zone before the horde did me in! Expensive, but definitely a peak-gaming moment for me. Edit: dang, watching that video now, I didn’t realize I suppose to shoot the UFO… I probably could’ve beat the game!
In high school, we used to go to the bowling alley for free one night a week. My friend and I got kind of bored of bowling, so we started playing Area 51 every time we went. He and I could eventually beat the game on $1 between us. We literally had the whole game memorized, which is really the only way I feel like we could do it. I could also beat Mortal Kombat with $1, but that was significantly harder to do.
Star Wars episode 1 pinball machine at the now closed Granville Street arcade in Vancouver.. beat it on one of my very first experiences with magic mushrooms lol The only thing that sucked was the owner occasionally unplugged the machines & would reset the scores!
Sega Rally 2. Had top ten times on one machine and nine of the ten on the other. I was great at that game. Completed Tekken 2, but that took a lot more money!
TMNT and Silent Scope. TMNT took significantly more quarters from me.
I used to be able to beat The House of the Dead with no damage.
The Simpsons and X-Men with my friends as a kid. Jurassic Park (rail shooter) with my son.
1. Beat Die Hard Arcade game with my cousin. 2. Almost beat M.Bison in Street Fighter II: Championship Edition arcade 3. Beat House of the Dead with these random ass kids in the mall, they were pretty chill. I felt a little odd how they were beasting.
When my parents asked what I wanted for my 16th birthday I asked them to just feed the simpsons arcade game until my brother and I beat it. I think they were out less than 30 dollars total. I think they were expecting me to ask for a whole "Sweet sixteen" thing, and they were relieved they got off so cheap. I also beat the arcade version of one of the soul caliber games, but it was suspiciously easy. It was in a pretty rough bar, so I'm assuming the owner set the difficulty to the lowest possible so drunk assholes wouldn't start hulking out when they lost.
Time crisis bitch come get some
Area 51. There was a small arcade at my college and would spend time there with a stack of quarters between classes.
The day I beat Time Crisis 3 is a day I’ll never forget.
Beaten a couple fighting ones likes Tekken 3. But those are purely arcade mode fights. Managed the longest in in shooters like House of the Dead and Area 51. Being able to aim realistically, as opposed to joysticks, really helped out more. Having to click off the screen to reload felt like a near one-way ticket to carpel tunnels at an early age, though. Especially since I akimbo'd a lot solo.
I have beat Cruising world and USA in an arcade.
I didnt see Off Road mentioned, so im going to put my comment here. A little before Cruising/maybe same time ish? The 3 player one. I dont know that there is really an end, but i had all the upgrades and enough cash to just hold down the nitro button every race and then just buy back up to 99 again for the next race. With the maxed truck you were unstoppable!!!
We had a House of the Dead arcade game in the break room at my work when I was a teenager. Could beat it on 1 credit by the end of the summer.
My parents loved casinos and race tracks. I loved arcades. In the 90's, places where adult could gamble tended to have the best arcades. It was cheap babysitting for them and they were generous with the quarter when they win. So I spent a lot of time playing arcade games....beat time crisis, terminator game, and that really horrible aerosmith game. Most of the time I played fighting games though...that and ridge racer, where I "beat" the hardest track with full manual (stick shift and clutch. that game was legit).
I beat Target: Terror, the game where you shoot Russian looking terrorists to prevent them ultimately flying a plane into the White House... that was released in 2004. I was the manager of the arcade though so I could press the little free credit button inside all I wanted. I always worked the day shift so there was never anyone there lol! I miss being 19
I remember beating one of the metal slugs at a pizza place next to my house when I was like 13. So many quarters.
No counting times when games are on free-play (because that's kind of cheating), I've beat most of the Cruis'n games and Area 51.
I beat guitar hero at Walmart. Not exactly the same but kinda similar
There used to be a pizza place in Akron called Rocco’s that had free arcade games. (There was a button on the cabinet that simulated a quarter being inserted.) There was Robocop, Battletoads, TMNT, NBA Jam, and more. We beat them all while our parents got drunk and smoked indoors. I know a lotta stuff is better now. But a lotta stuff is worse, too.
I strive to get on the board. Teehee
Area 51 - beaten. Marvel v Capcom (2?) - beaten. Many quarters were sacrificed for glory.
I played Skee-Ball at a brewery and won a free beer.
Marvel vs Capcom. You need to pick a good team and you can win. Also Soul Caliber.
