Back in the 90s I worked in the arcade industry, it was great. Arcade machines brought in huge amounts of cash but what I recall more than anything is how the older people that were in the business right from the start, even then looked back on the good old days, when the machines really made money. During my time, Street Fighter 3 made around 5K a week when it first came out, but apparently that was peanuts compared to Ms. Pacman and Donkey Kong as they were making so much money back in the 80s they had to cut the bottoms out of the coin boxes because they couldn't empty them fast enough before the quarters would back up into the coinslots.
This was such as nice read. Being the same age, I also feel the same way about arcade games, and more than that, the physical arcade machines. I can't, however, seem to get the same satisfaction from watching or even playing the games on emulators or in their console versions. It's about all the environment in which the Arcades were involved in that we can't replicate now in any other way.