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Your Old Arcade Spot - Then and Now
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HanoiBoi:
Here's a previous thread with the same idea, with good shared memories.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93067.0

Here's my story (direct copy & paste from the other thread):


"Malibu Grand Prix" in Mt Laurel NJ.  This was apparently a chain.  I even remember a Saturday morning 'game show' of sorts filmed at a California Malibu Grand Prix location.  If it were still there, I could walk you, blindfolded, directly to your game of choice.  I remember seeing many games for the first time there...Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space Duel, Q*Bert, Joust, Robotron, Jungle King, Elevator Action, Tron, Cliffhanger, Space Ace, etc.

They had lots of video games and pinballs, but also go carts; Roadrunners for the younger kids, Virage Racers for the older folks.  Sometime in the mid 80's they decided to add pizza.  The problem was that they took away half the arcade for seating area.  It really wasn't the same from that moment on.  It was always well lit too with windows on 2 sides.  They placed the games well though as it never interfered with game play.  The games were always in good condition and had a mechanic there all the time.  You'd tell him the issue and he'd be opening the machine in a minute to fix it up.  Their machines also never had cigarette burns, which was nice.

In my 'early' years, my Dad would take me and my brother just about every Friday night after dinner.  My brother and I would play arcade games while my Dad played pinball.  When we (the boys) were out of tokens from playing games like Zaxxon, Food Fight, Xevious, Time Pilot, Asteroids and Bezerk we'd play some pinball with my Dad.  We'd play Genie, Gorgar, Firepower, Eightball Deluxe, etc.  Then we'd get home in time to catch the Dukes Of Hazzard...while finishing our 7-11 Slurpees and opening our ET Trading Cards.   Smiley  Sunday Nights was for listening to Dr Demento.

I once rode my bike to Malibu (about 11 miles) on a Sunday morning to get there when they opened so that I'd have enough time to get the high score on Joust.  Played for something like 6 hours on a quarter.  I'd let onlookers give it a shot when I needed to use the restroom.  Smiley  I had all 40 top scores at one time.  No, I'm not necessarily proud of that...

Another fun story...I was there on a Sunday night playing Donkey Kong with a friend that I met there several times.  I again was on my bike and I wanted to get home in time to record Van Halen's Women and Children First that a local rock station was playing in it's entirety.  We played a little longer than I'd hoped and was afraid I'd be late for recording.  Luckily(?), my friend had a small motorcycle.  Long story short, I held the back of his motorcycle for a quick ride home.  Unfortunately, my tire caught a rock, the front wheel started wobbling uncontrollably until it hit the curb.   ???  I did end up making it home in time.  Nothing broken, but lots of ripped clothes and blood.   Cry

Malibu had a lot of games come through, but there was another arcade in Cherry Hill, NJ "Bally's Great Escape" that had a good amount of games that Malibu didn't have and that I really didn't see anywhere else (besides the Jersey Shore); Sinistar, Krull, Gyruss, Joust 2, Bagman, etc.  The vibe here wasn't as friendly and was real dark.

I've also been to Playland at Penn State.  What impressed me was that they had a lot of pinballs, even when people really didn't have pinballs anymore.  I got to beat up on Riverboat Gambler, Whitewater and of course Funhouse.  First time I saw the Pinball 2000 machines was there too.  The place did not have a good vibe. A big arcade open at 3am might sound pretty cool, but there's nothing like an empty arcade that always, always smelled like a locker room.  The old guy and really most employees were grumpy and rude. Tongue

One last thing...I had heard that an unidentified body was found when Malibu was demolished.  Glad it wasn't mine. Embarrassed
Malenko:
Champions arcade in the Christiana mall; was THE arcade spot. After it closed it became part of the foodcourt, they remodeled the mall a bit and now its part of a forever21. The other spots were Mars electronics in Elkton, MD they actually had a TON of machines, all for sale at prices I couldnt afford when I was a kid its a pawn shop now; and Vince's batting cages which is still there with a pretty good sized arcade.
yotsuya:

--- Quote from: HanoiBoi on January 26, 2011, 07:39:57 am ---Here's a previous thread with the same idea, with good shared memories.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93067.0

Here's my story (direct copy & paste from the other thread):


"Malibu Grand Prix" in Mt Laurel NJ.  This was apparently a chain.


--- End quote ---

We had one of these here in Phoenix when I was a kid, but my parents never took me.  :(
Epyx:
Then:

I had posted in the other thread but didn't really provide an in depth answer.  

I grew up in Surrey, BC (Canada). The first arcade that introduced me to gaming was across from a high school. It was called "3 Bears Drive in". It was a burger and fries joint that had about 20 games in it.  I would walk by the place in grade 3 and hear noises coming from inside, cool noises.  I finally got the courage to walk in as it was usually occupied with gigantic teen agers.  The source of the noise, Battlezone and Galaxians.  Battlezone was just released and always surrounded by a crowd of teens.  This was in 1980.

The next arcade I frequented was in a place called Guildford Shopping Mall and it was called "Circuit Circus". This arcade lasted until around 1983 but introduced me to most of the golden age games in the 3 years I frequented.  In 1983 Surrey passed a bylaw that required adult memberships for arcades due to "concerned parents". Luckily my parents were able to co-sign but this bylaw was replaced 6 months later and arcades were banned from Surrey.
 
Luckily arcades were still around in other cities (Vancouver downtown had 3 at that time). Locally you could still have arcade games but you were limited to 4 arcade games per store before you were considered an "arcade" so Subways and corner stores usually carried 1 to 4 arcade games. My friends and I plotted each store in about 10sq kilometers and would ride our bmx bikes in a circuit every weekend to get our arcade game fix.  The good thing? It kept me in shape all that cycling :)

Now:

All the arcades are gone in all cities except downtown Vancouver which has ONE arcade left called "Movie Land". It had about 50+ machines (+ pins) but also smells and has what we call pervo booths in the back that play adult movies. So it really isn't a place to take kids...sigh...

Thankfully we have our hobby and "WE" keep it alive even if it is more of a museum collection now :(
Donkbaca:
Mine was a place called Regency game palace, you could go there and get a hot dog for a quarter and something like 50 tokens for 5 bucks.  My junior high let out early every thursday and we would take the bus over there and play for hours.  We would mostly play Street Fighter against everyone, they had like 3 street fighter machines, and then when funds would get low we would play Final Fight since we could beat it in 3 credits.  It lost its lease and closed down and became a blockbuster, which also closed, now its empty.

I miss those days, you know, when kids would huddle at the 7-11 after school and play street fighter.  You would put your quarter on the CP to save your place and watch your competition while sipping on a slurpy.   YEah you have x-box live and what not, but its different going mano y mano with someone at a machine than it is to play some random japanese pre-teen that mops the floor with you...
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