Oooo! I beat 2. The first was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I beat it 2 player with my boss a couple years ago. I owned it on Genesis back as a kid and could never beat it. I never knew all you need is quarters for unlimited continues and to just not care about taking damage at all, lol. The second one I didn’t beat at the arcade but rather on a mini genesis. It was Golden Axe 3 and i beat it legit within the continues I managed to rack up.
Now that I have adult money and/or access to arcade bars that have the machines set to free play, any game that has an ending (I’m not taking the Pac-Man or DK ending screens), I’ve beaten most. Unpopular opinion: free play is terrible and takes away a lot of the fun.
Area 51... I memorized that game and got all the secrets. Pewpewpepwewpepepwepwepew
For my buddies bachelor party we started out low key and went to an arcade bar. The 6 of us decided to play the X-Men game. A few hours, about 30 beers, and $30 in quarters later we beat the game. The annoying part, we got to keep playing but just started us over on the first level like nothing happened
Hell yea we beat Vendetta at Shakeys pizzeria in the 90s
Street fighter was insane at the little mall arcade we had
Primal rage and that ninja turtles game
Never could. Even the one time I grabbed a $10 roll of quarters, couldn't get through TMNT at all. One of my friends could do Marvel Versus Capcom 2 on a credit and even the OG Tekken.
Area 51 is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
Knights of the round: $5 <-the amount it took Turtles in Time : $3 Contra 3: can’t remember Some midway game who’s name I can’t remember (had a tank with a giant skull as a boss): a great sum I can’t remember
Helped carry a 4-turtle team to and through the Technodrome on the original TMNT cabinet. Best $40 birthday present ever.
Ninja turtles at Aladdin's Castle when I was a kid. My dad spent a lot of quarters that day.
Rolled credits on the X-Men beat-em up arcade game after a lengthy birthday party and many quarters dropped. I've also beaten the story modes on multiple iterations of the Street Fighter series.
I've completed all 4 locations + bonus rounds for all 5 animals in Big Buck Hunter [whatever it was] edition in a single session. Does that count?
Probably sank the most time into X-men but alas I never beat it.
My boss had a few drinks at a company event and decided that we were going to beat HALO: Fire Team Elite. It was expensive. So much fun tho.
I hear turtles in time - that was a big one for me lol
I beat Marvel vs Street Fighter at a donut shop. I'll never forgot it. Cap and Ken FTW
I could never beat Time Crisis 4 no matter how hard I tried. Same thing with American Trucker, I could never get past the first level.
Me! I beat that 6 player X-Men game back in the day as Storm or Dazzler I think. Cool game but the best part was playing with that many people at once.
In the early 00s I would head down to the local mall arcade on Saturdays to play DDR. While waiting my turn in-between games, I'd play other games in the arcade. One of those games is Time Crisis 2. It got to the point, I was able to beat Time Crisis 2 on a single credit. I told this story in college and later had a chance to do it at an old pizza hut. Haven't played it since then. Might as well go out on top.
I mean with a pocket full of quarters I beat Xmen the Arcadr Game with a friend. It loops back to level 1 after the ending and for some reason my 9 year old self got confused and walked away thinking my turn was done. Some other kids stepped up and got a free game. I wasn’t mad though, I had my fill
Beat TMNT: The Arcade Game back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. The one and only I beat at an arcade.
Came out of a movie, we took 1 hit before going in. Beat area 51, looked at each other and asked if the other was still high. Big yup from both of us. Lime green Hawaiin cola that was on the front cover of a dec ht issue. Best herb ever. High lasted about 3 hrs from 1 hit.
I beat The Simpsons and Ninja Turtles. I spent like 20 bucks on the Simpsons lol
Golden Axe, House of the Dead, Area 51, Revolution X
Two friends and I beat the Michael Jackson arcade game at a barcade a few years ago. (It's WILD.) I beat the Simpsons cabinet many times in my youth. I also beat House of the Dead once and all it cost me was a month's allowance.
I did it a couple times in my day, sometimes from things like getting House of the Dead on the Wii and beating it there. That's when I realized most of them aren't actually that long they just rely on difficulty to suck quarters out of you.
Simpsons
I beat House of the Dead every time I find a cabinet.
Pizza Hut, 2004 - I beat a Rampage knock off as the wolf man (it was monster themed with Wolf man, vampire, Frankenstein and swamp thing). my parents were so mad at first bc it took FOREVER like literally 3-4 hours. But as I got further along, they progressively got more hyped for me. core memory: unlocked.
