The Arcade Era of Fighting Games

Fighting games and the arcades go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whether fighting games spawned from the popularity of arcades or if they were the catalyst brought the audience to the cabinets in the 1990's, they are tightly integrated even up to today.

Games such as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, and Fatal Fury found strong footing in their communities. These franchises became so popular due to their exciting 1-on-1, 2D brawls with brutal attacks, killer music, and an addictive rush of winning that they've existed and thrived for three decades.

What is the Arcade Era?

But at what cost...?

As great as these games were as public game cabinets, they required a cost of a coin or two per round. One game of 25c or 50c isn't too bad, but once you started to get in the groove, and you really wanted to improve, you ended up spending a LOT of money. Due to the monetary connection to these games, it was and is still common to bet money on the victor of the match with the opponent. Getting money back on hard work spent makes the reward that much sweeter.