Hahaha! What a creepy story. My arcade memories are pretty much limited to playing beat em' up games with my older brother back in the day. I don't know how many times we beat the Simpsons Arcade game, but every time it was worth it.
When I was 6 or 7 years old, and this was around 1988/1989, I was watching two guys play the last stage of Double Dragon. After they beat the machinegun guy final boss, they were stuck and didn't know how to finish the game. I had watched my older brother and his friend beat the game weeks before so I said to the guys "Hey, you have to fight each other to see who gets the girl!" but they didn't believe me. I told them that only one of them could finish the game and get the girl and they had to fight each other until one of them beat the other. One of the guys started hitting the other player and the other guy was like "No, stop! He's trying to trick us!", so he stopped beating his friend's character (either Billy or Jimmy Lee), then eventually time ran out and they both got a game over and quit. I tried to help them but they thought I was just some dumb little kid lol.
These days of course you can play anyone you want all over the world, but back then you actually got to see the torment on their face when you schooled them. It was extra sweet if they were talking trash beforehand.
Love this video. I remember back in the early 90's playing the new Street Fighter 2 Turbo arcade at a local store. Spent hours on that till in 93 i got a SNES with SF2 for xmas.
I remember trying to explain to my parents the fact that even though SF2 Turbo was $90 on SNES (yes, freaking $90 in the early 90's!), it was actually going to save them money in the long run. $90 on SF2 at the arcade is only good for a few hours! Still sound logic to me to this day.
I have a couple of arcade stories myself. I went into this arcade at the local mall and I was a mallrat at the time so I did this a lot but there were these punk looking guys I havent seen before just going at it on soul caliber 2. I had all the highscores on that system and they beat my lowest one and it really bothered me so I went over and challenged them. I used kilik and they never hit me but that was the last of my money so they paid me to stay so they could challenge me. I let them pick my characters and they wanted me to stay cervantes. I was never hit once for an hour or so and made $10 in quarters. I never saw them again and its a shame that the arcade is gone and now a nail salon.
I know this video is old but I have a great story about an arcade game. It was in a pizza joint and they had the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with a few others. So me and my cousins start playing the 4 player co op mode and we finally run out of quarters. Before we left I noticed the coin box below wasn't shut the whole way and there were quarters basically hanging out. So being the goof ball kids we were, we took those quarters and kept playing. Every time we put quarters in they would keep falling out and we kept going! They eventually caught on or someone tipped them off and our fun was over... but man that was a good time. We got kicked out but it was worth it haha.
1980. Me and my buddy , who were both 15 years old , Went to the older teens arcade downtown with much newer and cooler games than our at the mall. It was empty just as it opened on saturday at 11 o'clock. We were very nervous and jumpy for entering enemy territory , but we absolutely HAD to try the new "Tempest" arcade game. In the 5th or 6th round I hear a dark voice behind me saying loudly : "BONUS....RIGHT SIDE"!!! 6 or 7 of the 18-19year olds had entered soundless on the soft carpet. I nearly had a heart failure and/or soiled my pants and my buddy had vanished into thin air. I got the bonus , advanced a couple of more levels before my game ended. Then I offered to move but they insisted me to continue 'cause I was there first. From that day we were accepted and made a bunch of new friends and I felt like on top of the world.
I love these comments about sportsmanship rules and how that is so unheard of for a lot of people. You have to remember, this is Canada after all. We used to say sorry after destroying someone too....LOL!(okay maybe we didn't)
Great stories guys, I was expecting a new episode and kept checking my sub box for some reason. I'm happy I did, never knew arcades could be such strange places!
I remember going to a amusement park on a class trip. Knotts Berry farm is southern California. Anyway a lot of us spent the entire time in the arcade playing Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. We didn't go on any rides or do any kind of other activities. I remember parents got passed when they found out. They didn't spend good money for you to only spend the entire time in a arcade bla, bla, bla. That arcade was packed. Good times.
One thing I remember very vividly about the arcades during the start of the fighting game craze was that I was a younger kid (maybe about 12 or so) and of course I was playing mostly older teens. They would do some amazing move and I would ask them how they did it. Several times, they sort of looked at me, and they would say something along the lines of "I'm out of quarters. Give me 2 or 3 bucks in quarters and I will show you." Maybe we would haggle a bit, but then I would hand over the quarters and most of the time they actually gave me pretty good lessons. One of the guys showed me how to do Babalities, a handful of Fatalities and a few secrets in Mortal Kombat II when I only paid him to show me one Fatality. Yeah, a couple of guys sort of screwed around, just told me the directions and buttons to press and then split, but normally these guys would actually work with me on the moves I was learning until I got it down. No one ever simply took my money and didn't even tell me how to do it. The arcades were a weird place with strange morals back in those days.
I went to an arcade called Wizards in Anchorage, AK. I was really stoned and I was playing Rampage. I see and hear people laughing at me and I didn't understand why. I finally realized that I died along time ago and the screen was flashing "GAME OVER." Aaaaah.
