Are there ANY arcades ANYWHERE anymore?

[portnoyd]

That one's called GameWorks, which is also a restaurant. It's sort of like Dave And Buster's from what I've heard. I've been in it once, and it was okay. Not too many classic games.

GameWorks is at least far superior to Dave & Busters game-wise. While 75% of D&B's and GW's selection hasn't changed in the past 5+ years, GameWorks at least has a much more diverse offering. Where GW may have had less classics than you would have liked, D&B will have half that. Shame they are significantly less abundant than D&Bs.

Oh, and those looking for arcades can find a really shitty one in Bumfuck, Tennessee right outside of Nashville.

[smork]

I've got several by me

There's also still several in Houston that I know of, unless some of them have closed down recently.

[Baloo]

The Dave and Buster's here in Philly is almost ALL redemption games, save for a couple of things I.E the Sega Derby game (which is actually very fun), 2 or 3 classic games, two tons of Racing games and a LOT of FPS games, and some other random stuff like Madden mixed in. The only things I play in there are:

Sega Derby Owners
Mario Kart GP 2 (how they actually got this I don't know)
Donkey Kong/Jr./Mario Bros.
Roll-a-ball Derby
Super Trivia
Virtua Fighter 4


The prices aren't as bad as they used to be though, I spent 3+ hours in here on $20 in credits. I didn't play any redemption though, and I spent a ton of time on Sega Derby Owners (or whatever it's called).

[NayusDante]

My local arcades are finally on life support. Beach Gameland, which had been in its new location about a year, didn't pay their lease. The games are still in there, and I picked up a wifi signal, but they've been closed for a few months. Treasure Island Fun Center was great about a year ago when I went, but I went with a friend a month ago and it had really slid. House of the Dead 4 was unplayable, with both abysmal calibration and broken guns stuck on reload. Dead or Alive's P1 joystick had a broken right direction, making it impossible to advance toward your opponent. Not surprisingly, the ticket games seemed to be in fine working order. After Burner Climax is still in fine condition, surprisingly.

[RadiantSvgun]

There aren't in Birmingham anymore- the closest thing is lazer tag places and bowling alleys. Its one of the reasons I got my own cab.

[PSerge]

There's a great arcade in Nashville, Game Galaxy..

There's a nice selection on classic games, newer games, pinballs, fighting games, etc..

http://gamegalaxyarcade.com/

[Nikademus1969]

There's this pretty decent one that's literally right across the parking lot from where I work...

www.dellsknuckleheads.com

It has a lot of redemption games, but it also has a surprisingly good selection of games (primarily shooting games and fighters, but some others as well)


The resort I work at has a pretty good game room as well, tho due to it being a "family with little kids" resort and all, you won't find anything too "violent" there.

[Game Freak]

I go to the world's largest arcade in Weirs Beach NH at least two to three times a year. Great times.

[BeaglePuss]

I go to the world's largest arcade in Weirs Beach NH at least two to three times a year. Great times.

Funspot baby!

I love that place! I would go there as a kid, and my parents couldn't drag my brother and I out. I went last year, and it hasn't changed a bit. Definitely the greatest arcade I can think of.

[Rickstilwell1]

I know of three Arcades in Washington State near me so far - Gameworks in downtown Seattle, in Seattle Center, and one in the Federal Way "The Commons" mall + one more in the same mall if you count the movie theatre's arcade.

I've seen a bar or two with an arcade video game in it (although they were sports games).

[Diatribal Deity]

How 'bout Funarama and Playland in Hampton Beach, NH. I believe they are still there, may have more redemption machines than anything, but I hear they are still pretty profitable and have been around for quite a while. Funarama for instance still pulls in up to 5 million a year, seasonal as it may be.

[drunkninja]

There's a pretty sweet arcade where I live:

http://www.1984arcade.com/

Run by old-school hobbyists, they have all kinds of games from the 80's (some from the 90s on occasion) and they continually rotate them to keep things fresh. $5 entry and unlimited gameplay on everything but pinball.

[ubersaurus]

We still have a couple, though the majority went under about 10 years back.

There's the American Fun Center, in Oakland Mall; Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills; Pinball Pete's in Ann Arbor and Lansing; The "Butterfly" Golf & Games on Van Dyke in Detroit; as well as the requisite Gameworks and Chuck E. Cheese's.

