Arcades... remember them?

I loved going to arcades as a kid. I'm 38 now but have fond memories of them. All the noise and cigarette smoke. So were you a big arcade gamer? What was your favourite game to play?

My favs were Ikari Warriors and Bubble Bobble as a kid. Then Mortal Kombat, Samurai Showdown and NBA Jam as a teen. Then PS1 came out and bye bye arcades for me.

I remember Rampage, Double Dragon, standing out as a young kid. Off Road, Spy Hunter, APB, Magic Sword. But my main love was Street Fighter 2 and the 6 or so other versions. Used to nag my mom to drive me to an arcade. Accidently put a hole in a wall once when she said no lol. Also would bike to one 6 or so miles away to a local Check E Cheese in middle school. I even got the idea to go to the bank, buy rolls of nickels, and pound them flat so they would work as tokens. Once I could drive I would go after school or on the weekends.

i remember galaxy force ii being pretty badass back then.

I remember them because I still go every other day. :P

I have a deep love for arcade games. I have fond memories of my dad setting me on a stool so I could watch him play, mesmerized by the colors and sounds. Majority of my earliest memories are images of Double Dragon. Once I was old enough I'd ride my bike to the arcade damn near everyday after school and quarter up at the Street Fighter II machine.

Beat 'em ups, shooters, fighting games, whatever you call arcade games with plastic guns... I definitely miss them.

I'm actually wearing my Ground Control T-shirt as I write this, which is an arcade bar in Portland, OR. I think San Francisco has similar bars. If you can, I highly recommend them. The games are still quarter eating little devils, but at least now you can enjoy it with a beer. No cigarette smoke, though.

@nelsonfalker: Double Dragon, I spent many quarters on that one and Final Fight.

Man, skipping school and riding bikes to the arcade to hang out for hours, older kids smoking, shooting pool and eating shitty fries. My sons will never know the joy.

@deepcovergecko:

I'd love to take my kids to an arcade but I have no clue where to even find one. I googled and the closest one to me is in Vancouver which is a 4 hour drive

@john1912: did that nickel trick ever work? I could just imagine some dude emptying the cabinet and finding all these warped nickels. "What the...those damn kids!"

TMNT or X-Men...ooo or Simpsons! Loved all the beat-em ups. What I really miss is pinball though. My grandma owned a bar and we'd get a new pinball machine in every 4 months and I could play for free...I spent so much time playing the awesome ones. Adamms Family, Terminator, Harley-Davidson...one summer instead of pinball we got the Cruisin USA machine, the whole sit down and gear shift everything...man that was a good summer.

Remember them indeed... worked at one until a week ago. (long story)

Loved that job. Pinball, games spanning from 70s through 90s, consoles both new and old, just great stuff all around. Timeline Arcade. Give 'er a gander, especially if you live in or near PA. They have almost every game mentioned in this thread, plus a ton of others.

EDIT: Actually, scratch that. Don't give Timeline your business. From what I've found recently, you're better off just flushing that money down the toilet. I regret every second of time I gave that place.

Barely.

I'm not sure I would go to an arcade today. They were a product of the times that are fun to look back on but I don't necessarily think they need to come back.

I mean arcades are having a renaissance.

There are barcades in most cities these days.

Theres one in a city next to mine but 1 credit is 1 euro and thats too expensive imo. And the cool stuff was often broken. The F zero AX cabinet they have is fucking rad though

I'm from the UK. The only arcades I've ever known are the shitty ones at the coastal holiday places like Cleethorpes. Would love to find a proper gaming arcade near me (yorkshire)

I was in Japan recently, and, as you might have heard, they still have a very active scene, with ton of games you'll never have heard of. That shit is advanced, too. A lot of games save data by making you put your phone on them and then having NFC data saved to it. Crazy.

(Tekken 7 is great, by the way.)

I have only ever seen arcades as part of seaside amusements, on passenger ferries, and in the back of bowling alleys.

So I don't really remember them, sadly.

I do remember arcades, but nostalgia aside I always preferred home gaming systems. Sure arcades had the more exciting graphics and cool novelties, but I hated waiting in line to play the popular games and because each play cost 50 cents you couldn't really experiment or even relax, you had to make that money last. I remember my first time playing Street Fighter II and not even really understanding the controls, only to have an older guy who knew them well join my game (I waited until the machine wasn't being used to try playing the CPU) and utterly destroy me. I remember having my pocket picked while playing Mortal Kombat and having to fight to get my wallet back.

