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[AJUMP23]

The American mall is a defunct entity and on its way out it took the American Arcade with it. Now for an arcade style we have dining and bowling places like Dave and busters. But they don't do what the old fashioned arcade use to do. Go in play a variety of games for $5 in quarters. Compete in the winner stays arena of fighting games by putting your quarter on the machine. The lovely neon lighting and the normally dark carpet. I am old enough that I remember people smoking in the arcade. New fighting games always created buzz. Street Fighter 2, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, and Virtual Fighter were big. I always loved Dragons Lair and it was a game that my mom loved to play as well. There was a time when the arcade was the best place to be. We all had a Nintendo at home, but going to the arcade while your mom was in the mall was a thrill and lot of fun as a kid/teen.

If you are cool and old tell us about your local arcades, what you played and do you miss it.

 

[demigod]

I haven’t been to Putt Putt in like 2 decades. Was going to take son last week to show him where we went in the 90s but he got sick.

Marvel Vs Capcom will always be my favorite at the arcades. Saw on slickdeals they had an atgames legends ultimate for $300 and can mod lots of games so I snatched on that deal. It’s arriving today so hopefully i can have tomorrow off and set that baby up.

 

[hlm666]

I am old enough that I remember people smoking in the arcade.

heh so many machines had burn marks on them from people putting their smoke sitting on the edge and then it would burn down before they finished I even saw some guys betting smokes in some competitive games, saw like 12 smokes lined up along a super sprint cabinet with 3 guys racing for the prize lol. Simpler times.

 

[ClanOfNone]

I've said it a billion times, but being a kid in that era was really something special. Walking into the mall arcade and seeing the giant sit down Star Trek vector game, finding Street Fighter 2 for the first time. Dropping a million dollars into Gauntlet 2 and Xenophobe, Xybots, Gladiator, and countless others. Seeing a Neo Geo for the first time, going to the boardwalks and seeing the giant games like the 360 degree G-Loc.

I wouldn't trade those memories for nuthin.

 

[dem]

I grew up in a really small rural town in Canada. I'm talking a population of under 1000.

Even WE had an arcade. I'm talking Simpsons game... Ninja Turtles.. Street Fighter. Super Chexx.

I'll never feel cooler than I did when I was 11 or 12 years old.. summer break.. hanging at the new small town arcade in the evening. Kids were playing games, pool, air hockey. I distinctly remember smoke in the air and Beck - Loser blaring in the place.


Too young for the 80s arcade days, but the arcade still seemed pretty awesome in the early 90s.

 

[kanjobazooie]

I once got beaten so bad in Street Fighter that I got triggered and refused to even acknowledge the kid who beat me.

 

[Flash Junkins]

Double Dragon, Wrestlefest, and some crash up derby game with a top down view at Cedar Point.

I remember losing my friends for a couple of hours, and this was before everyone had cell phones.

 

[ClanOfNone]

They had an Arcade Exhibition at the Mueseum of Science and Industry up in Tampa like two decades ago. A few friends and I decided to go for shit n giggles, and ended up being totally blown away by it.

They had well over 100 arcade cabs, from early 80's stuff all the way up to brand new releases, all of them set to free play.
There was a another separate area for home consoles with a working Vectrex and Odyssey and a ton of other shit. It was awesome.

Best part was we basically had it to ourselves, either people didn't know about it or didn't care. It was just us and a handful of neckbeard diehards and a few nerdy teens.

 

[spookyfish]

This is why I’m more into my Arcade 1Ups and the mame-modded machine right now. My kids and I enjoy “arcade night” (Simpson’s Bowling, Star Wars, and Mortal Kombat 2 are their favorites) and I love showing them just a small taste of what we experienced years ago.

A little over a year ago I played a real laserdisc Dragon’s Lair at Free Play Arcade in Dallas. I miss it.

