How Many Different Places Did You Play Arcade Games?

[markrvp]

This is my 2000th post, and in celebration I thought I would reminisce with you guys about where I used to play arcade games in the 80s.

Here is a Google satellite map that shows the area around my house where I use to ride my bike to go play videogames.  Click on the image to make it larger (It's 800 pixels wide).

My House - designated by the red star

Arcade 1983 - This is the log cabin arcade that lasted a year.  Mostly bootleg clones.

Dairy Queen:  Space Invaders, Galaxian, Gorf, Moon Cresta

Convenience Store:  Pacman, Scramble, Joust, PunchOut

Kwik Stop:  I would ride all the way up here to enjoy the magic of DRAGON'S LAIR

Tacon Inn:  I put probably $100 in a Donkey Kong machine here.  I still buy soft drinks there daily.

1st Arcade:  This place was great.  It introduced me to Defender, Stargate, Crazy Climber, Astro Blaster, and many others.  I wasn't allowed to go there, so I would have to be sneaky and park my bicycle in back in case my parents drove by.

Not pictured:  Pizza Inn.   This place was too far to ride my bike, so my mom would take me there once a week.  This is where I played the Pacman cocktail (which I recently restored one for my home) and was introduced to many of the new great games like Asteroids, Tempest, Rally X, Super Sprint, Warlords, Tron, Missile Command, and many others.

There was a place in Fort Worth about 40 minutes away called Crystal's Pizza.  It was a beautiful place that looked like a 1920s grand ballroom.  They had a grand piano that an old guy played just beautifully.  In the back was a small movie theater where they played Three Stooges films and Warner Brothers cartoons.  The theater had stadium seating with tables so you could eat your pizza while eating (this was before projection TVs and widely available VCRs).  I played my very first videogame here which was a sitdown version of BOOT HILL.  Boy was that a thrill.  This place added a ton of videogames as they came out.  I remember specifically that Crystals was the place where I first played Centipede, Moon Patrol, Ms Pacman, Dig Dug, Mr. Do, and Frogger as well as many others.

I could rarely get my parents to take me to Chuck E. Cheese, but I distinctly remember playing MouseTrap there.

There were also two malls in Fort Worth each with their own arcades.  It was in these magical places that I was introduced to such greats as Star Wars, Q-Bert, Battlezone, Time Pilot, Xevious, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I got caught playing arcade games when I wasn't supposed to more than once.  Arcade games were an early addiction for me and I got in trouble one time for taking $10 out of the studio cash box to play games.  Another time I skipped choir practice to go play Pacman at the convenience store.  One night when my parents were out photographing a job, I went up to Dairy Queen (when I should have been home) and my parents saw me in the window driving home.  I was sitting down playing Moon Cresta when I looked out the window to see my dad loading my bicycle into his car.  I got grounded for two weeks and even missed our school's Halloween Carnival (which was a huge deal and I still resent it to this day).

[mccoy178]

Excellent work!  You've put a little time into this.  All I can remember is our county fair once a year and Pizza Hut.  I grew up in the late 80's and early 90's, so I was a part of the SF and MK uprising.  I also really really wish I had an air hockey table.  Man that was fun.

[APFelon]

I'm not even clost to 2,000 posts, but I think I'll join the chorus.

The first arcade I remeber was the Picadilly Circus at Brookdale Mall in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. It closed down around 1983 because it attracted a "bad element" (zoom foreward 20 years and the mall is a friggin' dump even without an arcade).  I remember playing Depth Charge there with my grandpa who served on a destroyer during WW2 after eating at Brother's Restaraunt.  He said it was just like being on a destroyer (an exaggeration, I know... but hey, it was kind of neat to hear anyway). It was a typical arcade... dark and crammed full of games (my mother would let me hang out there while she shopped until she saw the T.V. movie "Adam" about a kid who gets kidnapped out of a Sears). I remember playing Kangaroo there as well. I saw Gorf for the first time at that location. Some big kids were playing it, and I was watching for about two minutes when the big kid playing turned around and said "get lost, kid. I fugging mean it" (or something that sounds like "fugging".

I played Dig Dug for the first time at Showbiz Pizza Place.  While playing, some bigger kids were taunting me while I was learning the game. Fygar got me with his dragon breath, and one of the kids yelled "flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!" (you'd have to hear it to get the full flavor of the interjection). Now when I play Dig Dug with pals, I shout "Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!"

Of course, there was Circus Pizza in Brooklyn Park. They had EVERYTHING there... and I mean EVERYTHING. Stuff that is rare as bull titties nowadays... they had. I remeber squaring off with my father in Warrior, shoveling ~20.00 in Fantasy (no comments, please) , I remember them hauling in a Rad Baron cockpit which sat next to the Missle Command, Dragon's Lair, Cliff Hanger, Bega's Battle and Thayer's Quest for lazer disc games, Front Line, Krull, Reactor, Gravatar, Journey, and Elevator Action all sitting next to each other inthe row bythe restaraunt, etc.  I remember the hordes of people who stood around Karate Champ when that game was new and never being able to get close to the Double Dragon machine.

