The line at the arcade was out the door for this game.

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terriblystupidjoke@reddit

Street Fighter 2 was the hot item at the lone arcade closest to me (50 miles away), but MK was my preference since I already had SF2 on SNES.

It wasn’t until Tekken came out though when I witnessed consistent lines of 5+ people deep waiting to play a game. It really sucked because of my limited trips and time constraints when I visited. I always got my ass stomped when I played by someone who obviously had tons of hours under their belt.

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jturner0204@reddit

I bowled every Saturday morning and after I was done and waiting to be picked up I’d blow my allowance on this game. Still my favorite!

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Emergency-Pack-5497@reddit

MK had a good line, but when Marvel Vs Capcom came out, that was the longest line of them all

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DuranDourand@reddit

Oh yay. My buddies and me would go to the movie theater every Friday and go early just to play this in the lobby. More than a couple times we just stayed at the machine instead of watching a movie.

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Feral_Sheep_@reddit

I don't know. I always liked Street Fighter 2 better.

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Deathgripsugar@reddit

Killer Instinct and MK were awesome to watch, but I sucked at em, so my quarters went to SF2 (Ryu with the blue headband).

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red286@reddit

SF2 was way more popular at the arcades I went to. They brought in these gigantic Champion Edition cabinets with enormous screens. It was exclusively PvP, and you'd have to put your name on a list to challenge whoever had won last.

I actually never played SF2 until about 5 or 6 years after it came out because not only did I not have the patience to wait around an hour or two for my turn, but also knowing that if I did, I'd get my ass handed to me by a 13-year-old Chinese kid in about 30 seconds flat.

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DirtyBirdDawg@reddit

That was where my money went back in the day. Mortal Kombat was...fine. But I would never choose MK game over any Street Fighter/King of Fighters game. My friends and I were all about that sprite-based lifestyle.

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

Same, the sprite-based ones had a very distinctive charm about them. I enjoyed Mortal Kombat, but Street Fighter 2 seemed more fun to me over time, at least.

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ultramagnes23@reddit (OP)

SF2 had better gameplay for sure.

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Separate_Counter9427@reddit

How about when it was developed for the SNES, there was no blood like in the Arcade!

The Genesis version had blood. SNES owners had to wait for MK2

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omega_manhatten@reddit

A B A C A B B!

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standuphilospher@reddit

I still remember

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omega_manhatten@reddit

Growing up, I always thought the graphics on the original arcade version of Killer Instinct were cooler than Mortal Kombat for some reason.

The SNES version of KI could just never get it right...

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phallic-baldwin@reddit

Yup I'm that old

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Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit

TMNT line was insane

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Dneumann8@reddit

Shout out to Center Ice of Dupage for having the arcade game in the lobby. Great times

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DouglasBubletrousers@reddit

First time I played it, some older teenage kid said he'd play me and he'd even pay for the game. I mashed buttons and won... Then he said "I'll bet you $5 you can't do it again"

Yeah I walked away from that pretty quick.

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chargeorge@reddit

So wild when it hit our local arcade. No lines due to the space, but the got next quarters basically went across the machine for hours

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bloodectomy@reddit

Hooyeah

Back when 7-11s still had arcade machines. Usually a fighter and a sports game (SF2 and NBA Jam were a popular combo)

First time I saw a fatality (Scorpion's) was at a 7-11 in the middle of the day. Gettin a slurpee. Teenager playing mortal kombat so I watched while dad paid for our drinks. I remember being really surprised that Scorpion was a skeleton, even more than I remember how I reacted to the fatality itself

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Aught_To@reddit

I miss the arcade games as well. Mine always had at least one machine. Street fighter turbo was the one i liked best with my beef jersey and slurpee

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Infamous_Return2351@reddit

I remember walking into Wizards Castle with a roll of quarters tightly grasped in my right hand. My dad delivered newspapers for the Toronto Star in the 80s and 90s. He would also have to fill up the coin operated newspaper vending machines and remove all the change. Every Friday was roll day, we would roll so many quarters and at the end my dad would give one roll as payment for helping. Like a boss I would show up at Wizards Castle every Saturday toting my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanny pack filled with quarters.

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ThepalehorseRiderr@reddit

I remember that I wanted a certain copy of Electronic gaming monthly because it had all the special moves listed. Once, a cool older guy wearing a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette beat me one handed with Kano.

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Significant_Dog412@reddit

I think Britain got Mortal Kombat in 93, maybe a few months before the big console ports that year. I was already a Street Fighter fan, and I can remember getting excited seeing it in magazines and really wanting to see it in action.

A lot of my pocket money/gifts from Grandparents went to MK machines over the course of that summer holiday.

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LH99@reddit

Yep. It was one of two or three arcade games that were tucked in a corner at godfather’s pizza. I’m 100% positive no parents knew what it was.

I remember being blown away by it, and thinking there was nothing like its graphics and violence that I had ever played before.

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Usual-Bag-3605@reddit

I kept the high score for that game at my local arcade all summer. I keep waiting for Dave and Busters to get it like they have so many other classics. I blew my nephew's mind when I got the high score on the World's Largest Pac-Man last week when we were there.

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lastcallhall@reddit

"What was it like when the telephone was invented?"

This is how old I feel when I read questions like this.