 

[Mitsurux]

80s:
There was this Arcade/Billiards place in our town called "Mr. Billiards" Back in the mid 80's my Mom would pick me up from School at lunch time and we would go have lunch there (They had a Pizza/cafe and booths to sit at). But the real fun happened when we were done eating they had a great selection games up in the front area, they also had a back room with even more great games. Place was amazing. Played such gems for the first time there like, Paper boy, Guantlet, Spy-hunter, Mario Bros., MR. Do's Castle, Pac-Man, Galaga then later on Mortal Kombat (1,2,3) Street Fighter 2 (Champion, Hyper and Super), for a time they even had the Sega Hologram game (With the cowboy). Now the place is a medical facility (same building)

I'll share more later about the 90's when i was heavely in the arcade scene and the area had 3 other arcades.

 

[nkarafo]

Golden Axe was the game that made me a gaming nerd.

 

[JaksGhost]

Arcades were where I always discovered the newest fighting games in the 90s! I can vividly recall where I discovered all of my favorites for the first time:

Children of Atom was at a random gas station in Houston off Waldo St.
Street Fighter 3 at the Sharpstown (now PlazAmerica)
Street Fighter Alpha at a Greyhound bus depot in New Orleans
X-Men vs Street Fighter and Soul Blade in the PX in Fort Polk
King of Fighters '94 in the activity center for kids in Fort Polk
Killer Instinct in the PX in Great Lakes
Killer Instinct 2 at the gas station about 2 miles away from our home in Fort Polk. My older brother and I would walk here every weekend and have our parents pick us up from the Blockbuster across the road.
Tekken 3 in Merrivlle at South Lake Mall!

1994-1997 made me into a hardcore fighting game head. Also shoutout to Capcom and the others that put the move list at the top of the cabinet! it was either that, self-discovery, or trying to find a game guide in a store. The internet was limited as hell and the library only let you print out so many pages.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Don't forget the sounds. Dozens of machines being played at once.

 

[Humdinger]

I played a lot of Defender in my college dorm in Chico, CA, stoned most of the time with a one-eyed friend, John (glass eyeball, cool guy). That was early 80s.

 

[ahtlas7]

Round1 is the answer to our modern day arcade woes.

Growing up the arcade was my every Friday night hangout with friends. Games, pool, jut box, miniskirts and cigarette smoke like fog along with a beer or two in the parking lot that had been bought by friends older siblings. Gen X baby!

 

[LostDonkey]

I used to go to Blackpool and search for the Ridge Racer MX5 cabinet with the full size car.

That or Sega Rally is where you'd find me.

 

[Solidus_T]

Back in the day, I beat a guy so bad in Vampire Savior that he was putting his hands in front of my face to obstruct the screen. I was like 11 years old and doing basic sequence chain combos to his Morrigan.

I also got cocky seeing a little kid play Virtua Fighter 3 and thought I would get a free win. This kid was doing just frame moves all day and would switch sides after beating me. He didn't care about arcade mode - just beating anyone else who dared to put money into that machine.

 

[jshackles]

 

[Pelta88]

Seeing one of the Street Fighter games for the first time.

 

[El Muerto]

I miss playing virtua cop, street figher 3 third strike, and simpsons arcade. Used to play DDR all the time and watching the crowd stop and watch was such a great feeling. Made so many friends at arcades too. Now i go this arcade near me that only focuses on retro cabs. They have over 100 cabs of games from the 80s-90s as well as over 40 different pinball machines. Glad they're around so kids can experience what their parents did. I found a Taito cab and stuck a pc in there, bought a board with wiring and buttons and made the joystick panel, threw the mame 2003 romset on there and play on it regularly. I also have an Oculus Rift and setup Retro Arcade: Neon with a couple mame roms.

 

[Soltype]

The biggest thing I miss about arcades is how bleeding edge they were. They were the best looking and the loudest experiences you could get, you'd walk in and arcade and just hear blaring sounds, music and all the attract modes.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Man, as kid I remember arcades being in supermarkets. My parents would be shopping and sometimes I’d get a couple quarters to play. Funny enough they always had new machines rolling in. Pizza shops had them.
Of course the mall was the big one, because every mall had one - and they never disappointed.
I can remember the days as a kid on the Jersey Boardwalk when Pac-Man was red hot. There must’ve been two arcades for each block. I mean, it was loaded.
My mom and aunts always loved going to casinos. I remember getting a $10 roll of quarters from my mom, and getting dropped off at the Trump Plaza arcade. $10 bought you hours and hours of playtime back then.
It was such a fun time. Everything from Popeye and Punchout, to Rolling Thunder, to Sega’s Hologram arcade machine (it sucked). The biggest disappointments were when the home versions were either very different (Moonwalker) or just plain dogshit (Atari 2600 days). Getting close to the arcade version was the pursuit.