I went to Chuck E. Cheese (back when they had "violent" video games) and playing Frisky Tom.  I was about 12, and a female CEC employee came over and told me how good I was at the game. I felt like a king until I worked for the rat 15 years later as a service tech and learned that CEC employees were supposed to interact with and compliment guests. There  went THAT childhood memory.

APf

[PoDunkMoFo]

Ahhh the good ol' days.....

I am from a small town that I know no one around here has probably heard of (Gustine) but I remember crankin on down to the local bowling alley to play Donkey Kong.  All the way across town (1.5 to 2 miles)  was a little convenience store where I was introduced to QBert and Zaxxon.

I remember trips to Modesto where we would be left at TILT the mall arcade.  This place was the sheite back in the day.  DigDug, Tempest, Congo Bongo.... the memories are flooding back now  Wipes away a tiny tear

I can remember a couple of trips when I was a little older (12 or so) to Circus Circus in Reno.  First time I saw or played Discs of Tron Environmental, loved that game.  Also remember lines of people crowded around Punch Out.

I just don't think the young pups around here can possibly imagine what it was like to grow up in that era.  Gameplay was king.  When you saw something like Dragons Lair or DOT you thought man this is as good as it can possibly get.

OK enough sentimentality for one night.

[odysseyroc]

Seems like you couldn't walk into a building in 80's without playing a video game.

The liquor store around the block from my house had Centipede and Frogger. The friends I used to walk home from elementary school with would stop there, buy a soda and play games with what little money we had. Occasionally high school kids would be there playing and we would stand in awe of their awesomeness.

Across the street from the Liquor store was a 7-11, they had (at one time or another) Gauntlet, Mat Mania and Kick. I always wanted to play Kick, but was too short to see the screen. It seemed like the CP was about 5 feet high at the time.  There was also a doughnut shop next door to it that had Contra and some other game that I want to say was Mr. Do.

Disney land arcade was the first place I ever saw Dragon's Lair and is to this day the only place I've ever seen Nintendo's Arm-Wresting.

In Gardena we had Ted's arcade. It was a tiny building that I want to say was maybe 15"x30". I remember falling in love with Yie Ar Kung Fu there. That was a big hangout when I was in Jr. High. Right next door was Teds Burgers, nothing better than chowing down on a burger combo and playing some video games. Some of the shadier kids figured out that they could photo copy dollar bills and use them in the change machine.

Other arcades in the area were Aladin's Castle in the Del Amo mall, the arcade at old town mall, the Underground arcade at the Redondo Beach pier, Malibu Castle and the grand daddy of them all the Redondo Beach Fun center on the other side of the pier. The fun center had a tilt o' whirl at it's center and a bunch of carnival type games. Malibu Castle was a big place to play Cyberball and later Street Fighter 2.

Bowling alleys and pizza parlors were the best places for gaming. We had Missile Bowl, Gardena Bowl, South Bay Bowl, Bowl-O-Drome, Shakeys Pizza, Pizza Hut, Straw Hat Pizza and of course Chuck E Cheese.

Every where you went you were asking your mom for a quarter to play a game. Grocery Stores, Restaurants, Movie Theaters. It was a great time to be a kid.

[captainpotato]

Ah, yes, I remember Downtown on Hindley Street here in Adelaide. Garish, tacky, but it was the quintessential 1980s arcade. Roller skating, skeetball, but for me it was the maachines - even if trying to get money from my parents was like getting blood out of a stone. When I had my own money, Downtown was gone, but there was Timezone with its all-night lock-ins.

I remember the first place I played Gauntlet - the Woodville Bowl in mid-1985, and coming back from there racing along with mates in shopping trolleys.

Then there was the Ice Arena where I played Barttlezone for the first time when I had a broken finger and couldn't go ice skating at my friend's Adrian Head's ninth birthday party.

Or even playing Galaxian on the cocktail cabinet at Happy Valley shopping centre - and being really crap at it, but better than my brother

If I weren't in front of my ancient Libretto, I may even dig up a Google map to show you all

[Mark70]