I know this video is old but I'll throw my comment in. I had something similar happen where creepy guys kept putting quarters in to watch you play. I think I had the same dad story. What's crazy to think back on now is outside of the mall, all of the good arcade games were found in pool halls and creep places. You'd be thrilled to find a machine in a laundry mat or convenience store but for the good stuff, you had to go to smoked filled pool halls with shady people and drug dealers. Considering video games were catered towards kids back then, it kinda doesn't make any sense.
"House Rules" now that's something I've not heard in quite some time, yeah looking back at that..it was absurd damn scrubs making up their own version of Street Fighter.
It's good to see there are people my age that still play video games. My family and friends think I'm weird because I'm 36 and still play video games. I don't know anyone my age that still plays them. Most of the people I grew up with started doing drugs or have 10 kids.
I remember playing SF 2 on SNES and getting good at it. I was decent at it and went to the arcade after work (it was 1992, I was 22). I wanted to go all the way to end without losing a match on the initial 50 cents. This Asian kid joins in without even asking me. He looked about 13 or 14 years old. He kicked my ass! I couldn't do shit against him. Then round 2 would start, I actually was able to beat him down to 25% of his health and then he'd turn it on and kick my ass... Sometimes he'd let me win rd 2 just so he could torture me in rd 3. One these fuckin' kids spending his whole life doing those "super duper deluxe combo no throw" moves while I work for a living and could only hope to be decent at it.... It certainly wasn't the same when I was his age in an arcade just trying to get a high score on Galaga '84 or Gorf...
lmao great vid - my story - playing "Sunset Riders" at putt putt with a buddy, all of a sudden a gang fight busts out 3 ft away from us. trays were flying, gangstas were getting slammed probably about 10 dudes rumbling as we ducked behind a sitdown version of race drivin'!!! what memories, thanks for the vid!
i had a group of 18yo guys ( i was 12yo) chase me and beat me up for spilling soft drink on a 1942 arcade machine out the back of a general store lol we played that game every day before/after school so when the soft drink got on it it make the buttons sticky and not work properly. i got my ass kicked
LOL, SF2. We didn't always give 2nd round, we gave mercy rounds when we thought someone was going to quit. Throws were ok, jab throws were not tolorated. Good times...
Awesome. I absolutely love these. To someone like me who never had a lot of experience in arcades, this kind of stuff is gold. Some of my favourite stuff from you Johnny. I look forward to seeing more. Love it.
I loved how you'd come across a good game in the arcade and it would have a broken button or two or the joystick wouldn't work properly. There was one of those games in every arcade.
Holy shit what a trip, growing up I lived in a small town and the closest arcade was about an hour away so whenever I got chance to go I'd just take it all in, one of my fondest memory was actually of a friend who went to the arcade over the weekend and told me of a new Street Fighter game and when he used Ruy's fireball that the fireball was 10X bigger than it was in SF2. Watied for weeks till I found out it was Street Fighter Alpha. Good times
LOL I remember those Street Fighter days!!! The unwritten "no throw rule" was definitely popular at the arcade I played at. You would literally let the opponent throw you right back, just as show in your vid. The other thing that would make people want to beat you ass is chipping away their last bit of health with a fireball as they block (or the short, short, short, throw). I remember this one guy was watching me play and I lost the round by blocking a fireball. He immediately started dancing around in a circle screaming "Cheeeeeeeeeeesssssseeeeeeeeee!!!! I SMELL VELVETA!!!!!!!" I don't think I ever felt so good losing a game to this day. The cheese icon appeared on later versions of Street Fighter for pulling that move.
My hometown had a bar/pizza place with a Galaga machine. I was having the best game of Galaga ever, and this drunk old lady comes over and starts hitting on me. Then she throws up on me. All over my clothes, and in my hair. Oh, it was disgusting. Now, I can't even play Galaga anymore without think about it.
Really weird that arcades in your area used to have adult stores in the back. I hear you on the fact that arcades didn't make enough in the late 80's and 90's to pay the rent, but where I grew up they were always regular family-owned video stores or pizza restaurants (before big chains killed these mom'n'pop places, they were massively profitable and could easily pull the bills for the arcade).
Robman - Innocent - PFFFFTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Still guys, awesome stores, and I can always count on you guys for some great video game memories. I absiolutely loved the prime time of the arcades but surpisingly I don't have many great stories from the arcades, but as a young teenager I use to play the 4 player arcade games with some girls, and the use to ask how to do this and that and I actually felt pretty happy with myself thinking I impressed them as a young teenager.
Hahahahaha! Everything you said about that era was true! You've awakened alot of memories both good and bad! Luckily there are more good memories than bad ones! One thing that I distinctly loved about the release of Street Figher 2 was how exiting the environment was. Each day you visited the SF2 cab, there was always somebody who was using a new move or technique to imobilize their opponent. Those were exciting times. It is one of the reasons why so many people still love SF2! Excellent video!
