Small Arcades?

[Aswald]

Back in the 1980s, it was very easy to find the "small arcade," or those places that had a couple of dozen machines. It also wasn't difficult to find those small "mom and pop" stores that had, oh, half a dozen or so machines together in the back somewhere.

For some years now, I haven't really seen this. Sure, some stores will have one of those one-on-one fighting games (the result of super-saturation of the genre from the 1990s?) or a neo-geo sports game (but how many play video golf?), but overall, it definitely seems to have dried up.

Is this widespread, or is it just because I live in Central New York now? Or have the economics changed?

[Arcade Antics]

Unfortunately it IS widespread. With the exception of the occasional Gameworks here and there, pretty much all of the arcades are dead and gone. And that's a damn shame.

Economics have definitely changed. Many of the new machines are pretty specialized and cost big bucks to purchase - Fire Fighters, HOTD, various driving games, DDR games, etc. Plus with the home market so successful now, our favorite hangouts of years past are now just about gone.

[bargora]

I see a couple of machines at some laundromats, although I haven't been in one lately. Usually half of the machines you find there are broken. The local WalMart (*hangs head in shame for shopping at corporate villain*) has a NFL Blitz and some other sports game. There is a chain of "Jillian's" bars (is that a national chain?) that have pool tables and videogames, although the one I've been to recently has the same dozen racing and light-gun games it had in 1998. The theaters usually have a few. There's one theater that has an Episode 1 Racer sit-down game with the dual-yoke controls, which is pretty cool, but the rest of the stuff there is pretty much dreck.

So that's it. Pretty dry on the east side of Cleveland. Oh, we have a Dave & Buster's on the west side of town (45 min. drive for me), but the time I went there I was not impressed by the array of (newer) racing and light-gun and redemption games, and I wasn't in the mood for the DDR clones. Oh, yeah, there was one Galaga/Ms. Pac cabinet there. Whoopee. If I were drunk with some buddies, I might want to try the Battletech simulator there, but that's about it.

[Aswald]

That's a shame. How many good times didn't we have in the Summer vacations at the arcades, with those great games?

What's going on?

[NE146]

Here in Seattle a new small arcade opened up a month or two ago with about 10-12 classic machines and pinball. Matter of fact I posted about it right here in these forums
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5924

And before that we had Hi-Score arcade.. which was pretty much dedicated to classic arcade games and EM pinballs. Matter of fact they held Atari 2600 competitions every year. But due to landlord issues, they closed shop in Oct. 2001. Supposedly they'll come back though.....

[ubersaurus]

There's a small arcade near Detroit called Wizzards...successful enough to have been open since the early 70s when arcades started to get video gaems.

[Chunky]

Are there any good arcades left in the chicago area? with some old stuff?

and another:

Are there any arcades out there worth visiting around the US/Canada? I mean ones that are good enough to spend aday in, with some cheap flights i may want to make a weekend out of it.

and i don't mean gameworks/dave&busters/disneyquests.

How is that one in Sanfran, Metrion or whatever it's called?

[Moose]

Here in South Eastern Connecticut, there is an old arcade at Ocean Beach in New London. They have a lot of old games and pinball, but I'm not sure how much longer they can stay in business. I think they might sell arcade games, too, or at least do repairs. Hopefully, I will be out of college with some money by the time they are closing so I can get some for my own collection. *wishfull thinking*

[Tom61]

My local Wal-Mart has a small arcade in the front section of the store (where a branch of a bank used to be), in addition to the few machines in the entry ways next to the pop machines. They call it a 'Play Center' or something like that. They have Starwars racer, a couple of racing games linked together, 18 Wheeler, a hunting game complete with large rifle lightguns, and a blacklight air Hockey game. I haven't played any games in there, but it really surprised me when I first saw it.

There's also a mini-golf place near me that's packed with classic vids, and pins. It has 8 pool tables, 2 air hockey tables, about 25 vids at any time (they alternate games), 20 pinball machines (every now and then one of these is changed out), and a couple of Mega touch machines (plays card games and such on a touch screen). Pac-Man, Spy hunter (standup version), and Galaga stay constantly. They usually have a couple of lightgun games (Aera 51 was there last time I went, and a game like point blank).

[o2william]

If you're looking for a classic coin-op near you, ClassicGaming hosts a site dedicated to classic arcade game locations (called, appropriately enough, Classic Arcade Game Locations):

Linky (http://www.classicgaming.com/locations/)

I haven't been there in a while, but the site owner does his best to keep it up to date. He relies on "eyewitness reports" so you can contribute if you notice an error or omission on the site.

[YoshiM]

Manitou Springs in Colorado has what's called an "Open Air" Arcade. Most of the games are outdoors. Tron, Missile Command, Star Wars Arcade, and a bunch more. Best to go there AFTER Memorial Day (hell, it's cheaper to go to Colorado before Memorial Day but most everything interesting is closed) as the whole thing should be in full swing. There was even a Penny Arcade there and I wish my camera was working so I could take a snap shot for Gabe and Tycho at Penny-Arcade.com.

