My Childhood Arcade

[Varan]

I grew up in a small Pennsylvania town called Selinsgrove. Our arcade was called Spaceport and was in the Susquehanna Valley Mall. It was L-shaped, dimly lit and was designed like a space station. We used to call the old guy that worked there "Space Pap". I frequented the arcade between '83-'87.

[ATARIPITBULL]

What were some of the games that you liked to play at the arcade, some of mine were: 1) pac-man, 2) Ms.pac-man, 3) Wizard of Wor, 4) Dragons Lair, 5) Glaxian, 6) Congo Bongo, 7) Donkey Kong Donkey Kong JR, these are just a few off the top of my head.

 

[Atari-Jess]

I had 3 kinda

 

one in the closest mall, it was small, but neato

 

one in MY OWN HOME TOWN which was also small but burnt down

 

and one near my school! it has no old machines anymore

 

not even any atari ones

 

id love to start my own one day.

[Varan]

Oh yeah, I do remember a second arcade... It was on the Susquehanna University campus and was The Dungeon (I Believe).

[DanBoris]

We had SpacePort arcades in Southern New Jersey also, they must have been a chain. We also had one called Funway Freeway which was done with black carpeting on the floors and walls, and decorated with road signs. Very cool arcade!

 

I remeber back when arcades where really big, my local shopping mall actually had 3 seperate arcades opertating at the same time! Those where the days!

 

Dan

[Adrian M]

Here in Massachusetts, we used to have a small chain of arcades in various malls called DREAM MACHINE. I think one still exists in the Maine Mall up in Portland, Maine but the rest have all closed down. DREAM MACHINE was where I played my first game of Pac-Man.

Some Namco Funcenter arcades still exist here in Massachusetts...the mall in Worcester still has one but it is pretty small.

 

Then there was always FUNSPOT in Weirs Beach, NH which is now the home of the largest classic games museum and the site of the Twin Galaxies gaming tournament. They had more games there in the 80's than they do now since much of it was changed into an indoor golf range and a stupid pub where the bowling alleys are. I make it a point to go there in the summers and I particpated in the last two classic gaming tournaments with my brother.

 

My university had a small campus arcade and they swapped out the games on a bi-monthly basis which was great. The only machine that stayed was the 4 slot NEO GEO and many hours were spent playing METAL SLUG!

[Big Player]

There used to be an arcade in Cincy called Penny Arcade. One day there was a sign on the door.

 

Owner just got Marrried

 

All games today free

 

Ah, that was the day. Must have played Robotron and Tempest for two hours straight.

[TheSmirk]

Yeah, spaceports were at a couple malls in New Jersey, also "supercades" were a smaller mall chain, hmmmm growing up I had:

 

8 on the Break in Dunellen

Greenbrook Lanes on rt22 Green Brook

Menlo Park mall arcade

Woodbridge Mall Arcade

BowCraft Amusement Park on occasion.....

 

alot of fun when I was able to go...

 

too bad arcades seem to be going the way of the dinosaur most places....

[Cassidy Nolen]

There were a few arcades around when I was growing up, but the arcade experience for me was not there. I used to go to Scoops Ice Cream parlor and play Qbert and Pac Man with my friends. There was a K-Mart about three miles away my Mom and I used to go to. They had a Wild Western there that I fell in love with (its one game in my collection NO ONE but me likes!). When I would go out to see my Dad in the summer, there were a few places we would go that had games.

 

In Dallas, circa 84, Dave and Busters was just opening up. They opened in 82, but no one had heard of them yet. We went there, and I can remember rows of Cockpit Pole Positions, Galagas, and Ms. Pacs. When I went back in 2000, it was all modern stuff, but I could still see the old machines in their places when I thought back.

 

Finally, then I will quit; there was a roller rink in Euless, Tx that had a few odd games. I remember playing Smokey Joe around 85. Now that was an old game by then, and must have had the crap beat out of it by skates. Boy would I love to have that exact machine.

 

Sometimes I like to think I have the Wild Western I played as a kid. I did get it from an operator in the area, and he does have games on that road......

