Most arcades I am rather unimpressed by, since they normally are overpriced and have nothing unique. On a recent road trip though I got to swing by a couple arcades. The first was Nickel City in San Jose, and, believe it or not, the Winchester Mystery House, also in San Jose.
Nickel City has a two-dollar admission, and then games are normally a few nickels, based on how new the game is. The newest racing and shooting games were 30 cents (which was pretty darn good, since they had full-size machines, along with some very cool Japanese imports), while the vintage games in the back were a mere 5 cents. Don't be fooled by the photos though, most of the vintage games are either very badly converted, or not working at all. Anyway, anyone looking for a nice collection of the best new games should really check this place out. You can go there with five bucks and play for a few hours.
But, what if you really can't stand the new stuff? The Winchester house has you covered. Walk into the gift shop and you will immediately find a handful of old coin-op games scattered around the overly large room (love tester, slot machine, fortune teller, etc). Exit the gift shop towards where the tours start though and you will find the actual arcade. Step inside for a rather nice collection of Asteroids, Centipede, Simpsons 4-player, Nintendo Vs Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter 2, Ms Pac-Man (with speed up hack), and a few others that I've forgotten. All of them in their original cabs, with their original controls (including leaf switch buttons). Truly a treat to play while I was waiting for my tour number.
If you happen to be in the San Jose area, check both of these places out.