How Many Different Places Did You Play Arcade Games?

[psik0tik]

I grew up in new york....I cant even start to name them off. But I still remember the smell of chili dogs from one place mmmmm while playing pac-man.

[MYX]

We moved to Texas when I was 9. The kid that lived in the apartment below me said that I had to see this game. We tromped across the golf course behind our apartment and over to the ritzy country club of the rich folks apartments next to ours. we snuck in the side door and there was an Asteroids and a cocktail Atari Football. I put my quarter in the asteroids and got the most amazing surge of adrenalin. The game was over far too fast. I then did everything in my power to "find" quarters. Usually I would "find" quarters in my dads room. then I learned that if you told the guy behind the glass that the mackine stole your quarter that he would come over, unlock the door, and click in a few credits.  We even went as far as going out and collecting cans and taking them to the recycling truck for spare change to feed our jones. Age 9 and the addiction had already started.

We moved and it was the grocery (Front Line & Mr. Do) store and Mr J's convenience store. There I played Roc n' Rope, Time Soldiers, DK3, Cloak and Dagger, Crystal Castles, Mappy (No all at the same time, they changed them out regularly).
There was also Castle Golf and Games that had a Malibu Grand Prix right next to it. We would ride our bikes there and waste all our allowance and birthday money. Heck with go carts, this place had Tron, Gauntlet, Red Barron (My favorite at the time) Gorf, Centipede, Space Fury (Stupid Alien always taunting me  ). Castle had rows ad rows of games. I even had my 10th birthday party there because I wanted to play games. They also had a Black Hole Pinball (My favorite pin at the time).

The pool we went to in the summer usually had a few games in the game room. It was there that I first played Asteroids Deluxe, Space Ace, and Defender. I hated Defender as a kid as it was just far to hard. I love it now.

A lot of times my brother would walk across the street to Mr J's. when my folks would drop us off for sunday school. We would use our offering money for video games. I look back on that a little squeamishly. 

The movie theater usually had a whole bunch. I found Star Castles there. This was my favorite for a while. they also had Elevator Action. I have a memory of going and playing vids for hours and then seeing "Wierd Science".

the other theater had Starwars and Space Duel.

At a little strip mall near our house there was a little movie theater that went out of business. Someone opened up the lobby as an arcade. I lost a lot of money there. they had so many of the classics. DK, Frogger, Bosconan, Pleades (which I was never a big fan of), Galaga, Galaxian. and a few pins. They had like 4 small rows of about 4 or 5 games and a few pins as well. 

When I got a little older and was given permission to ride the bus, I would go to this really cool dark arcade at the mall. This is what I think of when someone say arcade. Dim, redish and bluish colored fluorescent lights, all games at nearly too loud of volumes. Sounds just clashing with each other. They had Disks of Tron, IRobot ( Loved it but had no idea as to what was happening), Paperboy, many variations of Pacman and so many others. It was either here or another mall that had Thayers Quest. I have only seen one of these in my life. There was also this one game that you controlled a hand(that looked like a real hand) and you had to kill bugs and like sodas would roll at you from across the kitchen.  I would go with like $2.40. $.40 would get me there and back on the bus an $.50 for an Egg Roll at the little Chinese restaurant and $1.50 for tokens.

ok that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I have played so many games at so many places. What a great hobby!