I stayed in the more friendly arcades back then haha, bowling alleys, mini golf parks, I remember crowds of people playing the popular games, mortal combat, wwf wrestling, I was into Golden Axe and Final Fight mostly, it was cool when randoms would join in.
My strange arcade tale was when I was 9, I was in the arcade while the place was being held up, scared the shit out of me, about a year and a half later the arcade closed.
My best memory of the arcade games was when i was playing SEGA Super GT at a skating rink. I was never very good at skating, but the arcade games that was a different story. I was addicted to it. I loved it, because i had a 13-win streak!!! I had to stop, because i ran out of money
Im from the UK.. and back in 97 - 98 we had a street fighter 2 machine in the student union in my college... and we had that SAME!!! no THROW rule... how crazy is that.. rules that travelled the world!!!!
Great episode guys. I have a few horror stories myself but the mainstream days of Arcade gaming truly kicked ass! Street Fighter 2 was definitely an intense game in those days. Canadas Wonderland had an insane tournament style setup with like 20 SF2 Champion edition cabinets lined up in a row and it was jammed pack all summer long with street fighter fans brawling it out....it was just fuckin awesome! Miss those days :[
Arcades were seedy as hell. I remember beating Turtles In Time with a few friends at a local waterpark. Half of the employees were gathering around 'cause they'd never seen it beat. Fun stuff.
ROFL! Arcades, pool halls, bowling alleys, laundry mats, 7-11's...all places where we'd get our game on back in the day. Arcade gaming was about SKILLS...keeping techniques secret and beating games on one credit.
Putt putt golf and games, military circle in Norfolk VA, circa 1991 or so - playing sunset riders (cowboy shoot em up game) with a good friend Brendon. Two gangs start getting into heated dicussion behind us. Punches are thrown. then a brawl breaks out! we dive behind the cabinet, trays flying, employees can't do a thing....it's mayhem, like 12+ gang members just straight brawling!!! We catch an opening and make a run for it!!! Finally make it outside, call my friends mom to pick us up ASAP!!! Will never forget that one.....didn't stick around to see the brawl end...
This was a great episode!! The robman intro was hilarious!! Robman can really act!! I enjoyed these tales very much. Man, just thinking about early 90's street fighter arcade culture takes me back. i've never heard of the "no throw" rule, though. But there was a "only 2 cross screen attack"(blanks rolls, pycho crusher) rule. lol Oddly enough, I can honestly say that in all my vintage arcade days in even the most ghetto arcade, i never felt unsafe, and nothing crazy happened.
Back in the early 90's, if you were playing an arcade, ANYONE could walk up next to you and put their quarters in to try to kill you or play with you. There was no need to ask or anything, that made you want to get better so that you could survive a stranger joining in. Now it would feel like an invasion if someone got that close to you during your game.
I'll never forget the "WARNING" signs posted on alot of our arcades' front doors in Memphis, TN back in the early 80's - mid 90's always mentioning gangs, drugs, weapons, sex, etc but it always seemed a hearty hardcore environment to grow up in! Miss all those days now I can't even find one in town not even in the local mall or movie theater...
I can't even begin to express my happiness to this. Even today, I play Tekken all the time, and to any hardcore players that are skilled, "grabbing" is considered cheap for sure, and if you grab them, you walk forward and allow them to do a grab to you of equal damage.
I've actually just recently started doing videos, all be it in another "area". I've actually just started doing a Let's play, and I want to thank you Johnny! You and the other guys from AGG are a big inspiration!
The lines on Friday night, for Street Fighter 2. Id wait the hour and play a hard fast round, I rarely won in those days, plus it was 50 cents a play and never had more than a couple dollars. The anticipation to play was as awesome as actually playing! I mean the atmosphere and the non-existant lighting. Nothing like it!!! GREAT STORIES GUYS!!!
hehehehe, great intro and a real creepy storie to start with - the "red fading in" catched really my attention to go closer and closer to the monitor ^^...
So true about the rumors (a few Street Fighter rumors, and oh so many Mortal Kombat ones) and unspoken rules. I remember once accidently thew an opponent, won, and I felt so bad about it for the rest of the day! When I played there was also the unspoken rule of showing respect by not hitting a dizzied opponent.
I had a guy pull a knife on me once in an arcade cuz i kicked his ass 4 or 5 times in a row in street fighter II turbo in an arcade it was also a double store but not porn it was a submarine place in the front and arcade in the back actually you guys are toronto boys youll know the place; or at least the area. it was that sub shop at bloor and christie (clinton street) area. the place is gone now, google maps shows it as a IGA.
One strange (to me, anyway) moment at the arcade was shortly after Mortal Kombat first released to arcades. I was walking up to the machine and there were a crowd of guys trying to beat-down this other fella on the machine. He was using Kano...and the dude had only one arm. He would do Kano's spinning ball move by rotating the stick and use his long fingers to block and attack...all the while his palm never left the stick. Simply awe inspiring.
