I didn't realize you could play old video games on the XBox One. I really loved FINAL FIGHT and STREET FIGHTER 2 as a kid, but absolutely sucked at both, so it was usually a waste of money to play either in the arcade (but I did try from time to time). It really hits a childhood sweet spot to play arcade perfect versions of these games without having to worry about having enough quarters!

Thanks to Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Capcom Arcade Stadium, I can play those and a few other games in the same style like SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS and DARKSTALKERS for only $2 a pop! The boyhood dream has come true!

I used a PC emulator a few years ago to finish a bunch of old classics that I never could beat on console or in the arcades. The emulators allow you to pause and save the game state at any time, so I could just try unlimited times until I did it.

I love playing Joust and Donkey Kong. It is fun to try to master these classics without having to pay .25 cent a play!

Yeah, I just did that last Friday night to finally beat Street Fighter 2. I think I would have used like $10-$12 in quarters if I continued that many times in the arcade.

I am sure if I did some digging, I could figure out how to find and download some of this stuff -- but I love the video game mash ups I see out there. Here's one of the wrestlers from the WWF SUPERSTARS arcade game kicking all sorts of ass in the DOUBLE DRAGON game and then the warriors from STREET FIGHTER II in the world of FINAL FIGHT.

I'd love to play as Hogan or Macho beating up street punks!

LOL, this is awesome.

That's great!
I actually have that newsletter they're reading at the start.
I wasted a lot of hours playing that game, as well as the sequel.

Not familiar with that one, but it definitely looks old-school.

I enjoyed "Street Fighter II," especially playing Chun Li, as she says my name sometimes as she goes into her upside
down spinning kick. Not really, but it sounds close enough. Street Fighter II came towards the end of my time going
to arcades to play video games, so it's one that's still fresh in my mind.

The Beach brothers originally played some "Computer Space" and later some "Space War" play. Later some "Asteroids."

Ultimately I think I played more "Mr. Do!" than just about anything thing else, mainly because it was a fun game but
also because I was quite good at it and could play for a long time on just one quarter. Another one that I quite enjoyed
was "Punch Out" although I am not a real fan of boxing. It was almost impossible for me not to get a little work out in
when playing that one as you kind of start to dunk and weave a bit working the controls.

But yeah, we played classics like "Joust," "Ms. Pac-Man" (more than Pac-Man), "Battle-Zone," "Berzerk," "Defender,"
"Tempest," "Burger Time," "Centipede," "Time Pilot," "Front Line," and "Galaxian."

In mid to late 1980s, I was playing "Ghosts 'n' Goblins," the money swallowing "Gauntlet," "Rampage," and "Golden Axe."

Later on, yeah, I downloaded MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) and the ROMs from many of these around 2000
and enjoyed playing again a lot of these on my computer. One of these days, I may pick up one of those nice MAME
systems that people build into a full arcade cabinet with all of the buttons, joysticks, trackballs, etc. A place just six miles
away from me makes those for a pretty reasonable price and would bring it over. I just don't have all that much room.

Wow, can you elaborate? She says, "spinning bird kick" and I don't hear "John Beach" at all?

I randomly found a gaming history channel on YouTube and it's amazing how many really good fan-made documentaries have been uploaded. It's fun to get that nostalgia hit but it's also interesting to hear how the developers got their ideas and impressive what they were able to do with the huge limits on memory they had. (I've heard that the entirety of Super Mario Brothers is 32KB -- less than the size of most single images posted here on IMWAN!

My favorite ones are by Pacman QC -- his voice is a little goofy, but he provides great info (and when you see the handicaps he overcame, it's pretty incredible).

https://www.youtube.com/@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries

Pretty fun how they improved these LEGEND OF ZELDA graphics, but not too much -- looks kinda like SNES level graphics.

I only know what we heard. But we never heard her say "Spinning Bird Kick." The first one in the video is the
closest to what I remember. The sound isn't too great on that one. But she's obviously saying "Spinning Bird
Kick" in the later versions. I only remember playing the first version of the Street Fighter 2 game at the same
arcade each time, one that was run by a friend of mine. Could have been just that machine's speaker.

Cool post, Hanzo. I've recently gotten into retro-gaming as well, although for earlier games than XBox One. I got nostalgia punched by some YouTube videos and started looking into retro gaming for Linux. A few weeks later, I've got 20 years and hundreds of the "best games of the year" from ancient times set up on my PC . I've gone with the the following systems and dates:

Atari 2600: 1977-1984
PC (DOS): 1984-1996
Nintendo: 1985-1991
Sega Master System: 1986-1992
Super Nintendo: 1991-1996
Sega Genesis: 1992-1995

1996 is a good year to stop for a couple reasons. It's 20 years from 1977 so it's a round number, but also because in 1997 we get the first batch of Windows games hitting the best-of lists. 80% of these games don't seem to be abandonware, so they must be purchased on GOG.com or Steam. They aren't expensive so that's not an issue, but they've been Remastered to work on Windows 10. Upgraded graphics and newer cut scenes are good I guess, but I'm trying to play them as they were when they came out so I don't want that. The only way I'll get them to work for me is to eBay the original physical copies and then figure out how to work each one on my Linux machine. I'd rather just stop at 1996 - I already have hundreds of games, more than I'll play in the rest of my lifetime.

Man, I love those old Sierra and LucasArts adventure games. Do they still make games in that genre?

I can't remember what character, but in the SNES version of one of them, it sounded like he was saying "ABULLSHIT!" when he used his power.

Wow, you're way more into it than I've been able to get. I should try to figure out the whole emulator thing but I hate playing on the keyboard and only have a mac (back when I dabbled, probably 15 years ago now, it seemed most emulators only ran on PC).

Maybe I should check into it again and get a video game control I can plug into my laptop.

Here's a fun little documentary on the first LEGEND OF ZELDA.

Hey, for those interested -- I've been watching this video game channel that covers the history of the 80s Nintendo games -- all of them -- in chronological order. The videos have a nice "documentary" feel and I think anyone who was young around this time would enjoy it. The maker has a good, "neutral" sounding voice that adds credibility and has a great balance of historical information, what makes the game good / innovative or not, gameplay explanation, and opinion -- and usually delivers it in 10-20 minutes.

One interesting bit I've learned so far is that the success of Nintendo was third party developers actually delivering good games like Castlevania, Mega Man, etc., which was part of what killed the Atari and made it harder for the NES to break into the US. Seeing games evolve past simple "skill" games like Frogger and Donkey Kong into more story / total experience games like Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, etc. was interesting as well.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... lBIunt32Yh

My video gaming experience never got past a bit of experience with my brother's Atari 2600.

I don't really need to revisit video games of the past, since I play Frogger trying to walk across the highway to and from work every day. Meets my quota for excitement most days.

Oh man, Rastan 3 looks amazing! I wonder why they never released it in the US, the graphics for 1991 are incredible.