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What Was The Name Of Your Arcade Growing Up? Describe it.
Ummon:
--- Quote from: jholman76 on June 12, 2009, 12:17:06 pm ---
Piccadilly Circus / Gigglebees: Minnesota Avenue
I fell in love with Double Dragon, Kageki, and Rastan here.
This was a Mecca for kids in the 80s. Like a Chuck-E-Cheese before they were invented.
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Nah. Just before they came there or you saw them. They started I think in '79, and one opened up in Tucson right around then. Had another on the east side within the next year or so.
SodaPopinksi:
While there were other places in cities close to me, my main arcade was luckily right in the town that I lived. In Mystic, CT I believe it was just called "The Mystic Arcade" and they had a great little selection of games. Some games would come and go but Pac Man, Zaxxon, Joust, Moon Patrol, Kung Fu, Karate, Star Wars, Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Galaxian, Dragon's Lair, Crossbow, Punch Out and Gauntlet were mainstays. It was great that Sunrise Farms was two stores down, it was a convenience/general store with cards, soda, candy, comics, nudie mags etc. Then Bee Bee Dairy was right across the street where my parents would hang out and have coffee with the locals. When I ran out of quarters I could run across the street and beg for more. My uncle would go in and play Crossbow, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, it was cool having someone 50 yrs old kind of "legitimize" the games as more than child's play hehe. The place attracted lots of burnouts and guys with faded ripped Black Sabbath t shirts which was ok, but the rich well-to-do locals hated it as they were dubbed "riff-raff" no doubt. I could walk right down there every single day, it was great.
Another place was Mystic Pizza up the road a bit from it, Mystic Pizza wasn't as famous from the movie back then so it was smaller and next to a laundrymat. They had Pole Position and a Donkey Kong cocktail, I think Golden Axe came after Pole Position. The jukebox always played the Rolling Stone's Angie and Aerosmith's Dream On ad nauseum. I still remember the smell of molten mozzarella and downy softener intertwined as I took the shortcut to the arcade in back of that building.
nelthemasochist:
the skating rink, till they took out my #1 hiscore tekken 3 machine and replaced it with one of those ---smurfy--- crane machines. the one at the mall till it closed. then i moved and discovered that there was an arcade near bo's food sto' (unfortunately it closed the day before i discovered it. sucks to be me. yeah my fav games were tekken 3 MK 1,2, and 3 and galaga well, i gotta go. see ya.
billpa:
Playland - Penn State University
Sadly, it was closed and all the games were auctioned off in 2003. This was by far my favorite arcade and not just because I went to school there. It had a great mix of machines...retro, new releases, linked car drivers, a couple dozen pins, air hockey, foosball, etc. etc.
The best part was you could walk in at 3am and play games...It was open til 4am every night! :D Was also great to stop by and kill time between classes.
Here is a youtube video of some student film about PlayLand
Billy_Goatfeet:
--- Quote from: mwong168 on June 12, 2009, 03:34:37 pm ---I'm from Toronto, Canada and I use to go to Funland all the time which was down by Eaton Centre.
I use to always see this guy playing Pacman everytime I was there.
Funland Arcade pulled the plug on July 24, 2008 after 46 years in business :'(
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Yes, I've played at this arcade many times over the years. It's too bad it is gone, it was the last true arcade that I know of left in Toronto. It was always a little dangerous too. There used to be a big one at the Scarborough Town Center called the Wizards Castle. It was one of the best in the early 80s, I think it became a chinese restaurant in the late 90's. Anyone know of any arcades left in Toronto?