Most unlikely place you've seen an arcade cabinet?

[BetaWolf47]

Sorry if this has been posted. I didn't see a thread on this topic specifically.

There's a Galaga machine at the closest Greyhound station to me. They just put it in a few months ago because I haven't seen it there before.

Also, there's a restaurant that's part of a local chain that I saw Bubble Bobble in. The game was different the last time I was there. I hope Bubble Bobble is still there... The place doesn't seem to have an arcade station at any other location.

[sonoranreptile]

I saw an arcade machine inside of a JC Penny outlet store. It was one of those multiple game machines, but it was a full size cabinet. It was in the back of the store between the restrooms and customer service.....

[BetaWolf47]

Oh, I've seen that too. They were selling the Midway packs that have all of said company's classic games, such as Rampage and such.

[HYB]

At my local spa/restaurant/hotel. There's Virtua Tennis and Virtua Fighter, and an ufo catcher as well.

[bangtango]

There is an old rundown motel hidden deep in the woods of southern Maine. This place looks like it hasn't seen renovations since the mid-1980's. For the longest time, they didn't even have cable tv. Our family used to spend a couple days there every summer while attending the Fryeburg (Maine) Fair. It has been a few years since I've stayed there but somehow I doubt they've changed all that much (and at last check, they do remain in business).

Anyway, this place had a lobby in the basement with a pool table, an air hockey table, a foosball table and an Altered Beast arcade cabinet.

"The Beast" was hooked up and running beautifully. I actually enjoyed playing that cabinet in such a secluded location. I also wonder how much use it was getting there because this wasn't a particularly busy motel, nor did anyone seem to give a damn about keeping it renovated.

Of all the times our family stayed at this place, I don't think there were ever any other families down in that lobby playing games at the same time we were.

Hope they still have that Altered Beast machine.

[skaar]

We had one in the art room at my old school - I think it was a Raiden shooter.

I've seen one on the street downtown as I drove past once - didn't see what game it was, but people were playing it. I don't know if someone dumped it there and they plugged it in or if the grocery store it was in front of was powering it somehow. It wasn't there later that afternoon.

A restaurant in Ontario also had a Rampage cabinet (unplugged) in one of the bathroom stalls when I was younger. Apparently they'd pulled out the toilet and put it there to cover a hole. :(

[otaku]

not sure why but the only restaurants that seem to have arcade machines here are mexican and italian both runing neo geo mvs machines

[Baloo]

I was in a Super Motel 8 once and next to the vending machines they had a galaga machine right in the corner. Like when you walked into the vending machine room, it be immediatley on your left, almost unnoticable when you first walked in. It was the last thing I expected to see in a Motel when most hotels don't have arcade cabinets.

Of course I spent like $5 on it...

[Flack]

The Burger King next to my house removed their indoor playground and replaced it with arcade games, pinball machines, and a skee ball machine. I've never seen that many arcade games in another Burger King!

Pix: http://robohara.com/photo/index.php?album=Arcade/Misc&image=Burger+King+Arcade+(1).jpg

http://robohara.com/photo/cache/Arcade/Misc/Burger%20King%20Arcade%20%281%29.jpg_595.jpg

[ProgrammingAce]

One of the movie theatres near my place used to have one of those Ms. Pacman/Galaga arcades in the men's bathroom. That seemed like a terribly bad idea.

[Ed Oscuro]

That reminds me that somewhere quite close to the men's room at the local AMTRAK station (in Downtown Battle Creek, MI) there was a Ms. Pac-Man machine. That was more than ten years ago - probably more like fifteen years ago.

I think it was the first Ms. Pac-Man I ever saw - hard not to remember it with the big lips and bow.

Wonder if they had another machine (they may have).

There also was a Dairy Queen-style place with a chicken on the sign and possibly in the name (which has been razed for years, pretty sure) by Bob's Barber Shop (nice place to get your hair cut, but too far away now) that had a Centipede inside. Again, first one I ever saw, and hard to forget. I have no idea what we were doing in there, though, since my ma's always been a good cook.

