As I write this article, I recall the days when I was just a beginner in arcade gaming.
It was my first day in high school. I was new at that school and my elementary friends were nowhere to be found. They were either in another school or is in a different section. As any student can attest, the first day of classes are usually the time when teachers suddenly master the art of disappearance. I was bored. And it was too early to go home. Did I mention I used to be a loner? Anyways, since I was a kid was a fan of video games. Knowing that our school is near two malls with arcade machines, I was excited to try them out. I hurriedly went there and bought a token. I scanned for fighting games because that was my forte and what a found is a samurai era japanese game focusing on weapons (much like the samurai showdown series) called Ninja Masters. By observing other players of the game, I figured that it pretty much uses the standard hadouken-shoryuken motion popularized in Street Fighter games. So I sat down, plunked a coin and started duking it out with the AI.
I lost horribly.
Aside from the fact that most games in that arcade are set to the highest difficulty level, the controls just felt different. Because I grew up playing Nintendo family system, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sony Playstations Systems, I practically have no experience in using the arcade stick. Which means that all those motions that I was used to doing on reflex is useless in playing with an arcade stick. Which also means that I have to learn how to use the arcade stick if I don’t want to humiliate myself in public.
I played often. I observed good players. I asked how to do the move motions. In short I did everything to be get good at playing the arcade machines ( although in retrospect I think I overdid it XD). Unsurpsingly, not long afterwards, I was competing against the best players there. It was really an enjoyable time and even now I can remember the excitement and rush of playing toe-in-toe against the best players. it’s not something I can easily forget.
Fast forward into the future. I don’t play much( if ever ) in arcades anymore because the malls never did upgrade their machines after the “Golden Age” of arcade gaming. I still pass them by, the competitive spirit still intact, but the competition is not as intense as before. I have copies of the games at home in my PC but nothing beats playing games using the arcade stick especially fighting games. Somehow I find myself wishing to play those games again with new people. But alas! Arcade machines are prohibitively expensive to buy.
Enter the usb arcade stick.
I can’t believe its actually here in our area! I can finally get to play those games the way they are meant to be played. Yeah call me a nostalgic gamer, but mind you, those “old” fighting games takes every bit of strategy as modern games of today. I don’t call them old. I call them classics.
I’m looking forward to the competition. 
P.S. The games I’m referring to are the fighting game of the 90’s such King of Fighters series, Marvel vs Capcom series, Good ol’ Street fighter series, the earlier tekkens, etc