Great intro, loved it very much! Ah, the good ole 'no throws' during SFII. As a kid, I used to love throwing teenagers and adults by accident and watched their reaction. Even though I beat them, I got much more satisfaction at throwing em. But oh God, I was just as naive as Rob at them Arcades. I'm glad I didn't get into any tough creepy crap. Thanks for the vid guys it was awesome to hear your guys perspective.
We had one in Florida where you would pay I think 5$ and they would let you play all the games from like 6pm-midnight on weekends. Someone that worked there would just open a machine up and add credits when you walked up to one.
I remember buying a bag of crickets then going into this old trashy arcade also with adult stuff in the back. The guy was so curious about the bugs, he tought it was some kind of drugs.Creepy guy.
I remember years ago when Mortal kombat first came out there was a weird rumour going around that if you got a flawless victory in Goros dungeon the skeleton would jump of the wall and fight you.
oh man i had so crazy arcade memories, the arcades where always on the weirdest places, with drugdealers, bikers, ravers, muggers. I rember i alot cigarette smoke from the pool roms and bad beer smells and Street Fighter 2. The codes that devoloped; no throwing, and if u where good at ST2 u had to use variations and not to use the same trickz. Every 1 always took ryu n ken, but me n my bros blasted the mind of every 1 when we became experts with dahlsin,zangief,honda.They were the underdogs...
The best thing about street fighter arcade days was winner stays on, one credit could last all day if you were good enough as the amount of peeople waiting to challenge the current winner was high in the arcades i used to play at
my favorite arcade memory is i was a small kid and i walked into my mall's arcade. There was this big tough guy playing Marvel Vs Capcom and i walked up and said "Can i play". So I barely knew the game but i have played it before and i wooped his ass just by button mashing because i didn't know any moves. He was pissed and took out his frustration on his girlfriend. I felt like a champion.
this is why I love your show. Prime example of quality over quantity. Others release too many videos a week, and do a ton of live streams, but just 1 of your well put together video, beats all of theres. I love you real stories that always take me back to where I was and brings back my similar memories. Over here, arcades were the drug dealer hangouts too. But I didn't care, they had a game I wanted to play so I played. I got spit flung at me constantly by them pricks. Until Next time!
!! I remember the "NO THROWING!" rule in Street Fighter 2 (I grew up in Calgary, still live here and the arcade scene is basically dead). I also remember the line up quarters people would put down on the screen to challenge the winner. If you lost, you would bow out and let the next contender try and get back in line. I remember a kid put in another quarter when there was a line of 4 people and he got pushed off the machine... oh man, arcade etiquette lol
Nice, tales of money, molestation and violence. Gotta love the arcade! Thanks for reminding me about hippodrome too, i sucked so bad at that game but it never stopped me putting in more cash than i should have.
Hahaha! What a creepy story. My arcade memories are pretty much limited to playing beat em' up games with my older brother back in the day. I don't know how many times we beat the Simpsons Arcade game, but every time it was worth it.
Wow! An episode with a wardrobe budget! NICE!
I wish Arcades still existed. :(
+The Gayming Tube In Los Angeles they do. Blipsy Barcade and EightyTwo.
00Venkman I'm kinda far away though. I live in Sweden lol
GaymingTube arcade there still arcades around
Shitty country to live in for the time being.
Here in Tokyo they do
When I was 6 or 7 years old, and this was around 1988/1989, I was watching two guys play the last stage of Double Dragon. After they beat the machinegun guy final boss, they were stuck and didn't know how to finish the game. I had watched my older brother and his friend beat the game weeks before so I said to the guys "Hey, you have to fight each other to see who gets the girl!" but they didn't believe me. I told them that only one of them could finish the game and get the girl and they had to fight each other until one of them beat the other. One of the guys started hitting the other player and the other guy was like "No, stop! He's trying to trick us!", so he stopped beating his friend's character (either Billy or Jimmy Lee), then eventually time ran out and they both got a game over and quit. I tried to help them but they thought I was just some dumb little kid lol.
No, friendship lost.
+what? That's a great story!
Classic.
This channel always sends me back in time.
Love it.
Awesome stories and story tellers! could listen to this stuff all day
That arcade rival story was badass! Stuff like that is why I wish arcades were still big.
These days of course you can play anyone you want all over the world, but back then you actually got to see the torment on their face when you schooled them. It was extra sweet if they were talking trash beforehand.
This is one of the best episodes yet. Tales of arcade days gone past are always such magical tales to me. Man I miss arcades!
It's so much fun watching you guys talking about gaming memories it,s just so entertaining!
Love this video. I remember back in the early 90's playing the new Street Fighter 2 Turbo arcade at a local store. Spent hours on that till in 93 i got a SNES with SF2 for xmas.
