The following summer, I went to work at the amusement park in my home town. All summer, I was never beaten when playing Chun Li, and overall beat down all my friends.

As the summer went on, I'd fall to them more frequently (with my off characters), and they started claiming 'the king has fallen!'

One day, while working a ride at the far corner of the park, one of those friends who worked the arcades came running up to me and said there's a tourist in the arcade nobody could beat. I took my break, and trekked to the arcade.

I slotted my quarter, and chose Chun Li. I took the guy down 2-0. He gruffed, and pulled out another quarter. I chose Ryu, and took him down 2-0. He cursed, and stomped away, but returned a few seconds later. He slotted his quarter. I chose Blanka, and took him down 2-0.

He flipped me off, and took off.

I silently turned to my friend who calmly stated, "you are the king, Murph."

Ahh, glory days.

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I´m also an "Arcade Gamer". I only had consoles to play the arcade ports, really. Sure, I liked to play some platformers but this might be the reason why I was never into RPGs and even big names like Resident Evil, which I only started playing after the 00´s (true story)

Fighters are my favorites and I grew up playing the shit out of arcade cabinets. Playing against unknown people side by side was awesome, and when I won it was more than awesome, even when I lost it was fun! I miss those times badly, why did it have to die? :´(

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They are still flourishing in my country where you could find an arcade in every mall.

These young guys that never experienced the pressure of playing against a live opponents are missing out. Blood pumping, nerve wracking, eking out a win is the greatest feeling ever.

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I can remember standing in line to play Double Dragon. I remember describing Spy Hunter like a James Bond movie. The 1st time I played the sitdown version of Star Wars. Stealing money from my Mom's random change dish to play...spending my lunch money in the mornings on Strider and Commando then starving all day. Riding the bust for an hour and a half with 5 bucks in my pocket just to play SF2 for as long as I could and making sure that I saved a quarter to get home. And I went home HUNGRY. Made a lot of good friends and even some arch nemesises back then. XD

I remember when I used to serve people in '91-92 on SF3CE in Hawaii. That was when I was at my prime, and my CE Bison was lethal! I ended up passing of SF3 (though I kinda feeling it out now), but SF4 felt like an old, comfortable shoe to me. A lot of my Bison muscle memory translates very well from 2 to 4, and I've been holding my own quite well.

I have arcade sticks that I use, as they are a necessity to me and anyone else who cut their teeth in the arcade scene. I really miss those days. T_T

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Between all the whiny 13 year olds, freestyle rappers on XBL, quiters, laggers, etc. Gaming has lost its pureness and soul. What ever happened to playing against real, live people? I remember going to the arcades during my teens in the mid/late 90s and having a blast.

I live about 10 minutes away from 8 on the break, in central new jersey. The Break is famous for their cheesesteaks and the fact that they host the ECC for a couple different fighting games. Aside from Chinatown Fair, the Break is probably the most legit arcade for real serious competition on the east coast (yes, im overlooking the whole twin galaxies crew because the people that run that organization and the empire arcadia guys are all a bunch of control freak assholes, who refuse to admit to losing to people that aren't within their circle).

It's really sad that arcades really don't exist anymore. Even walking into the break, the place is a shell of what it was ten years ago. I remember going to the arcade every friday night with my friends to take part in X-Men VS Street Fighter and Tekken tournaments, which had MASSIVE crowds around them, only to find a bunch of DDR machines and one Tekken 6 cabinet now. Hell, I even met a couple ex-girlfriends by hanging out at the arcade, and they werent even gamers. The arcade was just the "scene" at the time.

Makes me really sad to think about this all now. The Dreamcast is probably the last gamer's machine and ever since then we've been forcefed all this crap that has nothing to do with gaming. Netflix, Firmware updates, Games that are only playable or enjoyable on HDTVS, insanely huge entry prices, RRODs, etc.

What the hell happened people?

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And if I won? The feeling was amazing. For they would walk away, and the machine, for a brief moment, would be mine. That is, until the next guy took it from me.

But this guy has it right - you don't play the same way online. People quit, people lag, and there's no tension.

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