I was a rural canadian boy, so I was addicted to video games by my father who generously supplied us with a C64, a TRS 80, a MAC 10, and a console called the Oddesssy.  My first recallection of playing an "arcade" game was when I was about 7 or 8 years old at a ski resort in Mad River Glenn Vermont.  We would stay there for a week every year.  We became friends with a ski racer working as a waiter (well I'm sure we were just little kids bugging a teenager) and he used to do a little dance to the opening music of scramble, a machine that they had in the games room of the resort.  I spent my time growing up in Peterborough Ontario, Canada where, as highschool kids we would drive in to the local pool hall called Papas Billiards (It's acutally a name pronounced PAP-ASS, but everyone calles it Papa's).  There I played just about everything.  The rotated machines frequently.  I remember spending about six dollars palying Superman one time.  They always has a version of 1942, and they always had at least one fighter, usually a street fighter.
  The next haunt was one location of an arcade chain called Mr. Arcade.  Again they had a place with easily 40 or more machines in it which rotated frequently.
  And lastly, I worked at a go cart track (which in retrospect was the best job I ever had) where we played a lot of pinball.  We used to play with the manager when it was slow.  Addams Family was the first, then they got Go Fish (or something), and after that was Star Trek TTNG.  We'd play if we showed up early for work, stay after and play, play when it was slow.  It was a great job.  Especially the year that I turned 19 (legal drinking age in Ontario).  I guess the reason I remember that student job as great was because my other student job was hot asphalt roofing, which was not nearly as much fun.

[Sensei Fu]

Even in my small suburb there were several places to play video games. 

I played mostly at the bowling alley (which was only about .5 miles away) and at an arcade/pizza parlor a few miles away. 

Occasionally, my parents would take us to Putt Putts (which had a TON) of games and I would freak out for awhile.  It was the only local place which had multiple copies of the same game and I thought it was heaven. 

God I miss the old days.

[saint]

My first arcade game was either at a kegel-bowling alley in Germany (the pins are on strings and get pulled back up instead of sweeped into the back like here in the US) -- a cocktail Space Invaders, or at an arcade in Italy, game unremembered. I was instantly hooked, of course. I was somewhere around 8 or 9 years old.

--- saint

[F1r3f1ght3r]

First game memories....

cops n' robbers
starship I
sea wolf

don't remember which was where but I seem to recall that these were at bowling alleys... mom spent ALOT of time bowling... all over the state.

other places I dropped coin at:
skateland
and some other skating rink in lincoln.
coolcreast
gateway mall arcade
pontellos <sp> pizza
Jack and jill grocery in belmont
National guard armory and the PX at the lincoln airfield.... PX at offut air base in bellevue. mom was in the guard...
couple of arcades in downtown lincoln that I can't remember the names of.
slugo's
hugos
wc franks
among others.....

[psychopanda]

We moved alot, but here's my recollections:

First game I remember playing was Tank with my Father in a mall. The same mall later had Boot Hill and Battlezone. I tried Battlezone but I was too small to really see what was going on.

After that, it was the random games in convenience stores and the Atari 2600.

Many years later we discovered a family operated Arcade. We spent many hours there and had alot of fun. Even after their business moved across town and became an Arcade/Laundromat we still went out there to visit. You just can't beat the experience of a big room filled with arcade machines combined with knowing the owners.

Edit: Ah, I forgot to mention that their first store was right next to a really good Pizza place! Yum!

[Timoe]

One of my earliest arcade memories was a pizza shop somewhere in the greater los angeles area.  They had like 3 games.  I only remember one.

It was called Master Blaster.
I really liked the controls and variety in the game, plus it was fairly easy so my couple of quarters I remember lasting unusually long (therefore I liked the game)

It was the coolest game I could remember playing.  I grew up in a really small town in southern california.  The only reason I ever saw this particular pizza place was because my friend had divorced parents and his mom lived somewhere out in Los Angeles.  I was too young to know anything more than that she lived far away from me.

I never saw the machine again and have been looking for it ever since.  I only saw the machine once and never forgot what it was called.  A game came out for the NES some years later called Blaster Master and I got excited only to find out that it was an entirely different game.  I searched everywhere when I discovered the internet and started to think I had remembered the name wrong because I never found any info.

In 2005 I found a game called Blaster in MAME and read the history file on it.

I found my game.

[leapinlew]

In order of quanitity:

Bowling Alleys (My parents were avid bowlers)
Showbiz Pizza
Galaxy Arcade
Various (arcades/video games were all over the place)

In order of quality:
Galaxy Arcade (I love this place - my next cab is going to be called Galaxy)
Bowling Alleys - tri-mor Bowl and Bowland
Showbiz

I remember being a kid and just waiting to grow up so I could play battlezone. You had to be tall enough to look through the visor to play that game... how cruel. Galaxy arcade has been closed down for over 15 years, but the sign is still hanging in town.

[markrvp]

There were two arcade eras for me.  The first was 1980-83 when I played the classics.  The next era was circa 1987-88 when Sega had some kickass games like Outrun and Afterburner.

[leapinlew]

There were two arcade eras for me.  The first was 1980-83 when I played the classics.  The next era was circa 1987-88 when Sega had some kickass games like Outrun and Afterburner.

I never stopped gaming - but I did take a break from the arcades. I guess everyone did because they started closing down. But during the early to mid 80's it was the classics and then during the late 80's early 90's it was the fighters.

The thing is... being a kid Arcades were just there - like the sky was blue. I never knew they could go away.

