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That's a lot of Quarters

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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Donkey Kong cabinetA feel-good tale turned feel-bad now has a chance to come full circle. The 2007 film The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters documented one Steve Wiebe, a totally average guy who transformed into a nerd hero, on his quest to best a pompous Billy Mitchell and his Donkey Kong high score. Too bad after the movie came out with its underdog-beats-the-world-record happy ending, "bad guy" Mitchell got the top spot back.

Now Wiebe is back on the steel girders, looking to surpass Mitchell's 1,050,200 points (as recorded by Twin Galaxies). If he can beat the world record at this year's E3 in Los Angeles, CA, Stride Gum has an interesting reward for him: a year's supply of gum and $10,001 worth of quarters, which, for you youngsters out there, is how we used to pay-for-play on our ancient arcade machines.

First of all, isn't Stride Gum supposed to be the one that lasts forever? So if that marketing's accurate, that prize would amount to one piece of gum. Second, that's a lot of quarters. Can't imagine Wiebe will be able to carry all that coinage after a marathon session of jumping over barrels has cramped his muscles up.

These days, a sackful of 40,004 quarters would be annoying as hell. But back in the 80s, that would've been any kid's dream (unless you had to feed them into a change machine to convert each one into a token).

If I had all those quarters, here are my top five old-school arcade games I'd spend them on:

 

1. Ms. Pac-Man. I never got to see what eventually happens in the final cutscene.

Journey2. Journey. Because this game was unfairly hard, and I would be determined to beat it with my seemingly endless supply of quarters.

3. Not Donkey Kong. But maybe Donkey Kong, Jr. or Donkey Kong 3. I liked those games much better.

4. Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road. Maybe I can now finally beat that cheating, quarter-stealing a**hole Stewart.

5. Phoenix. One of my personal faves as a kid.

If someone gave you 40,004 quarters during the arcade era, what five games would you play?

