My friend Martha just told me about what her local arcade used to be like in the 90s.
"I went from 1992 to 2003, when it closed up. Its glory days were in the mid to late 90s. The lights were dim, it smelled of smoke, and of course, there were lots of games. There was a token dispenser and ticket eater at the entrance and they would give you tokens if you did well in school. There were all sorts of genres: regular arcade machines, pinball, redemption games, and what have you not. Some games I remember being there were Street Fighter II, The Simpsons, Star Wars Episode I Racer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NARC, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Rolling Thunder, Sonic Championship, Spider Stompin', Spider Splattin', AAAH! Real Monsters, Hydro Thunder, Arctic Thunder, Offroad Thunder, The Ocean Hunter, Mortal Kombat 4, some classic games like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., etc., Speed Racer, SegaSonic the Hedgehog, RoadBlasters, Wacky Gator, Feed Big Bertha, Skee-Ball, PlayChoice 10 (forgot which), Mega Man: The Power Battle, Act-Fancer: Cybernetic Hyper Weapon, X-Multiply, R-Type, Life Force, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, Superman, Nemo, X-Men, Dance Dance Revolution, and Captain America and the Avengers.
Of course, it had music. Here are some of the songs I remember playing in there:
That's all I can remember. But it was so awesome."