cruisen' USA
cruisen' USA
Growing up in San Antonio...
1970's
Shakey's Pizza - The first place I saw and played Atari's Anti-Aircraft and Midway's Gunfight and Seawolf.
1980's
Showbiz Pizza - The place where I first saw Moon Patrol, Jungle Hunt and Moon Cresta. Fantastic place that had a side room with a big screen TV for the parents to hang out while us kids played the games. That way the parents could go off and talk with the other parents while we had more time to stay and play.
Chuck E. Cheese (SW Military Dr) - This is the only original location in town that survived and is still going strong today. Back in the day they had multiples of just about every game they brought in. It was the only time I saw two sit-down Omega Race cabinets in one place.
Aladdin's Castle (Ingram Park Mall) - The hours that I spent in that place enjoying games like Tempest, Dig Dug, Mappy, Spy Hunter and Gauntlet. 100 tokens for $20 = lots of hours on Gauntlet.
Ingram Park Theater - Located right across from Aladdin's Castle they actually had more video games in their lobby than Aladdin's Castle and was one of the few places in town that had Bosconian. Tons of games and a lot of time spent there as well.
The Gold Mine (Central Park Mall) - Another great arcade with the complete gold mine treatment (mine style crosstimbers, etc). The only place in town for a long time that had games like Atari Force Liberator, Cobra Command, Quantum and Jr. Pac-Man. They even had the more unusual laserdisc games like Thayers Quest and the Data East football game.
Falcon Video Games (Central Park Mall) - Located around the corner from The Gold Mine and with an adjoining door to the multi-theme night club at the mall. They used to get a lot of the secondary games that came out like Eliminator, Kick (before it was Kick-Man), Frisky Tom, Round-up, Challenger, the Nichibutsu version of Crazy Climber, and Black Widow.
Castle Golf and Games - This place was it back in the day. They had wall to wall games, and I mean they had games crammed into every corner and bit of space they could find. The place was always packed. It's still open but with hardly any games at all.
Malibu Grand Prix - Located next to Castle Golf and Games, they also had wall to wall games but had a lot of pinball games to complement the videos. Sadly, I didn't start to really appreciate pinball until the 90's and missed out on some great games. It was eventuall closed and bulldozed to the slab. The track is still there though.
Tilt (River Center Mall) - This came around in the late 80's and was the only arcade I had ever seen that had Joust 2. Spent a lot of time playing Heavy Barrel as well. Long gone now.
1990's
Diversions (up to 10 locations all over town during their height) - They actually started in the late 80's but really flourished in the early to mid 90's during the last big hurrah for arcade video and pinball. This local chain got all of the latest games and was so popular and crowded that the main store on San Pedro was a test location for Capcom. I got to see a Red Earth machine in action but never got to play it due to the crowds always around it. Fighting games were big here. They even had linked Space Lords cabinets and me and the crew would spend a lot of time on the weekends having a blast on this one. It's also where I got into pinball as they bought the latest stuff. This "chain" is down to one location now.
CyberZone - Another (smaller) local chain that still has one or two locations. A good competitor to Diversions that also brought in the latest stuff. It was the first place I got to play Virtua Fighter 3. Plenty of NeoGeo, Namco racers, puzzle games and shooters.
2000's
Dave and Busters - Pretty much the only place in town that gets any new stuff.
CyberZone and Diversions are hanging on with DDR and music games along with the occasional racer that comes along.
GameWorks (The Quarry) - Another arcade that is still managing to hang on and bring in new stuff every once in a while. They actually have a few pinball games that still work.
I miss the old days of arcades. These days you can pack every 70's and 80's arcade game into a PSP. Somehow it's just not as fun.
There were two malls where they had arcades. The first one was a Time Out arcade. They started small then moved into a bigger place. Then the chain that owns the mall got rid of all the arcades.
The other arcade I played at was simply called "The Subway". It was a very small arcade that had whatever was current and a couple of pinball machines. Most of the first games I can remember playing there.
Then in the 90's it went downhill. Different people were working in there and they would never take care of the machines or even stock the change machine.
The last owner was this white haired old lady that tried to bring in redemption machines and a prize counter. I remember I had to knock on the "Employees Only" door and I had to wait a good five minutes to get her to answer the door. She opened up and yelled at me "WHATA YAH WANT!?!" Umm...change?
Needless to say the arcade went the way of the ghost after her. I really miss being able to go someplace local to play games. I wish I knew where the Neo-Geo machine went. I'd get that in a heartbeat.
..............................
Last edited by Videogamerdaryll; 07-24-2008 at 10:26 PM.
Friar Tuck's in Calumet City, IL.
Dammit. I wish it still existed.
diskoboy: That "Tilt" in the Hickory Hollow Mall has not existed since Sep 2007. It was changed into a Time-Out, and with fingers crossed, I should be signing the lease tomorrow on the location and opening a "true" arcade there with some small console (fighting game tournaments) and used game section. Make no mistake, this will be 90% arcade.
Arcades that I grew up with:
North Las Vegas, NV
Jerry's Nugget Casino
Silver Nugget Casino
Zody's Family Arcade (first place I ever saw with nickel games)
Pistol Pete's Pizza
Las Vegas, NV
Mary K's
Circus Circus
Miami, FL
Pirates Family Entertainment Center
Video Powerhouse
Fun N Games
Fun O Rama
Gold Mine in Redding, CA
I used to to there for the hottest video games around when they were released. I remember when Street Fighter II was there for the first time. Good times indeed.