 

[intbal]

I grew up in a really small rural town in Canada. I'm talking a population of under 1000.

Even WE had an arcade. I'm talking Simpsons game... Ninja Turtles.. Street Fighter. Super Chexx.

I'll never feel cooler than I did when I was 11 or 12 years old.. summer break.. hanging at the new small town arcade in the evening. Kids were playing games, pool, air hockey. I distinctly remember smoke in the air and Beck - Loser blaring in the place.


Too young for the 80s arcade days, but the arcade still seemed pretty awesome in the early 90s.

My home town was 7,500 in the 80s (still is).
We had three arcades.

Around 50 cabinets for the largest of them. The other two were in the teens.
That's not counting the fact that EVERY convenience store had 4 or 5 different machines, as did the Walmart lobby, and the waiting area of the local mall.
It was better than Disney World.

 

[BouncyFrag]

This rubbish:

 

[dem]

This rubbish:

That shit was so bad..

That and dragons lair.

Insert dollar.... 30 seconds later you're dead.

 

[AJUMP23]

This rubbish:

I loved these holographic games.

 

[RoboFu]

Has anyone been following the Atari 2600 home brew scene over the last 5-6 years? People are creating new games and using new modern carts. Its pretty crazy.


This though was a guy who wanted to fix the awful pacman port using the same cart. He did a pretty good job.

 

[saintjules]

Not my video. It was the only one I saw online. This was Sports Plus in Lake Grove, NY, where I would go there maybe 1-2 times a month to play Dance Dance Revolution. Played a few other Arcade games. Seems they closed back in 2007.




There was also Adventureland that also housed Arcades. Other than that, I would see them sporadically in Pizza places. Good memories all around.

Let's not forget Nick Arcade though!

 

[ArthriticZombie]

I was such an arcade rat back in the 80’s. Stayed at the local Aladdin’s Castle open to close on the weekends and all summer. Such a great time to be a kid. Between the arcade and my Atari 2600, it was paradise. I legit thought video gaming could not possibly get any better.

 

[SpiceRacz]

They never disappeared in Phoenix. There's still quite a few large arcades. All of them have a either decent selection or all retro stuff too. One in Mesa, AZ is basically a huge commercial suite that this dude rents out and has 150+ arcade & pinball cabs. $11 at the door all you can play.

If anyone makes it out to Chicago, I recommend going to Galloping Ghost Arcade. Largest arcade in the US. Insane selection of arcade cabs, ranging from favorites to obscure shit like the 3 screen Darius 2, SegaSonic The Hedgehog, Silent Hill Arcade, etc.

This rubbish:

The arcade I mentioned above has this. Cool idea, but the game is terrible lol.

 

[dem]

I remember this place blowing my mind. Command HQ. I still have tokens from this place from the 90s, lol.

I remember when the SNES was released they had a little cornered off section with like 5 consoles where you payed to play.

 

[Well_Of_Souls]

I'm a child of the 80's, and lived near Oxford in the UK. There wasn't a local arcade when I was a kid, so the only opportunities for me to play arcade games was when a fair visited the area, when I visited a theme park, or when I was on holiday, so getting to play the latest arcade games was quite a thing.

I have very fond memories of Chase HQ, Afterburner (that huge arcade cabinet!), and Double Dragon. Arcade games just aren't the same these days.

 

[DGrayson]

I was such an arcade rat back in the 80’s. Stayed at the local Aladdin’s Castle open to close on the weekends and all summer. Such a great time to be a kid. Between the arcade and my Atari 2600, it was paradise. I legit thought video gaming could not possibly get any better.

In some respects you werent wrong.

 

[Rush2112]

It was all about pac man in the 80s. street fighter 2 dominated the 90s with their million different versions. Every arcade there were always a bunch of guys crowded around SF2 machine.