AFC maintains their machines well, but their selection runs largely towards fighting games and music games...though they do keep those updated well. I mean, they have SF4, Tekken 6, and the latest guitar freaks/drummania revisions. No classic games though, other than Zero Gunner 2. Marvin's is mostly oddball machines that Marvin finds interesting in addition to all his ancient mechanical arcade machines. Still, he has Simpsons, pinball, Bust-a-move, and a number of racing games. Pete's, in Ann Arbor anyway, if known for having a good classic game selection, good pinball selection, and shoddy maintenance. How that place continues to stay open is beyond me, but when their stuff is working it's golden. Haven't been to the Butterfly in years, but if memory serves they have a crapload of games, old and new, but have even worse maintenance than Pete's.

[cheesystick]

Check out this place called Ground Kontrol if you are in Portland, Oregon anytime soon. There are literally beer holders next to every cabinet so you can play while you drink. You can buy a pabst tallboy for only two bucks. I love going there for the gorf, metal slug, and the street fighter. You can even just hit the place after bar hopping so you can drive drunk it a sit-down sega ralley cab, or just play simpsons arcadw with a few friends. The pinball selection is very good as well, almost too good.

There is a nickel arcade in town somehwere too, which is alright, at least worth the price od admission. They have mostly gun games and the like, but they do have star wars arcade for only five cents a pop.

[The-Bavis]

I remember that one, it was the only place I ever played Planet Harrier at. The games there were too Japanese for my tastes. I'm not into rhythm games (considering I have no rhythm at all) or fighting games, which left me very little to play there.


That one's called GameWorks, which is also a restaurant. It's sort of like Dave And Buster's from what I've heard. I've been in it once, and it was okay. Not too many classic games. I never tried their food out, because when my friend and I got out of the movie next door they closed the restaurant area down for the night. After all, you don't want to serve food to the throngs of people pouring out of that busy movie theater, that might be a competent way of running a business...

There's another location of Tilt Arcade in Waco, TX, in Richland Mall. And just down the hallway from the Tilt is a nice little retro gaming store.

I'm just responding to SteveW here because he's talking about North Texas. I finally went to Tornado Terry's in Keller a few weeks ago. You must go. It is an unassuming place, but there is plenty to play from classics to modern. It's $12.50 for unlimited play. The website is www.tornadoterrys.com, and is a terrible time warp, but it lists the operating hours. The place is clean and you can tell that the person (people) that run it really care about the games they have.

[sonic-boom]

There's one at the mall where I live, but that's the only one I can think of, it's always so crowded and it has all the Street Fighter games. I don't think it'll be closing any time soon.

[vectrexer]

There is one up at the Metreon in San Francisco.. At least it was there a couple of months ago. Lots of modern games and those crappy crane games. But at least it's still surviving for now.

I have a feeling the Bay Area will not be the location of the last arcade to go out of business. Except if you count temporary setups like California Extreme.

[GM80]

In my north Texas town there is a Tilt where there used to be an Aladdin's Castle, plus a family entertainment center (laser tag, go-karts, etc.) that has probably 25 arcade games. Our municipal airport's lounge also has about 20, oddly enough. I haven't been in our Chuck E. Cheese in years, but last time I was there it still had 25 or so cabinets.

Unfortunately, the entire selection is usually a few reissued vintage titles and a bunch of mediocre 21st-century fluff.

[vectrexer]

In my north Texas town there is a Tilt where there used to be an Aladdin's Castle, plus a family entertainment center (laser tag, go-karts, etc.) that has probably 25 arcade games. Our municipal airport's lounge also has about 20, oddly enough. I haven't been in our Chuck E. Cheese in years, but last time I was there it still had 25 or so cabinets.

Unfortunately, the entire selection is usually a few reissued vintage titles and a bunch of mediocre 21st-century fluff.

Went to the local CEC in San Bruno, CA. It's a collection of kiddie casio games. They even reduced the size of the habitrail to accomodate more games. But at least they still have an arcade. And cardboard pizza!

[HappehLemons]

We have one. I have to drive 40 minutes to it but it's a 3 story arcade called Fun World in Nashua, NH.

Besides that? No others.

Does it have a bowling alley in it?