What is the most you have sunk into an arcade game?

General discussion on MAME, MARP, or whatever else that doesn't belong in any of the other forums

Moderators: mahlemiut, seymour, QRS

What is the most (best estimate) you have sunk into an arcade game?

0-25$
2
14%
25-50$
1
7%
50-100$
11
79%
 
Total votes: 14

Locut0s
Button Slapper
Button Slapper
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

What is the most you have sunk into an arcade game?

Post by Locut0s »

With all the virtual money we are plunking into games in mame it'd be interesting to know how much real money other people have spent/wasted on a real arcade game when hooked. I'm not talking about an estimate of how much money you have spent at the arcades in general but the most you think you have sunk into any one game so far?

For me this would be Raiden Fighters Jet. They have one over at the small arcade at the university I go to. I think I must have spent close to 50 bucks on it.

Oh and name the game.
User avatar
BBH
Editor
Posts: 1582
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 7:06 am
Location: Portland, Oregon
Contact:

Post by BBH »

I have no way of estimating, but over the last four years I've spent many hundreds of dollars on various incarnations of Dance Dance Revolution... wouldn't surprise me if it was over $1000 by now...
User avatar
tar
MARPaholic
MARPaholic
Posts: 1209
Joined: Mon Aug 05, 2002 9:25 am
Location: ohio u.s.a.

Post by tar »

dance dance revolution ! !
Image
User avatar
The TJT
MARPaholic
MARPaholic
Posts: 2479
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2002 10:56 am
Location: 20 Grand Palace

Post by The TJT »

I usually stayed away from the biggest money-eaters, except Marble.
Track&Field and Gauntlet were most cheap games to play for me...Whole day with one credit ;)

Recall one day in the 80's when I played Marble 40 games...that costed me 80 finnish marks at the time. Would have played the game more, but skin of my hands decided otherwise. I must have spend couple thousand or more marks into that game, divide that by 5 and get amount of dollars...

Oh, and I bought a trackball for playing Marble+mame, which was allmost 500mk!
User avatar
Chad
Tournament Coordinator
Posts: 4463
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2002 3:15 pm
Location: calif

Post by Chad »

keep it down guys, the copyrighters might actually think there's still a market for these games and pull out the full extent of the jam!!!

"This world is very difficult." It's hard to pick an individual game for me that i know i spent more than 100$ (400-1000 plays, usually tokens were 4-10 to a dollar) on individually, i liked most everything and distributed the funds pretty equally. If i was going to pick one i spent the most on it would probably have to be dragon's lair, since it was always 25/50/100 cents a pop and it was a fun to show off and play and finish the game with out looking at the screen. Then there's of course the asteroid's binge (each morning just before grade school) i had where i'd stop off at hoagie's (a corner market with two game's asteroids + defender) and blow a few quarters almost every day for a couple years. And the many stops to the 10 token a $ arcades where you could be quite thrifty, where i learned space firebird, carnival, elevator action, vangaurd, etc.
-skito
User avatar
QRS
Editor
Posts: 954
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 3:33 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by QRS »

There should be an option for more than 100$ :)

Heck, I must have spent thousands of dollars in these machines hehe.
QRS
LN2
MARPaholic
MARPaholic
Posts: 1669
Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2002 4:46 pm

Post by LN2 »

I agree...need a $100+ option...which I would select.

I easily spent $100+ on games like Crystal Castles, Major Havoc, likely mspac-man to quickly name a few.
User avatar
QRS
Editor
Posts: 954
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2002 3:33 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by QRS »

I think that Mortal Kombat 2 is the game I spent most money on... All due to the 2 player matches :)

Not near the amount of all the classic games in the 80´s I spent money on though.. combined hehe.
QRS
User avatar
mahlemiut
Editor
Posts: 4184
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2002 10:05 pm
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Post by mahlemiut »

For me, Street Fighter II and Bubble Bobble. Nothing else comes close.
- Barry Rodewald
MARP Assistant Web Maintainer
Image
User avatar
Zhorik
MARP Seer
MARP Seer
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 8:16 pm

Post by Zhorik »

Most money would be Hard Driven', largely because it was more expensive per game and I had more money at the time. I almost certainly dropped at least $150-200 on that game.

Other interesting questions would be:

1) What game you spent the least money "mastering"?

2) What game you spent the most money on that you still sucked at?

Of course "mastering" and "sucked at" are relative terms.

For me it would probably be:

1) Pac-Man or Black Tiger
2) Hypersports (speed sucks) or Arkanoid (friggin' paddle)

-gastrainga
User avatar
MJS
MARP Knight
MARP Knight
Posts: 367
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2002 10:07 pm
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Post by MJS »

For me, Terra Cresta.
And to answer Zhorik's questions:
Zhorik wrote:1) What game you spent the least money "mastering"?
Wonderboy in Monsterland, definitely.
Zhorik wrote:2) What game you spent the most money on that you still sucked at?
Raiden #@$!!!
LN2
MARPaholic
MARPaholic
Posts: 1669
Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2002 4:46 pm

Post by LN2 »

Zhorik wrote:1) What game you spent the least money "mastering"?
The first game I mastered.... Q*Bert. I had played no more than 6-7 games on it before I set what then was a new WR...14.3 million. My high score prior to that game was only 300k. $1 spent if even that...cuz we were in token wars then locally...got 10+ tokens for $1...highest the war got was 16 tokens for $1...it was great....but quickly ended...neither arcade was making much money at that rate. It was truly the golden era then.
2) What game you spent the most money on that you still sucked at?
oh, good question. I likely never spent more than a few bucks on any game that I still sucked at. If I wasn't improving on it drastically after spending a few bucks on it then odds are I moved on and played other games. There were so many new games out then it didn't matter.
Locut0s
Button Slapper
Button Slapper
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Post by Locut0s »

Hmm interesting replies. You're right I should have had a 100$+ option, in fact I was going to have one but forgot to add it, seems I can't edit the poll either.

Those are interesting questions MJS but I never was one to spend much money at the arcades, was too young unfortunately for much of the golden era of gaming, born in 82, and even when I was playing a game it usually was at home on a console system.
Locut0s
Button Slapper
Button Slapper
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Post by Locut0s »

LN2 wrote:
Zhorik wrote:1) What game you spent the least money "mastering"?
The first game I mastered.... Q*Bert. I had played no more than 6-7 games on it before I set what then was a new WR...14.3 million. My high score prior to that game was only 300k. <snip>
That's insane!
User avatar
LordGaz
MARP Knight
MARP Knight
Posts: 220
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2002 5:07 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by LordGaz »

Daytona USA. Circa £1000 (~$1500 then) back in 1994/95, not proud of it though. Most places were £1 a pop but the attraction of beating the best times and showing off was too hard to resist! One machine was 50p, needless to say that's where I practiced most.
Post Reply