The Greatest Arcade Ever

[NovaXpress]

In the early 80s I lived outside of Toledo, Ohio. One of the malls had an attatched area called Old Town which was full of crafts vendors, candy, troll dolls and other crap. This was an actual mall, decorated in wood with about 20 or 30 store spaces, attatched by an annex to a more modern mall.

 

At some point, the old-timey businesses failed and the mall replaced them all with video games. I mean ALL the stores became devoted to games. One store would have 15 Defenders, another 15 Tempests, etc. The name of the game was even posted in a large sign above the storefront. Several rooms had a mix of games and I encountered rarities such as Quantum and Space Dungeon. There was also a pizza parlor and ticket games.

 

I''d been to other large arcards in the day, but had never seen an entire mall converted like this. It was still in operation when I left the area in 83. I probably just missed the inevitable shutdown.

 

Does anyone else know of Old Town or similar arcades?

[+davidcalgary29]

No, but the downtown mall in High River, Alberta, has been converted into a gigantic furniture store with different groupings occupying each store space.

 

Oh, hell, you're right. I'd rather have a room full of "Defender".

[Nukey Shay]

My hometown of '83 (Monticello, MN) had 3 full arcades. In addition, many other rec places had a number of games. A bowling alley, a pool, a roller rink, theatre, a mall, an arcade section in a rather large flea market, and 4 pubs. The next year, the arcades were history.

[Witchfynde]

At some point, the old-timey businesses failed and the mall replaced them all with video games. I mean ALL the stores became devoted to games. One store would have 15 Defenders, another 15 Tempests, etc. The name of the game was even posted in a large sign above the storefront. Several rooms had a mix of games and I encountered rarities such as Quantum and Space Dungeon.

 

Holy CRAP!! That's too awesome! Too bad you don't have any photos of the storefronts with the games' names on 'em (uh, you DON'T have any photos, right? )

 

Man...too cool!

[NovaXpress]

No photos, at the time I wasn't as impressed as i should have been. They even had all the lights inside the store areas turned off for prime game playing. I believe that Old Town was attatched to the Southwyck Mall in Toledo.

 

Games I remember as having their own room: Defender, Tempest, PacMan, MsPacMan, Centipede, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Galaga.

 

For another wild acrcade memory, a street fair I attened in 89 had a circus-tent arcade that hadn't been updated in years. I actually played Anti-Aircraft (arcade air-sea battle), Stunt Cycle (hilarious how the pipes were painted on the screen), and original Tank.

[mark]

Nova,

 

where at outside toledo were you?

[Mikau]

If you are ever in Frankenmuth MI, check out Memory Lane Arcade. The stuff there pre-dates everything I can think of, most of it is primitive mechanical machines. The most modern thing they had was a vintage Pacman cabinet from the early 80s.

[King Atari]

We've had stores converted to arcades, and back again, here, but nothing like an entire mall. That must've been incredible.

[AtariDude]

We have a family entertainment center close to one of the malls here in South Florida that has mini-golf, go karts and then have a building with a castle type shape that has a lot of arcade machines in it. Maybe I might remember to take a picture of it sometime on a weekend.

[The MilkMan]

I remeber visiting my cousins in Ames Iowa in the early to mid 80's . They took me to a HUGE place called Dark Star. It was crazy! Multi-levels, different rooms, and sometimes a smoke machine would blast certain areas! It was very dark, and had a ton of blinking lights all over the place. The door where you came in had a long hallway, at the end was a mirror. The floor had this runway lighting effect, and the mirror made it look like it went on forever! Man, that arcade was the coolest I'd ever seen.

[MegaManFan]

I remeber visiting my cousins in Ames Iowa in the early to mid 80's . They took me to a HUGE place called Dark Star. It was crazy! Multi-levels, different rooms, and sometimes a smoke machine would blast certain areas! It was very dark, and had a ton of blinking lights all over the place. The door where you came in had a long hallway, at the end was a mirror. The floor had this runway lighting effect, and the mirror made it look like it went on forever! Man, that arcade was the coolest I'd ever seen.

 

Ames used to have a LOT of cool arcades. Besides that one, they had a ZAP! video and pinball arcade, and a small arcade at the mall too. One by one though, they all disappeared during the 90's.

[NovaXpress]

How good was the arcade market in '81? In the mall attached to Old Town was an Alladin's Castle that also did good business.

[Snider-man]

C'mon. If you're in Ohio, I have four words for you.

 

Cedar. Point. Midway. Arcade.

 

Still around and still filled with well-maintained classics like Dragon's Lair, Warrior, Wizard of Wor, Goliath Pinball, Fire Truck, etc. Hundreds of games in one huge building. In the best roller coaster amusement park, no less.

 

Back me up on this, Ohio people.

[PuddWakkr]

Cedar Point Arcade is very cool. It's the first place I played the at the time controversial Mortal Kombat. There was a 5 minute wait to plunk a quarter in. Hmm 5 min wait for the game or two hour wait for the ride, I waited for the game a few times that day.

[DaveAtari]

We had a Super Cobra at the Pop Shoppe near my house...

 

I did make it to Cedar Point and I remember that HUGE pinball machine.