 

[Fuz]

As a kid living in a small town, when we went with my mother to the capital city of my region we often stopped in my favourite place, the "Cavalluccio Marino" ("Seahorse") a small rides park on the seaside of the Poetto Beach that had two huge sheds on its sides (not sure why I'm talking about it in the past, since it's all still there). Those sheds were filled with arcade machines, there was really everything. It was rumored to be the biggest arcade in Europe (I find it unlikely, honestly).
Man, I loved that place and spent so much time in there. It was my happy place when I was a kid. Well, I still go there from time to time to eat a "caddozzo" sandwich from the trucks outside ("caddozzoni" - a sardinian wordplay between "caravan" and "very dirty"), but I didn't go play in the arcade since a long time. Thinking of it, maybe I'll go these days, since I live 5km from there now.
What "killed" it was the increase in prices, more than the dawn of powerful home consoles. A game went from 200 lire (20 cent, roughly) in the 80s to 500 and 1000 for a single play.
The rest of the time I spent in bars in my town, they used to have 2-3 arcade machine each. Mostly skipping church and catechism and find refuge in a smoke-filled bar glued to a Ghost 'n Goblins machine. You can imagine where my church offerings money went.

Funny story about that.
A few years ago an acquaintance from another region randomly posted on Facebook an image from some "as we were in the 80s" page.

Spoiler

And there's me and my brother in a bar usually full of drunkards. I have no fucking idea who took the picture, when (I guess '86) and how the fuck it ended up in a random facebook page and how the hell the stars aligned for my acquaintance to post it and me to actually see it in my timeline. My town was quite small (1800 people at the time IIRC).

My latest real Arcade experience was in Tokyo some years ago in the SEGA arcade tower playing a lot of a Gundam game, strictly in japanese, and not understanding anything about it. Really cool cabinet toh.

 

[Laptop1991]

In England for me it was Space Invader's mostly and Breakout, the one where you got the dot above the wall, but i didn't go to the arcade much, i knew lads who would spend all their pay in there on a friday just after getting paid!.

 

[Bartski]

meanwhile on Planet Polska

 

[StreetsofBeige]

80s
- Smokers paradise
- Could go on indefinitely in Mat Mania (one time I quit playing after like 30+ matches). Once you know the tricks, the only enemy to watch out for is Coco Savege if he burns you with constant forearm charges. The sequel was even easier
- Operation Wolf was my fav game (was never good at it). Shooting a black metal Uzi with recoil is heaven. Then the safety laws come in and Lethal Enforcers have blue and pink guns. WTF? lol
- Loved Time Pilot and Gyruss. Was really good at Gyruss even as a 12 year old
- Avoided any big cabinets/driving games because I was always bad at them

90s
- Neo Geo was awesome
- Got to play the $1/play Virtua Racing red cockpit edition
- Got good at Galaga during university killing time between classes. Never got 999,999 roll over, but my top score was about 700,000. That quarter lasted a long time! While most gamers focused on the newer games at the front of the arcade, I was one of those dudes at the back playing the oldies. Galaga would be right there by Ms Pacman, Off Road and Pooyan!
- Avoided fighting games. Not good at them. Preferred playing SFII on SNES

I think every arcade in my area is gone. Only places with games are Dave Buster kinds of places, every movie theatre has a small room of games, and you get a handful of retro arcade bars strewn around town. More of a social place to nibble on food and drink than focusing on games.

Amazingly, you still get some pubs with that golf game you never see anyone playing. I dont know how that survives.

 

[Nydius]

Putt-Putt Golf and Games was a staple of my childhood. As were mall arcades.

I used to bowl in youth league and the bowling alley also had an arcade where we'd go waste our time after our matches waiting for parents to show up and take us home. Lots of memories of putting up quarters for "next!" on Street Fighter and the original Mortal Kombat. Lots of time spent playing Hard Drivin', The Simpsons, TMNT, X-Men, Cyberball, and a whole bunch of others I'm forgetting.