[RayB]

Hey Mark. What is the scale of your map? Would be interesting to see how far you pedaled to get your fix. 

I like this idea. I'll be making one too... I remember as a kid it felt like I biked "2 miles" to go play games. Would be interesting to see how far off my estimate was (kids have such poor judgement when it comes to time and distances)

[markrvp]

Hey Mark. What is the scale of your map? Would be interesting to see how far you pedaled to get your fix. 

Each square on the map is a city block.  I used the Google legend to measure and the longest distance was approximately 1 Kilometer that I actually rode my bike.

[MinerAl]

I had to walk by a QuickTrip and a 7-11 to get to junior high school in 1984-86.  We'd buy candy and play Karate Champ at one and buy a bucket of Coke and play Tron at the other.  Seems like that Karate Champ machine lasted the entire 3 years of junior high and moved back and forth from one place to the other. 

The first Home machine I ever bought was a Tron (which died an humiliating death in a minor flood), and the second was a Karate Champ.  Three of the five of us who walked/played together have a Karate Champ machine.  It's a really stupid game, but we still gather 'round them with our low-carb candy and buckets of caffiene-free-diet Coke and play for hours.

We played videogames at:  the grocery stores, the bowling alley, the skating rink, the bowling/icehockey place, the mall, school dances, the dentist's office, Showbiz Pizza, Pizza Inn, Pizza Hut, Godfather's Pizza, Shaky's Pizza, Big Cheese Pizza, my grandma's old-folks-home, truck stops, the "meeting hall" at summer camp...  1984 was a hell of a time to be 13.

[leapinlew]

Three of the five of us who walked/played together have a Karate Champ machine.  It's a really stupid game, but we still gather 'round them with our low-carb candy and buckets of caffiene-free-diet Coke and play for hours.

1984 was a hell of a time to be 13.

LoL! Nice dude. I love me some karate champ! The VS machine or the single player? When it first came out - it was hard to get someone to play with me. Quarters were valuable and no one wanted to risk a vs. match and see their precious quarter disappear. These feelings were totally gone by the time street fighter hit the scene.

Yes! 1984... the thing is, did you ever think it would end? I didn't.... this was just how it was. Little did I know the games I loved would disappear in favor of all the new fangled gimmicky games that are designed to take your money as quick as possible.

In 84, I could make $1 go as far as $100 at Dave and Busters.

[MinerAl]

Vs of course.

There is, to this day, little in life as satisfying as flipping over a dude's head and kicking him square in the back.   That may be why I'm still friends with these guys 22 years later (OUCH!), we regularly walk over and kick each other in the 'nads... virtually.

[ssc arcade]

F1r3f1ght3r as a fellow Nebraskan (I grew up in Blair) some of your names brought back some memories

When I saw WC Franks I could almost smell the sandwiches and hotdogs.  I worked at a Godfathers in High School mid 80's

Tempest, Centipede, Galaga were my favorites.

I think I beat Ghost-n-Golbins even though today I can't get past the first few sections.

Other than that it was a few bars, bowling alleys, For a short time an arcade called the Bears Den, dark, smelled a little, typical small arcade, most parents didn't want their kids in there.

Those were the days, State Fair was a good spot for games you usually didn't see.  That's the only place I ever saw a Tapper, I really loved that game.

[dax]

I was a pinball freak before there were video games.  My parents were divorced when I was young and my father kept a few ammo boxes of silver dimes in one of the closets.  He was never around, so when I was bored I would grab a handful of silver dimes and I knew a guy at an area bowling alley who would trade me a quarter for a silver dime, so I'd go over there, convert the cash, and then go to the neighborhood pinball parlor and play all the time.

When video games came around, I remember playing Pong at a local university cafeteria, and then Space Wars; when I was in Jr. High, it was asteroids at the local supermarket. 

When I was in high school I worked at an amusement park and I was an attendant at the arcade for about six months.  There I got to play on a wide variety of games.   

My first arcade cabinet I acquired was when I was just out of high school and going to college.  A friend's father worked on video games and I wrote this BBS software for the TRS-80.  His school wanted a copy of my software to run a BBS and he offered me an arcade cabinet for a copy of my software.  So I got a Popeye machine, that I ended up leaving in the garage when I moved out of that apartment.  I wasn't the biggest fan of that game anyway and it was before Mame I believe, otherwise it would have been great to mod.

[Sinner]

The first game I played was Pong sometime in the 1970's...I was between the ages of 4 and 7, so around 1975-1978...anyway, they thought I might have dyslexia, so I was sent to a specialist, and he had a Pong machine in his office (which was more like a gym or indoor playground for kids)...
After that, I remember going to the Charlottetown Mall, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island...they had a bunch of machines...my mother would go shopping, and I'd get to play games...the guy that looked after the machines was a friend of my dad's, so on days where there weren't a bunch of people around, he would open the machines and give me credits for free...
There were a lot of other places that had 1 or 2 machines, and a couple of arcade opened and closed, but the mall was always the constant...

