Best thing about the arcades OTHER than games

[DNA Dan]

There was also Alexander the Grape, Johnny Apple Treats, and Mr. Melon, which were all from the same company. Basically as much sugar as you can possibly get in the smallest form factor. God our parents must have hated these companies, then again if you're kids are "off at the arcade" for hours, who cares?

Apparently those are now called "grapeheads" or "Appleheads" in line with the lemon and cherry flavor. I guess there was some Greek uprising in the 80's I missed.

I mean really... can anyone do anything anymore without offending SOMEONE???

[RandyT]

I believe the company name was Ferrera Pan (edit: looked it up and fixed it). I completely forgot they used to have different names..what have we become.....  My favorite was always the little box of tiny Jaw Busters.  I'm lucky I had any teeth past 16 .

I keep trying to put my finger on something specific, other than the games, but I'm struggling.  I really didn't care where the games were.  I played them in bowling alleys, bus stations, pizza places, laundromats, department stores, roller skating rinks, even a bar where the bartender knew my buddy's father and said we could play Galaxian on the cocktail, so long as we didn't hang around too long.

But the arcades always had the latest games, so I guess I would have to say it was anticipation and discovery of a new experience.  Nothing is quite the same as going into an arcade in the 80's, especially one I hadn't been in before, and finding games I hadn't yet heard of, or games I read about, but which weren't available at the local hangouts.  Even if the games I never saw before weren't something I wanted to play, walking into a room full of these undiscovered (by me) gems is about as close to entering a "wonderland" as I am likely to experience in my lifetime.  So even though the games may have contributed in a large way, it was the emotional connection to the places where the synthetic sounds, the smell of hot electronics, and new enjoyable experiences always seemed to be waiting for you, and it only cost you a few quarters to be part of it.

[yotsuya]

I remember one time when I was a kid going to a discount dollar movie to see 'The Last Dragon'. We played video games in the lobby and bought boxes of Lemon Heads and Cherry Chans. During the movie, one of us dropped his box, and for the next 30 seconds, all you could hear were the candies rolling and bouncing their way towards the screen. Good times!

[Xiaou2]

 I dont know if this really counts...  But the next best thing to being at the Arcade, was watching them being played on TV   

 "Starcade"  was one of those things that made the Hell of a crappy childhood, feel so much more bearable.

 There was a lot of cheese about it, mostly cause of the poor host... but to see what was usually the newest games pop out on TV, was golden.


 Bringing back the memories now.  When a game was big in the arcades in the 80s... it seemed to really go everywhere.  There were cartoons made about them.  There were boardgames.  T-Shirts.  Glasses / Mugs.  Even Songs written and played on the Radio!  (Pacman Fever)

 There were even a few movies with faked games, that inspired new creations of video games, such as The Last Starfighter, and Tron. 

 Man, I kinda wish the 80s never ended.   

[Thenasty]

Putting your Coin/Token next in line to play and the guy playing now is taking a long time. Then when you think it's GAME OVER, he shoves another coin in 

 Man, I kinda wish the 80s never ended.   

Ah, 80's, why did you have to end ?

[Mikezilla]

There was also Alexander the Grape, Johnny Apple Treats, and Mr. Melon, which were all from the same company. Basically as much sugar as you can possibly get in the smallest form factor. God our parents must have hated these companies, then again if you're kids are "off at the arcade" for hours, who cares?

Apparently those are now called "grapeheads" or "Appleheads" in line with the lemon and cherry flavor. I guess there was some Greek uprising in the 80's I missed.

I mean really... can anyone do anything anymore without offending SOMEONE???

Yeah, they changed them all because a bunch of asians complained about the cherry clans being racist cause the box depicted little cherries with slant eyes and an asian hat. Like their eyes arent slanted and they dont wear those hats. Same thing with the Paul Newmans Own brand of salad dressing. He used to have a lampshade-esque asian hat on on the ginger dressing, but a bunch of pissy asians tried to sue him so he took it off. 

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

[Vigo]

Yeah, they changed them all because a bunch of asians complained about the cherry clans being racist cause the box depicted little cherries with slant eyes and an asian hat. Like their eyes arent slanted and they dont wear those hats. Same thing with the Paul Newmans Own brand of salad dressing. He used to have a lampshade-esque asian hat on on the ginger dressing, but a bunch of pissy asians tried to sue him so he took it off. 

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

Does this mean I can call you racist again? 

I was gonna post that clip from southpark where cartman is having the nightmares about the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but then I realized your crappy internet filter wouldn't allow you to view it. 

[DNA Dan]

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

Now that was funny ! 

There was a time when we could laugh at ourselves, at others. Some call it racist, I call it DIVERSITY. If we can't laugh at what makes us different, then we are no better than the borg. (Although I am sure they have a holodeck to play with on vacations.)

[Mikezilla]

Yeah, they changed them all because a bunch of asians complained about the cherry clans being racist cause the box depicted little cherries with slant eyes and an asian hat. Like their eyes arent slanted and they dont wear those hats. Same thing with the Paul Newmans Own brand of salad dressing. He used to have a lampshade-esque asian hat on on the ginger dressing, but a bunch of pissy asians tried to sue him so he took it off. 

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

Does this mean I can call you racist again? 

I was gonna post that clip from southpark where cartman is having the nightmares about the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but then I realized your crappy internet filter wouldn't allow you to view it. 

Haha no Im not being racist but cmon! Its what they do! Most sterotypes are true, cmon Vigo.   I have seen that so its ok hahaha. Tank you prease!  

[Mikezilla]

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

Now that was funny ! 

There was a time when we could laugh at ourselves, at others. Some call it racist, I call it DIVERSITY. If we can't laugh at what makes us different, then we are no better than the borg. (Although I am sure they have a holodeck to play with on vacations.)

YEAH! Im with you on that friend!!! 

[Vigo]

Yeah, they changed them all because a bunch of asians complained about the cherry clans being racist cause the box depicted little cherries with slant eyes and an asian hat. Like their eyes arent slanted and they dont wear those hats. Same thing with the Paul Newmans Own brand of salad dressing. He used to have a lampshade-esque asian hat on on the ginger dressing, but a bunch of pissy asians tried to sue him so he took it off. 

Seriously DD, nobody can do ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- nowadays, and there seems to be a group of ---uvulas--- for EVERYTHING. Im sure the People With Fruit Shaped Heads Alliance will probably sue the Lemonhead company for putting a guy with a lemon shaped head on the box. I hate people man. They take the fun out of everything. Offended. PFFFT.

Does this mean I can call you racist again? 

I was gonna post that clip from southpark where cartman is having the nightmares about the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but then I realized your crappy internet filter wouldn't allow you to view it. 

Haha no Im not being racist but cmon! Its what they do! Most sterotypes are true, cmon Vigo.   I have seen that so its ok hahaha. Tank you prease!  

Don't worry, I'm just giving you crap on the asian thing.  I guess my sarcasm didn't quite show through on that one.

But I am dead serious offended on the fruit shaped head remark. Just think of those for people with fruit shaped heads, I take offence to your remarks, sir!

[ChadTower]

Don't worry, I'm just giving you crap on the asian thing. 

If you crap on the Asian he won't do your math homework anymore.

I remember the only arcade in our area as one stop shopping for pot, low power fireworks, and ninja stars.  Straight "yo take a look at what I got in my jacket you wanna be a ninja kid I got the stars" shopping.

[Alpha17X]

I never had a dedicated arcade to go to until I was 22 and arcades were pretty well dead by then, but when I was 8 to 10 years old we lived near a bowling alley that had a large area of arcade cabs, and to my delight, they accepted the pull tabs from sods cans as currency.