Main > Main Forum
What Was The Name Of Your Arcade Growing Up? Describe it.
MaximRecoil:
Perkin's Laundromat - 3 arcade machines and 2 pinball machines on rotation. Games I played and/or remember being there include: Karate Champ, Punch-Out, Super Dodge Ball, Vs. Excitebike, Pole Position II, Dig Dug, Track & Field, Double Dribble, and Ikari Warriors.
Fossa's General Store - 3 to 5 arcade machines on rotation. Games I played and/or remember being there include: Super Punch-Out, Double Dragon, Rampage, Spy Hunter, Legendary Wings, Paperboy, 720 Degrees, and Battlezone.
Also Defender and Missile Command were there, but that was before I was going there to play games (my brother and his friends across the road talked about playing those two games there). Battlezone was there before I was going there to play games too, but it was so distinctive looking that I remember it just from going in the store for reasons other than playing games. I went up to it once and looked through the "periscope" too (had to stand on a stool because I was only 5 or 6 at the time; 1980 or 1981).
I went to Space Port in Bangor too, but not often, because it was 45 miles away. That had too many games to list. It did have the only Nintendo Arm Wrestling machine I ever saw in real life. When I got my license in the early 90s I went there a lot to play Street Fighter II against good competition.
Dr Zero:
First arcade so to speak was the airport arcade in Jacksonville Fl spent many a night playing sea wolf up there!
Next would be the boardwalk in Daytona beach tons of games from skee ball to rolling balls to get a good poker hand to the X rated games where you would shoot the veils off of the stripper to catch a glimpse :lol
Aladins castle at normandy mall jacksonville Fl basic arcade
The Omni in Miami FL theme park in a like a highrise
Unknown at mall in Augusta Ga very cool arcade with the largest pinball machine the balls were the size of cue balls!
Showbiz pizza in Augusta Ga great place to hang out in the 80's!
Unknown at mall in Waycross Ga maybe 10-20 games at any given time pretty cool place but didnt last long
The gold mine in Atlanta Ga great arcade with a cool theme
Fantasy forum?? Regency mall in jacksonville Fl was a staple growing up had a carousel them but no ride I can remember
Unknown arcade in crystal city arlington, va very dark and kinda small but cool with black lights and the back wall was all mirrored. Oh and the whole mall is underground!!! very very cool!
Tilt in jacksonville Fl Regency mall There was Sam the red head and the other fellow they were some really cool people and we spent many a night up there after close in the 90's
Tilt in jacksonville Fl at the landing SUCKED!
Tilt at Avenues mall in Jacksonville Fl Benji! another very cool employee that became a good friend
As you can see I traveled alot up and down the east coast growing up LOL
Honorable mention
2 machines in the bottom of this pizza place in a house only open like on wed in Helen Ga
Zoltar machine and a couple of odd balls in 2nd story storage of a strip mall in St. Augustine Fl and yes it worked and gave you the little cards!!!
Epyx:
Surrey, BC Canada
Circuit Circus in Guildford Mall
3 Bears Drive in Arcade across from North Surrey High School
And several other arcades whose names escape me right now...but those were the "informative" ones for me that captured my imagination.
jeremymtc:
Pasadena, CA, ~1981 to ~ 1994
In the early days, it was the StarCruiser Arcade on Colorado Boulevard. Great atmosphere. Sawdust on the floors, glow-in-the-dark planets and stars on the ceiling and walls, blacklights, laid out like a (small) maze. Cool place, still haunts my dreams.
Later on, the hot place was the famous Pak-Mann Arcade, also on Colorado, closer to PCC. About 6000 square feet, and packed to the gills every weekend. Huge selection of games, everything you could imagine - pinball, classics, and contemporary games. Huge fighter and driving game culture. Smoky, grimy, stinky; stabbings and drug deals in the parking lot. It was home.
There was also Western Arcade, a little further west down Colorado, right across the street from PCC. Much smaller joint, but also better maintained than Pak-Mann. Not as broad a selection of games, but they did occasionally get new stuff before anyone else. Spent a lot of time there, and got to know the operators well enough that they'd let me park in their lot to attend my PCC classes - that was a big bonus.
There was another really bizarre arcade on East Colorado, right near San Gabriel Bl. in a little corner plaza. Can't remember its name, if it had one. It was good size, maybe 2000 square feet, and had lots of classics and really old stuff. Really run-down, lots of the games were in poor repair or out of service completely. It was still worth a visit every now and then anyway. Any other locals remember this place?
Edit- forgot the ubiquitous Tilt in the Pasadena Mall. Standard mall-arcade fare, though they did get the cool laser-disc games before the others.
Invincer:
Ah, the good ole days. I could never forget. My first job at age 16, changing quarters for tokens back in the eighties at the Star Castle....... also the first job I was fired from for playing games making cutomers wait for their change. Had a game of... forget the name, it's an old wrestling game in MAME now, but anyways lasted almost 2 hours on 1 token, had a line of peeople waiting... most were enjoying the show but one too many got irate I guess... heh heh. The Star Castle here in Savannah is still here, bigger building, but turned into mostly a skating rink (another thing that mostly was left in the eighties).
There was also a long gone mall arcade called Gold Mine here too. Rememer it best for a cockpit Space Harrier game that jerked and spun all about as you moved the joystick firing, was a whopping dollar to play... and a trackball X's and O's football game that always got fights started...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version