Sad sight tonight.

[deano71]

Im in the process of starting a cabinet as my 1st build. I thought as I live in a seaside town with a pier and about 8 arcades I thought I will take a walk tonight to get inspiration and look at some old cabinets.
It was shocking to see not one arcade had a game system. It was all fruit machines and toy grab machines.
I am so looking forward to hopefully show my son ( now 18) what fun it is playing a 2p game stood with your mates.

[SavannahLion]

Most "true" arcades have been gone for a while now. The current economic environment along with the changing norms of youth today simply do not allow it. 

It's almost embarrassing really. You get these crappy redemption places like Chuck-E-Cheese or John's Incredible Pizza that has a few cabinets shoved into the corner. Or you get these weird "baby sitting"-cades like Cyber Quest which is still a redemption place. Except for Musée Mécanique, I don't know of any "true" arcade that exists anymore. Note, I wouldn't go to Musée Mécanique anyways. First time I went, the cabs were in such a sorry state that it was rather embarrassing to be there. It houses a fairly broad collection with "peep" cabs dating from sometime in 30's to cabs dating to around the early 90's. But the bulk of the cabs were in a very worn state, getting hammered by the bazillion disrespectful tourists that frequent the place. The salt air doesn't help either.

[thomas_surles]

Look in the bowling alley. One near me has a couple games.

[jdbailey1206]

Arcades are definitely few and far between.  I am fortunate enough to have one close by me.  The website can be found here.  It will probably be the closest thing there will be to having something that was like the original arcades.
We also have things like Dave and Busters but like Savannah mentioned places like this are almost solely ticket puking machines and really don't cater to people like us.  But I guess that is why there are websites like BYOAC and KLOV.  So we can recapture some of the magic of our youth.

[jtslade]

There is a bunch of real classic arcades, you just have to willing to travel to them...

Grinkers Grand Palace
Funspot

I just went to SLC on business and checked out Atomic Arcade, such a blast and all 100% original classics, no mame no 60 in 1's it was amazing. And the owner is pretty hard core, great guy.

I always ask on KLOV before I go to my next town where the classic arcade action is

[jtslade]

I'm gonna check out off world next time I am in Detroit

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

New Jersey is also a very arcade and pin-friendly state.

Silverball Pinball Museum
Barcade in Jersey City (plus 3 more in NYC, if you're so inclined...)
Richie Knuckles
Digital Press Video Games (that place that just got swatted.)
2 Yestercades locations (haven't yet been to the Somerville location, but I HIGHLY recommend the Red Bank location. Just beautiful!)

I haven't been to Atlantic City, but I believe there are a couple down there too.

SO glad to be leaving Manhattan soon and moving back there...  no more alleyway builds!

[WindDrake]

Northern IL kind of sucks for arcades unless you want barcades.

I love Galloping Ghost and all, but it's a haul.

I've got a better arcade in my house than some of these "Barcade" outfits do.

[ark_ader]

Im in the process of starting a cabinet as my 1st build. I thought as I live in a seaside town with a pier and about 8 arcades I thought I will take a walk tonight to get inspiration and look at some old cabinets.
It was shocking to see not one arcade had a game system. It was all fruit machines and toy grab machines.
I am so looking forward to hopefully show my son ( now 18) what fun it is playing a 2p game stood with your mates.

We have 3 piers and about 5 serious arcades with classic video games in them, there was a starblade that was still working.  Obvious you need to head up north to get any true nostalgia.

[tomstewdevine]

The Bar Arcade is changing a lot of things as far as being able to find cool old machines and people that care about them. I mean I live in Sioux Falls South Dakota, a very small place and we just had a Arcade Bar open within the last year called the Bonus Round, and it seems no matter where I go to around here(Omaha, Minneapolis, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver) they have a cool Arcade Bar to go to. I love it.

[Tithis]

There a sort of barcade near in my area I've been meaning to try out.
http://hadleyquarters.com/our-games/
Hopefully the games there are in better condition than the last place I went to.