[NoOne=NBA=]

Pong was the first game I played too.
My grandparents bought one at a charity auction, and had it in their garage.

I played anywhere, and everywhere I could--literally.

All the arcades in town (they all a few games that nobody else had--notably Spiders, a dedicated Major Havoc, Environmental DOT, sit-down Star Trek and Gravitar).
The deli (only Venture and Wizard of Wor games in town).
The grocery store (only Cheyenne machine in town).
7-11 (Crossbow and Donkey Kong).
The bowling alleys (played alot of pinball in them too).
The market near school (best Asteroids machine in town).

My first home system was an Atari Video Pinball (the stand-alone one that played Pong/Breakout and Pinball).
After that I've had about every console made up to the PS1.
I quit buying consoles after that.

[RayB]

OK so here's my map for my 1982 to 1987 period, in the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec. I worked it out and I used to bike 1.48 miles to get to the first downtown arcade! We had *FOUR* of them.  (marked with green squares) Later, if I could afford it I'd take the bus. Sometimes I only had $2 to spend, but I'd go anyways!

I also would bike to the closer convenience store / gas station (the Quebec equivalent of a 7/11) marked in red. They only had 1 game, but they rotated it monthly and it was nearby. Games I remember playing alot there were Juno First, Joust, Centipede, Ms Pacman (which I could use slugs in!), Bomb Jack, Blueprint, Commando, and Gaplus (the last game I ever played there). I'm sure there were others, but I don't remember them.

We were lucky that we had a cluster of 4 arcades in a 2 block span downtown. But this city also had its share of "nazis" in city hall. You guys think the "video games are bad" brou-haha is a modern phenomenon, think again. In my city around '83 there were alot of rumblings about passing laws that would forbid arcades within a certain radius from any school. They also wanted age restrictions.

At that age (in '83 I was 13), I didn't read the papers or keep up with politics of course, so I never fully understood what the problem exactly was. It could have been "video games warp young minds", or it might have been that "arcade games are like gambling", or even "arcades are a haven for kids to hang out while playing hookie". In the end they ended up passing the age law. You had to be 14 to play arcade games! Of course, there's no such thing as ID for teenagers, so I would just lie and say I was 14.

Later, I think the age was raised, because the convenience store near me ended up sticking a sign on Gaplus (or was it Slap Fight?) that said you had to be 16 to play. I of course just ignored it.


Later I will post a map of Montreal, which is where I lived during my college years. 

PS: The store marked by a purple square is where I played Zaxxon.

[miles2912]

Living in a major city in southern california I was fortunate to have a lot of games close by.  We even had a chuck-e-cheeze open up circa 1981 a few miles away that we would go to a lot.  The arcade they filmed "Karate Kid" is down the freeway about 8 miles and was always fun when I could get my parents to drive me.

The big score was 1987 or so and the chuck-e-cheeze went out of business.  I know sad but they were not updating their games.  A friend who worked there took home a garbage can full of tolkens (wish I had a few today).  We thought what a waste but found out several weeks later that the same tolkens worked at DisneyLand.  OMG.  So we would drive to the Disney Hotel outside the gates with an incredible arcade and play for hours and hours ...


Don

[ArtMAME]

First video game memory I had I was 6 years old and me and my parents went to Disney Land. Don't remember much of Disney Land, but I do remember the Gunfighter machine in the gameroom of the hotel we stayed at.  Me and my Mom would play, I totally sucked at it...but it was still cool.  I grew up in Panama, my Dad got me a Sears Atari 2600 system with Target Fun cartridge (Air-Sea Battle). Played the heck out of it!!! Later he got me an Atari 800, then 800XL. I got lots of arcade games for it from some of my Mom's friends...Next memory was Paddock Mall in Ocala, FL.  We would spend Xmas vacation at Aunt Fay's in Summerville, and go Xmas shopping at that mall that had a killer arcade saw the first and only Journey machine I had ever seen there. We would go and my Mom and Bro would go shopping, I would go and stay at  the arcade until they were done shopping... Miami International Airport...there was an awesome arcade there, we would fly in from Panama then stay for a few hours until our next flight...I would go and play Crystal Castles there...

I lived in Panama until I was 13 years old...I lived in Colon on the Atlantic side...there was this bowling alley where they started getting some arcade machines...they were always generic cabinets...they had Mr. Do, Crazy Kong, Amigo (Amidar bootleg), they also had these neat sit-down cabinets with Pleiads.  Sometimes I would go to Ft. Gulick, (one of the military bases there) and they had a real nice arcade there, no generic cabs there, only the real thing...Robotron, Cliff Hanger, Mach 3...

