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Your Old Arcade Spot - Then and Now

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milhouse:

Nathan's Arcade on Central Ave. in Yonkers, NY. A fairly large arcade attached to a giant Nathan's that was walking distance from my house and my grandparent's house. It wasn't always the safest place in the world at night, but they had probably 100 or so cabs and 50 or so pins.  Maybe more.  As a kid I can remember standing on milk crates to play Pac Man, Defender (which I still suck at), Depthcharge (easy for a 4 year old), Star Wars (sit-down), 720, Battlezone, Hang-On, Sprint, Atari Football and tons of others.  They also had a bunch of shooting games that I think were run off a projector. Late 70s stuff.

The local movie theatres had a good selection (Toobin, Thunderblade) as did the Ground Round where we had way too many birthday parties.

My wife was more of a jersey shore girl, but stuck to skee-ball.  Which is probably why we have a mame cab and a skee-ball in the house, though she is dying to get a pinball machine.

Happy to say Nathan's is still up and running, though its game selection is much more limited.  Now it has lots of big games and no pinballs.  About a year ago they announced they were shutting it down so I went back with my little brothers and set the No. 1 score in centipede, one of the few remaining classic cabs.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/nathans-famous-of-yonkers-inc-yonkers

bleargh:

Old arcade spot?  Which one...

When I was really young (~4-6yrs), my babysitter used to take me to the local pool hall (across from the McDonalds) in Thornhill, Ontario.  During the day the place was totally dead quiet, and they had a pair of pinball machines that he'd let me play.  Guys who ran the place kept a milk crate in the back so I could stand on it and play.  Building's still there, but its now a Flooring and Rug store.

A few years later, we moved to Richmond Hill and lived behind Hillcrest Mall, which had an arcade.  Maybe 20 arcade games there, don't remember any pinballs.  In the middle of the arcade they had three machines set up back-to-back, one of which was Gauntlet.  Always a crowd around that machine.  Arcade didn't last too long in the mall, though; ISTR it being closed down after a few years.  No idea what's in there now.

In high school, we'd all go hang out at "The Sting", which was only a block down the road.  Three pool tables in the back, ~30 arcade machines, and a handful of pinballs.  Black Knight was a favourite, if you could ever get close enough to play.  More often than not you'd put your quarter down and your lunch hour would run out before your turn came up.  Was totally the after school hang-out place; once school let out you almost couldn't get another body into the arcade.  Back then, smoking was still allowed in the arcade, and opening the front door generally meant a wafting cloud of smoke billowing out into the parking lot.  Arcade changed hands several times over the years, curiously enough always managing to be owned by someone named "John".  Fondest memories of the place are actually after I left high school, as this Chinese fellow (also named John) took over the place and was very friendly.  Me and my buddies easily spent 4-6hrs in there every day/night, and he appreciated that when we were there he got less riff-raff and had less troubles to deal with.  In return he'd occasionally pump the juke box full of songs for us, or set us up with some free pool.  Great guy.  Was still an arcade when I moved out of Richmond Hill, but its now an Adult Store (no idea what its been in the ~20yrs since I last hung out there though).

Other cool hang-out we had was the comic book store I worked at, "Shooting Star Comics".  Needless to say, comic book stores are cool to begin with, but Jim (the owner) also always had a few games tucked away in a back room at his stores.  On Saturday nights he'd let us run a local gamers club (D&D or Warhammer 40k), and we'd frequently still be there playing away on something when he came to open the store on Sunday mornings.  Between rounds of 40k everyone would pile upstairs for a few rounds of whatever he had in the back room.  Looking at Google Street View today, I see that the old stores are now (1) an M3 Flooring Shop, (2) a Medical Shop, and (3) some new condo building.

Sigh... arcades.  Those were the days.  Sucks to say, but I can't think of a good arcade I've walked into in almost 20 years.

ids:

Been scratching my head for days trying to remember the names of the places - since they are all long gone.

