What was the name of your childhood arcade?

[jcalder8]

Johnny Z's

[Parodius Duh!]

we only had one and it went by the name of "Pip's"

[NE146]

Way too many to list.

Although I guess I consider myself fortunate to have lived close enough to Japan in the early 80's that I would go there at least once or twice a year and visit arcades arcades circa 1980-1994. Heck I remember when most games were still black and white there.

[Queen Of The Felines]

Tokens, Wright's Barnyard, a ton of Aladdin's Castles, the local roller rink, and even Sears.

Those places had a whole ton of weird/rare games between them that I haven't seen since. Timber, The Glob, Mr. F. Lea, Anteater, The Pit, Fantasy, Warp Warp, Munch Mobile, I Robot, Bega's Battle, Mazer Blazer, Radical Radial, Adventures of Robby Roto, Danger Zone, Street Smart, Sly Spy, Kageki, Heavyweight Champ, Hunchback, Lost Tomb, Peter Pack Rat, Shrike Avenger, Star Rider, Shanghai Kid, Wrestle War, Naughty Boy, Jack the Giantkiller, Zwackery, Gondomania, Liberator, Slither, Konami GT, Eyes, Hat Trick, Goal to Go, Arm Wrestling, Firefox, Astron Belt, Viper, and a bunch more.

I can't remember what I had for dinner last night but I remember those games.

[Nz17]

Sorry, no childhood arcade here. However I used to go to an arcade named Quarters in Washington (state) and a Capcom Nickel City in southern California. Those were some good places. I tried to go to all the arcades near Bellevue, WA, especially the ones with DDR.

There was a place east of Seattle which I can't remember the name of. I went there by bus and it had a lot of arcade games and ticket machines. It seems it had a "magic" theme to the place and they'd host private parties. There was also a restaurant area that was never too crowded compared to the rest of the place and it had decent food without too high of prices.

You'd pay to get in, and then you'd use a card with a magnetic strip on the back to play the games. When you first entered you'd pay to put a balance on the card and then you could just keep using it until you balance ran out. I used to go there because it had a lot of music games (I believe two DDRs, one Samba de Amigo, Para Para Paradise, Pop'n Music, and one Step It Up).

[Astrosmash]

Cyberstation in the Hudson Valley Mall, Kingston NY. As far as I know it's still there (I believe under the same name even), though not as good as it used to be.

[SteveSpeeze]

Dingies arcade, new britain ct.
i ended up getting a part time job in the morning vacuuming the pool tables for game monies. i freaked when they finally got splatterhouse in.

[BlastProcessing402]

Major Magic's. It was a Chuck E. Cheese like place but with different characters, and way better pizza. Man, I miss that place.

[VideoGameRescue]

Putt putt golf & games. It's called adventure landing now.

[Scotterpop]

Putt putt golf & games. It's called adventure landing now.

Ah yes, I remember that Putt Putt fondly, enjoying many a game of 4-player Ninja Turtles there after school. And if you lived in Jax long enough, you may also remember Hobby Oasis at Neptune Beach. That's where my love affair with video games began. Every Sunday was 8 tokens for a dollar day so me and my buddy & neighbor Jason Lacey would walk down to this arcade and spend our afternoons (and all our pocket change) there. This would have been around '82 or '83. After my family moved away from the beaches I found myself hitting the arcades in Regency Mall: Aladdin's Castle and Game Emporium (mid to late '80s). Man, those were good times! In the nineties Mountasia was the coolest arcade in town, another Putt Putt style mini-golf/arcade spot. I reeeeally miss that one.

[guitargary75]

I’ve noticed since I’ve posted this thread, arcades are starting to open up all over the place again! It’s like an arcade revival!

[Slate]

I was late to it in about 2000 - 2001, but there was an "Aladdin's Castle" in a mall that wasn't nearby, but it wasn't in another country, either. I didn't look at every game that was there, since I was about 9 years old and I'm sure that my parents weren't keen on me playing shooters then. I saw some sort of a shooter game, but I couldn't tell you what it was, except I think it might have been a war shooter.

