My birthday was today (Friday), and to celebrate growing one year further into adulthood I decided to regress back to childhood... by visiting The Reagan Years arcade in Fullerton, CA (about 40 minutes from where I live). It's an awesome arcade filled with '80s coin-ops that has, unfortunately, been closed down for quite some time while it was being remodeled. I'd heard it was finally reopening so I decided to check it out. Sadly, it's not open quite yet, although the restaurant/bar it's attached to (the Slidebar Cafe) is. The guy at the Slidebar said it would open "any day now."
The arcade room was open (even though none of the machines were on), so I ducked inside and snapped a couple quick pics with my cheapo digital camera. The remodeling seems pretty much complete, and it's looking nice. Very appropriate decor; black walls with pics of '80s music groups and game graphics on them. And what a selection of coin-ops! Here are some pics... sorry they couldn't be better quality.
Budweiser Tapper and Berzerk. Notice the cool Centipede graphics on the far wall!
Further down that row: Berzerk, Centipede, Paperboy, Front Line, Ms. Pac/Galaga, Asteroids. Space Invaders on the wall.
The end of that row... Ms. Pac/Galaga, Asteroids, Crazy Taxi, what I presume is an air hockey table, and a couple things I can't make out. The circle on the far wall is the arcade's logo, which shows a cartoon Ronald Reagan playing Star Wars (how appropriate!). What's the game in the foreground with the soldier-looking guy? It has a Data East logo.
This pic got messed up, but you might make out Galaga, Scramble, Frogger and Kung-Fu Master if you squint.
Pac-Man, Galaga and Asteroids graphics on the walls and ceiling.
Pole Position cockpit, Defender, Asteroids Deluxe and Star Wars! There are some Pac-Man cherries on the wall that you can barely make out in this photo.
There was also a whole row of machines in a corner that I didn't get to see. I wasn't sure I was supposed to be in there so I didn't want to snoop around too much.