It's 1982 and you're in some creepy dark arcade where a game of Donkey Kong is the order of the day. Suddenly someone plonks a coin down on the cabinet's glass screen to indicate they are next. It was off-putting and happened multiple times during your play, usually resulting in many laid out in a row with scant regard for neither the player or their valuable ten pee. How this then became a social norm is a mystery, as pool players still use the method to marking intent on going next on a table; just imagine you're eating at a posh restaurant and a stranger punches five quid next to the dinner plate with stern authority. "This MY table next, punk." Interestingly, game makers realized that it wasn't an efficient way for the arcade to make money and so games were engineered to allow several people to simultaneously join your game in progress without consent. This wasn't via some networking or LAN type affair - no, two or three people could walk up with their glorious adolescent B.O. and start playing your game in progress. At the then unheard of price of 50p for about three minutes of health, this resulted in lots of angry stares and very annoyed spotty hormonal arcade-goers.
A Welsh semi-retired television producer and actor known for low end work that astonishingly people actually watched and even garnered some awards. Originally residing in the electrically-challenged Amish areas of Pennsylvania he has written a few books (Hollywood Pants and Hollywood Horrible Hints and Terribly Fake Tips vols 1 & 2) which you can buy on amazon and all great book stores.
After a brief stint in Australia he now finds himself back in the Welsh valleys of his home country noting that it hasn't changed a bit!