When we moved to the states, there was a waterslide/mini-golf park across the street with an arcade...Tron, my favorite...Bosconian, Wizard of Wor, Mappy, Asteroids Deluxe, Waco, Berzerk, Kangaroo, very happy memories...me and my nephew Ty would spend hours there...

Coligny Plaza in Hilton Head Is, SC...nice arcade... had Sinistar, Defender, Gyruss, etc. and a Track and Field that I once played over 4 hours on one quarter...the people behind me were getting so POed that I was hogging the game...

then...the mid 80s came along... the bottom fell out of the arcade... a sad day indeed...   ... ... !!!

Anyway...when I still lived in Panama, I had a carpenter build me an arcade cabinet from some measurements I had taken off a real machine.  I stuck my 13" Sony TV in there and played my Atari 800 games on it.  Never did get a good control scheme going though...I was putting ball-tops on original atari joysticks and holding them on the control panel with my other hand while I tried to play...I had limited wood-working and engineering skills...anyway, that was over 20 years ago!!! 

I guess you can say that I was THE ORIGINAL BYOACer... ...jk

[rwhip41]

What a great thread. It brought back many memories. This may not get read, but I am compelled to add my experiences.

The 3 main places to play vids that were accessible via bike and a pocketful of quarters and wadded $1 bills...

Pizza Junction--I remember when they put Centipede in there...it was a big deal. It went right next to the Space Invaders game. Then they moved all the games into a special area upstairs, where I first played Missle Command, Dig Dug, Omega Race, Battle Zone, and Tron. They always kept up with the times (back then). I remember the Dig Dug game going in...the vendor put a bunch of credits on there for me. I also remember the dept charge game where you dropped bombs on submarines (before the took the games upstairs).

The Bowling Alley--Remember Atari Football with two trackballs? It was black and white with X's and O's. I played this a lot. I also first played Tempest, Defender (then Stargate) and Donkey Kong there. They also had Zaxxon, Pacman, and Rampage. There was a high "thug" factor there because no one at the bowling alley cared if you bought cigarettes from the vending machine. If you weren't careful, you may get your quarters taken from you. But they had cool games.

7-11--Pole Position...was this the game that would repeat the saying, "Stop talking and start chalking" (?) in the attract mode? They also had Warlords and eventually Dragon's Lair.

If we were serious, we'd take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to Malibu Grand Prix in Oakland right near the Oakland Coliseumn...the big leagues of arcades in our area. I remember looking forward to Bezerk, and it was replaced with Robotron...a total bummer.  Robotron was my 2nd favorite game at the end of that day (behind my all-time fav Tempest).

Some other memories...
-Zaxxon was an odd game because it was the first 3D game I had ever seen.
-Dragon's Lair was $0.50 per game, which was outrageous at the time.
-Pizza Junction, 7-11, and the bowling alley were centered around a liquor store that would sell us chewing tobacco (we were obvious minors). Nothing finer than an afternoon of vids and chew...until we saw someone's parents that we knew.
-This is really tacky, but it's history and I can't hide...I sold coupon books when I was a Scout, and one of the coupons was for entrance to an arcade for free-play afternoon (4 hours of free play). When the customer would buy a coupon book, I would actually ask if I could have that coupon. Hey...I was young. Another friend would actually take the coupon out before he sold them.
- I was really really good at Tempest...really good at Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Omega Race, Bezerk, and Robotron...really liked playing Tron, Missle Command, and Centipede...and I really sucked at Defender, Dragon's Lair, and Pacman.

[NoOne=NBA=]

was this the game that would repeat the saying, "Stop talking and start chalking" (?) in the attract mode?

That would be an Eight Ball Deluxe pinball machine.

[nostrebor]

This is my post from the KLOV forum when this topic came up...

My dad worked for a vending company as a journeyman/repairman. One Saturday morning he gets me up at about 6 AM and takes me to his office. I would have been about 10 or 11. As it turns out the owner had decided to get several video games and pinballs and he invited all the employees to come in with their families and "burn them in" The list as I remember it was an Asteroids, Star Castle, Pac Man, Phoenix (cocktail), Defender... and about 8-9 others that have escaped me, plus 4 pinballs. We actually took them out of the boxes and set them up that morning, so they were BRAND NEW! Ate vending machine sandwiches and candy bars for meals, and played until after dark that night. I spent most of my day alternating between the Phoenix and the Star Castle, and these two remain at the top of my favorite list. It was a day that I will never forget.

Later on I would go with dad on service calls, and get to play those games at different locations while he worked. Primarily I remember the bus station downtown. Always got free play and spent a lot of time on Asteroids. I wish I knew what happened to those games. I would love to have that Phoenix cocktail, as it was the first game I played.

We also had a showbiz and Chucky Cheese. They were both huge and packed with games. Neither lasted more than about 3 years. Aladdins Castle in the mall made it into the mid 90s. That is where I found Gyruss... After that I played nothing else at that arcade.

