[Reader]

As many know, my current obsession is with Drum Mania. There was a point where i was going 5 days a week and spending an average of $5 a day. Now it's at about 2 or 3 times a week and i usually just spend $3, and never over $5.

Prior to that my obsessions were minor and affordable. Once in a while if i was in the area i'd drop by the arcade with all the fighting/puzzle/pinball machines and play about $1 of pinball or see if anyone good was playing SFA3 and maybe 'challenge' them (usually losing by a pretty small margin).
When i discovered Guitar Freaks i became pretty obsessed with that... but before it could get out of hand it mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth...
Drum mania was always there, but i sucked royally at it. Then one day, a few months ago, i just.. played it.. and made progress! That sent me on a downward spiral of irresponsible spending from which i am still recovering.

Before i moved to Vancouver my arcade experiences were few and far between.

[mrtimp]

Gyruss was the game that hooked me big time, i would spend 90% of my time and money playing that game at the arcade.

[Chefelf]

I was never a big fan of arcades (eing that they were so DAMNED expensive!) I do remember going to Dream Machine and playing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II". At the time I remember thinking that it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Four players SIMULTANEOUSLY!

I kinda still do think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

[Heccubus]

TMNT2 was one of the coolest arcade games ever, I remember having a brief obsession with a DDR machine at an arcade in Brantford, but I only got to use it a few times before some dumb little kids broke it.

[Reader]

Those must have been some neanderthal kids, if they could break a DDR machine!
And yes, the Ninja Turtles game was awesome, but i'm more used to the smallness of the NES port (which provided so many hours of gaming bliss it's not even funny). Of course, chefelf, you probably know about the precursor to all the more-than-two-player-beat-em-ups was the sublime X-men game.

[A Mighty Pirate]

RRRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

[looktothesky]

DDR if I ever find a local machine...

Also...

Police 911
Time Crisis 2+3
The Lost World
And... Virtua Cop 2 (Spent 20$ on this one vacation years ago)

[Heccubus]

Police 911 kicks face. The dodging element really adds to the gameplay.

[Reader]

Police 911
(Time) Crisis (2) Zone
The Lost World

These were always cheap enough on Token Tuesdays to not become obsessions. But on every visit Mike and I would usually play through the Lost World.

[Despondent]

Long long ago, in an ancient age (the 80's) there was this game called Dragon's Lair. It was drawn by an ex disney artist, and it was like a cartoon. every challenge had certain things you could or couldn't do. it was ok.

But it cost a dollar a game! (3 lives)

the saving grace was: when the guy died, it was in a nice visual manner and generally entertaining. (visuals, music and sound.)

[Jordan]

TMNT2

PREHISTORIC TURTLSAURUS

That game rocked

This post has been edited by Jordan: 11 April 2004 - 02:57 AM

[Reader]

It seems not a lot of people have very many arcade stories, so let's expand this into home-arcade domains.

To start off small, i usually find myself playing Sonic 3, trying to beat my best time in Azure Lake. My best time is currently... 0' 18''78. I KNOW i can get a better time.. i have a perfect method to get the lowest time possible per lap... it's just performing it flawlessly 5 times in a row is particularily hard. But not impossible! So i'll keep on fighting the futile fight.

[Heccubus]

ARGH! Dragon's Lair was amazing! Good to see someone else around here who recalls spending their precious change on such an amazing (yet frustratingly difficult) arcade experience.

Anyway, I used to waste hours and hours with Dr. Mario and Zelda for my NES, and (only Read will get this): MR. DO!

[Slade]

Mr. Do is kick-ass! I've played it in Arcade machines. I suck big time at it though. Also, wasn't Prehistoric Turtlesaurus in TMNT4 (Turtles in Time?) I remember Turtles 3 for NES was friggin' A. But T's in Time just kicked everything's ass except The Simpsons arcade game. Or the original Pac-Man.

Also, I've got some pretty crazy times on Sonic 3, but I think my Genesis somehow got broken (I didn't touch it for a year but it doesn't work with any games now.) Pretty sad that my NES outlived it...

I can never get enough of the Dr. Mario "Fever" song.