I remember trying to explain to my parents the fact that even though SF2 Turbo was $90 on SNES (yes, freaking $90 in the early 90's!), it was actually going to save them money in the long run. $90 on SF2 at the arcade is only good for a few hours! Still sound logic to me to this day.
I have a couple of arcade stories myself. I went into this arcade at the local mall and I was a mallrat at the time so I did this a lot but there were these punk looking guys I havent seen before just going at it on soul caliber 2. I had all the highscores on that system and they beat my lowest one and it really bothered me so I went over and challenged them. I used kilik and they never hit me but that was the last of my money so they paid me to stay so they could challenge me. I let them pick my characters and they wanted me to stay cervantes. I was never hit once for an hour or so and made $10 in quarters. I never saw them again and its a shame that the arcade is gone and now a nail salon.
I remember the "no throw" rule. I used to get so pissed when someone would start to throw me. I even got in a couple of real fights over it.
One of the best intros to a video
That shin megami tensei music in megaman story made me laugh hard. Fits perfectly.
I know this video is old but I have a great story about an arcade game. It was in a pizza joint and they had the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles along with a few others. So me and my cousins start playing the 4 player co op mode and we finally run out of quarters. Before we left I noticed the coin box below wasn't shut the whole way and there were quarters basically hanging out. So being the goof ball kids we were, we took those quarters and kept playing. Every time we put quarters in they would keep falling out and we kept going! They eventually caught on or someone tipped them off and our fun was over... but man that was a good time. We got kicked out but it was worth it haha.
Awesome story. Arcades were so scary back in the day, but I miss those smoke filled loud dark rooms.
Street Fighter is one of the most competitive video games.
Dude Rob's intro here is so rad!
1980. Me and my buddy , who were both 15 years old , Went to the older teens arcade downtown with much newer and cooler games than our at the mall. It was empty just as it opened on saturday at 11 o'clock. We were very nervous and jumpy for entering enemy territory , but we absolutely HAD to try the new "Tempest" arcade game. In the 5th or 6th round I hear a dark voice behind me saying loudly : "BONUS....RIGHT SIDE"!!! 6 or 7 of the 18-19year olds had entered soundless on the soft carpet. I nearly had a heart failure and/or soiled my pants and my buddy had vanished into thin air. I got the bonus , advanced a couple of more levels before my game ended. Then I offered to move but they insisted me to continue 'cause I was there first. From that day we were accepted and made a bunch of new friends and I felt like on top of the world.
+Rogerio Frederico That's a cool story. Much better than worring about some creepy guy trying to put his hands on you like Rob experienced.
I wonder how many takes Rob took to do the intro without cracking up haha. Really good video guys.
I love these comments about sportsmanship rules and how that is so unheard of for a lot of people. You have to remember, this is Canada after all.
We used to say sorry after destroying someone too....LOL!(okay maybe we didn't)
Great stories guys, I was expecting a new episode and kept checking my sub box for some reason. I'm happy I did, never knew arcades could be such strange places!
More stories! Such a great episode! I wish I was older back then. I was too young to ever appreciate the arcade properly.
I remember going to a amusement park on a class trip. Knotts Berry farm is southern California. Anyway a lot of us spent the entire time in the arcade playing Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. We didn't go on any rides or do any kind of other activities. I remember parents got passed when they found out. They didn't spend good money for you to only spend the entire time in a arcade bla, bla, bla. That arcade was packed. Good times.
One thing I remember very vividly about the arcades during the start of the fighting game craze was that I was a younger kid (maybe about 12 or so) and of course I was playing mostly older teens. They would do some amazing move and I would ask them how they did it. Several times, they sort of looked at me, and they would say something along the lines of "I'm out of quarters. Give me 2 or 3 bucks in quarters and I will show you." Maybe we would haggle a bit, but then I would hand over the quarters and most of the time they actually gave me pretty good lessons. One of the guys showed me how to do Babalities, a handful of Fatalities and a few secrets in Mortal Kombat II when I only paid him to show me one Fatality. Yeah, a couple of guys sort of screwed around, just told me the directions and buttons to press and then split, but normally these guys would actually work with me on the moves I was learning until I got it down. No one ever simply took my money and didn't even tell me how to do it. The arcades were a weird place with strange morals back in those days.
I went to an arcade called Wizards in Anchorage, AK. I was really stoned and I was playing Rampage. I see and hear people laughing at me and I didn't understand why. I finally realized that I died along time ago and the screen was flashing "GAME OVER." Aaaaah.
Wow, I totally forgot about guys draping their jackets over the controls. It's been a long time.
I know this video is old but I'll throw my comment in. I had something similar happen where creepy guys kept putting quarters in to watch you play. I think I had the same dad story. What's crazy to think back on now is outside of the mall, all of the good arcade games were found in pool halls and creep places. You'd be thrilled to find a machine in a laundry mat or convenience store but for the good stuff, you had to go to smoked filled pool halls with shady people and drug dealers. Considering video games were catered towards kids back then, it kinda doesn't make any sense.