The only arcade games I really remember that they had were:

Hard Drivin'
Lucky and Wild (which was my favorite in the arcade)
Prop Cycle (the one with a bike pedal controller where you're flying a cycling machine. I remember it because that copy was set up to be so difficult to run that I could barely play it, and I only played once.)

Come to think of it, there was also a bowling alley that had maybe 4 or 5 arcade games in the back, too. But I couldn't tell you what they had, even though I played maybe a few of them. I only played them a little bit when I was 9 or 10.

I’ve noticed since I’ve posted this thread, arcades are starting to open up all over the place again! It’s like an arcade revival!

I hope so, but here in the middle of nowhere where I live, the mall I mentioned above still has about 75% of the storefronts closed and the parking lot is still held together with holes.

- Austin

[Greg2600]

I’ve noticed since I’ve posted this thread, arcades are starting to open up all over the place again! It’s like an arcade revival!

Yes here in NJ we have a number of Barcades, Yestercades, and my favorite, Game Vault of Morristown.

In any event, so back at the beginning of this thread, I listed the old arcades I used to visit as a kid during the 1980s. One of which was "Kiddie Land (aka Karnival)" up on Route 46 in Pine Brook, NJ. That was a small permanent carnival style amusement park. I have shoddy memories of playing arcade games in what I half-recalled being an old, dirty church, though. Most people haven't the foggiest what I was talking about, including my mother. So this thread had me futzing around today, and on Facebook, I dig around and discovered the arcade DID exist but was a neighbor to the amusement park. It was an old Methodist Church which for some time was known as Rich's Hobbies, and then Game Town. Eventually it closed and the church was demolished, same as Kiddie Land, and the old Pine Brook speedway around there.




Hmm, the Church building was still there as of 2009. I read it was torn down despite being of historical significance under shady circumstances, but assumed it was long ago. Nope, somewhat recent. Now overgrown with weeds.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8593...1664?entry=ttu

[Gametrek]

Fairyland Arcade.

It had a burger-king next to it. It also had some amusement park rides. My baby-sitter more or less my sisters because I was not old enough took us there one time, which I am still amazed by. Ball-room, that caterpillar roller-coaster, and a semi-advance but small more wilder coaster ( nothing too dangerous ).
I love the bop-em games, Simpsons-arcade, and of course many other shooters including Aliens, among others. Only bad part was that just like "EarthBound" and the happyhappygang, my arcade in it's later days had a gang problem. It is because of that $#$@@ Sears, and Fairyland shutdown, and stopped having videogames. Burger King stayed for awhile but otherwise looked abandoned and slowly got absorb into the rest of the area. Stupid and sad. Honestly I out grew that place but I still missed the arcade enviorment. It was the last of the bar/night-club scene where a minor could go and mingle with
adults and everybody was okay. I miss seeing a guy with a snake with glasses or had snake eyes himself, I miss that people was smoking. You want a vivid idea of what most if not all arcades looked like during the 1990's then you have to look at one of those Namco DOS games. A dark area with beautiful games.

Party Fun time.

This had laser tag but you had to pay that stupid fee, but we got tokens. Family fun, was innocent and all. Before $#@$@$ Chuckie-Cheese and Power-Rangers the bleh movie ( that my little mind had no idea how much it really was censored and lame ). That place was packed and had Mortal-Kombat-4d ( the 3d Mortal Kombat where you could launch somebody through a room or even walk via the enviorment ), all those dino games, and variations of pac-man.

I miss playing laser-tag with strangers and being shorter then my fridge. I wish we had more of those times. But your a kid and arcades and laser-tag, and 3d was amazing. Your family was there and they tried to get a long and did not get any of it.

Oh my gosh what happen to our beautiful normal world.

[Tron 2.0]

Beside going to timeout as a kid putt,putt golf and games to came to mind for me.In the 80's i went to it allot not a bad mix either a miniature golf course and a arcade.