R.I.P. Gold Mine

[RTSDaddy2]

Looking at ChadTower's link to the Time-Out arcade brought back memories of my favorite hang out.

Our local mall, Northlake, in Tucker GA had a small, yet great arcade joint called the Gold Mine.  The room was designed to mimic the interior of a mining shaft, and everything about that place from the floor to the walls was cool (to a teenager at least).  Sadly as the video craze fizzled in the 80s, the Gold Mine went the way of many other arcades.

Still, I wish I had some pictures of that place to share.  There will never be another and all I have are memories.   

[JCL]

Someone here has a mame cabinet named the gold mine based on an arcade name. I wonder if it is he same one?

[quarterback]

Our local mall, Northlake, in Tucker GA had a small, yet great arcade joint called the Gold Mine.  The room was designed to mimic the interior of a mining shaft, and everything about that place from the floor to the walls was cool (to a teenager at least).  Sadly as the video craze fizzled in the 80s, the Gold Mine went the way of many other arcades.

Still, I wish I had some pictures of that place to share.  There will never be another and all I have are memories.   

I believe that The Gold Mine was a chain of arcades (I went to one when I was a kid and I was nowhere near Tucker GA) and it looks like there's one in Montgomery Alabama in case you're interested

Link to map

[Bones]

Someone here has a mame cabinet named the gold mine based on an arcade name. I wonder if it is he same one?

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=21952.0

[quarterback]

Pics of a gutted "Gold Mine"

http://www.pinballrebel.com/mall/pages/mall0304%20038.htm

[code]Near me they are about to demolish the mall where I spent my younger
years.

[RTSDaddy2]

Thanks guys, for the info.

1) I don't think the cabinet was designed after it, but it might have been...who knows?

2) Quarterback, that's what I get for assuming that it was a privately owned arcade.  It was so unique at the time, and my knowledge was based on my life as a kid, that it never occured to me it was a chain...I'll have to check that out if there's still one out there.  The gutted pics you posted give a pretty good idea of what the atmosphere was like.  Now picture it all dark, with various machines bleeping and pinging   The pics do look very similar to what I recall though, thanks.


 

[ChadTower]

That's pretty cool.

[Kremmit]

The last surviving arcade in my town was The Gold Mine.  It was in the same spot in the mall as far back as I can remember.  Finally died about 5-8 years ago. 

[ChadTower]

There is an arcade a few miles from my house, but I'm not sure it has one regular cab or pin in it.  It's all redemption games and megalo cabs with crappy games in them.  And some skeeball, but not the good huge skeeball, the dumb little ones.

[Kremmit]

That's not an arcade, that's a "Family Fun Center".