robin2099

Anyone have any memories of spending time at the arcade, or in places that had an arcade machine? I went to Arcade Legacy today and it made me think about this topic. For me some that come to mind are:

-Playing Crime Fighters at the swimming pool and Odd Lots. The memory of that game is pretty much synonymous in my mind with those places.

-Playing the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game in my local pizza parlor. One of my favorite memories of playing an arcade game period.

-Going to Captian Bogey's and playing Spiderman for the first time. I loved that game and always put most of my quarters in it. Sadly Captain Bogeys was torn down awhile ago.

Solid Snake

I remember playing the RoboCop arcade game in a gas station back in the day. I was like 5 or 6. Good times.

JTH182

When Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Mortal Kombat 2 were both in the arcades I was nowhere near good enough to stand in the long lines just to get waxed in my first round. Luckily, my brothers played late night hockey at Santa's Village near here which had an arcade with an MK2 and one of those large screen (50"?) SFII: Turbo machines. I was the only kid in the place and could play til my heart's content



Oh, the other memory I have is when my parents rented out Aladdin's Castle for one of my birthdays and my friends and I had the whole place to ourselves! That was my best birthday party ever.

Maxflier

I will never forget playing Double Dragon for the first time inside a short-lived arcade that someone opened in my neighborhood when I was a kid.

OldBoy

i used to love the Star Wars game where you just do the trench run over and over and a little more stuff. vectors or what not. i loved that game. also, Time Pilot, Commando, Tron, and others...

OldBoy

fumanstan

My local pizza place Northwood Pizza was my childhood growing up and playing Street Fighter 2 and NBA Jam. Freakin loved those days; even if I didn't have money my friend and I would go and watch others play and hope to find a quarter on the ground.

A fond specific memory I had was my parents taking my brother and I to Vegas when we were little and playing all the games at Excalibur. My brother and I were given $20 or something and spend a ton of time playing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and we were so upset that we didn't beat the game.

Other favorites when going to Family Fun Centers (I guess Boomers now) was Simpsons, Ninja Turtles, or X-Men arcade games. Love those Konami beat em ups, especially the 6 player X-Men when you could find them. I always thought those were epic.

nickdawgy

I did the same thing with TMNT in a pizza place by my house. We used to bring rolls of quarters there. Lol.

wmansir

My most vivid memory is of an arcade in our town that I barely remember that was part of a strip mall for a brief time. What I do recall is that the attendant taught me to tie my shoes. He probably wasn't the first to do so, but I clearly remember his method being the one that stuck and I could tie my shoes from then on. This was the only proper arcade my town ever had, and it closed by the mid-80's.

The only other arcade in our town was a small room that was part of the bowling alley. It held 6-8 cabinet games plus one or two pinball games. The games took tokens which could be bought from a vending machine for slightly less than a quarter each, with discounts for buying greater quantities. I recall the machine was horrible at reading bills and at that age the only money we carried was crumpled in our pockets, so a visit to the arcade room was usually preceded by a stop at the pizza counter to seek an exchange for their freshest bills. The big draw here was Double Dragon and Heavy Barrel, they also had Qbert, Joust, Donkey Kong, etc. This place lasted well past the arcade boom and as far as I know still had games when the alley was shut down in the mid-00s.

There was one other source of arcade games. The 7-11 had two cabinet games near the back of the store. The titles changed frequently but the one that I remember most was Gauntlet, a game that took many of my quarters but I can't recall ever making much progress in.

TheKing

I spent a lot of time in arcades.

As a little kid, it was places like Chuck E. Cheese. I remember they had little kid sized cabinets for some games. Or remember when they had table cabinets? I also had fond memories of the Starcade, which was the arcade inside Disneyland next to Space Mountain. They had like 16 Tron machines in there after they added Tron to the Peoplemover. They also had the sit down version of the Star Wars game posted above.

I remember going on a road trip in the summer of '89 to a small town called Hawthorne, Nevada. So small that they had one hotel, one casino, and not much else. The casino had an arcade and it was there that I was introduced to the original Street Fighter. Back home, I'd end up spending a shitload of quarters at the 7-11 playing Street Fighter II. Or at the Cinedome arcade between movies, combining two of my loves.

There used to be an arcade not too far from Disneyland I used to go to quite a bit. Lots of Mortal Kombat II and 3 action there. Oh and WWF Wrestlefest. They had one of the 4-player cabinets. It's a Subway now.

In college I continued my love of arcades. At junior college it was NBA Jam and a Neo Geo with Bust-A-Move, Samuari Showdown II and Metal Slug that kept me occupied between classes. At UCLA, I had a couple of choices. On campus we had a pretty solid arcade, as did Westwood Village. I remember the Village one had one of the early Virtua Fighter 3 cabinets, with a huge screen. I think on campus was the first place I played Mortal Kombat 4.

