Ever wonder what those little rounded
cubbyholes above the
joysticks of your favorite
arcade machine were for? Or perhaps you've seen a row of quarters lined up in the crack between the joystick panel and the monitor?
Well, most people refer to them as either "dibs slots" or "next slots". In most head-to-head arcade games, you'll see a line of people standing behind the two people playing the game. Generally, the person that loses the match will move away from the machine, so that the next one in line can move up and challenge the winner, according to the "winner stays, loser pays" rule. The order of the line itself is far lower priority than the order in which the quarters were placed on the machine. the person who has "dibs" will pluck his quarters from the cubby, and insert them into the machine, and attempt to dethrone the current king of the game.