So one day back in '95 or '96, my family takes me out to a local amusement park. They try their hardest to keep me out of the arcade, but I eventually manage to sneak away long enough to start looking for Cybersled, a B.O.T.S machine, or one of the many interesting 2-D fighters that were popular back then. I never found any of them, because about halfway in I spotted a VOOM cabinet and my brain got blasted by an ali-02r "Telefunken" Laser Irradiator* for 60% damage and knockdown. I think I stood there for about three minutes just beholding the awesomeness before I sat down and managed to stop my hand from shaking long enough to get the quarters in.
So... VR select screen comes up. I think, "Hey, this blue guy looks cool, like the sword, but isn't the first one usually some handicapped 'newbie-friendly' character? Naaah... I want that big guy I saw with the cookie bomb thing."
*dink*
"Buh? Pink? Ew..."
*dink*
"Ooh, a hammer! INDUSTRIAL PUMPKIN-MECH SMASH!! Maybe next game..."
*dink*
"Hey, is this the cookie-bomb guy? It says he has Napalm; that must be it. Wonder what else they've got..."
*dink*
"Wha? No legs? Mines...something...Ring Bolt? Uh..."
*dink*
"Generic army guy. Boring. What the hell is a tongfer?"
*dink*
"..."
*dink*
"Wait, maybe
this guy has the cookie bomb... But he's last. I don't wanna play as the boss."
*dink*dink*dink*dink*dink*
"Yay napalm!" *LW* "whoah..."
I only got to play a couple games, and I didn't really remember anything afterwards except a bit of music, the awesome flame wall attack, and a vague sense of awe such as might be felt when one has accidentally discovered a powerful artifact of some mysterious future race. A couple years passed, and I spotted the game again at a newly-opened indoor entertainment center. Two teenagers were playing a versus match on Green Hills, doing lots of air attacks and making fun of Fei Yen's "love beam". The guy on the right side eventually left, so I sat down, chose versus, and picked the guy I remembered from last time: Belgdor. I don't remember if I won or not, but I remember deciding that a tan Belgdor with blue napalm was the spiffiest-looking mech in the entire universe. Also, falling down sucks.
Fast forward a few more years. I'm a freshman at college, and they've just replaced the rec room's Daytona USA machine with VOOM. The same people who taught me how to play fighting games turn out to be VO fans, and much fun is had by all. This one kid named Kev was a good match for my skill level, and I had a great time fighting his Viper2 and Temjin with my Belgdor and Apharmd. We also had a couple people who were just insanely good with Viper2 and Apharmd, and I would be lucky to win one round against them. It was AWESOME. I spent lots of time reading Tirah's guide online, practicing new moves between classes, and asking stupid questions on the SydVOC forum.
We also heard rumors of a new VO around this time, and while most were skeptical, we all wanted to try it. Unfortunately, there were 50 miles of water between us and the nearest VOOT machine, so I didn't get to play it until I bought a Dreamcast a couple years ago. It's a good game, but without the arcade machine and some good competition, it just wasn't the same. I'm hoping the 360 release will solve the latter problem.
*model name and part number for VOOM Raiden's Laser cannons (Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Graphics Perspective, page 100)