205 replies to this topic

[Lee9977]

Hi all, glad to be on the forum Always love hearing people talk about those arcade's that gave them so much great entertainment as a kid or Adult. Here's your chance to give a shout out to that arcade even its gone today.( name and location) . If there is still 1 that is around today, please post it as i travel alot and am always looking for one to spend a few bucks at when i am away from home. If something simular has been posted before, my apologies in advance.

cheers
Lee


Defunct:
Arcadia - Square One Mississauga, On
Funland- Toronto, On
Gold Tips- Mississauga, On
Mickeys Arcade- Mississauga, On

Current:
Barcade - Brooklyn, NY

[atarian63]

Funway FreeWay
Columbus Ohio
Near Westland Mall
(my 1st arcade circa 76-77)

Putt Putt Golf & Games
Near Westland Mall
(circa the 80's)

[PacManPlus]

Time-Out & Galaxy in the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, NY

Damn I miss those days...

[Deteacher]

Action Family Arcade, a small arcade of about 20 games in a room off of the LaVerdiers drug store (which eventually became a Rite Aid) in Caribou, ME.

[Cafeman]

In PA -

Richland Mall's (Johnstown) arcade
Richland's (Johnstown) Chuck E. Cheeze humongous arcade o'joy
Indiana Mall's Aladdin's Castle
Indiana K-mart plaza arcade & K-mart lobby

[NE146]

I really don't know if any of the arcades I went to had "names". They were almost all little carved out areas of places with bunches of arcade games in them. Like for example during the Space Invaders craze it was just in a little hallway of the local stripmall had nearly a dozen space invader uprights in a row with a Star Fire and a Night Driver off to the side. Aside from that it was cocktails near the entryways of various stores. There were full blown rooms filled with arcade games and cocktails of course.. but I dont think they really had names or if they did, I didn't notice them ever

[Ransom]

Earth Station One, Antioch, California (defunct)

[ckirkman]

Red Baron and Old Towne. Both were in Southwick Mall, Toledo Ohio. I have not been there in over 10 years. I am sure they are gone.

[RangerG]

The long defunct local Jupiter Mall (Florida) had two stores right next to each other: 1) The Little Professor bookstore 2) Shazam arcade. I would beg to visit or be dropped off. Look, now I'm a professor with a classic game addiction .

[FujiSkunk]

I grew up with the Gold Mine in Southlake Mall, Morrow, Georgia. Also spent some time and quite a few quarters at the Time Out (I think that was the name) in Shannon Mall, Union City, Georgia.

Then there was the Georgia Tech Student Center Recreation Area, where most of my spare change disappeared during college. Fortunately after a few months they started paying me to be there. Easily the most favorite job I have ever had.

Edited by skunkworx, Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:47 AM.

[DEBRO]

Tin Pan Alley - West Lafayette, IN
Pizza Keg - West Lafayette, IN
Student Union - Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Showbiz Pizza - Lafayette, IN
Aladdin's Castle - Century Plaza, Birmingham, AL

[STICH666]

FYE Arcade in the South Shore mall Bayshore,NY

[NightSprinter]

Putt-Putt Golf & Games (now All-American Fun Park), Albany GA

Aladdin's Castle (80s, closed down) Albany Mall; Albany, GA

Time-Out (closed late 90s) Albany Mall; Albany GA

Stardust Skate Center: Albany, GA

[telengard]

Dream Machine - Methuen Mall, Methuen MA

Aladdin's Castle - Liberty Tree Mall, Danvers MA

~telengard

[70sgamefan]

Time Out - Springfield Mall - Springfield, VA (used to play in there as a kid during the golden age).

THE BOARDWALK - ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (THE most awesome place I ever visited for coin-ops during the golden age).

My Family and I would go there for a week EVERY summer from 1977 to 1985. My Aunt had a home in Ventnor, just south of AC, which was 2 blocks from the ocean. The combination of the boardwalk arcades along with the casino arcades had almost every game you could think of from that era! I especially remember the summer of 1978.... As that summer, the AC arcades were made up of something like 80% Space Invaders! The arcades contained rows and rows of Space Invader machines. I NEVER saw any other game that proliferated arcades to that extent. Not even Pac-Man. It was like looking at a Midway warehouse of just Space Invader machines when you walked inside them, except they were all plugged in and powered up.

I played Exidy's Death Race there, saw the PSE Maneater game with the shark-head cabinet there....that boardwalk had EVERYTHING! I even saw machines there like Demon by Rockola, which I never saw in VA. It was an amazing place to visit during that time period.