Probably the strangest, in a way, was the addition of a Simpsons arcade cabinet to the second (upper) floor of Kellogg's Cereal City USA (which was open from roughly '98 - '06; I worked there many of those years). I may have mentioned it in here before. I never ever put a quarter in it, which is kind of odd considering I knew it was by Konami and I'd heard there was a whip-like weapon in the game. I did notice some scaling artifacts on the old board's output though. Come to think of it, I don't remember anybody putting money in that machine.

I say this was an odd place for an arcade game because KCCUSA's mission was to be a museum and educational stop, and noisy arcade games wouldn't have contributed to that goal. I vaguely remember some discussion along that point - we had declining attendance over the course of the museum's life, but some ideas to combat that simply wouldn't have been appropriate. Who would pay admission just to get to an old, barely functional arcade machine, anyway?

[poloplayr]

While at university, I remember finding a Neo Geo cab at a shoe repair shop in town, which was rather odd :)

[Enigmus]

One of the movie theatres near my place used to have one of those Ms. Pacman/Galaga arcades in the men's bathroom. That seemed like a terribly bad idea.

Are you kidding me? It's always a good place when you just watched (insert blockbuster movie here) and you need to take a whiz, but not only do you relieve your bladder, but you also get to either eat dots or shoot aliens! Why haven't people thought of this kind of market? Man, sarcasm is great. LOL

[cyberfluxor]

The Burger King next to my house removed their indoor playground and replaced it with arcade games, pinball machines, and a skee ball machine. I've never seen that many arcade games in another Burger King!

Years ago we had arcades in some of the fast food joints, particularly Burger King. But around the 2000 turn-over things went away after the big local arcade Funscape (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117789855.html?categoryid=13&cs=1) closed.Archive picture:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/cyberfluxor/Regfuns.jpg

FunScapes were large, 100,000-square-foot locations that were often built into existing buildings, such as the Knoxville FunScape, which was located in an old, two-story J.C. Penney store.
I miss that addition to the Regal theater. Now it's a shell of a dozen or so arcades like DDR, Big Buck Hunter, or Area51. And that big floor space is a massive Gold's Gym.

[DreamTR]

I want to say, Miami Subs is a strange place where I saw arcade machines....

This little Yogurt shop in a corridor area of a run down sort of mini-indoor mall had a SFCE and two other games...but even these places are not obscure enough I am sure..

Ft Lauderdale Swap Shop has a TON of arcade machines in the flea market.

[NE146]

There's a Galaga machine at the closest Greyhound station to me. They just put it in a few months ago because I haven't seen it there before.

Also, there's a restaurant that's part of a local chain that I saw Bubble Bobble in. The game was different the last time I was there. I hope Bubble Bobble is still there... The place doesn't seem to have an arcade station at any other location.

Guess you weren't around in the arcade heyday because Greyhound stations and restaurants used to be top notch prime spots to find machines LOL. I remember at a greyhound once when we were vacationing in California, they had like 7 Space Invaders machines in a row as well as some pinballs.

I guess back then though, arcades were pretty much everywhere. From the entrance areas to stores and malls, to the food courts, to the mom & pop stores, to the tops of escalators, to near the shoe area. Basically any commercial establishment was a place you could find arcade games.

[GOLDEN KEYS]

There's this place I go for cheap Mexican food called "Amado's" (rip off of "Filiberto's" but better, tons of places like this in AZ). They've been around for probably close to ten years. They've closed and opened under new management a few times... each time eliminating letters from their name. They were originally called "Armando's" and then "Amando's" and finally "Amado's".

Anyway, they've had this old bowling arcade game forever... the kind where you spin a little ball to throw your bowling ball. The machine is bigger than your usual arcade machine and looks out of place in the tiny restaurant that can't even hold more than 8-10 people in it.

I've never seen anyone use that thing and I've been to that place hundreds of times over the years.

[BetaWolf47]

Guess you weren't around in the arcade heyday because Greyhound stations and restaurants used to be top notch prime spots to find machines LOL. I remember at a greyhound once when we were vacationing in California, they had like 7 Space Invaders machines in a row as well as some pinballs.
Oh, I've been around. Just haven't been to a Greyhound station ever until recently. Plus, the restaurant one is kind of out of the way, and I haven't seen a single arcade machine at any other one around. Plus, like I said, the Greyhound just recently got that Galaga machine.


I want to say, Miami Subs is a strange place where I saw arcade machines....
That's the place I was talking about when I mentioned Bubble Bobble.