Even though I have intense love for the early '80s arcade scene, I tend to look back more fondly at the late '80s era. First, is because the games became more graphically impressive and developed deeper gameplay from the high-score-chasing era. Real boss battles became the norm, for example. Second, I had just started my slog through retail hell and I finally had my own money to spend on arcade games. My first paycheck went to buying an NES - my fourth or fifth paycheck went to buying an Atari 2600 Jr. to replace my old six-switch. It was an amazing time in my life for gaming. I don't think I could ever narrow it down to a single year, I'd say that 1986 to maybe 1992 were the greatest years for me. Amazing arcade games, new home consoles coming out all the time, and places like Toys R' Us were clearing out all their old early '80s backstock games for next to nothing. I can still remember going into one Toys R' Us and seeing a bunch of Stadium Mud Buggies and Striker! Super Pro Volleyball games marked down to $9.99. I remember racks of Vectrex games that I didn't buy since I wouldn't have one of my own for more than a decade. So many local convenience stores and supermarkets still had arcade games in them. It was a great time to be alive and a video game fan.