Best arcades???

[GOLDEN KEYS]

Well, you don't see them around very much anymore but I sure remember some pretty epic arcades from when I was younger.

Taking a trip to "Castles and Coasters" tonight... a miniature theme park in Phoenix with rides, golf, etc. and they also have an arcade inside a big building that looks like a castle. I used to come here and play all of my favorite games when I was younger and then when the new generation of games came they moved all of the old ones up stairs. They older machines were all set to free play if you paid 5 bucks or so for a wrist band that granted you a couple hours of access.

It's been a little over a year since I was there last so hopefully it's still how I remember it.


This whole building is the arcade...
http://z.about.com/d/phoenix/1/0/u/f/1/castlesandcoasters01.jpg
Can't see much in this picture but most of the older stuff is on the second floor...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/2653908984_10001fb2ba.jpg?v=0




Anyone else have decent arcades in their area still worth visiting?

[namzep]

There are a couple of decent places around here in Oklahoma. About my favorite is Cactus Jack's but their classics collection is a little sparse (8 or so machines) but does included Robotron, Galaga, Pac-Man, an MVS, and Tetris (a personal favorite). They also have 10 or so pins setup (ranging from the 70s through the late 90s). Mostly though, it's shooter games, rhythmn games, and redemption machines.

[Kuros]

Damn...

Look at all of those pinball machines. I wish I had an arcade near me like that.

[GOLDEN KEYS]

Damn...

Look at all of those pinball machines. I wish I had an arcade near me like that.

if pinball is your thing you should check this place out if you're ever in las vegas... my wife and i going in a couple weeks and we'll be visiting this place for the first time. looks pretty awesome...

http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

[QuicklyBlue]

There are no great arcades anymore. Unless you live in the state where theres like a really cool one.

[InsaneDavid]

Yeah, but it only comes around once a year (http://www.caextreme.org). Aside from that the Golflands around here aren't bad at all, many of them haven't changed much over the years. The arcade over in Santa Cruz at the Boardwalk isn't bad either.

[Baloo]

I've always liked the arcade at the Berlin Flea Market in Berlin, NJ not too far from Next Level Videogames. It's small, but it's got the Super Mario Bros. Pinball machine, and a good other 5 pinball machines, and NBA Jam T.E. lol, and none of the machines in there are redemption. Always good to play some Super Mario Bros. pinball after walking about 2 football fields of flea market tables.

I remember going to another arcade somewhere in NJ, they had this whole Flashback section, where it was basically a huge room with all classic games. They had Kung Fu, Track and Field, Pole Position II, Star Wars (Atari), and a bunch of other machines that were all retro. It was nice there, but I don't remember where it was.

[GOLDEN KEYS]

so, ended up going to castles and coasters tonight instead of last night...

we went late afternoon so it was pretty deserted. most everyone was playing the newer games downstairs and we only saw 3-5 people passing through the whole time we were on the second level playing.

you can no longer pay a set price and play for a few hours. You have to take their card and put credit on it. not a big deal, my wife and i spent $5 total for both of us to play for about an hour and a half.

i meant to take my camera to get some pictures but forgot, maybe next time. anyway, it was really pretty awesome. they had at least fifty classic machines upstairs... joust, pac man, ms. pac man, donkey kong, robotron 2084, pole position, defender, 1943, centipede, millipede, super hang-on, captain america and the avengers, turtles in time, turtles arcade, simpsons, tetris, x-men, ghosts n goblins, some vectrex style sit down star wars game, that off road three player racing game and a ton of others. all of the old games are $.25 a piece which is pretty fair.

the only thing that kind of disappointed me is that most of the older arcade games (pac man, donkey kong, etc) were not in their original cabinets but instead in these very generic black cabinets with no artwork on the side of the machine and no insert or sticker over the joystick/button area. you could only tell what game it was from the marquee(which did have original inserts) and the screen, obviously.

overall, the arcade had a very cool and classic atmosphere... exactly how i remember it from when i was younger. i'll definitely be back next week.