The best arcades you have ever been to?

[carmel_andrews]

Best Amusement arcade....the one on the corner of wardour street (former home of warner bros UK) and brewer/old compton street....it used to be the cheapest arcade in town (haven't been there though since i stopped working in the west end) they were charging only 10/20p a game where everyone else was charging 50p-£1 a game (this applied to both old games as well as new releases as well as pinball games and one armed bandits)

 

Dunno if it's still operating/open

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Well I am in NH now on vacation, and one of the main reasons we are vacationing here, is that I wanted to take the family to Funspot.

 

It was amazing to see all the classic arcade machines, but to be completely honest, it was a let down.

 

...

 

I don't regret coming here, this area of NH is simply stunning, and a great place to visit, but I can tell you that Funspot itself was very underwhelming.

 

If you're still there head over to Pelham and check out Pinball Wizard Arcade. I've never been there (or to FunSpot) but PWA is newer and also has a huge selection of 350+ games:

 

http://aurcade.com/locations/view.aspx?id=824

 

In my own memory of growing up there is one place that come to mind, although currently my own place The Game Grid Arcade is where its at for me

 

49th Street Galleria - This was an FEC in Murray, UT that was the place to go when you were a kid. Very unusual building and it always had an arcade section but in the late 80s when I first made a visit it had the classic design of that time - virtually no overhead lights, packed wall-to-wall with tons of games. I wasn't very old then so I do not remember all of the game titles they had, except for Discs of TRON, which stood out in my memory and was also the first time I had ever heard of TRON. Years later I remember playing Star Wars Trilogy Arcade and Rampage World Tour there but that was when it was called the Utah Fun Dome. That eventually closed and these days I think the place is either completely abandoned or will be refit to be apartments or something.

[Classic Pac]

Best arcade I ever been too was Fantasy Zone here in Chicago up until the early 90s when they closed they always had the best arcade machine. They even had the very 1st Street Fighter game, Tron, Rastan, and a whole bunch of those Lazer disc arcade games. They even had the arcade version of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. As well as the best line up of pinball balls available.

 

Second best for a short time was believe it or not the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I am unsure when this happened but they did once had an exhibit of arcade games. It was the very 1st time I played Prof Pac, Baby Pac, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and if I am not mistaken Discs of Tron and a old fav of mine Zookeeper.

[retrorussell]

For a short time there was an arcade around a mile from where I used to live in the Garden Home suburb of Portland, OR back in the early 80s. It was called "Pac-Pals". It was a little hole-in-the-wall place but they crammed the best arcade games into that tiny place. Not the most savory of characters hung out there, but I ignored them and had fun. On the west side of Tigard in Canterbury Square was another great, tiny arcade called "Astrocade". It didn't last terribly long either, just a couple years or so.

[DanBoris]

Back in the 80's, the Wildwood, NJ boardwalk. There was at least one arcade in every block. Saw a lot of games for the first (and sometimes last) time there.

[retrorussell]

Some of the pizza parlor min-arcades had great games packed into such a small area. Pietro's, Engine House, Rico's Red Lion and others had some memorable games where I first played or saw them. My basketball team would go after some games and have lots of fun.

Edited July 26, 2013 by retrorussell

[AtariTexas]

Rocky J's in San Antonio in the 80's. It's still around.........but barely hanging on......kind of a shell of what it used to be

Edited July 26, 2013 by BadHornet

[Cebus Capucinis]

For one in the neck of the woods hardly anyone thinks of, Grinkers Arcade in Boise, ID (Well, Eagle, ID, a suburb) is really good. http://www.grinkers.com/ Aside from Portland/Seattle, there's not really anything in the entire northwest aside from this place, but it's a great one!

[Lauren Tyler]

I used to have a bowling alley down the street that had some cool games. There was also Goodtimes, which closed in 2008.

 

If there are any video arcades in Massachusetts, let me know! (And don't mention Salem Willows, I know of that already.)

[Mxyzptlk]

Yeah, Sears either HAD one or there was one just outside of Sears at the old Beaverton Mall (now Cedar Hills Crossing) near my house. I remember seeing the extremely rare Digger (Gremlin/Sega) which was a ripoff of an older Japanese game called Heiyanko Alien. I miss the big fountains in the mall, and tossing coins for good luck as a little (gullible) kid.

