I never understood them either. Was crazy to me back in the day when Street Fighter II Turbo came out for SNES and Genesis and people were blasting out $74.99 a pop when I was at Software Etc a long time ago. Back then I remember the big thing was the censorship Nintendo laid down on mortal kombat and I told everyone to buy the Sega Genesis version because it had blood in it.
Seeing people in the arcades just throwing TONS Of quarters into those machines in those days - and people crowded around. I played it once and was thinking to myself, "What is the big deal here?" But maybe it was because I was getting older. I played the shit out of Karate Champ in the bowling alley when I was 11.