What was the name of your childhood arcade?

[danny_galaga]

Bonies is one I remember clearly. I think there may have been an 'electric dreams' at one stage. And then in the 90's some sort of franchise called Einsteins.

[MIZPHIT]

The few years I spent in College Station, Tx in the mid 80's, there was a Time Out at Post Oak Mall, 2 Two Bits arcades (one in the Kroger shopping center next to Subway and the other on University Drive by Texas A&M), a Games Galore next to Bennigan's on Texas Ave., and Chuck E. Cheese.

I always went to Two Bits in the Kroger shopping center because it was close to my house and the selection of cabs was quite stellar to be a mom & pop arcade.

[sayewonn]

Mine was DG's Arcade in Warwick, RI. For so many years that was the spot to go to play the latest arcade games. Sadly they closed down years ago and the Warwick mall arcade picked up the slack. But then the flooding that took place about 2 years ago caused most of the mall to be redesigned and the arcade was gone.

[Nescollector]

Aladdin's Castle, funway freeway, fun factory, Putt Putt Golf and Games, just to name a few.

[javaly78]

@Streetball 21 I know this is an old post, but I remember Robotar vividly too. It was the first arcade I was introduced to the Xmen game, Mortal Kombat I & II, Terminator 2, lots of game memories. I remember double token Tuesdays too, where $5 could take you far.

Any memories of Tilt, Nickle Arcade, and the Crossroads Diamond Jim's (or Aladdin's Castle, I forget the name of that one)?

[BetaWolf47]

We had a TILT at our local mall down here. I remember them having some great games there too, such as Die Hard Arcade and Tekken Tag Tournament. They closed but not a few years after the new millennium.

There's also the movie theater, Hollywood 20, which always has a few. They had Aerofighters and Metal Slug many years back. They've also had Arctic Thunder, Area 51, and Tekken 2 many years back. Right now, all they have is crap like those racing games based on The Fast and the Furious.

The best one we have is King Richard's. They have had awesome games over the year such as Virtual On: Cyber Troopers, The Simpsons Arcade, Caveman Ninja, and X-Men Arcade. They've always been the largest in town with around 15 arcade machines. It was always fun joining some random dude in The Simpsons Arcade.

The most nostalgic was a privately owned pizza parlor called Pizza Factory. The arcade there was literally just a hole in the wall with four machines. In the beginning, it was Street Fighter 2, Vs. Super Mario Bros., some Golf game with a trackball I'll never remember (or care), and a pinball machine. They later changed some of those out for games like The Simpsons Arcade and X-Men Arcade, as well as some 3D space racer which may have been S.T.U.N. Runner.

Yeah, Simpsons and X-Men were common here. Gotta love 'em.

[killimgfloor]

Vegas Amusement
Circuit Circus
Lester's

Those were the ones that I use to frequent. The first two I went to more often than the last one as it was not very close to where I use to live. Also, if I needed a game fix there were at least one game in ever convenience store near by. This was during the 1980s.

[Zing]

There was an Aladdin's Castle at the mall, but I didn't really start going there until I was an older teenager to play Mortal Kombat 2, Killer Instinct, and Tekken.

Before that, the arcade of choice was called Funway Freeway. It was at a strip mall and was amazing. Many hours were spent there playing games like Xenophobe, Xybots, Pac-Land, Discs of Tron, and Rampage. I went there for many of my birthdays. They didn't have parties, but if it was your birthday, you got a special deal on a huge sack of tokens.

That reminds me of how annoyed I was when arcades started switching from quarters to tokens.

[hoger]

UNDERCOVER COPS


You can try this check in online arcade game collections, I have a 2.44 G collections, free shipping all in the game hall before the game, should have you want

[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.

[dgdgagdae]

UNDERCOVER COPS


You can try this check in online arcade game collections, I have a 2.44 G collections, free shipping all in the game hall before the game, should have you want

I...wait, what?

[Mytho]

I used to go to Fun Factory in the Independence Mall near Kansas City a ton as a kid. Since I was pretty young, I spent most of my time playing stuff like Skee-Ball and basketball for tickets. When I got older, I started moving more into the actual arcade itself. My favorite games were Virtual-On and Virtua Racing. I also loved playing Gunblade N.Y. when I got the chance. That massive machine gun rumbled so fiercely it'd leave your hands numb!

Fun Factory also had the full Virtua Racing sit-down cabinet, which absolutely blew my mind. I could barely play the game since I was so young, but damn if it wasn't amazing sitting in that car. Virtua Racing still remains one of my favorite racing games to this day.

I also went to Cool Crest on occasion for birthday parties and such. I played Spinjammers and other assorted Neo-Geo games there when I wasn't playing putt putt.

There is one other place I'm thinking of that I played Outrunners at, but the name isn't coming to me. It might have been Family Golf Park, but I'm not sure. I do remember that there was both a putt putt and traditional golf course, including a driving range. Playing Outrunners there after a round of putt putt was another great Sega arcade experience of mine.

If anyone still lives in the Independence area, I'm curious to know if Fun Factory is still in business. The last time I was there was in 2002 while visiting my grandparents. I wasn't able to find much on the internet, so I'm assuming it was shut down around the mid to late 2000's.

[o.pwuaioc]

I...wait, what?

Spam.

[kiselomlqko]

"Giggles" at the washington mall in washington, PA

played alot of my favorite games there and even had my birthday party there once. my reletive owned the pizzia shop right across from it as well so it was always nice to stop by and grab a slice of pizzia after some arcade gaming

[Genesaturn]

Starport at the local mall. My dad would take me once a week. He would park himself in front of Out Run and I'd wander aimlessly back and forth between every game for 2 hours lol. Starport closed when I was probably 8 or so though so from that point on the arcade at Putt Putt became my local choice.

[Badhornet]

Rocky J's in San Antonio. TX