while I thoroughly enjoyed the arcade games, I believe they were surpassed by the NES.
I would put Super Mario Bros., Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Contra, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior up against Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Defender and Space Invaders any day of the week.
I do agree the are legendary and should be respected and valued but as far as gameplay goes........I still have my NES hooked up and played 3 of the afore mentioned NES games this week, couldn't tell you the last time I played Pac Man or Donkey Kong.
Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Super Off-Road (a lesser-known personal fix), Simpsons, etc. Great times.
A local arcade used to give tokens for good grades. For whatever reason, my mom had the foresight to have me start going when I was in freaking kindergarten. By the time I was interested (and tall enough) to play, I literally had hundreds of tokens.