How many arcades did you have in your town growing up?

[jboypacman]

I was remembering the arcades we had in my town were i grew up at and we had a impressive......3.

 

This is not counting our bowling alley(which had some great games for the time)or the Aladdin Castle which was right outside of our town at the "Big Mall".

 

It got me wondering how many other people had arcades in there towns and how many they had so just something fun to post about.

[SRGilbert]

Well, back in the hey-day of arcades, we had 2 arcades in downtown Sault St Marie. I can't remember the names for the life of me, although one of them might have been called Fun-o-rama! I was pretty young at the time of course, so I didn't go there by myself (I was probably afraid I'd get beat up, I was pretty shrimpy!) I know my brother got mugged once.

 

One thing that was cool was the arcades would give you free game tokens for good report cards! I did alright, but my best friend was a straight A student, so we cleaned up. I remember playing a lot of Battlezone, and a lot of Jungle King.

[Lord Thag]

Two, The Gold Mine and the Dungeon, both local. The former just happened to be managed by my best friend's dad. That was a good year

[midnight magicman]

When I was growing up we had 2. Aroung '91/'92 for a brief period of time we had 3. Now.....

 

ZERO

 

:-(

 

Peace

[gklinger]

I grew up in a fairly large city and there were arcades all over the place. I can think of at least a dozen off the top of my head. There were only a couple that I frequented regularly though and I have very clear memories of them and one particular Tutankham machine into which I poured month's worth of allowance. Good times.

[Shannon]

Had a Pac-man around the corner from my home (in a bar). Me and my sister used to go in there and shoot pool at the tender age of 10-11. Lady there used to pay us to clean the tables for her. Anyways closest arcade was across the highway from the Bowling Alley so we would have to run across the road to get to it.

 

Other than that the only other arcade was near my Grandmother which made for a good excuse to actually go there. Cause otherwise it was boring. Used to have to ride the bike to get to it, though. She had a nice library near her as well.

[BigO]

Zero. Heck, we didn't even have a hardware store for most of the years I lived there.

 

Had to ride our bikes 7 miles to town to play pinball at the bowling alley.

Oh, yeah, it was uphill both ways.

Edited March 3, 2008 by BigO

[SRGilbert]

If you are counting hangouts other than arcades, then I should add that we had a couple of laundrymats that had a pretty decent selection of games including Tron, Defender, DK Jr, Ms Pac-man and Wizard of War. Seems like a party store near me had a Time Soldiers game too. Sometimes department stores would have games too, like Tempo had Joust, Asteroids, and Space Dual.

Edited March 3, 2008 by SRGilbert

[jboypacman]

Well like i said before our bowling alley had a pretty good selection of arcade games over the years(Crazy Climber,Moon Patrol,Omega Race,Gauntlet,and few others).

[+pboland]

Wow, perfect topic! I was just thinking about this two or three days ago. We had two within walking distance of where we lived. I say "we" because, it was always my best friend and I walking to the arcades. I guess it was about a 15-20 min walk to them. They were: Doc Holiday's (which was below Westernbowl our local huge bowling ally, 60 plus lanes) and Aladdin's Castle in a mall that no longer exists (Western Woods Mall). The bigger of the two was Doc's (as we called it). Nether of the two exists anymore. I think Doc's is some pizza place called Perky's and the Mall was taken down to make way for a Home Depot. Nothing like the memories of 1984 (That is when we started walking down to Doc's) Galaga, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Star Wars (sit down model no less) and Gyruss. I would only get $5.00 every two weeks and every quarter went in to those machines.

[Crazy Climber]

I can remember a Nice Picadilly Circus, Crosstown Arcade and of course Show Biz & Chuck E cheese. Few other areas might qualify like Bowling Alleys and the State Fair had a NICE one. There all gone now

[atarian63]

I was remembering the arcades we had in my town were i grew up at and we had a impressive......3.

 

This is not counting our bowling alley(which had some great games for the time)or the Aladdin Castle which was right outside of our town at the "Big Mall".

 

It got me wondering how many other people had arcades in there towns and how many they had so just something fun to post about.

 

There were 2 at different times. In the 70's there was funway freeway near the mall. I still remember the switch from foosball pinball etc to Elactronic arcade games. We were doing night driver constantly and never touched the old stuff again. it used to be 90% old and 10% electronic. in just a short time period it was almost all arcade. In the late 70's early 80's up until late 90's we had a Putt Putt Golf and games. Man I remember putting down quarters to hold my "spot" in line to be next to play. You had to be quick! Those were the days!