My (still) best friend, Sam, used to waste all his money playing the stupid 'skill' machines to win POGs. He still has them all to this day in the same plastic tubes he got from Putt-Putt with all his tickets.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

As a kid living in a small town, when we went with my mother to the capital city of my region we often stopped in my favourite place, the "Cavalluccio Marino" ("Seahorse") a small rides park on the seaside of the Poetto Beach that had two huge sheds on its sides (not sure why I'm talking about it in the past, since it's all still there). Those sheds were filled with arcade machines, there was really everything. It was rumored to be the biggest arcade in Europe (I find it unlikely, honestly).
Man, I loved that place and spent so much time in there. It was my happy place when I was a kid. Well, I still go there from time to time to eat a "coddozzo" sandwich from the truck outside ("caddozzoni" - a sardinian wordplay between "caravan" and "very dirty"), but I didn't go play in the arcade since a long time. Thinking of it, maybe I'll go these days, since I live 5km from there now.
What "killed" it was the increase in prices, more than the dawn of powerful home consoles. A game went from 200 lire (20 cent, roughly) in the 80s to 500 and 1000 for a single play.
The rest of the time I spent in bars in my town, they used to have 2-3 arcade machine each. Mostly skipping church and catechism and find refuge in a smoke-filled bar glued to a Ghost 'n Goblins machine. You can imagine where my church offerings money went.

Funny story about that.
A few years ago an acuaitance from another region randomly posted on Facebook an image from some "as we were in the 80s" page.

Spoiler

And there's me and my brother in a bar usually full of drunkards. I have no fucking idea who took the picture, when (I guess '86) and how the fuck it ended up in a random facebook page and how the hell the stars aligned for my aquaitance to post it and me to actually see it in my timeline. My town was quite small (1800 people at the time IIRC).

My latest real Arcade experience was in Tokyo some years ago in the SEGA arcade tower playing a lot of a Gundam game, strictly in japanese, and not understanding anything about it. Really cool cabinet toh.

Cazzo sei diventato vecchio...
Just kidding bro, beautiful memories (and story).

Cheers

 

[AJUMP23]

As a kid living in a small town, when we went with my mother to the capital city of my region we often stopped in my favourite place, the "Cavalluccio Marino" ("Seahorse") a small rides park on the seaside of the Poetto Beach that had two huge sheds on its sides (not sure why I'm talking about it in the past, since it's all still there). Those sheds were filled with arcade machines, there was really everything. It was rumored to be the biggest arcade in Europe (I find it unlikely, honestly).
Man, I loved that place and spent so much time in there. It was my happy place when I was a kid. Well, I still go there from time to time to eat a "coddozzo" sandwich from the truck outside ("caddozzoni" - a sardinian wordplay between "caravan" and "very dirty"), but I didn't go play in the arcade since a long time. Thinking of it, maybe I'll go these days, since I live 5km from there now.
What "killed" it was the increase in prices, more than the dawn of powerful home consoles. A game went from 200 lire (20 cent, roughly) in the 80s to 500 and 1000 for a single play.
The rest of the time I spent in bars in my town, they used to have 2-3 arcade machine each. Mostly skipping church and catechism and find refuge in a smoke-filled bar glued to a Ghost 'n Goblins machine. You can imagine where my church offerings money went.

Funny story about that.
A few years ago an acuaitance from another region randomly posted on Facebook an image from some "as we were in the 80s" page.

Spoiler

And there's me and my brother in a bar usually full of drunkards. I have no fucking idea who took the picture, when (I guess '86) and how the fuck it ended up in a random facebook page and how the hell the stars aligned for my aquaitance to post it and me to actually see it in my timeline. My town was quite small (1800 people at the time IIRC).

My latest real Arcade experience was in Tokyo some years ago in the SEGA arcade tower playing a lot of a Gundam game, strictly in japanese, and not understanding anything about it. Really cool cabinet toh.

I love the pic and the most 80s multicolored clothing applicable.

 

[Fuz]

I love the pic and the most 80s multicolored clothing applicable.

Yeah, I'm the multicolored one.

Might as well mention the 90s-00s too. Went to high school in a nearby, bigger town. Skipped a lot of classes to go to the arcade they had there ("Fuz, where are you going?", used to ask my desk-neighbor (who's also responsible for my nickname, btw) in the school courtyard in the morning after getting out of the bus. "Well, to class", "There's a latin test today", "OFF TO THE ARCADE!").
Most of the lazybums that used to frequent that place where fighting games addicted. King of Fighters was KING there, but SF2 was always very crowded too. SF3 came in really late down the line, after a lot of murmuring and rumors, so much that I kinda believed to be a urban myth (internet wasn't very widespread and finding information out of it was much harder, back then) but after some initial curiosity everyone went back to KoF. I was very annoyed when people joined in for a match, I liked playing solo more. But there was only one guy I was never able to beat. Tekken and Virtua Fighter were less popular, maybe because they came in at the sunset of that era.