I also remember a game where there was a Spaceship in the center of three circles and you had to shoot away the circles while three dots chased you.

What the heck was that game called again?

[Snider-man]

Star Castle. You're welcome.

[DaveAtari]

WOW, that brings back memories

Thanx

[Paralistalon]

I imagine part of heaven being a huge mall with every arcade cabinet of all time in it.

[Big Player]

C'mon. If you're in Ohio, I have four words for you.

 

Cedar. Point. Midway. Arcade.

 

Still around and still filled with well-maintained classics like Dragon's Lair, Warrior, Wizard of Wor, Goliath Pinball, Fire Truck, etc. Hundreds of games in one huge building. In the best roller coaster amusement park, no less.

 

Back me up on this, Ohio people.

 

I couldn't believe the arcades at Cedar Point. Almost every classic arcade game you can think of is there. Robotron, Night Driver, Galaxian, Drag Race(!), Donkey Kong, etc.

 

And I kicked myself because the only reason I walked in the arcade was the temperature that day was over 100 degrees. I figured I could step into the air conditioning and check what modern arcades looked like. Well, there are no games there newer than the 80's, I believe.

 

Cedar Point rules. Much better than Kings Island.

[NovaXpress]

Cedar Point, ouch. Man, I miss it! I'm living in Omaha Nebraska right now, which is the SEVENTH CIRCLE OF HELL. Now I'm inspired to take a trip back to Ohio, I haven't been to Cedar Point since '93.

 

No one from the Toledo area, eh?

[MegaManFan]

I couldn't believe the arcades at Cedar Point.  Almost every classic arcade game you can think of is there.  Robotron, Night Driver, Galaxian, Drag Race(!), Donkey Kong, etc.

 

If you like that, you should see the Family Fun Center here in Omaha.

[NovaXpress]

The Family Fun Center has about a dozen old games or so (no Tempest even), not good enough. If the Cedar Point midway is still as good as it used to be then it'll be worth the trip.

 

The best classic gaming in Nebraska is at a mall arcade in North Platte where they never get in anything new. I actually played Empire Strikes Back and Q*Bert's Qubes there a couple years ago.

[MegaManFan]

The Family Fun Center has about a dozen old games or so (no Tempest even), not good enough. If the Cedar Point midway is still as good as it used to be then it'll be worth the trip.

 

You must only be hanging out on the right-hand side of the upper floor. Yes, that's where Pac-Man, Q*Bert, Centipede, et cetera all are - and of those it would be about a dozen. But if you move towards the middle you'll find a nicely eclectic mix of games from arcade Tetris to a Neo Geo cab on the left side of the stairs, and on the right side a very good selection of pinball games. Work your way towards what I'd call "the back" of the upper floor and there's a HUGE selection of fighting games, all of the Capcom, SNK, and other classics.

 

Now I'll grant you that in an ideal world that upper floor would be expanded and would include titles like Galaga '88, Super Pac-Man, Dragon's Lair and what not, but what they have is more than good enough for me not to complain.

[NovaXpress]

If it is less than 20 years old then I say it ain't classic. The SNK era is still too new for my taste. If one considers broken-down 90s fighting games to be "classic" then FFC will do the trick.

 

I love it when I hear kids refer to games like "Doom 2" as classic. I think the rule should be that if you are still in high school and a game was released in your lifetime, it is not a classic yet.

[MegaManFan]

If it is less than 20 years old then I say it ain't classic. The SNK era is still too new for my taste. If one considers broken-down 90s fighting games to be "classic" then FFC will do the trick.

 

Dude if I limited myself to only playing the video games that came out when I was 9 years old or less ('74-'83) I'd be cheating myself out of a whole decade of brilliant video games. I'd argue anything more than 10 years old ('83-'93) is a classic in the coin-op sense because we all know it's long since been retired out of most modern arcades because it's no longer a big money maker and/or has been surplanted by games with more action and better graphics. Now I'd grant you anything from with 5-10 years life ('93-'98) is not a "classic" per se but they are still just as likely to be unavailable as the 10 years and up coin-ops, sometimes even moreso (nostalgia preserves the old ones, but newer ones get trashed). And of course anything 5 years old or less is modern through and through, but I'm not turning up my nose at any coin-op game and FFC has enough from all these different eras to satisfy my gaming needs.

 

I love it when I hear kids refer to games like "Doom 2" as classic. I think the rule should be that if you are still in high school and a game was released in your lifetime, it is not a classic yet.

 

Oh I love it when kids refer to Wu-Tang Clan as "old school" too, and I get just as tetchy about it. To me if it post-dates 1990 in the rap world it's not "old school" at all, and even '86-'90 is borderline (that's more of the "golden age" of rap). True old school in hip-hop dates before 1986, back to Kurtis Blow, Funky Four + 1, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, early Run-D.M.C. records, damn near anything put out on Sugarhill, and so on. At the point Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys started going platinum, old school vanished. In fact in many ways Run-D.M.C. is the epitome of the style shift from glam to grit, from harmonizing to hardcore; just like Pitfall II and Super Mario Bros. are both "platformers" but one is definitely a quantum shift forward from the other.