There was never a Sears at Beaverton Mall. You might be talking about the Emporium, but they did not have an arcade at all. The only games at Beaverton mall were of course at the Electric Palace, and the old Beaverton skating rink, and the few games they had @ the main front entrance to the mall (right next to the Candy Shoppe and the haircut place that eventually turned into Supercuts) that is now Best Buy. Edited July 28, 2013 by Mxyzptlk

[retrorussell]

Doop, you're right. I was thinking of PayLess. There was an arcade at least close to that, but hell, no matter where it was in the mall it wasn't very far away. That mall was and still is TINY.

[Catsmasher]

Well I am in NH now on vacation, and one of the main reasons we are vacationing here, is that I wanted to take the family to Funspot.

 

It was amazing to see all the classic arcade machines, but to be completely honest, it was a let down.

 

We spent all day yesterday there (there are tons of redemption games, newer games, bowling etc. in addition to the ACAM classics).

 

There were many machines that were out of order completely, and many more that appeared to be operational, only when you went to play them, the coin mechs were covered with out of order stickers.

 

Even more still had issues like no sound, dim monitors, broken controls etc...

 

No exaggeration, fully about a third of all the machines had some issue and were unplayable.

 

If this were any other place but Funspot, and I saw an arcade with this many machines in disrepair, I'd sounding the death knell.

 

ACAM is in serious need of some help repairing these machines.

 

I don't regret coming here, this area of NH is simply stunning, and a great place to visit, but I can tell you that Funspot itself was very underwhelming.

 

 

I vacation in NH with my family every summer (for 12 years now). We go to funspot every year - it is a tradition.

There are TONS of old classic arcade games, many very obscure. It was great to go from one game to another and relive the past fun. There are also dozens of pinball games as well.

Howevver - I have noticed a slow but steady degradation of the experience over the years. An 'out of order' game used to be a rare thing there, now they are all over the place.

This year - Just two weeks ago:

The side to side movement on the joystick in the sit down Red Baron machine did not work - not much fun when you can only go up and down.

The vertical movement on the Guunfight machine did not work.

The screen on the Xybots machine was dark

and worst of all - The Battelzone machine and the Tempest machine did not work at all! Two of hte greatest classics sitting there unplugged.

And on and on.

My friend is an big pinball fan and he was dissapointed that so many pinball machines were out of order as well.

But you could watch a video of the owner on American Restoration and look at a restored 'Shoot the Bear' game behind a rope with a 'do not touch' sign. That would be really neat if the Battelzone game worked as well.

They seem to have plenty of people working on the ticket-spewing redemption games and serving pizzas in the bowling alley, but the classic arcade machines that Funspot uses as thier claim to fame do not seem to get any attention. How tough would it be for the "Worlds Largest Arcade" to get someone to fix the Tempest game. Come on!

[retrorussell]

I used to like the Gold Mine at Sea-Tac mall (Seattle-Tacoma metro area). Good mix of games.

[kengorski]

Back in the 80's, the Wildwood, NJ boardwalk. There was at least one arcade in every block. Saw a lot of games for the first (and sometimes last) time there.

 

My family used to go there for the summer. I remember the huge Hollywood Casino, had a lot of older games like Allied Leisure's F-114 in working order too:

 

http://www.funchase.com/Images/Theatres/Casino.htm

[Syzygy1]

3) The Sega Center in the Sherman Oaks Galleria - One of the only places I frequented that had Omega Race. And a Space Fury which I stupidly ignored because I hated the talking alien head. But back then there were so many new, cool games coming out it didn't seem like a big deal.

 

 

didn't they film the Bishop of Battle at The Sega Center? And you're the opposite of me - I loved that guy.

[ledzep]

 

didn't they film the Bishop of Battle at The Sega Center? And you're the opposite of me - I loved that guy.

 

I don't mind the guy now, but back then I was not interested in primitive animations, just games. I think I thought that the talking alien head guy was going to be a major part of the game vs. it being some sort of Asteroids-style shooter. What little did I know.

