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What Was The Name Of Your Arcade Growing Up? Describe it.
wachin:
--- Quote from: CodeWhite on June 06, 2009, 07:29:28 pm ---My arcade of choice was called Tewksbury Grand Prix in Tewksbury MA.
--- End quote ---
Hey, I went to that place as a kid! I lived the next town over and always intended to drive the karts once I got my license... of course that never happened... Honestly it's been probably over 20 years since I've been there so my memory of the place is hazy... I don't even remember them going out of business :'(
My grandparents live up on the North Shore so we would frequently visit Salem Willows in Salem, MA when I was younger. I went back there a few summers ago and they still have some classic games but most were in disrepair. But I did manage to impress my wife with my skills on their filthy, dilapidated Galaga machine... and by impress I mean played for 10 minutes on one quarter before I walked away because we couldn't stand the stench of body odor any longer...
bobdslob:
1001 Plays / America's game just outside Harvard Square in Cambridge MA. We just called it "thousand and one". I can't believe I found an old picture of this place.
http://homepage.mac.com/aglee/2001/2001-02-11-old-cambridge/1001-plays.jpg
One big room with two smaller adjacent rooms, one of which was dedicated to pins, black carpeting on the walls (I think) and tons of games. I never had much money but could stretch out a buck or two for a long time just hanging out in there. Play a game I'm good at for a while, walk around and find someone rocking out different game for another long while. Blasteroids, Space Wars and Hat Trick were my favorite games here.
Right in the square was Elsie's Sandwich shop. They had a little dump of a room right next to their sandwich shop jam packed with video games. I topped a million here on Galaga a bunch of times along with my brother and another friend. Space Duel, Defender and Tron all next to each other... :drool: Empire City 1932 was another one of my faves, tucked right in the corner. My last two attempts at this game were each abandoned after a good 1.5 hours. It's my greatest regret in life leaving these games unfinished. I'm useless in this game today in mame.
http://homepage.mac.com/aglee/2001/2001-02-11-old-cambridge/elsies.jpg
People rave about their sandwiches to this day, and it's amazing to think that I spent hundreds of hours on their premises and bought food there only once. Money was better spent on cigs and video games after all. ::)
And there was a place on the Harvard Campus on Quincy St. that I used to go when cutting class in HS. I thought it was called the Harvard Freshman's Student Union although google is giving me nothing on that. The building was left wide open for HS (or non-HS) idiots to walk right in and hang out during weekday mornings in their basement arcade. Granted it was pretty well hidden so I don't think more than 4-5 kids out of the 2000+ students at my HS knew about it.
RoyalScam:
NJ 1977-1981 my High School Years;
I lived in Brick NJ, just about halfway between Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights Boardwalks. In those days, you could throw a rock and hit an arcade. But my favorites were Lucky Leo's ( any of 'em really, he had a few on the Seaside boardwalk.) and Jenkinson's Arcade in Point Pleasant. Those were the two main hangouts. Brick had a few local arcades here and there, however I don't recall the names. But on the frequent days my buddy Steve and I couldn't quite find our way to school, we were usually at the local Ice Rink playing Gobbler ( I think that was it's name it was one of many PacMan clones).
Regards,
Scam
jeffhlewis:
Growing up in Virginia Beach ('87-'96 or so) we had:
Aladdin's Castle in Lynnhaven Mall - probably the best place in the area during the late 80's/early 90's. They always had the latest stuff and the scene there was awesome. Typically crowded all weekend. I used to go early in the morning on Saturdays when I was a kid to be able to play SF2 before some ass hogged the machine all day. Lots of memories there - birthday parties in grade school, 6-player X-Men, intense fighting game competition during the heyday of SF2 and MK, all the off-the-wall new technology like Time Traveler and quad-cockpit Virtua Racing when they first came out. Awesome NY-style pizza place next door called Luca Pizza, so the arcade always reeked of burnt pizza and burning PCBs. The place finally closed 4-5 years ago and became a Johnny Rockets. It held out for a long time - I don't think it closed until 2003 or 2004. at that point 99% of arcades were goners.
Space Port in Greenbrier Mall and Pembroke Mall - the "other" arcade(s) - Pembroke Mall growing up was the ghetto mall and the arcade there was awesome. they had a great mix of new and old, and the place was just nasty with smoke and burnt fast food smell. Kind of endearing though. They had a 4 slot Neo Geo forever that I must've dropped a couple hundred buck's worth into. Good selection of fighting games and unique stuff like Lucky & Wild that didn't exist anywhere else. Lots of good atari classics. The one in Greenbrier was a lot cleaner and tended to have more new-ish stuff. Couple pins here and there.
Pizza Hut on Virginia Beach Blvd and Independence Blvd. - my family would eat here a lot and I'll always remember them having 1942, Commando and Black Tiger (someone must've been a Capcom fan over there). I will forever associate these three games with crappy greasy pizza.
Flipper McCoy's - 4 locations I think - sketchy as hell, but good selection at all locations. My folks were convinced that if they dropped me off there I'd be kidnapped by homeless people. The one at the beach is still there and has an amazing selection of classics. From what I can tell it's pretty well known in the arcade scene as a destination. I'll have to head back there next time I visit home and see if it's around.
Regal Cinema Columbus - they had (and still have at last check) a decent set of games at this place - my friends and I used to go to play Killer Instinct when it first came out. Lots of CPS2 and Neo Geo stuff also. KI was just about the last game that I drew me to an arcade in my early teens before I discovered that women were more fun than games.
Three years later I was in college then by the time I graduated arcades had died out completely. Still makes me sad that kids will never grow up with arcades and the whole social experience of it - walking into a crowded place and checking out some game that had graphics and sound unlike anything you could get at home. You had to actually ask people "how do you do that move?" because there was no internet with which to search for cheat sheets.
sigh
HaRuMaN:
Hey I grew up in Norfolk, VA... '78 - '96...
Flipper McCoy's is still at the beach, or at least it was 2 years ago.
I used to go to Putt-Putt, they had a lot of fighters, Neo-Geo and Capcom. My local Pizza Hut had an Altered Beast, Centipede cocktail, and an Arkanoid.
I also went to the Norfolk Boys and Girls Club after school where they had Pole Position, Street Fighter 2, Contra, Robocop, Rastan, Double Dragon, Mortal Kombat, Dynamite Duke, and Bad Dudes Vs DragonNinja.
There was also this place in Chesapeake in the early to mid 90's, but I forget the name. It was a converted warehouse or factory or something... It had a two story arcade, indoor minigolf, movie theaters, motion movie theaters, and a food court that you ordered via touchscreen... I cannot remember what it was called. I think the place ended up getting shut down to lots of gang activity.