Spoiler

 

[ClanOfNone]

I remember this place blowing my mind. Command HQ. I still have tokens from this place from the 90s, lol.

I remember when the SNES was released they had a little cornered off section with like 5 consoles where you payed to play.

I feel like most towns had something similar to this. Ours was Pirate's Cove, it had mini golf, go karts, bumper boats, batting cages, and a Lazer tag course. Plus, a sizable arcade with the accompanying ticket counter stuffed with useless crap.

I attended many a birthday party there, whuppin ass in Tekken.

 

[ChoosableOne]

I remember the noisy environments where my old father stayed with me and suffered. My happiest, and probably his worst memories

I used to play these games mostly;

One of the best football games;



Best basketball game ever;



Plus some Tekken 2 and Samurai Shodown sessions.

Street fighter and mortal kombat would have a lot of queues in front of them and there were kids who played them very well. So I didn't spend much time with them, tokens were very expensive. Mtx's are not the gaming world's first money traps.

 

[AJUMP23]

Putt-Putt Golf and Games was a staple of my childhood. As were mall arcades.

I used to bowl in youth league and the bowling alley also had an arcade where we'd go waste our time after our matches waiting for parents to show up and take us home. Lots of memories of putting up quarters for "next!" on Street Fighter and the original Mortal Kombat. Lots of time spent playing Hard Drivin', The Simpsons, TMNT, X-Men, Cyberball, and a whole bunch of others I'm forgetting.

My (still) best friend, Sam, used to waste all his money playing the stupid 'skill' machines to win POGs. He still has them all to this day in the same plastic tubes he got from Putt-Putt with all his tickets.

You are now Ralph machio. And this song is now your theme.

 

[dave_d]

My big 2 games were oddly enough Mat Mania and Golden Axe.(I could 1 CC it and well Mat Mania had no end.) Also for any of you that live in New England and want to experience an arcade again there's this place

Fun Spot

Admittedly a lot of their games aren't in the greatest state but there's a ton of fun and a ton of classic games. Admittedly the last time I went the Space Harrier cabinet wasn't working but Outrun and Afterburner were. (I need to go again.)

 

[nush]

heh so many machines had burn marks on them from people putting their smoke sitting on the edge and then it would burn down before they finished I even saw some guys betting smokes in some competitive games, saw like 12 smokes lined up along a super sprint cabinet with 3 guys racing for the prize lol. Simpler times.

I remember the first time I saw Daytona it had just been installed in the arcade I went to and turned on, like within the hour. Anyway sat down, put in a credit and was blown away, dropped in another credit right away no hesitation. Back in the day I used to smoke and of course you could smoke in the arcades. What I'd do if I was part way through a ciggy was put it on the dashboard of the driving cab. Well, I was so into Daytona I'd forgotten I'd done this and it burnt down leaving a full cigarette burn on the dash, of this brand new cab, just installed, worth thousands.
What I didn't see was the arcade engineer behind me checking how well the game was being received, noticed the huge burn mark I'd just but on his cab and he went mental at me. LOL I christened your cab, get over it, by next week it will be covered in them.

 

[daffyduck]

…The biggest disappointments were when the home versions were either very different (Moonwalker) or just plain dogshit (Atari 2600 days). Getting close to the arcade version was the pursuit.

This. eg. Double Dragon and Strider (NES), among others, were butchered.

The graphics and sound wouldn’t have come close, but it’s like they went out of their way to ensure people would still want to play the arcade cabs.

 

[Knightime_X]

I miss that arcade smell.
I also miss going to the arcade and finding new games.

Crazy taxi, starwars arcade, tekken tag tournament.

Random tmnt the arcade game.
Sweet times.

 

[AJUMP23]

The Afterburner cabinet that was sit in and moved was next level. I thought it was an amazing 1 minute then I died