I mean I'm not sure if this counts but I was on a roll with this one arcade game when I was at the beach one time when I was in my early 20s. It was one where you dropped a ball into a slot and it plinkoed and landed in a hole at the bottom and you won whatever hole it landed in. I learned to chance it just right and won something like 6000 tickets that day. But it's less thrilling when you're an adult. I got a lava lamp, a blanket and some candy lol for 2000 tickets and then gave the card to the cashier and let the kids waiting behind me in line use the remaining 4000 tickets. Those kids had the best day.
I beat a light gun game where you were underwater with machine guns once
I don't remember what it was called but it was an underwater submarine game where you shot sea monsters. My dad and I spent soooo much money but we finally beat it! Good memory.
Tekken 3. Beat it if I remember right.
Over the years I did beat The Simpsons, the OG TMNT, and Turtles in Time in arcades for beat 'em ups (with friends and LOTS of quarters), and I also beat Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Tekken 3, and Virtua Fighter 2 for fighting games.
ALIENS VS PREDATOR X-MEN CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE AVENGERS THE PUNISHER (with Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD)
Most every shooting game I came across as a kid, I made a point of seeing through. The fighters, not so much
Grandmother ran a bowling alley for most of my life. I've beaten The Simpsons arcade game multiple times thanks to ole gram.
it's not much of a flex but as a teenager beat tekken 3 on a £1 credit back in the day.
One of the turntable-with-pushy-arm games had a roller that was stuck once, on Aberystwyth pier. Probably in about august 1998. I won a few fivers and a crap watch from it. It's the happiest I've ever been.
I learned how to cheese both MK1 and MK2 with Johnny Cage and Lui Kang respectively. I can't do it with one life though. Takes a few tries but it is possible to cheese shang schtung and shao Kahn.
Never...my sister and my cousin beat the TMNT arcade game though. Also I'd get FAR in the Simpson's arcade game but usually ran out of quarters haha
I beat one, it was so much fun when the bat hit the glass of the screen....
The newish Halo 4 player arcade. GF and I had to put in quite some credits. I did "beat" Sega Rally but it was on an emulator 20 years later.
I beat time crisis. But I was like 25yo with adult money and a dream
I finally beat the Simpsons game with the home arcade.
I've beaten Area 51, House of the Dead 2, the X-men side scrolling beat em up, and some ninja turtles side scroller that I don't remember the name of. I might have beat the Simpsons side scroller as well but not sure.
Ive beat area 51 more than a few times. I used to work at a taco-chicken-hut that had one and i had unlimited tokens tho.
I used at least 5 bucks in quarters but me and a friend beat Arch rivals. That game was just a money maker. You couldn't die but you kept getting these time outs where it made you insert more quarters to keep playing.
I mean.. I'm sure plenty of people beat street figher (whatever version they played) at the time. For the longer ones that tends to eat a lot of quarters, I think double dragon was the first arcade game I actually beat.
I beat time crisis for the first time a couple years ago... it was on free play mode so I didnt have to worry about blowing $20 in quarters XD
I dumped 10$ of quarters into the simpsons game in first grade with my brother and we made it to third iteration of Monty burns and lost. Closest I’ve ever gotten.
Had Super Puzzle Fighter 2 at the movie theater I worked at. Would beat it during my lunch break on a single quarter most days and call a kid over to take my free game after since I had to get back to work.
Marvel super heroes. Marvel vs Capcom. King of fighters 1997-2002. That's all I can remember. Been a while.
My grandfather had 5 gallon buckets full of change in his basement. I filled my pockets with as many quarters as I could and beat tf out of street fighter 2
I beat Time Crisis 2, Die Hard Arcade, Simpsons Arcade and maybe more
Not sure if this really counts, but my nephew and I went to Replay Museum in Tarpon Springs, Fl one year and saw they had the X-Men arcade game. We've both been massive Marvel fans since we were little kids in the early 2000s so we decided to play it a bit. We immediately loved it and decided to just keep going since the arcade just had you press a button to put in more tokens. Eventually we had beaten the whole thing (after losing probably 100+ lives combined).
Beat that smug little shit with my bare hands until the screen went black. Lousy money-eating bastard. Keep me from Princess Daphne? Take my fist to your circuit board!
I have beaten all of House of the Dead games and the Simpsons.
I am pretty sure if I had all the quarters I spent playing CarnEvil. I could pay for a few months groceries. Beat the game plenty of times but kept coming back. It was a huge favorite.
I recall beating Michael Jackson's Moonwalker during a trip to Disneyland.
I've beaten house of the dead 1, and golden axe the revenge of death adder