[Brian D. Deuel]

At least 10 that I can think of, but in the suburbs, there were probably a few more. I'd say no less than 15 in the heyday.

 

Now there are still a few, but they're mostly big chain arcades, a la Chucky Cheese, Craig's Cruisers, etc.

Edited March 5, 2008 by Brian D. Deuel

[Cassidy Nolen]

Home for me was two places growing up: Within a bike ride, I had a Scoops Ice Cream parlor that had an arcade in the back. Its a seafood bar now. Strange how I can remember where everything used to be. The Chuck E Cheese is still there, although the stores on either side have changed hands a million times. I would pay good money to have an actual lineup of what machines were there. I remember some, but not all. Funny how the mind plays tricks. Mind you, this was Alexandria, VA in the 82-86 era. Also had the Time Out at Springfield Mall, but I don't recall going in there until probably middle school (86 and up) so it was sort of lost on me as far as classics go.

 

In the summers, I would go to see my Dad in Texas. There was a skating rink in Euless that had a Smokey Joe I loved to play. Along Airport freeway (towards Ft. Worth) over by the Honda dealer, there was a Putt Putt arcade. I would say that was the grandest one I ever went to in its heyday. We went to the original Dave and Busters in Dallas one year, I would say it was 85 based on my memory of the games. I can remember a wall of Pac Mans and Galagas. If I could revisit one from Texas, it would have to be the arcade at Six Flags over Texas. They had a Pole Position cockpit, Discs of Tron and the only Speed Freak I ever saw (who doesn't love a vector cow?). I've been back to D&B and the arcade in Six Flags. Sadly neither has the same appeal today.

 

C

[diggs130]

Actual arcades in my small town was 2 but there was 4 bars with a game or 2 each so there was plenty of gameing goodness to have.

 

 

Thanks jboy for the trip down memory lane

[gklinger]

I posted this link in another thread and I realized it might be of interest to those reading this thread. It's about the closing of Toronto's last few classic arcades...

 

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_19730.aspx

 

[Shannon]

Home for me was two places growing up: Within a bike ride, I had a Scoops Ice Cream parlor that had an arcade in the back. Its a seafood bar now. Strange how I can remember where everything used to be. The Chuck E Cheese is still there, although the stores on either side have changed hands a million times. I would pay good money to have an actual lineup of what machines were there. I remember some, but not all. Funny how the mind plays tricks. Mind you, this was Alexandria, VA in the 82-86 era. Also had the Time Out at Springfield Mall, but I don't recall going in there until probably middle school (86 and up) so it was sort of lost on me as far as classics go.

C

Springfield mall eh? I used to go there quite a bit, even though I didn't live in VA. Haven't been there in ages!!

 

Just remembered the skating rink I used to go to fairly often had a surprisingly fair amount of pinball machines. Although I was more interested in the Missile Command machine.

[NightSprinter]

Back in Albany, GA there were the following arcades I went to when I grew up:

 

Putt-Putt Golf and Games (now "American Fun Park")

Aladdin's Castle (closed in the mid 80s)

Stardust Skating Rink (new location next to Wal-Mart SuperCenter)

And there was another that I can't remember that was in the 90s for a while (that lasted even when Street Fighter III came out)

[Cassidy Nolen]

Springfield mall eh? I used to go there quite a bit, even though I didn't live in VA. Haven't been there in ages!!

 

 

If you do go now, go during the day...its sketchy now to say the least. Gangs have taken it over. My wife will not go there alone...its that bad. I wish it wasn't because it still holds a lot of appeal to me as memories. The old Montgomery Wards where I got all my Transformers is now a Target. The movie theaters I sat outside and waited to see Empire Strikes Back and Jedi are still there but I don't think I'd go at night...

 

Time Out is still there, not a bad lineup either. I bought their old Ms. Pac. Would have done Galaga too but they beat that control panel up retrofitting some crappy controls in it, I passed on it with a bad graphic rom and burned monitor for 400.

 

C

[iguana]

Local for me was a bowling alley Greenbrook Lanes, they had a decent one, 8 on the Break. and Blue star skating had a big one upstairs. I liked that b/c my Dad managed the place when I was little and I used to go with him on weekends and "help" out either in the skating ring or the arcade. I loved that, I would get to play anything I wanted but it was early on in VG history.

[JimmydelaKopin]

For me there were a number...but then, we lived in the suburbs of a small city connected to a larger city.

