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What Was The Name Of Your Arcade Growing Up? Describe it.

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Benevolance:
Our best arcade was at the local swimming pool. We'd beg our parents for some money to go swimming, ride our bikes to the pool, and use the money to play Gauntlet and 1942 instead. We'd even soak our swim trunks under a faucet to make it look like we'd gone swimming. :P

Chadwick:
I had a lot of arcade within bike riding distance.

Putt Putt Golf and Games
Funway Freeway
Fun Factory
Alladin's Castle
Showbiz Pizza
Sears in the mall had a gameroom
Independent arcade that I can't remember the name of was in the mall as well.

5 of those were within a 1/2 mile of each other so when we went to "the arcade" we usually stopped by more than 1.

Aceldamor:
There used to be a place in Scottsdale AZ, just north of Thomas on Scottsdale Rd....can't remember the name of it, it was in a plaza called the "777" plaza. It had ALL of the current games all the time, had a decent pinball room, and had a small pool hall at the other end. My uncle knew the owner, and I came to know him as I got older too...which meant free games. Every year on their anniversary, they would do a "free play day" where all the machines were set to free play...it was great! It was the only arcade in town for a LONG time that had Assault. As the years went on, the arcade got smaller, the pool hall got bigger, until it just went away.

Also played at the local Gold Mine in various malls, as well as "Golf N'Stuff" which is now Castles N Coasters. Played at Golfland quite a bit...but it's decline was when they decided to make the 2nd floor a lazer tag arena.

There was another great arcade when there used to be a mall at 59th and Glendale that was HUGE!!!, but it set up shop during the decline and quickly vanished when the dollar movies in the mall went too.

Used to play in an arcade at the closest mall to me for quite a while too, where I was introduced to Star Racer and SF2, before it became called "tilt" and became a disgrace to arcades.

I ended up working at a place called "Nickel Palace" where it cost a dollar fifty to get in, but all the games ran on nickles, up to 20 cents...and they always had at least 4 current titles, including MK3, KI, NBA Jam when it was big. Also had a nice pinball section, and a classic section as well. That is where I learned how to air juggle a max combo with Cinder on KI, and air juggle a 33% damage combo with Ermac on UMK3.

The ownership was bought out and he transitioned it to tokens and you got 8 for a buck, which equated to a quick demise.

stephenp1983:
The main one I remember going to was called Diamond Gem's

Zeppo:

--- Quote from: Dazz on June 07, 2009, 02:32:19 pm ---
--- Quote from: NickG on June 07, 2009, 01:12:01 am ---
--- Quote from: Dazz on June 06, 2009, 09:11:57 pm ---The Gold Mine at Six Flags Mall - Arlington, Texas
Dark, Cold and Loud.  Ahh, it was the perfect 80's arcade.


--- End quote ---
Was that the one which had the full size carousel inside?  I used to get helium balloons with clown faces there (I was still a bit too young to play the games)

Edit: Nevermind, I remember now - that one was at Forum 303 Mall a few minutes south.  I've forgotten its name.

--- End quote ---
Yeah, the Forum was the one that had the full sized carousel...  I think that one was called either Goodtimes or Saturdays.  I'm not really sure, but yes that was an excellent arcade.

Speaking of that arcade...  Growing up I recall them having this Bozo the Clown bucket toss ticket redemption game.  This game is now located in one of the areas haunted houses, Chaos Haunted Houses at Texas Scaregrounds.  I do haunted house reviews during Halloween season and every time I go into that haunt and pass that game memories of my childhood come rushing back.

--- End quote ---

That was called Yesterday's in Forum 303 Mall.
Or at least that was the name when I worked there.
I was the assistant manager in late 94 through mid 95.
That Bozo game was a pain to fix sometimes, but usually it was just a loose switch in one of the buckets.
We had to crawl all under and inside the carousel in the spring and grease all the inner parts.
Boy, that was fun.
I really liked that place and almost cried when they turned it into a Fiesta Mall thingy which is basically an indoor Flea Market.
Last I heard they were about to tear the whole mall down for some reason.
   :'(

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