Would you like to know more about collecting video games? Check out my extensive Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/user/swlovinist
I'm still a teen, and there is no arcade near me except for golf n stuff, which I don't go to that often.
I remember it being called Station Alpha and it was in Pikeville, Kentucky. I used to love that place. It had a lot of good games at one point for such a small town. I remember playing Dig Dug, Defender, a Star Wars game, even Professor Pac-Man at one point and watching other people play Dragon's Lair. At one point they also had bad pizza and a animatronic dog band that played songs like "Sweet Georgia Brown." There's a Mexican restaurant in that building now.
CYBERSTATION
Awesome memories of heading upstairs in the mall to hit CS, and I'm not talking about CounterStrike either! Back then me and my out-of-town gaming buds raided that arcade hangout every time they came down to my place and off to the local mall.
Good times
The closest things to an arcade where I live is Mazzio's Pizza.
They have a small room for the arcade, and they swapped games out every few months to keep things fresh. Probably their most note-worthy arcade game is their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet, which has been a staple of their arcade since 1989 (It's come and gone multiple times throughout the years. It wasn't there last time I was there, but I have a feeling it'll probably return in a few months, if it's not already back by now).
Yea the Midway arcade was pretty solid back in the day. There also was Stanlys, Supercade, Gateway 26,etc. Now adays it's mostly grabber, slots, and old duces wild machines. Stanlys was the first place I ever played Battlezone and Aliens vs Predator. A few years ago Mariners arcade had an Initial D machine (2 player) and was the first place I ever played Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Recently about 2 years ago The Boardwalk Mall arcade (before it came all crane machines damn u crane macines damn u) they had one of the greatest fighters I ever played HAKUTO NO KEN (Fist Of The North Star) but this one u had to throw punches at six or 8 padds that would flip out from in front of the screen it was also a Korean cab so it made it all that more special.Originally Posted by Greg2600
We had a Pistol Pete's Pizza here in Houston when I was growing up, but it closed when I was about 7 years old. We used to call is Pistol Packin' Pete's. It too was a hot spot for great arcade games. They had all the best one's. Paper Boy, Double Dragon, TMNT: The Arcade Game.... you know, the late 80's early 90's classics!
Thanks for the memory.
"REDONDO FUN FACTORY" , "SUPERCADE", HERMOSA ARCADE
....then there was always 7-11, and mr b's liquor stores
When I was a kid I didn't have a regular arcade near me. I got to play a few individual arcade games mainly in restaurants & bars within walking/biking distance of where I lived in Glenview, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). Or at the 7/11 across the street from Golf Mill mall in Niles, IL nearby. Once in awhile I'd go to small and big arcades that were farther away, but never regularly, not until I was a teenager. Then later, there was a Namco CyberStation arcade in Golf Mill mall.
Last edited by parallaxscroll; 10-25-2008 at 05:44 PM.
Childhood arcade was called "Funway Freeway" in North Canton, Ohio. What a great place. For $5 you got 30 tokens. I spent a lot of time playing Xybots, Xenophone, Star Wars, and Paperboy. It was also where I was introduced to the amazing Strider, which made me a Genesis fan until the SNES hit. This arcade was turned into a dollar movie theater by the time I was a teenager.
Teenage arcade was Alladin's Castle at the nearby mall. Primary usage was Tekken, Killer Instinct, and Mortal Kombat 2 & 3. When the MK3 machine first arrived, myself along with like 10 other people pitched $10 in and bought the hugest sack of tokens I have ever seen. We divided it into little sacks. I think we each had over 100 tokens. Of course, the arcade rigged the MK3 machine to require 3 tokens instead of the usual 2, probably due to our fat sacks. This arcade fizzled out a little while after Ultimate MK3 was released. More and more of the floor space was assigned to those stupid ticket games, where you turn in 1000 tickets to get a little boombox.
Well, the closest one to me was Red Baron. Decent outfit. I liked playing the classic arcade machines they had, like Sea Wolf, Defender, and Galaga. Also they had the massive 6 man X-men Cab! Eventually they even got in a Powerstone 2 machine.
Some other arcades I started going to when I hit high school included the local mall arcade, Tilts, and Wizzards, the greatest fighting game arcade in Michigan before it closed down. All are gone now.
I do remember there being an arcade by my aunt's summer home (a trailer on a lake) that rocked, and another up in a mall in Alpena whose name escapes me. Them I remember primarily through the sheer number of people playing Street Fighter 2 World Warriors and Hyper Fighting when I went as a kid. So cool.
Check out the Kleppings!
Make Way For Madness!
"9 is a poor man's 11, and 11 is a Baker's Ten."
Infinite Lives
When I was a kid, Kansas City had Aladdin's Castle and Fun Factory.
I suppose most of the places mentioned would've either closed down, or possibly relocated by now?
And there's a good chance it's still operational too.
"If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made."
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin's very own Fantasy Isle. D&D store on the first floor, kick-butt arcade on the second floor. There was also an Aladdin's Castle in the mall, which lasted a lot longer but wasn't nearly as cool or as memorable.
If you can't do it with 8 bits, you don't need to do it!
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