Love the facial expressions Johnny makes when Rob tells the first story :)
"House Rules" now that's something I've not heard in quite some time, yeah looking back at that..it was absurd damn scrubs making up their own version of Street Fighter.
It's good to see there are people my age that still play video games. My family and friends think I'm weird because I'm 36 and still play video games. I don't know anyone my age that still plays them. Most of the people I grew up with started doing drugs or have 10 kids.
That creepy Megaman story happened to me too except the Old man just gave me quarters and left.
These are the kind of HappyConsoleGamer videos I love most! Thanks for sharing!
This one is a classic with Robs instruction. 😁
I remember playing SF 2 on SNES and getting good at it. I was decent at it and went to the arcade after work (it was 1992, I was 22). I wanted to go all the way to end without losing a match on the initial 50 cents. This Asian kid joins in without even asking me. He looked about 13 or 14 years old. He kicked my ass! I couldn't do shit against him. Then round 2 would start, I actually was able to beat him down to 25% of his health and then he'd turn it on and kick my ass... Sometimes he'd let me win rd 2 just so he could torture me in rd 3. One these fuckin' kids spending his whole life doing those "super duper deluxe combo no throw" moves while I work for a living and could only hope to be decent at it.... It certainly wasn't the same when I was his age in an arcade just trying to get a high score on Galaga '84 or Gorf...
lmao great vid - my story - playing "Sunset Riders" at putt putt with a buddy, all of a sudden a gang fight busts out 3 ft away from us. trays were flying, gangstas were getting slammed probably about 10 dudes rumbling as we ducked behind a sitdown version of race drivin'!!! what memories, thanks for the vid!
That intro was impeccable so funny keep it up guys!
i had a group of 18yo guys ( i was 12yo) chase me and beat me up for spilling soft drink on a 1942 arcade machine out the back of a general store lol we played that game every day before/after school so when the soft drink got on it it make the buttons sticky and not work properly. i got my ass kicked
LOL, SF2. We didn't always give 2nd round, we gave mercy rounds when we thought someone was going to quit. Throws were ok, jab throws were not tolorated. Good times...
When the screen turns red sooo much tension builds!!
Awesome. I absolutely love these. To someone like me who never had a lot of experience in arcades, this kind of stuff is gold. Some of my favourite stuff from you Johnny. I look forward to seeing more. Love it.
Wtf that intro was actually funny and well made hahaha
I loved how you'd come across a good game in the arcade and it would have a broken button or two or the joystick wouldn't work properly. There was one of those games in every arcade.
Holy shit what a trip, growing up I lived in a small town and the closest arcade was about an hour away so whenever I got chance to go I'd just take it all in, one of my fondest memory was actually of a friend who went to the arcade over the weekend and told me of a new Street Fighter game and when he used Ruy's fireball that the fireball was 10X bigger than it was in SF2. Watied for weeks till I found out it was Street Fighter Alpha. Good times
LOL I remember those Street Fighter days!!! The unwritten "no throw rule" was definitely popular at the arcade I played at. You would literally let the opponent throw you right back, just as show in your vid. The other thing that would make people want to beat you ass is chipping away their last bit of health with a fireball as they block (or the short, short, short, throw).
I remember this one guy was watching me play and I lost the round by blocking a fireball. He immediately started dancing around in a circle screaming "Cheeeeeeeeeeesssssseeeeeeeeee!!!! I SMELL VELVETA!!!!!!!" I don't think I ever felt so good losing a game to this day. The cheese icon appeared on later versions of Street Fighter for pulling that move.
My hometown had a bar/pizza place with a Galaga machine. I was having the best game of Galaga ever, and this drunk old lady comes over and starts hitting on me. Then she throws up on me. All over my clothes, and in my hair. Oh, it was disgusting. Now, I can't even play Galaga anymore without think about it.
Really weird that arcades in your area used to have adult stores in the back. I hear you on the fact that arcades didn't make enough in the late 80's and 90's to pay the rent, but where I grew up they were always regular family-owned video stores or pizza restaurants (before big chains killed these mom'n'pop places, they were massively profitable and could easily pull the bills for the arcade).
Robman - Innocent - PFFFFTTTTTT!!!!!!!!
Still guys, awesome stores, and I can always count on you guys for some great video game memories. I absiolutely loved the prime time of the arcades but surpisingly I don't have many great stories from the arcades, but as a young teenager I use to play the 4 player arcade games with some girls, and the use to ask how to do this and that and I actually felt pretty happy with myself thinking I impressed them as a young teenager.
Hahahahaha! Everything you said about that era was true! You've awakened alot of memories both good and bad! Luckily there are more good memories than bad ones! One thing that I distinctly loved about the release of Street Figher 2 was how exiting the environment was. Each day you visited the SF2 cab, there was always somebody who was using a new move or technique to imobilize their opponent. Those were exciting times. It is one of the reasons why so many people still love SF2! Excellent video!