In Toronto, there was a nice one on Bathurst, just under the 401 somewhere.  Great selection of games.  They had a section where u could grab food and sit down, but my quarters were too valuable to be used on food.  (They actually used tokens iirc)  As the years wore on, the selection started to stagnate, and the end finally came.

There were also all the really classic (read "dive") arcades along Yonge St, cigarette burns everywhere, etc

There was also a pool hall in St. Catharines called Pot Black, which had several machines (pac man, popeye, asteroids, etc).  Since it was just up the road from the high school, it made for a good hangout.  That's where I found a galaga without the fix, and missed an afternoon of school getting the high-score.

When I was younger, I recall camping at one of those trailer/camp site places; the arcade there had awesomely cool stuff like Boot Hill, Night Driver, etc.  Lots of quarters gone on that trip.

And one apartment we lived in opened one up: ah they joy of Lunar Lander, Space Invaders, Warlords, Space Zap...

Then the mall opened one; Donkey Kong Jr, Battle Zone, Centipede, Missile Command, Temptest, Crazy Climber, Star Castle....

The local convenience store was the first place I saw Dragons Lair - WOW!

I really miss those days, when games were everywhere.  A mame cab just isn't the same experience as walking into...almost anywhere, pizza joint, department store, arcade... and wondering what new and magical game you might find.  And if not new, the same ol' was good as new anyway, as long as you had a quarter.

sheesh, this thread just made me really sad  :'(


Edit:  There is currently the Playdium, has a few good games, lots of stupid redemption crap, but the closest (only?) thing to an arcade I am aware of today.

bleargh:


--- Quote from: ids on January 27, 2011, 04:38:03 pm ---The local convenience store was the first place I saw Dragons Lair - WOW!

--- End quote ---

Wow... my first time seeing Dragon's Lair... I'd forgotten that moment.

Crazily enough... the arcade that I first saw Dragon's Lair in happened to be in the spot that would later turn into the comic book store I worked at.  Somewhere between "arcade" and "comic book store" I remember the place being a waterbed shop.

Arcade was packed, and they had a second screen attached to the top of the cabinet so everyone in the place could see how the player was doing.  Was the first game I ever saw that was "a whole dollar" to play.  I didn't even go near it (even with dad's pocket of change funding my afternoon); I couldn't imagine putting a whole dollar in that thing to play it no matter how awesome it looked... that was like... four whole games of something else.  Oh right... they had a Battlezone too!

And then when the comic book store moved in we had a sit-down Star Wars.  Many late nights were spent staying late in the store playing Star Wars.

The more I remember this stuff, the more I think "my basement just isn't big enough". 

Bootay:


--- Quote from: bleargh on January 27, 2011, 06:13:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: ids on January 27, 2011, 04:38:03 pm ---The local convenience store was the first place I saw Dragons Lair - WOW!

--- End quote ---

Wow... my first time seeing Dragon's Lair... I'd forgotten that moment.

Crazily enough... the arcade that I first saw Dragon's Lair in happened to be in the spot that would later turn into the comic book store I worked at.  Somewhere between "arcade" and "comic book store" I remember the place being a waterbed shop.

Arcade was packed, and they had a second screen attached to the top of the cabinet so everyone in the place could see how the player was doing.  Was the first game I ever saw that was "a whole dollar" to play.  I didn't even go near it (even with dad's pocket of change funding my afternoon); I couldn't imagine putting a whole dollar in that thing to play it no matter how awesome it looked... that was like... four whole games of something else.  Oh right... they had a Battlezone too!

And then when the comic book store moved in we had a sit-down Star Wars.  Many late nights were spent staying late in the store playing Star Wars.

The more I remember this stuff, the more I think "my basement just isn't big enough". 

--- End quote ---

Yep. First time I seen Dragon's Lair was Space Shuttle and they also had a 2nd screen attached to the top so everyone could see what the player was doing because it was so crowded around the machine that no one could ever see the screen.

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