At 16-18 years old it was the (1)convenience store in my home town. DK jr. was the only game they had, and I put a lot of quarters through it. I still hate that game, but always play it several times when I go to "1984" arcade downtown.

Those were some great times

[RetroACTIVE]

I grew up in rural NH... there was not much...

Mostly @ home.

We had family friend with a camp on Lake Winnipesaukee... we would take his boat over to Weirs beach and there were two Penny Arcades on the main street and 1 on the pier.  I was very young then '76-'80 (6-10yrs)... I just remember it being very huge! (Nowadays its quite puny, still fun)

Local roller skating rink where my older brother would take me... where I first played Tailgunner and Missile Command.

When I was in 6th grade ('82) my best friend had a b-day party at this place called Funspot, Weirs Beach NH... I did not get out much, my parents were home-bodies... when we got there my jaw hit the floor... My friends Dad gave each of us 10 bucks worth of tokens!... I ran around the place like a freak!  It really was special.

Local pizza joint (walking home to friends on several Fridays before weekend)... Phoenix and cocktail Ms. PacMan

Local convenience store (bike ride)... Scramble and PacMan

Mall... (while Ma grocery shopped) Defender and Donkey Kong

[ahofle]

Did anyone ever eat at a place called 'Pipe Organ Pizza'?  We had one in Memorial City Mall in Houston.  Really cool pizza place with a MASSIVE pipe organ that some guy would be playing while silent movies were going on the screen.  I saw Boot Hill, Sprint, and Space Invaders there for the first time.  I remember watching the Space Invaders attract mode for what seemed like hours, marvelling at the little alien that would come out and shoot the extra 'C' in 'CCOIN'.  Ah the memories.

[quarterstringer]

I started at the local bowling alley where I played Space Invaders and Asteroids. That's when I learned the quarter stringing trick on Asteroids. Also played Defender, Q-Bert, Missile Command, Centipede and Stargate there.

Only a bike ride down the street was the Golfland - a miniature golf place where I played Galaga, Robotron, Joust, Mario Bros. and the Donkey Kongs. The Golfland and the bowling alley never seemed to have the same games which was a good thing.

Then in 1980, my parents bought a small bowling alley, when I first saw the place all they had were two video games - Clowns and Carnival. So my parents let me pick which video games to request from the vendor. They couldn't believe these games were each earning $200 to $400 a week.

For some reason Tempest wasn't a great moneymaker. Then the other teenagers showed me the trick that gave them 40 free credits. Some of the hottest games we had were Ms. Pacman, Galaga, Defender, Dig Dug, Pole Position, The Simpsons, Gaunlet, TMNT, Star Wars and Tetris.

[GGKoul]

Here's what I rememeber:

- My godfather ran an arcade and snack bar so I remember playing Galaga cocktail, a Chicago Coin's Big League pitch and bat, Boot Hill and Sega Periscope ALOT!!

- Played alot of hockey in the 80's and most hockey arenas used to have a good assortment of games.  But I remember playing Mr. Do, Astroids, Mikie, Missle Command, Pole Position, Jungle Hunt, Battle Zone and Q-bert.  Plus my dad used to love playing pinballs, so I played a lot of pinball games with my dad while we waited for my brother to finish up his hockey game.

- There was a department store in my local downtown area and I remember my mom taking me there when I was very young and playing Space Invaders and some other shotting type game.

- In the city I live there used to be lots of arcades.  The 2 big malls had one and  there was 2 in the main downtown area.  And I remember playing in one of the downtown ones  and they had a Star Wars sit down and lots of classics.  I used to love playing Return of the Jedi, Gauntlet, Tetris and Ring King

- In one of the mall arcades I used to  Track and Field and Hyper Sports alot.  And I STILL love that game!!

- Another place I used to play alot of games was the local variety store.  And there is one game to this day that whenever I play it, I remember being 10-14 years old and saying when I get older I want this game for home... and that was Mat Mania!! 

So those early years of gaming framed my gaming life today.  As when my dad comes over, he can sit still because he wants to go downstairs and play my pinball machines.  And because of his love of pinballs, I'm looking to acquire 1 or 2 more.  And whenever I fire up the MAME machines, chances are that I will play one of the games listed above before I shut down.

[farmecologist]

Wow, excellent post!  Really brings back the memories.

I grew in in what I would call a 'semi-suburban' area in St Louis Park, MN, near the high school.    We had plenty of places to play arcade games.  I spent way too much of my money on them.  It was all worth it though.   


The closest place was the gas station down the street.   They actually had a small arcade in the gas station!   Probably 5 or 6 games at any one time.   They had pretty good turnover too.  Looking back on it, the owner of the gas station must have been a huge gaming fan.   We often saw him playing the games while we were there!   He probably did well with it because the high school was right across the street.


Next, probably about 3/4 mile away was a "Zares shoppers city" department store ( anyone remember those )?   They had a *HUGE* arcade in there for about four years or so..until the store folded.   My friends and I often had it all to ourselves. 