It was around those college days that the arcade started fading away. I remember seeing the decline, remembering how in just a couple of years the traffic went way down. The last arcade I can really recall frequenting was outside the 25 screen theater near the Honda Center. It was called The Garage, as it had a car theme (odd for an arcade, but it was kind of neat). I remember playing Street Fighter III and Alpha III there. It seemed to get good traffic, especially since the arcade inside the theater was the size of a phone booth.

But by 1999 the games were gone and replaced by cars. The garage became a classic car display, and my arcade days were over.

nickdawgy

Besides TMNT, the arcade games that took most of my money were:

Paperboy
Wrestlefest
Play Choice 10
The Simpsons Arcade Game
Dragons Lair
Super Mario Bros.

Probably a few more I can't remember.

PhantomStranger

The arcade scene died far quicker than I imagined, though I guess as home versions became more and more powerful, the lure of wasting quarter after quarter in a noisy arcade faded away.

I always enjoyed the arcade games that had more athletic components, such as the basketball toss or shooting. I did end up playing a lot of Ms Pacman.

shizawn

Didn't go to arcades much when I was a kid, but there was a Togo's that a couple friends and I spent a lot of time at. They had the Star Wars game pictured above as well as Yie Ar Kung-Fu. Lots of good memories.

House

We used to walk down to the neighborhood gas station first to play Super Mario Brothers. Then later on Altered Beast and Double Dragon.

Me007gold

Have very fond memories of 2 arcades

Starport in Hunt Valley Mall in Cockeysville Maryland
Sega City Golden Ring Mall in Essex Maryland

Starport was your typical 80's arcade, small, and noisey.
Sega City on the other hand, was huge, very new and modern games.

wmansir

The thing I remember about Dragon's Lair is that it looked awesome but nobody had any idea how to play it.

OldBoy

i was always fascinated by it. remember loving it, but sucking very badly at it. it has so much nostalgia for me.

wishbone

I remember the game pausing for a moment because you made a wrong move and the laser disc had to search for Dirk's demise.

Brack

I remember seeing and playing these games everywhere:

Street Fighter 2
Mortal Kombat
TMNT the Arcade Game
The Simpsons Arcade Game
Rampage
Lethal Enforcers
Revolution X with Aerosmith
Daytona USA
Mad Dog McCree
Time Traveler (played this only at the state fair, a really silly holographic game)
Dance Dance Revolution (probably the last time I played an arcade game a bunch back in 2001, it was so addicting)

DthRdrX

Everytime I went to the bowling alley I spent all of my time playing Wrestlefest, Operation Wolf, Simpsons, and Avengers. Hell, I have not been in their in years and I bet they still have the same machines lol.

Top Dog (RIP) had T2: The Arcade Game. Pizza Hut had TMNT ... one local pizza place had one of those NES multi-game machines and Rampage, another had the first Mortal Kombat. The real popular arcade here was all about MK2 and SF2, and their X-men v.s Street Fighter machine probably stayed longer than anything.

kahuna

Gee I must be getting real old. I use to take my kids to Chucky Cheese.

For me was Pac Man. Then I remember when they released it for the Atari 2600 & it turned out to be a POS.

wlj

i remember when i was very young going to my cousin's house at the lake. There was a little grocery store in walking distance and he took me to see Mat Mania. I loved that game. This memory really sticks out for me for some reason.

fumanstan

The mention of Chuck E. Cheese reminds me that around my house there was a similar place called Bullwinkle's, basically the same thing as Chuck E. but with Bullwinkle animatronics. I got tons of little ninja figures from tickets earned there.

Spiderbite

We had what seemed to be an assload of arcades near my house as a kid as it was 1980 to 1985 which was during the massive arcade boom. I was in 7 years old in 1980.

Some of my best memories are of Aladdin's Castle in my local mall. It was a huge arcade with two tiers of wall to wall games. Showbiz opened up nearby and the place was just massive. I actually preferred the smaller arcades that opened in old gas stations, smaller bookstore, etc. They were just freaking everywhere. Many people seem to forget that.

My favorite memory was around 1982 when I was in 4th grade. For about a year or so, I would get up early on Saturday morning and ride my bicycle to a local smaller arcade called Big Al's. The owner would let me in and I would Windex all of the games screens before it opened around 9 or 10am. The guy would pay me in tokens so it was no money lost for him and I would have enough tokens to play for at least 2 to 3 hours.

I have no idea how I struck that bargain but it was my first real "job."

I love the way arcades sounded back then. Just so many machines going at once. When we were in Disneyland a few years ago, Tron was big then due to the sequel and they had a Flynn's Arcade there filled with old games. The sounds gave me chill bumps and transported me back to 1982-83 and being an eager 9/10 year old enjoying washing video games screens. My wife didn't really appreciate it but it was a blast showing my son what a real arcade looked and sounded like.

Damn, I almost want to cry.

Edison

I spent a lot of time at Sub & Stuff after school playing the sit down Pac-Man machine, and QuikTrip playing the SEGA Star Trek game.

I remember playing Dragon's Lair at Le Mans arcade in the Mall. My friend and I played it one afternoon taking turns continuing the game until we finished it.