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How Many Different Places Did You Play Arcade Games?

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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=:


--- Quote from: rwhip41 on February 24, 2006, 12:59:31 am ---was this the game that would repeat the saying, "Stop talking and start chalking" (?) in the attract mode?
--- End quote ---

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

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