Next, about 1 mile away in the other direction was the 'park tavern' pub and bowling alley.  Small arcade there.   

Next, probably 2 miles away, was Knollwood mall.  They had a really large arcade there.  This was often the 'place to be'.   The arcade was a victim of the 80s slowdown.   

Luckily, my dad was also a gaming freak.  We would often go to other malls and such just to visit the arcades.  NONE of the arcades we used to visit currently exist. 

In my opinion, the arcade of the late 70s and 80s was often more of a social thing rather than just playing games.  You would meet your buddies at the arcade, goof off, play a couple games, goof off some more, etc...  Ahh..the good old days.

[seanp]

I grew up in a town of about 60k - not a small town, not a city.  The first games I played were at the roller skating rink.  I still remember my very first game of Pac-Man when I was ~4 or 5 years old.  I was hooked instantly.  The skating rink had a handfull of games - PacMan, DigDug, Galaga, Donkey Kong, BumpNJump, and Crash! (one of the really old black and white games).  These are all still favorites of mine. 

Later, a pizza place opened that had a pretty sizeable arcade, and they'd give a family 10 tokens with the order of a pizza.  My sister and I would split these whenever we went out to eat (which was about once every other month - we grew up without a lot of money).  Over the years this is where I saw most of the games of my childhood.  Shinobi, Karate Champ, Off-Road, Blasteroids, Elevator Action, Centipede, Star Wars, Road Blasters, Pole Position, Arch Rivals.  They also always had a pinball machine or two.  This is the first place I ever saw Dragon's Lair.  I never played it there - you couldn't convince me to spend TWO of my tokens on one video game!  But I would stand and watch people play in awe of the game.

Then there was Putt-Putt - I had a birthday party here in elementary school that got rained out halfway through our game, and the manager brought all the kids inside and gave us all enough tokens to keep us happy for two hours (presumably so my parents wouldn't ask for any type of rain-check or refund).  That's one of my best birthday parties ever!  They had Sinistar, Zoo Keeper (the loudest and most obnoxious sounding game I've ever heard), Joust, Crystal Castles (one of the main reasons I added a trackball to my cabinet),  vs Baseball...

Riding my bike around my neighborhood I often saw one garage with a few arcade machines in it in various stages of repair.  I always drooled at the thought of my own arcade machine, and it is these memories that have driven me to build my own cabinet today.

[97thruhiker]

Let me see, the two best arcades that I can remember were ones I only visited once or twice a year.  First, for those of you in the Washington D.C. / Richmond area I'm sure you remember the arcade they had at Kings Dominion.  It was great.  I think they built a water park on the old site (just up from the Rebel Yell Rollercoaster).  Second, the arcade was at Wiers Beach in New Hampshire (my father's side of the family is from Laconia).  It's still there but not sure if its under the same ownership.

Beyond these two places I frequented this pizza place in St Charles Maryland (in the little town square they had in the middle of the neighborhood), the bar up the street from my house (went in during the day, had a Star Castle in the back), bowling alley, Springville Mall, and local 7/11's.

[leapinlew]

(which was about once every other month - we grew up without a lot of money). 

Ditto...

Which makes the memories extra valuable. When you realize it's not the money, it's the memories. I went to the bowling alley with kids who would ask their folks anytime they needed money, and much to my surprise they would get more quarters! My mom made a rule where she would give me $1 and I wasn't supposed to bother her all night.

It forces you to value your quarters. I love pressing a button and getting credits, but there is something about the thrill of dropping in your last quarter for the evening and trying to do well on the game and make it last.

[neuromancer]

The place where I spent the most time was easily the un-named arcade in the East Halls Dining Commons at Penn State.

They had Gauntlet, which to this day is my favorite game. A small group (maybe of us used to be there almost every day, learning the levels, devising strategy, trying new plans of attack. I had the high score on the Warrior for several years.

I also spent a fair amount of time in the two arcades in State Collge: Playland, and Campus Casino.

Bob

[Paul Olson]

Looking back on it, I was really lucky growing up.  I live in Reno, NV, and just about every casino had an arcade, and a lot of them were pretty good.  We also had all the other places too, bowling alleys, pizza joints, skating rinks, and the convenience stores with 1 or 2 games. 

Probably my best memory of playing video games here in Reno was at King's Skate Country.  I scored over 250,000 on Donkey Kong, on skates.  That was a lot of fun.

I used to go to Santa Cruz once a year, and that arcade was incredible!  I was there a couple of months ago, and the arcade is still huge, but it has lost the feel that it used to have.  It is mostly new driving games like every other arcade these days, still fun though.

PoDunkMoFo - I have friends in Gustine.  I was down there for Christmas, and I might be stopping by later this month.  And yes, I have played video games in your little home town.    We ate at one of the pizza places and played some games.  It really is a small world!!!