Arcades in general around my area of Wisconsin are few and far between. The local Mall (Memorial Mall) still has its Aladdins Castle from the 70's, but its spirit was lost years ago. This brightly lit room is home to half redemption machines, a few gun games, 2 fighting games, and a few older driving games. The only classics this place has is Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, only because they couldn't sell them at the $1,000 and $800 consecutively. The Marcus Theater has a few games but not many. The last real pizza joint has an arcade area, but mostly redemption and hunting games. The bowling alleys have like 3 or 4 each, mostly beatup cabinets with an SNK game and a shooter. The smaller towns that had Mom and Pop style arcades are no more.

If you go further north to Green Bay you will find more games, though. A whole building called Game World has some of the newer games on two levels and they have an indoor go-cart track. The place was pretty bare when I first saw it (bare as in "not many games") but there were plenty of outlets for expansion so who knows how things are now. Bay Park Square has a more classic arcade. Looks kinda dive-ish, but you'll find Virua Fighter, Mr. Do!, Namco Compilation type game, skee-ball (the only true redemption game I don't frown on) and more. The arcade at another big mall is no longer, I think it was called Tilt!. That place had a lot of good games. It was the only place in Wisconsin that I saw a Virtual On machine.

Go about midway to Green Bay and stop in Manitowoc and there is an arcade in the last true mall in that little burg. While most of the place is a playland, they have a small room devoted to some classics. Afterburner, Super Mario Bros., Q-Bert, some strange Dinosaur game, and more. Unfortunately, the games were in poor condition. Afterburner's yoke didn't work and Q-Bert was looking a little orange in the screen.

That's really about it. I don't venture south much, so I don't know the spread of games in the Milwaukee area at all.

[Raedon]

I've posted about a bar I frequent in Shreveport, Louisiana that has several classic arcade games (and $5 all you can drink 8-12 :D) Though last time I went they had dumped the Defender for a SF II, which isn't soo bad. best part is they are only a nickel.

Where I am living there isn't much. The mall still has an Alladin's Castle arcade (omg the memories), but the days of 50 games cramed in there and a Dragon's Lair bringing in every kid for 30 miles are long dead. Now it's 6 racing games, a DDR, some sort of ski simulator, a couple of Tekken games and Soul Caliber 2.. :( The back wall has become a ske-ball range. the back wall used to be pinballs. The Galaga that was there for years was taken out last summer and a Sega Tennis put in it's place.

The classic games within 10 miles are:

Ms. pacman and Super pacman at a strip mall on the southside.
Galaga, Rampage, Milipede and blockout plus a Twilight Zone pinball at the putt-putt
there is a stand up roadblaster at a gas station on the way to Kilgore, TX.
In the theater there is only one arcade game, one of those pac-man/ms. pacman/galaga in one systems.. though the cabinet is new the games are old.
at the $1 theater (now a $1.50 :) ) there is a 2 player Virtua Racer.
At one of the bowling alleys there are a S.T.U.N.N. Runner (which i currently still have the high score) and a ST:TNG pinball.
at a Ci-Ci's pizza there is a Neo-Geo 4 slot with Bust a Move, Metal Slug 1, Metal Slug 2, and KOF 99.

think that is it.

[WiseSalesman]

In Michigan: Blasters Arcade....can't remember name of the city right now, but I posted about it before, so if you look back you'l find it.

In Toledo, Oh: There'a "Red Baron" in the mall that is really pretty good....two floor arcade with a good mix of classic and new stuff...a bit pricey though.

There's also a place called Majog Magics...go on a weekend, and you'll die in a flood of little kids.

Most of the malls around my area (Berea, Strongsville, Parma, Oh) have arcades, but most of them aren't very good. The one at Parma is decent though.

[kyosuke75]

I guess i'm lucky since I live 1 mi from this 80's arcade called "The Regean Years". It has some great classics such as dragon's lair, kungfu master, etc. I heard they are expanding with more late 80's and early 90's games... if i'm not mistaken.

Maybe if anyone is in Fullerton, CA or visiting disneyland or LA, make sure you hit up the Regean years...great arcade!

I'll see if I can take pictures of the place to post up here...

Kyosuke75

[gamergary]

Theres this arcade by me that has Pac man, Galaga, Tengen Tetris, Cenepide and a couple more but the arcade has like 200 machines in it buts its still a nice arcade.

[Sniderman]

The arcade on the Cedar Point Midway in Sanduskyt, OH is legendary. Still is. Literally hundreds of classic arcade games and pinball. You can easily spend an entire day in there. Last time I went, I played Warrior, Dragon's Lair (4 of 'em lining one wall), Cliff Hanger, Mad Planets, etc.

Back me up, Ohio folks.

Oh, and the CGE machines are pretty good too. And free! :D

[bargora]

Cedar Point's arcade rocks 120% Excellent. I haven't seen the equal in over a decade.

The weird thing I noticed when I went this summer, though, was that the 1-on-1 fighting genre was represented in its entirety by a lone Tekken 3 machine. Can't have everything, I guess. But I played Space Invaders! Space f*****g Invaders!

[FABombjoy]

The weird thing I noticed when I went this summer, though, was that the 1-on-1 fighting genre was represented in its entirety by a lone Tekken 3 machine.

From what I remember, they've always been that way. I was there when SF2 was huge, but I couldn't find a single SF2 machine in the place. I was really looking forward to some competition, too.

Last time I went there (2 summers ago), I was looking forward to playing a bunch of their EM games, but they were all broken. Every last one of them. I couldn't believe it. They also had a ton of their classics out of order. I hope they've got them fixed by now; they've got some true classics in that place.