+happy console gamer love your stories love your shows . I have some good stories as well in the early 90s in Chicago
I wanna add 2 thumbs up! One for Rob's intro alone, and one for the episode as a whole. Awesome guys!
I stayed in the more friendly arcades back then haha, bowling alleys, mini golf parks, I remember crowds of people playing the popular games, mortal combat, wwf wrestling, I was into Golden Axe and Final Fight mostly, it was cool when randoms would join in.
My strange arcade tale was when I was 9, I was in the arcade while the place was being held up, scared the shit out of me, about a year and a half later the arcade closed.
My best memory of the arcade games was when i was playing SEGA Super GT at a skating rink. I was never very good at skating, but the arcade games that was a different story. I was addicted to it. I loved it, because i had a 13-win streak!!! I had to stop, because i ran out of money
Im from the UK.. and back in 97 - 98 we had a street fighter 2 machine in the student union in my college... and we had that SAME!!! no THROW rule... how crazy is that.. rules that travelled the world!!!!
The intro with Rob was fantastic.
Great episode guys. I have a few horror stories myself but the mainstream days of Arcade gaming truly kicked ass! Street Fighter 2 was definitely an intense game in those days. Canadas Wonderland had an insane tournament style setup with like 20 SF2 Champion edition cabinets lined up in a row and it was jammed pack all summer long with street fighter fans brawling it out....it was just fuckin awesome! Miss those days :[
Arcades were seedy as hell.
I remember beating Turtles In Time with a few friends at a local waterpark. Half of the employees were gathering around 'cause they'd never seen it beat. Fun stuff.
Finally new episode is up! I kept looking all the time for the next episode! That was EPIC! Just.. EPIC!
ROFL!
Arcades, pool halls, bowling alleys, laundry mats, 7-11's...all places where we'd get our game on back in the day. Arcade gaming was about SKILLS...keeping techniques secret and beating games on one credit.
Putt putt golf and games, military circle in Norfolk VA, circa 1991 or so - playing sunset riders (cowboy shoot em up game) with a good friend Brendon. Two gangs start getting into heated dicussion behind us. Punches are thrown. then a brawl breaks out! we dive behind the cabinet, trays flying, employees can't do a thing....it's mayhem, like 12+ gang members just straight brawling!!! We catch an opening and make a run for it!!! Finally make it outside, call my friends mom to pick us up ASAP!!! Will never forget that one.....didn't stick around to see the brawl end...
This was a great episode!! The robman intro was hilarious!! Robman can really act!! I enjoyed these tales very much. Man, just thinking about early 90's street fighter arcade culture takes me back. i've never heard of the "no throw" rule, though. But there was a "only 2 cross screen attack"(blanks rolls, pycho crusher) rule. lol Oddly enough, I can honestly say that in all my vintage arcade days in even the most ghetto arcade, i never felt unsafe, and nothing crazy happened.
And that's how Rob met Clifford Olson.
Back in the early 90's, if you were playing an arcade, ANYONE could walk up next to you and put their quarters in to try to kill you or play with you. There was no need to ask or anything, that made you want to get better so that you could survive a stranger joining in. Now it would feel like an invasion if someone got that close to you during your game.
I'll never forget the "WARNING" signs posted on alot of our arcades' front doors in Memphis, TN back in the early 80's - mid 90's always mentioning gangs, drugs, weapons, sex, etc but it always seemed a hearty hardcore environment to grow up in! Miss all those days now I can't even find one in town not even in the local mall or movie theater...
I can't even begin to express my happiness to this. Even today, I play Tekken all the time, and to any hardcore players that are skilled, "grabbing" is considered cheap for sure, and if you grab them, you walk forward and allow them to do a grab to you of equal damage.
how the guys would cover up the buttons to hide their moves is crazy
I've actually just recently started doing videos, all be it in another "area". I've actually just started doing a Let's play, and I want to thank you Johnny! You and the other guys from AGG are a big inspiration!
The lines on Friday night, for Street Fighter 2. Id wait the hour and play a hard fast round, I rarely won in those days, plus it was 50 cents a play and never had more than a couple dollars. The anticipation to play was as awesome as actually playing! I mean the atmosphere and the non-existant lighting. Nothing like it!!! GREAT STORIES GUYS!!!
Finally, another Street Fighter Tales, or I guess it's now Strange Arcade Tales. I've been waiting for another one of these. Thanks a bunch.
hehehehe, great intro and a real creepy storie to start with - the "red fading in" catched really my attention to go closer and closer to the monitor ^^...
this video makes me wish i grew up in the 80's and early 90's playing in those arcades :(
I totally remember dudes bringing hankerchiefs in and covering there hands during Mortal Kombat 2 street fighter days.