 
Tags: Donkey Kong, King of Kong, Steve Wiebe, Billy Mitchell, Ms. Pac-Man, Journey, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Super Off Road, Phoenix
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Comments (25)
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Matt Clinkscales
May 13, 2009
SMASH TV: It will take about that many(40,004)quarters to beat this game alone!
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Dan "Shoe" Hsu
May 13, 2009
[quote]SMASH TV: It will take about that many(40,004)quarters to beat this game alone! [/quote] First of all, MATT...that's not FIVE games. :P Just giving you crap. Smash TV's a good one. You can share your quarters with your co-op partner.
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Cory Alderman
May 13, 2009
I'd have to go with the Alien vs. Predator beat 'em up that Capcom made.
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Cory Alderman
May 13, 2009
I forgot about Super Puzzle Fighter 2 as well.
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Bob Sheehan
May 13, 2009
I'm not sure I had all that much fun playing arcade games. Could I just use the quarters on video poker and slot machines instead? From what I recall, the arcade games I played the most were, Pole Position, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Q-bert, and Super Mario Bros. Hmm, maybe Tron should be in that list or Commando. No wait, Star Trek was awesome. "Die you cloaking Kingon bastards, Photon Torpeeeeedos awaaaaaaaaaay!" --Me 25ish years ago. I'd probably go through 40k of quarters in about a day. I was horrible.
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Greg Ford
May 13, 2009
Funny enough, I just happened to watch the DVD of King of Kong last night. And you know, I'm not sure if it's a different ending, but (spoiler!) Steve does nab the crown at the very end. Also, Demian is pretty damn good at Super Off Road as well...at least he kicked my ass. Finally, I'd probably spend my haul on Gauntlet, Elevator Action, Robotron 2084, Spy Hunter, and Galaga.
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Dan "Shoe" Hsu
May 13, 2009
Gauntlet's another good one. So is Tron.
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Brett Bates
May 13, 2009
I think I'd definitely start by spreading the wealth around and bringing some friends in to play one of those great multiplayer brawlers, like The Simpsons, X-Men, Punisher, or that Alien vs. Predator game Cory mentioned. And I'm with you, Shoe: Super Off Road would be next on my list, too. But forget Ironman -- I'd just play it with humans. Man, spinning that wheel like a madman never got old... Then I'd take a stab at Time Crisis or House of the Dead, since those damn light-gun cabinets sucked up so many quarters per play I never got around to beating it. After that, I'd take it a bit older school with 720 Degrees, since it's been waaaay too long since I've played or even thought about that game. Finally, I'd wind down with a little Bust-A-Move.
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Brett Bates
May 13, 2009
Ack, how did I forget about the TMNT arcade game?! I'd play that one over even The Simpsons.
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Michael Donahoe
May 13, 2009
1. The Punisher Arcade Game (such an awesome Capcom Brawler) 2. Magic Sword (another classic Capcom game) 3. Street Fighter II 4. Rastan (Hey, I liked it as a kid!) 5. Bubble Bobble (The theme song is infectious!)
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Cori Shelly
May 13, 2009
SF 2 and MvC over and over and over and over ;)
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Chris "Cosmo" Ross
May 13, 2009
1) Area 51 2) Daytona (USA I think...?) 3) Sega Rally 4) Tekken Tag Tournament 5) Metal Slug
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Michael Pangelina
May 13, 2009
Man, I hate having to think about the death of Arcades. When I was a kid, I was all about any Tekken, Daytona USA, any Time Crisis. Actually, pretty much anything about punching, or that had a gun attached to it I was down for. I remember being really psyched when Silent Scope came out. Man...fun days at Scandia out in Fairfield. I still go out there every once in a while, they still have their arcade with some of the latest games, and a few classics.
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Daniel Durso
May 13, 2009
1)Galaga 2)TMNT 3)X-Men: Children of the Atom 4)Marvel Superheroes 5)Silent Scope
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Andrew Wilson
May 13, 2009
1. Donkey Kong. Still my all-time favorite arcade game. 2. Mario Bros, especially if I could get some buddies to play it against. 3. The Simpsons. Best. Scrolling beat-em-up. Ever. Especially with four players, which was easy to find back when the game was new. It was the hottest thing at the arcades at the time. 4. Mortal Kombat II. I spent more money on this fighting game at the arcades than any other. 5. Galaga. Personally, though, I'd take $3000 worth of those quarters, go to Amini's Galleria, and buy one of those 30-in-one arcade cabinets, which has not only the big-name classics like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Dig-Dug, but lesser-known games like Pengo and Mr. Do! Then, since I owned the cabinet, I could play it as much as I want for free. I'd take the other $37,000 and use it to buy a foreclosed house in Arizona to put my new arcade cabinet in. 8)
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Brian Shirk
May 13, 2009
Hmm what five games: 1)Time Crisis 2)Dungeons & Dragons 3)Pac-Man 4)Virtual On 5)NFL Blitz
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Toby Davis
May 14, 2009
Here are my 5 in no particular order Time Crisis TMNT House of the Dead Crusin the World Tekken
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Hans Gruber
May 14, 2009
Since I live in Sweden there are no arcades here whatsoever. But I remember one summer ten years ago when I was in Montenegro for a whole month. I must've spent somewhere around 10 bucks every night at the local arcade playing Soul Calibur and Metal Slug. It's a shame that the arcades never really got as big in Europe as they are/where in the US and Japan.
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Will Morrison
May 14, 2009
If I had all of those quarters, I'd probably hire someone to make some crazy statues and furniture out of 'em.
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Jon Irwin
May 14, 2009
Sir Hsu, Fellow Wolverine here. Much respect for your stance on gaming journalism integrity and your work at EGM (though I still miss my Diehard GameFan way back when). But enough of that. More importantly? Journey arcade game! Holy cow. I worried I'd made this up, part of some misty dream sequence I'd played in my head over and over. But it exists. There was a restaurant that had this in northern Michigan, and I'd play while my parents bickered over their plates of spaghetti. Loved those floating drums. My Top 5: -Gunsmoke -Jokerz! (pinball) -Killer Instinct -Goonies -Mario Kart Arcade GP (never played it, but my quarters will pay for the ticket to Japan)
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Eric Cummings
May 14, 2009
Shoe, this kicks ass. My Top 5 Quarter Munchers are: #1 - Mortal Kombat, just for the double head fatality glitch with cage. I could do that forever. #2 - Galaga #3 - Ms.Pac-Man #4 - Super Mario Bros. #5 - Ghosts 'N Goblins
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Andy Crosby
May 14, 2009
1) Tempest 2) Raiden 2 3) Q-Bert 4) Tron (a tie between regular and discs of tron, they were both great) 5) Starblade
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Lin Leung
May 14, 2009
1)x-men arcade six player version 2)Gundam simulator 3)Silent Scope 3 4)crisis zone 5)Street Fighter II
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Marc Ford
May 16, 2009
I tossed any quarters I could find on these oldies: 1. Galaga---Found one in a pizza joint earlier this year. Popped in a quarter and still topped 100,000 after what, 20 years? 2. Q-bert--Sadly enough I just bought a version for my PC :D 3. Joust--Who doesn't like bouncing turkeys off each other? 4. Spy Hunter--All I wanted was to get to the speedboat. 5. Gunsmoke--That dang ninja was the coolest boss, but aren't all things ninja cool when you're 12 years old or so?
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Brett Bates
May 29, 2009
Shoe, check it out: Stride actually went and got 40,004 quarters in preparation! [url]http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/donkey-kong-e3/[/url]

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