I might as well jump on the band wagon. :) rolling up on 31, I have to say my addiction started when I first put a quarter in Cosmic Gurillas. Then jumped over to Speed Buggy, and then this game (can't remember the name) it was b/w and you controlled a mototcycle and all you did was do jumps over ramps! Between these 3 simple games back in 79' in a small little pizza parlor in Woodhaven, Queens NY was all it took... Shortly after, (80') I moved to Boca Raton Fl. at the age of 12. Scouring the neighborhood for any video game I can find to play I went into a Cumberland Farms store (7-11 basically) and what cought my eye was this game in the corner called "Galaga" This game is what gave me the incentive to cut lawns and search for money back bottles so I would have enought dough to play and master this game. I did just that for about 6 months, untill just 5 stores down in the same mall, a laundry mat put in about 4 games (pleides, moon cresta, donkey kong, and defender) I bounced back and forth between the convienent store and this laundry mat spending my hard earned money I got from bottles and cutting lawns. About 6 more months went by, and right next door to the laundry mat (actually joined the two store fronts) went in a arcade called "Game Fever"! They had about 30 games! I was in heaven like no other! This was really where it began. My skills increased dramatically, allready getting 4M on galaga 1 year later at 13. Getting 7M+ on Defender around the same time just 6 months playing it! and managed to find a robotron 2 stores down in a bar which I don't know how the hell I snuck in, but I did and played to I reached my all-time high of 10M! at age 14. I found a way to various locations within a 5 mile radious on my bike playing to master a new game as I found one. Stargate and Joust were another 2 to be added to my list and as time progressed by 86' the year I gradutated and bought my first car! I got sucked down to this arcade I was told about which was the largest in the world. My god it was! They had about 500 games in this gigantic building with the whole center of the room lines and lines of table top games! Around the wall was the stand ups and the popular ones like donkey kong pacman galaga, space invaders and burgertime there were multiple machines of each one! I was now beyond heaven! I did this for a while before changing the pace as I began getting older, I got turned on to the club scene. That's when I spend more time on the home systems and then went to clubs at night! After about 5 years, I got sick of it and got back into going to the arcade on a daily basis. Grand Prix had moved closer to my house and had doubled in size. Since then (about 23) I've been going there just about every weekend and sometimes during the week up untill today! Mastering not only many more video games, but learning to master pinball which I've accomplished today. Grand Prix has grown to over 1,200 games now and I still can't believe I'm playing some of the older games as much now as I did in the 80's and comparing scores on a game like Galaga from day 1, untill now having 18 years invested on this one and a whole lot of money back bottles! I can honestly say, I'm happy with my 20+M!... :) and thanks again to mame and marp, I'm getting better every day on on all the others. :^)(posted 9812 days ago)Regards, Steve Krogman