So true about the rumors (a few Street Fighter rumors, and oh so many Mortal Kombat ones) and unspoken rules. I remember once accidently thew an opponent, won, and I felt so bad about it for the rest of the day! When I played there was also the unspoken rule of showing respect by not hitting a dizzied opponent.
I was gonna say that the intro was awesome, but the rest of the episodes acually overshadows it... So AWESOME EPISODE! Please give us more!
MVHH
I had a guy pull a knife on me once in an arcade cuz i kicked his ass 4 or 5 times in a row in street fighter II turbo in an arcade
it was also a double store but not porn
it was a submarine place in the front and arcade in the back
actually you guys are toronto boys youll know the place; or at
least the area.
it was that sub shop at bloor and christie (clinton street) area.
the place is gone now, google maps shows it as a IGA.
One strange (to me, anyway) moment at the arcade was shortly after Mortal Kombat first released to arcades. I was walking up to the machine and there were a crowd of guys trying to beat-down this other fella on the machine. He was using Kano...and the dude had only one arm. He would do Kano's spinning ball move by rotating the stick and use his long fingers to block and attack...all the while his palm never left the stick. Simply awe inspiring.
biggest fighting game rule we had no corner trapping and fireballs wars were frowned upon but not really banned err nothing
Great intro, loved it very much! Ah, the good ole 'no throws' during SFII. As a kid, I used to love throwing teenagers and adults by accident and watched their reaction. Even though I beat them, I got much more satisfaction at throwing em. But oh God, I was just as naive as Rob at them Arcades. I'm glad I didn't get into any tough creepy crap. Thanks for the vid guys it was awesome to hear your guys perspective.
We had one in Florida where you would pay I think 5$ and they would let you play all the games from like 6pm-midnight on weekends. Someone that worked there would just open a machine up and add credits when you walked up to one.
Where was this? I live in Florida too
Great episode! Robmans intro and at the end about the chucky cheese puppets. Haha classic
Arcade tales would be an awesome segment to add to the all gen gamers podcast johnny
the beginning remembered me of Video Game Confessions from TGWTG.
Robman making his return? It's been LONG OVER DUE, Robman we miss & love you, ROBMAN WORLD!
Great memories. lol I also remember the unspoken rules like "Don't throw!". lol
Jesus guys... you had to protect your poop shoots back in those days. Great great vid... laughed my poop shoot off.
man the guile theme goes with everything
I remember buying a bag of crickets then going into this old trashy arcade also with adult stuff in the back. The guy was so curious about the bugs, he tought it was some kind of drugs.Creepy guy.
I remember years ago when Mortal kombat first came out there was a weird rumour
going around that if you got a flawless victory in Goros dungeon the skeleton would jump of the wall and fight you.
I have been to the Arcade that the bald guy talks about in the beginning, went there a couple years ago it may even still be open
bruh the nocturne music in the background
lol your guys arcade experiences sounds like a martial arts club. you guys should have done that hhahahahah
oh man i had so crazy arcade memories, the arcades where always on the weirdest places, with drugdealers, bikers, ravers, muggers. I rember i alot cigarette smoke from the pool roms and bad beer smells and Street Fighter 2. The codes that devoloped; no throwing, and if u where good at ST2 u had to use variations and not to use the same trickz. Every 1 always took ryu n ken, but me n my bros blasted the mind of every 1 when we became experts with dahlsin,zangief,honda.They were the underdogs...
what if the old guy from rob's story is watching this video...
The best thing about street fighter arcade days was winner stays on, one credit could last all day if you were good enough as the amount of peeople waiting to challenge the current winner was high in the arcades i used to play at
my favorite arcade memory is i was a small kid and i walked into my mall's arcade. There was this big tough guy playing Marvel Vs Capcom and i walked up and said "Can i play". So I barely knew the game but i have played it before and i wooped his ass just by button mashing because i didn't know any moves. He was pissed and took out his frustration on his girlfriend. I felt like a champion.
Robman's face when he's putting in credits. hahaha
this is why I love your show. Prime example of quality over quantity. Others release too many videos a week, and do a ton of live streams, but just 1 of your well put together video, beats all of theres. I love you real stories that always take me back to where I was and brings back my similar memories. Over here, arcades were the drug dealer hangouts too. But I didn't care, they had a game I wanted to play so I played. I got spit flung at me constantly by them pricks. Until Next time!
!! I remember the "NO THROWING!" rule in Street Fighter 2 (I grew up in Calgary, still live here and the arcade scene is basically dead). I also remember the line up quarters people would put down on the screen to challenge the winner. If you lost, you would bow out and let the next contender try and get back in line. I remember a kid put in another quarter when there was a line of 4 people and he got pushed off the machine... oh man, arcade etiquette lol
Nice, tales of money, molestation and violence. Gotta love the arcade!
Thanks for reminding me about hippodrome too, i sucked so bad at that game but it never stopped me putting in more cash than i should have.