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What place was your favorite arcade from your past??
MaxVolume:
Kinda odd for me to jump in here, because I was barely ever allowed in an actual arcade. I do have some memories to add, though. Probably most of my game playing was done either at Hill's department store or at a nearby laundromat. The laundromat had a Dig Dug and a TRON, and to this day, Dig Dug is just about the only arcade game I might be considered "good" at, although a lot of that is from playing home versions. I actually went back to that laundromat this past Saturday, and they now have a Super PAC-MAN, which I played.
Another thing I did Saturday was to drive by "The Forum" mini-mall, which is a group of shops in an enclosed "pocket" of a strip mall. Back in the day, there was an arcade in the back called Silver Odyssey, and the doorway was constructed to look like the door of a spaceship. After the arcade moved outside to a "regular" space in the strip mall, they closed off the "spaceship" doorway with a wall containing a regular door. The "spaceship" door frame is still in place, though, and that was cool to see. Kind of a permanent monument to the '80s and the golden age of arcades.
Here's my attempt at a graphic representation of what the "spaceship door" looked like... hope it displays correctly:
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Probably the first time I saw a color vector game was at "Video Venture" which was in the same shopping plaza as Hill's and the laundromat (a different one from where The Forum and Silver Odyssey were located, though). My siblings and I got to spend an hour or so in there once, and that was about the most "arcade time" I had until I was in my late teens or early 20s. I did get to go into Silver Odyssey for a few minutes as a kid, but I don't think we played any games. Really early arcade experiences as a kid would have been at Natural Bridge (probably my first experience... I played "Cops 'n' Robbers" I think) and "Tweetsie Railroad" (where I discovered the awesome Star Trek sit-down machine).
The coolest place in town was an old movie theater that eventually gave up and "went dollar" in its last days. They had a huge game room which took up most of the lobby... there were just walkways around the perimeter to get to and from the concession stand and theaters from the box office, kind of like "tunnels". In its later years, they would set all the games on "free play" and charge a flat fee for admission, completely separate from a movie ticket. There were a LOT of old classics still there, and it was a blast to finally get some time on those machines. I talked to someone about buying the machines after they closed, but I had no real financial means to do it at the time.
Other than occasionally finding a machine at our local Food Lion, that's pretty much my arcade experience. Hope that wasn't too boring.
Oh... and I noticed some people talked about skating rinks. I worked at one in the late '80s, and my favorite game they had was a High Speed pinball machine. Funny... I don't remember any of the video games they had except for Fire Truck, which I was way too old to play at that point, although it was popular with the little kids.
Hockeyboy:
--- Quote from: mcseforsale on August 26, 2012, 09:11:01 am ---Forgot about the skating places. Skate Fantasy in Manchester, Ct. where I gut my teeth on Donky Kong. They had Pacs and a couple of pins. Probably 15 machines in all.
Skate Palace East in East Hartford is where I discovered Bubble Bobble.
Then, there's where we used to ride BMX...Rt. 5 BMX in S. Windsor Ct. Just a couple of machines, but the most important was Exitebike and USA hockey.
Man, what fun.
AJ
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I forgot about our two skate places: Sunrise Rollerland in Citrus Heights, CA opened up with a wooden floor, red carpeting wall-to-wall, and a kind of medieval theme inside. Then Roller King opened up in Roseville and it had this super-weird new kind of floor that was plastic or whatever that "new" stuff was back in the early 80's.
Both of those places had a bunch of arcade machines, along with several pinballs.
You guys are taking me way back down memory lane... :'(
DefJam:
Wow, so many.... it would be great if we had a database. Ok, my old hangouts... I lived in Pennsylvania in Montgomery County:
Spaceport - Montgomery Mall. Fun Fact: The guys in the Youtube training video worked at this arcade, and I am pretty sure that the spaceport in that photo is from Montgomery Mall. They also had a killer Star Trek Vector promotions, I remember going in and there were about a dozen machines all on free play. Still my favorite.
Odyssey Land - in Montgomery on Rt 309. Standalone arcade, open til at least 2am. Good for the older kids.
Saturn IV - In lansdale near lansbowl - awesome place, really dark inside, space themeed. They always had a good diverse line up. SpaceFury was there.
Supercade - Plymoth meeting Mall - It was a huge arcade, they kept an interesting mix of old and new over the years... it hung in there for awhile, but is gone now as well.
There are so many more, but they were the best of what was closest to me. I would kill for pictures of all of them.
mcseforsale:
If yer gonna do a database, how about:
Home Town
Closest Major City
Location (or business)
Address (or close proximity)
Machines you remember
AJ