[Prodos8]

Here's a few I can remember from my pre-teen years in Houston:

Gold Mine - Westwood Mall, Houston, Texas. (This was probably my favorite arcade, it was around until the late 90's infact)
Aladdins Castle - Various Malls, Houston, Texas.
Castle Golf and Games - Houston, Texas.
Malibu Fun Center - Houston, Texas.
Games People Play - Houston, Texas.

Also, some hole in wall arcades in Houston at various strip malls.

[Matt Fisher]

Pin Pan Alley (I think) and Alladin's Castle-Glendale Mall Indianapolis
Alladin's Castle-Castleton Mall Indianapolis

[xZanU]

(Closed in the late 80's) Ocean County Mall - Arcade, NJ

(Closed in the late 80's) Roller Rink - Small strip of machines - NJ

(Still Around) Seaside Heights Boardwalk - Various Arcades, NJ

[maibock]

Space Port - King of Prussia Mall
Aladdin's Castle - Granite Run Mall

There were machines littered all around the town I grew up in - both pizza places, a Wawa, the Acme, a sandwich shop, the hardware store, and in a pharmacy..

[Osbo]

Last arcade I played... I was in a fishing pier in Oak Island, North Carolina, Galaga. When I passed the place owner's high score, he got pissed! LOL

[cougar302b]

PLEASE anybody who remembers these in the Beaverton, Oregon area give me a shout.

Innerspace - The best, and a hotty by the name of Candy operated it.
Electric Palace - Great while it lasted, in the Beaverton mall.
Chuck E. Cheese - Hi Molly. Uncle owned the Beaverton franchise and she always hooked me up with tokens.
Malibu Gran Prix - Still going strong. but games most of their games suck now.
Wunderland - Still going strong, but caters mostly to little kid gambling (tickets).

[Red 5]

The Spa - Brookfield CT
Showcase Pizza / Rollerland - Danbury CT
Time Out - Danbury Fair Mall
All gone.

Went to as a kid and still go to now:
Quassy Amusement Park (but they are all ticket games now)
Ocean City Maryland Boardwalk

Found as an adult - The Fun Spot

[Lendorien]

I was deprived as a kid. Grew up in the states til age 9 in 86, but folks didn't have money to let me plug arcade machines. Closest I ever got was after we moved to Africa (We lived in a 3rd world country north of Zimbabwe)... in Harare, Zimbabwe in the mid 90's. Arcade in a waterpark there had loads of vintage 80's machines. Even had an original Asteroids machine. Guess the guy who owned the place imported them from the states. We went down to Harare periodically and that place even more rarely, so I got to play about thrice. Now of course, Zimbabwe has gone to hell in a handbasket. I doubt that arcade is open any more. No-one has any money there any more. They just released a 1 trillian dollar bill. My heart breaks whenever I see the news about Zimbabwe. Going there was like a trip to the States; now it's a hellhole.

Fondest memory of that arcade is the Demolition Derby machine they had. It was a table top machine for something like 4 players. Man that game was cool.

Didn't play when I moved back to the states to boarding school for highschool. No arcades near me. Didn't own a console til 98 when I bought a used N64. After that, I got into gaming in a big way, but mostly on PC until recently.

Edited by Lendorien, Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:03 AM.

[MrAtari2600]

Rons Virtual World Before it went to the Crapper Tank - Thunder Bay Ontario.
Kind of Dingy loved it as a kid, played pacman lots!, Same with Tetris. And The Neo Geo.
I grew up in a diff time,

P.S. The place is pretty dingy now
If they go out of buisness I shall purchase their machines ... i Hope

[J.Max]

Fernandez's Fun Factory in Oak Park Mall, Overland Park,KS. It shut down about 4 years ago - one of the saddest days of my life was the day I went to the mall and found it closed. It was like my entire childhood was wrapped up in that place and was replaced with a shoe store. They didn't even have a closing; they were there for over 20 years and the mall refused to renew their lease. I'm still looking for a neon "Galaxy" sign like they had there, if anyone knows where to get one. Others of note:

-Aladdin's Castle - Ward Parkway Mall, KC MO
-Block Party, Indianapolis, Indiana
-Student Union, Indiana University
-Louie's Lower Level, University of Arizona

All of these are now defunct. The student unions at IU and the U of A were revamped, and the others just disappeared.

Edited by J.Max, Sun Feb 1, 2009 6:50 PM.