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| What Was The Name Of Your Arcade Growing Up? Describe it. |
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| Candiman:
Vancouver International Airport. I grew up in a small town called White Rock in BC Canada. We didn`t have an actual arcade until the mid 90`s by that time it was probably the least safe place in town. A couple of my friends were stabbed and one girl got hit by a train. There were actual arcades in other towns but I didn`t spend much time in them. However my dad would go on a lot of business trips and most of my family lived in other cities which meant we spent a lot of time shuttling people back and forth to the airport which is where Rampage, Super Sprint, APB, Spy Hunter and P.O.W. left a strong impression. Now I play games in my apartment! We love you MAME! However there are still lots of arcades where I live now (Osaka Japan) and it is very common for girls to enjoy a round or 2 of various games after taking those tiny stamp photos. I can`t say I mind a date that starts with a round of Street Fighter 4. |
| geomartin:
7/11 right down the street had an Asteroids machine that I played on the way to school and on the way home. The closet full blown arcade was the Time Zone arcade at Oakridge Mall in San Jose (later became an Aladdin's Castle) and across the street from the mall was Golfland Arcade. Between Golfland and Time Zone you could play just about anything that was hot at the time. |
| HanoiBoi:
"Malibu Grand Prix" in Mt Laurel NJ. This was apparently a chain. I even remember a Saturday morning 'game show' of sorts filmed at a California Malibu Grand Prix location. If it were still there, I could walk you, blindfolded, directly to your game of choice. I remember seeing many games for the first time there...Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Space Duel, Q*Bert, Joust, Robotron, Jungle King, Elevator Action, Tron, Cliffhanger, Space Ace, etc. They had lots of video games and pinballs, but also go carts; Roadrunners for the younger kids, Virage Racers for the older folks. Sometime in the mid 80's they decided to add pizza. The problem was that they took away half the arcade for seating area. It really wasn't the same from that moment on. It was always well lit too with windows on 2 sides. They placed the games well though as it never interfered with game play. The games were always in good condition and had a mechanic there all the time. You'd tell him the issue and he'd be opening the machine in a minute to fix it up. Their machines also never had cigarette burns, which was nice. In my 'early' years, my Dad would take me and my brother just about every Friday night after dinner. My brother and I would play arcade games while my Dad played pinball. When we (the boys) were out of tokens from playing games like Zaxxon, Food Fight, Xevious, Time Pilot, Asteroids and Bezerk we'd play some pinball with my Dad. We'd play Genie, Gorgar, Firepower, Eightball Deluxe, etc. Then we'd get home in time to catch the Dukes Of Hazzard...while finishing our 7-11 Slurpees and opening our ET Trading Cards. :) Sunday Nights was for listening to Dr Demento. I once rode my bike to Malibu (about 11 miles) on a Sunday morning to get there when they opened so that I'd have enough time to get the high score on Joust. Played for something like 6 hours on a quarter. I'd let onlookers give it a shot when I needed to use the restroom. :) I had all 40 top scores at one time. No, I'm not necessarily proud of that... Another fun story...I was there on a Sunday night playing Donkey Kong with a friend that I met there several times. I again was on my bike and I wanted to get home in time to record Van Halen's Women and Children First that a local rock station was playing in it's entirety. We played a little longer than I'd hoped and was afraid I'd be late for recording. Luckily(?), my friend had a small motorcycle. Long story short, I held the back of his motorcycle for a quick ride home. Unfortunately, my tire caught a rock, the front wheel started wobbling uncontrollably until it hit the curb. :dizzy: I did end up making it home in time. Nothing broken, but lots of ripped clothes and blood. :'( Malibu had a lot of games come through, but there was another arcade in Cherry Hill, NJ "Bally's Great Escape" that had a good amount of games that Malibu didn't have and that I really didn't see anywhere else (besides the Jersey Shore); Sinistar, Krull, Gyruss, Joust 2, Bagman, etc. The vibe here wasn't as friendly and was real dark. I've also been to Playland at Penn State. What impressed me was that they had a lot of pinballs, even when people really didn't have pinballs anymore. I got to beat up on Riverboat Gambler, Whitewater and of course Funhouse. First time I saw the Pinball 2000 machines was there too. The place did not have a good vibe. A big arcade open at 3am might sound pretty cool, but there's nothing like an empty arcade that always, always smelled like a locker room. The old guy and really most employees were grumpy and rude. :P One last thing...I had heard that an unidentified body was found when Malibu was demolished. Glad it wasn't mine. :-[ |
| numbnutz48:
GALAXY OF GAMES It was located in Marysville, WA. Dark joint that i remember only a little bit about, because once i walked in, it was straight to TEMPEST. Just black walls, with white paint speckled on the wall to look like stars. and dark carpet, horrible lighting. I think it is a Cafe these days. It's been long gone for the better part of 25 years now. |
| Alpha17X:
I had no 'official arcade' near me when growing up. When I was growing up in 80's to late 90's my parents were seperated due to my fathers work being located out of province (canadian here), no marital issues, just the need to work where the work was at. We moved many times to try to get the family all together and finally managed to pull it off eventually. I remember that one thing remained constant during those days. We always lived in an apartment, and there was always a bowling alley near those apartments. And in those bowling alleys was always a very sizable arcade. I grew up in a time where a lot of people consider it the 'twilight' of the arcade era. Kids were starting to get nintendos and master systems. That should have been my interest by exposure alone but a few times every week my mom would go bowling and take me and my siblings with her and take a lane right near the arcade machines, and we'd play. I can barely recall the games that were present. I know there were a variety of side scrolling beat-em-ups, racing games and ariel combat games, most often star-wars based, be they direct liscensed or clones. A lot of parents in that area brought their kids with them so while in other arcades you would have people in their late teens to mid 20's and some in their mid 30's, in the bowling alleys there was always an abundance of kids standing on chairs, milk crates, or other kids backs, taking turns playing the games. A few months ago, after being away from that area for 16 years I found myself in the area on business, and decided to see if the old bowling alley across the street was still there. I was happy to see it still was, even had some of the same games from so long ago. I stepped up to play a few and was thuroughly 'owned' by a 7 year old standing on a milk crate. |
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