 

Cassidy

[iguana]

I was about to post here when I ran across this

8 on the Break in Dunellen  

Greenbrook Lanes on rt22 Green Brook  

Menlo Park mall arcade  

Woodbridge Mall Arcade  

BowCraft Amusement Park on occasion.....  

 

THese are most of the places I went too! Living in Greenbrook and North Plainfield I frequented 8 on the Break, Green Brook Lanes and Bowcraft the most! Small world hey! Smirk where did you grow up??? Also when I was real young My father managed a rollerrink/arcade in North Plainfield. I can not remember the name of it for the life of me but it was on 22 neer the old 2 Guys and Sears. THat was great because on Sat mornings if he had to go in He would take me and I would get all the games for free!! I think the name was Blue Star or something like that.

[AtariDude]

Arcades are a slice of Americana that are slowly disappearing from memory. I used to remember that there were several arcades that I could chose from as a kid. Now in my neck of the woods, there are only about 3 or 4 and they are all at least 25 minutes away. I used to remember being able to walk to an arcade but not anymore.

 

My favorite games in the arcades were (1) Dragon's Lair (2) Space Ace (3) PacMan (4) Ms. PacMan (5) Tempest (6) Us vs. Them (7) The Legend of Kage ( Spy Hunter (9) Punch Out (10) Pac Man Jr? (it was a combination pinball game and PacMan arcade).

 

I guess the consoles are to blame. They have gotten so good that they basically as good as arcades.

[Curt Vendel]

On Staten Island where I grew up the best arcades were close to the Mall, there was Time Out (the original Time Out's, not the crappy Namco owned ones that are around today... boring {yawn}) and over by what used to be the Century Twin movies theatre's was The Twilight Zone which was great, they have pool tables in the front, a small concessions area off to the side and instead of tables to eat on, it was row after row of cocktail table coin-ops, then in the back where rows and rows of coin-ops...

 

 

I remember how my friends and I would go to the movies, then hit the arcade right after and you'd get down to your last dollar and that was the dollar you needed to take the bus home, well you think about it for a few moments and "plop", in went the first quarter into the arcade machine and one of us would call their parents with the sob-story about how they accidentally used up their bus money, could you come and pick us up??? Well, that worked once or twice, I remember calling my mother like the 3rd time and this time she decided that maybe if I walked home it might help me remember for the next time, well we all learned our lesson from that one.... Next time we just don't get any food at the movie and use THAT money for video games too!!!

 

 

Curt

[Atari 7800.com]

It sounds like Curt has some real fond memories of arcade adventures... as for myself, I came along a bit late in the game with Atari. All I really had was Chuck -E- Cheese's lol, which honestly was as magical as Disneyworld at the age I was when I went there. We also had an arcade at Lakeside mall back in Detroit, I used to go there when I was a little kid when I went shopping with my mom. By the time I was about 6 or 7 it had closed down and they turned it into a Limited or something . After that, I lived in Florida and most of the time I would hit up a place called Greasey Pete's which was a Pizza place which beared a remarkable resemblance to "The Max" from Saved By The Bell, lol.

 

Best,

[jim]

There were 5 or 6 big arcades around Jackson, MS I use to go to back in the early 80's. One was huge it had hundreds of games. There was an entire row of about 10 or 15 Galaga's. Use to love to play them and Defender, Asteroids, Pole Position sitdown, Zaxxon, but my favorite was Tempest. It's the one game I still have not found for my home gameroom. Played a lot of Starwars, Stargate, and Joust while in college. Back in the 70's I use to play lots of EM's at the big Holiday store in Bloomington, Minnesota. Remember playing stuff like Speedway, Whirlybird, Speed Shift, gun games. Those old EM's were and still are my favorites, besides Tempest that is.

[AtariDude]

I just remembered another game I used to love to play. The sit down version of Star Wars. I wasn't great at it but I really liked the game. I used to play it in an arcade called Silver Ball that was in New Jersey close to the Ridgefield Park area. Does anyone know if Silver Ball still exists or did it close down? It used to have some of the best arcades games in the early to mid 80s.

[Guest cvo]

There was an arcade at the mall where I grew up that we'd go to all the time on the weekends. My favorite games were Rolling Thunder, Operation Wolf, Pole Position and Raiden. If I could have those games in my apartment right now, I'd never leave.