(as for the number in the smaller city: 2, in the Don Carter's bowling alley, and in the New Orleans Int'l Airport)

Anywho, there were a number of arcades in the area besides those:

Putt-Putt Golf&Games

Fun City Arcade

a couple of nameless arcades in the malls (Clearview and Lakeside)

Skate Country

Fun Arcade

Fun Arcade West

Showbiz Pizza

 

Later came Celebration Station and Game Klub...

...while the rest faded away. Putt-Putt was replaced with a medical center; Fun city was replaced with a bank that was later replaced with a car dealership; the Clearview arcade was replaced with various stores; the Lakeside arcade simply closed down (thanks to Katrina); Skate Country was replaced with K-Mart; Fun Arcade West was replaced with a discount store and later a car dealership; Showbiz is now Chuck E. Cheese; Celebration Station closed down and is now partially replaced with a daycare center; and Game Klub is closed down.

Only Fun Arcade remains--and that's on the other side of Metairie; practically two cities are between me and it!

But the memories will never fade...

[shadow460]

Generally, I've had three of four choices throughout my life.

 

I was too young to remember how many arcades were in Oklahoma City when we moved away in 1985. We had Putt-putt and Showbiz Pizza, I do remember that. We also had this place called Shotgun Sam's, which also served pizza.

When we'd visit the grandparents in Ft Smith, AR, we go to Aladdin's Castle in Phoenix Village mall sometimes. We also got to play the few games at Ben Geren park after we got through swimming in the Olympic size pool.

 

After we moved, there were three towns close by with games. I played games in Meeker, OK and Shawnee, OK. In Meeker the local pool hall had a number of games including Legendary Wings, Golden Axe, Off-Road, and a somewhat flaky Galaga machine. Down the road, our Kwik-Stop gas station had games in it as well.

 

In Shawnee, the places I played were the local Putt-putt and The Big Cheese Pizza. I got my first taste of Star Castle and Stargate at Putt-putt in 1986, and met up with Lode Runner and Krull at the Big Cheese. I also played a few games at the local bowling alley. I got intro'd to Super Mario Bros there, and I played a bunch of Ms. Pac-Man as well as learning what the Big Guns pinball table is all about.

 

In Chandler OK, our dentist had several games set for free play. I played while waiting on my appointments. He had Joust, Millipede, Kangaroo, Star Wars: The Arcade Game, Mappy, Frogger, and Circus. I played them all at one point or another. I never got to play Frogger at the office, but when my daddy was asked to fix the thing, guess who got to play test it!

 

I played a lot of games while on school trips, too. I played many games for the first time on trips including Chapionship Sprint, Super Off-Road (different from the one in Meeker), and Turbo. I'd played Turbo years before, but this time, I was old enough to know what I was doing. I do remember my first time with Turbo, when my daddy was there telling me not to crash into the walls. Later, of course, I'd learn the hard way that you can only crash twice...

 

Today, I am near a Tilt in Quail Springs Mall and Incredible Pizza. I think the last time we went to Incredible Pizza, my wife said something about a "money trap", and I think I agree. Too bad I've got the flu this weekend, though...Incredible Pizza sounds kind of yummy right now...

[Inky]

I remember 4...

 

1) Aladins Castle at the Louis JOliet Mall"

2) That Game Place at the late, lamented Jefferson Square Mall

3) Arcade and Keys. This place was a bit of a joke. It was a very tiny placein my neighborhood, just off of US 30 , had 6-8 machines, and the reason for the name was that the guy who ran it also made keys there.. lol

4) Putt Putt. Robotron, Reactor and Pengo. Better arcade than Alladins. The place is long gone. The Q*Bert world record was set there at one time

 

And after my parents got divorced, I spent a lot of time in MOrris, IL. THey had a tiny arcade too, commected to a sub shop. 6-8 machines again, but THIS one had Star Wars!

Edited March 8, 2008 by Inky

[dwh]

My hometown had two 'arcades',three movie theatre arcades, and all the other eateries that had games.And that was just the north end of Fremont,CA.I'm sure there were more that my ten-speed could not get me to.

[DigitalDaredevil]

We had many arcades back in the day. Within a 5-10 mile radius we had:

Game Trek

Funsville (two of them)

Galaxy Gardens

Fun N Games

Up To Par

A large arcade in the local bowling alley.

 

And you could always find a game or two in the convenience stores, department stores, laundromats, and pizza shops.

 

We had one mall that had two arcades in it. That was big time back then.

 

I miss those days. I wish I knew what we had, so that I could have appreciated it more than I did/do.