 

I have no idea about "Bishop Of Battle", never saw it (ah, looked it up, very interesting, I'm surprised I never saw it back in the day) -

 

 

That does sort of look like the Sega Center that I remember. I think. Wow, there was a Tailgunner in there and a Rip-Off, some other great games. I can appreciate having other vector games in there to support the look of the movie's fake game. That Bishop Of Battle game would make a decent color vector conversion game! Someone should attempt to code that for a Tron cabinet (spinner + joystick) with a vector monitor.

 

I believe "Commando" had a scene shot in the old Sherman Oaks Galleria where that Sega Center used to be (the place is useless now, just a load of restaurants, one massive furniture store, and a movie theater).

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

The B&I Marketplace in Tacoma, WA. It was called "Mikey's Funland". It opened in 1978 and closed down in 2013. It was an awesome arcade. It had vintage, classics, and some modern ones. In 3 different areas. Including foosball, billiards, mini golf, a giant carousel, and a food court. I spent countless hours during the weekends wasting away all my quarters. There was about 200 arcade games there. So many awesome memories.

 

[Syzygy1]

You may want to look into Arcade Odyssey in Miami Fl.

 

Here are some the things that set us apart,

 

#1) The only Arcade ever - that changes out Arcade Games on a Monthly Basis, and not just 1 or 2 games, but 5-9 games each time.

#2) We have Pinball, an entire wall's worth, something not too many arcades have now a days.

#3) In addition to new arcade games we also bring in classics, such as Mad planets, Q-bert, Revolution X, Tron, Satan's hollow, Moon patrol & Vector games such as Space duel just to name a few.

#4) All Arcade games are constantly Maintained, everything works right down to lights on the coin mechs, we pride ourselves on the fact that everything works, and we keep it that way.

#5) We import Japanese and other Asian arcade pcbs so our patrons can play games from outside the USA that they would normally never get a chance to play, titles such as Bishi Bashi, or Melty Blood Curent Code, Chaos Code, & Tondemo Crisis just to name a few.

#6) We also offer console systems to play, Like Xbox 360, PS3, WII, but with 3d - 42" monitors, and the rumble seats with surround sound.

#7) In the console section not only do we have American Titles, but we also have imported 360's, and import games from japan for our patrons to play.

#8 ) We Import Japanese drinks and Japanese snacks for our clients to munch on.

#9) We hold Cosplay events , giving away free tokens just for showing up in costume.

#10) We do weekly video podcasts to discuss everything from video gaming and arcade to comics and toys, inviting our clients to join in.

#11) We also do weekly video podcasts of classic game console play throughs.

#12) We also hold tournaments on a biweekly basis complete with streaming and commentary.

#13) We are open very late till 12pm on weekdays and 2am on weekends and finally we are very inexpensive.

 

But don't take my word for it, check out our reviews.

 

Currently ranked #2 out of 107 attractions in S. Florida

http://www.tripadvis...mi_Florida.html

 

More 5 star reviews than any other attraction in South Florida

http://www.yelp.com/...e-odyssey-miami

 

Voted best arcade of 2012

http://www.miaminewt...arcade-3315635/

 

Voted #5 of attractions and theme parks by local 10 news.

http://vote.local10....-arcade-odyssey

 

And of course you may read more about us here.

 

Facebook

www.facebook.com/arcadeodyssey.com

 

Our web page, showing all titles currently in the arcade.

www.arcadeodyssey.com

 

PS: I also have Discs of Tron, but have not brought that one into the arcade yet.

 

Hope you to see you at the Arcade.

 

Rick

Is Touhou there?

 

Also, Funspot was the best. I saw a Mappy cabinet!

[Catsmasher]

 

I vacation in NH with my family every summer (for 12 years now). We go to funspot every year - it is a tradition.

There are TONS of old classic arcade games, many very obscure. It was great to go from one game to another and relive the past fun. There are also dozens of pinball games as well.

Howevver - I have noticed a slow but steady degradation of the experience over the years. An 'out of order' game used to be a rare thing there, now they are all over the place.

This year - Just two weeks ago:

The side to side movement on the joystick in the sit down Red Baron machine did not work - not much fun when you can only go up and down.