 

Oh and how could I forget Golden Axe?????

[NE146]

Man there's no way I can name one arcade as there were tons and tons and I went to all of them. Not to mention a lot of them would fold only for a new one to pop up somewhere else (EM/B&W phase, Space Invader phase, Pacman phase, Dragons Lair phase, Street Fighter II phase) etc. etc.

 

Plus some weren't arcades but rather shopping mall hallways, store lobbies, food establishements, laundry mats, bowling alleys, bars,.. you name it.

[tiggerthehun]

There was an arcade at the mall where I grew up that we'd go to all the time on the weekends.  My favorite games were Rolling Thunder, Operation Wolf, Pole Position and Raiden.    If I could have those games in my apartment right now, I'd never leave.    

 

 

Smiling to himself, in a moment of happy contemplation, Tigger wonders "What if he, Tigger, were to somehow procure these 4 games... would it follow that CVO would be drawn to his own house, and in a moment of etherial extasy, never want leave there either? One can only wonder, and smile..."

 

 

"But could he live with the poop tossing?"

[tiggerthehun]

oops

[Curt Vendel]

There used to be a Space Station in the Woodbridge Mall in New Jersey when I was a kid. The best Space Station was the one in Manhattan, it was so cool, in the front windows they have 6 or more Space Invaders that were hung upside down from the ceiling turned on, talk about an eye-catcher!!!

 

In the Staten Island Mall was a TimeOut, I used to love the blacked out walls and how it took like a minute or two for your eye's to adjust. The best part about walking into the arcade was being blitzed by all of the sounds of the games, beckoning you to play them. Ah, the memories :-)

 

 

 

Curt

[Starcadefan]

I don't have that many arcades in my area but has anyone ever been to Salem Willows in Salem, Massachusetts? It's a great arcade. I'll list all the classic games that are there.

Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man

Junior Pac-Man

Space Invaders

Galaxian

Galaga

Centipede

Millipede

Tapper

Super Sprint

Sente Mini Golf

Gimme A Break

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Sea Wolf

Tetris

Capcom Bowling

Tournament Arkanoid

Operation Wolf

The Simpsons

Asteroids

Galaga '88

Rampart

Carnival

Super Off Road

and Victory Road.

Does anyone else know any good arcades besides Salem Willows and if so, please list the games they have there.

[caveman]

I remember DREAM MACHINE in Worcester, MA too. There's one in the Greendale Mall (sucks), and before that there was the other Dream Machine in the Worcester Center Galleria up until about '88 or '89. That's where I'd play Crossbow, Choplifter, and Xenophobe until my luck ran out.

 

The other (and better) arcade was the Playoff Arcade, where I'd hit Xenophobe, NARC, Cabal, and too many others to name until I moved out

of Wormtown altogether in '97.

 

Those days are gone, but now I've got my 7800, Infogrames Atari Collection (PSX), Stella 2600, Jum52, and Handy emulators for the Mac to bring most of it all back at my fingertips. Nothing made me feel more wisened than showing my roommate's nine year old kid Tempest, Battlezone, and Pong (!), and seeing him getting into it and giving me a run for my money

 

Yes, my generation will have our turn to gloat during the 80s retro craze, and after we're gone, these games will always be a part of the culture, and they'll never die.

[caveman]

I remember the Salem Willows. Is it still there? All I'd have to do is hop the commuter rail and take a fifteen minute walk, and I'm there. I can't find any good arcades in Boston proper. Does anyone know of any ones with all the classics? arpwell@yahoo.com

[Xot]

Here in Massachusetts, we used to have a small chain of arcades in various malls called DREAM MACHINE.  I think one still exists in the Maine Mall up in Portland, Maine but the rest have all closed down.  DREAM MACHINE was where I played my first game of Pac-Man.  

Some Namco Funcenter arcades still exist here in Massachusetts...the mall in

 

I remember Dream Machine. It was my first arcade too. Up until a month or so ago there was still one in the University Mall in S. Burlington, VT until it caught fire(!).

[mistah kurtz]

yes, the Salem Willows arcade is still active and still has a lot of classics. A nice place to spend a few hours.

 

And anyone in New England should try to get to Funspot up at Weirs Beach at least once, an awesome collection.