Likely Normal

There was a time when the dim glow of a CRT screen and the symphony of synthesized bleeps and bloops represented the pinnacle of human civilization—the golden age of the arcade. For those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, arcades weren’t just places to play games; they were digital coliseums where legends were born, rivalries were forged, and friendships were tested by the ultimate question: “Who’s got next?”

Today’s kids will never know the true struggle—the agony of watching your last life in Pac-Man get devoured by Blinky while a line of impatient teenagers behind you sighed in unison. They’ll never experience the white-knuckle tension of Street Fighter II matches, where the crowd around the cabinet would erupt into cheers or groans depending on whether your Hadouken actually connected or whiffed pathetically. And they’ll certainly never understand the art of the hustle—strategically feeding just enough quarters into Gauntlet to keep your elf alive while your “friends” let their warriors die to save their last 25 cents.

What Modern Gamers Are Missing

• The Social Ritual – Arcades were the original social network. You didn’t just play Galaga; you bonded with strangers over shared hatred for the “trick shot” aliens that always seemed to dodge at the last second.
• The Unwritten Rules – If you walked up to Donkey Kong and someone had a quarter on the control panel, you knew they had next game. Violate this sacred code, and you risked being shamed out of the building.
• The Glory of the High Score – There was no greater flex than etching your initials (“ASS” was a popular choice) atop the leaderboard, ensuring your dominance until some jerk with too much time and too many quarters came along.

The Classics That Built Us

• Pac-Man – The OG quarter-muncher that taught us life’s most valuable lesson: No matter how fast you run, your problems (cough ghosts cough) will always catch up.
• Frogger – A brutal tutorial in risk assessment. (“Yes, I can make it across six lanes of traffic. No, I probably shouldn’t.”)
• Galaga – The game that made us question whether we were actually good or just really good at memorizing patterns. (Spoiler: It was the latter.)
• Street Fighter II – Where lifelong friendships were tested by the age-old question: “How is Ryu’s fireball hitting me from inside my jump?!”

The Tragic Reality

Modern gaming is incredible—graphically stunning, endlessly expansive, and playable in the comfort of your own home. But it’s missing the electric chaos of the arcade: the sticky floors, the smell of burnt popcorn, the way a crowd would gather to watch the local Mortal Kombat prodigy rip through challengers with a smirk and a flawless victory. Today’s gamers will never know the pain of running out of quarters mid-boss fight or the triumph of finally beating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with three strangers who became your brothers-in-arms for one glorious afternoon.

“The arcade didn’t just give us games. It gave us stories.” And no amount of online multiplayer can replicate the magic of yelling “Move, you idiot!” at your best friend while he got you both killed in The Simpsons arcade game—again.

So here’s to the classics. May your joysticks never loosen, your quarters never run dry, and your high scores live forever in the annals of pizza-parlor history.