The vertical movement on the Gunfight machine did not work.

The screen on the Xybots machine was dark

and worst of all - The Battelzone machine and the Tempest machine did not work at all! Two of hte greatest classics sitting there unplugged.

And on and on.

My friend is an big pinball fan and he was dissapointed that so many pinball machines were out of order as well.

But you could watch a video of the owner on American Restoration and look at a restored 'Shoot the Bear' game behind a rope with a 'do not touch' sign. That would be really neat if the Battelzone game worked as well.

They seem to have plenty of people working on the ticket-spewing redemption games and serving pizzas in the bowling alley, but the classic arcade machines that Funspot uses as thier claim to fame do not seem to get any attention. How tough would it be for the "Worlds Largest Arcade" to get someone to fix the Tempest game. Come on!

UPDATE from this years vacation- two years after my above post.

Couldn't find the Red Baron game at all.

Screen on Xybots stll too dark. Still can't really play it.

The joysticks on Robotron 2084 were fixed this year and it was playable - first time in three years.

The Battlezone game was back in order and working well.

The sit-down Star Trek game was dark - not working.

About 10%-15% of the games were dark and out of order - including the Computer Space game which I remember playing last year.

Not only was Tempest not working - it was nowhere to be seen!!! I have been to the "World's Largest Arcade" three years in a row and been unable to play Tempest.

Overall - it was worth going to since I was in the area - but I would have been dissapointed if I travelled to see it at all. Let's face it, Funspot wants to be a classis video game icon and tout itself in all the promo material and ads, but if they can't have a working Tempest game on sight - it is all blather!!!

Oh, by the way, their 'museum' display is pathetic. They have some hand held table top games, and some new flashback consoles in the case. My basement is a better museum that that.

 

They did have a new indoor putt putt golf course, though. And all the kiddie-vegas ticket games were working just fine.

I also noted that many of the pinbal games now take two tokens..

[bkrownd]

The best arcades I was able to visit in Minnesota were modest suburban mall arcades:

 

Bump-n-Score Coon Rapids (someone's wordy blog link: http://politicsonastick.blogspot.com/2005/12/bump-score-and-my-youth-in-arcades.html - the busiest and largest arcade I remember, 1981/1982, but it was probably small)

Aladdins/Circus(?) in Har Mar Mall (home of my favorite Red Baron sit down cabinet)

Aladdins (Xenophobe and Qix) and Circus (Mach 3 and free tokens for A grades on your report card) in Maplewood Mall

 

[buttertweet]

The best kept secrets might have been in Reno, Nevada. In the early/mid-80's, virtually every hotel had an exquisite arcade to keep the kids happy, while the parents lost all their money in the casino.

 

Circus Circus was the obvious pick - besides having video games EVERYWHERE in the kids' section, there were live circus acts and carnival games. I still have two stuffed animals that I won back in those days. The Nugget (technically in Sparks) was a beaut, with classics like Venture and Space Zap. Harrah's had Dragon's Lair and Gauntlet. Bally's, not surprisingly, was full of Bally/Midway games, including quarter suckers like Rampage and the ultra-rare Power Drive.

 

Oddly, the one I remember the most was the smallest, at the long-gone Harold's Club. There were just a few games, so I played all of them, but what a collection! Pac-Land, Crater Raider, Bank Panic, Name That Tune and Two Tigers (that last one was a 2-player co-op so I would play with the other kids every chance I got). On the rare occasions I got bored, I would sneak into the casino and grab all the little booklets that show you how to play keno and craps. I probably knew more about gambling than any other kid at school. Good times.

[tweetest]

Back in the late 70s this particular Goldmine in the Beaumont Parkdale Mall had nothing but pinball machines at first. An older guy was so good he would rack up free games and them give them to me. I learned to be a pinball wizard from watching him and playing as much as I could. I would even steal the quarters out of the fountain nearby to play more haha ..sorry but I had no money ..I was a kid. I also remember when Asteroids arrived ..everything changed after that ..I liked the new machines ..but I was sad to see the pinball machines leave ..to me I felt like I was one with a pinball machine sometimes. I think only a wizard knows what I’m talking about.?