Arcades were cool because of what they did for gaming and because you could sample the latest and greatest (not to mention the flashiest!) but I can't remember a single game that really made an impact on me in its arcade form.

Maybe OutRun. That game was really cool, especially with the sit down cabinet.

But I'd rather play a game with no time limits and no per game cost at my own pace and not surrounded by pushy horrible strangers.

And who needs to remember the arcades when all your favorite games (Like Crazy Climber 2) are being archived on the PS4?

Yep. My favorite thing to do as a kid was go to arcades. We would go to Scandia (a Scandinavian themed mini golf place) and Aladdin's Castle. My favorites were Golden Axe, NARC, Pole Position, Afterburner, Roadblasters, Double Dragon. Then a thing called Street Fighter II happened, and so began my life long love affair with fighting games. For people that weren't around back in 1991, SFII was the first arcade game that I could recall that would exist outside of arcades fairly commonly. My friends and I would ride our bikes all over town finding the best competition. Just about every convenience store had a machine, sometimes several, and certainly every bowling alley, pool hall, pizza restaurant, etc. Good times.

I spent a lot of my younger years in a semi-truck so truck stops were very familiar to me. And they always had sick ass arcades. I had a lot of fun with Time Crisis, House of the Head, Cruisin' USA, Hydro Thunder and the like. Silent Scope also. Lots of pinball too.

There was this one game I only played once and I only saw it once. It was like House of the Dead, but instead of guns, there was a sword. You pick up this half sized sword that was motion tracked by the game to slice the shit out of zombies. I didn't get very far into it because the sword was weighed down by a cable hooked into the machine, and I was pretty young. But it seemed rad.

Then there was another game. It was a police lightgun game where you picked up a pistol and it tracked your movements, so you could take cover and the like. I only played it a handful of times but it was good fun. Kind of expensive though. That shit eats through your quarters.

Never really seen an arcade outside of a truck stop, so I never really played much else.

Yeah I need an update on that nickle scam I don't think that would work.

Yes....Yes it did lol! Prob 95% of them worked. I once also got a local hardware store to stop selling two feet of the wood poles you use in a closest, two to three links of chain, and eye screws to make home made nunchucks. Word got around, and heard some friends of friends got turned away lol.

Barcades do more than scratch that itch for me. In many cases they are even better since a lot let you play for free and with a lot shorter (and friendlier) lines.

Ms. Pac Man was probably the one I always made sure to play.

There is a guy here in NC that has his own private arcade that he opens up once a month or so. It is all pre-1985 cabinets, and he has a good mix of machines including some pretty rare ones. He's got about 80 or so working cabinets, and used the money he gets from his open weekends to buy and refurbish more. Here is the link if anyone is in the area and interested in attending: Wieners and Losers. There isn't any pinball, which is a shame, yet totally understandable.

Brighton Pier has a pretty big one....... Buts it's awful, would occasionally jump onto guitar hero if I find myself there, once every 2 years or so. Oh and the game where you have to hit the arrows whilst a Webcam records you, that's quite fun

I'll bet you did. I think that was definitely a truck stop only 'game' though, and definitely not an official Sega release!

So many but if I had to pick just one... MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

Honorable mentions go out to Tempest, Mario Bros, Slaughterhouse, Golden Axe, Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2 and a whole bunch of pinball tables.

@tviddy: You mentioned Vancouver, I assume Vancouver, BC? If so there's an arcade place with go karts and mini golf, pool, air hockey, arcade machines, etc. just outside of Abbotsford

I'd love to go to a barcade but I don't know any in St. Louis. I'm 23 but I still had some time with arcades when i was younger. Mostly not real arcades but arcade rooms at weird restaurants or movie theaters or at some conventions.

I was at Tokyo in Tulsa, an anime convention, in Tulsa Oklahoma and they had a pretty big selection of arcades. I saw the one, the only, the WINDJAMMERS. I had never played it but I loved watching Giant bomb play. I played it for probably 5 hours over the whole time I was at the convention. I thought about going back this year simply to jam. It made me really want a Windjammers arcade. Maybe something I'll try to get when I'm older or when hell freezes over and Dave Lang creates Windjammers 2: Time to Jam.

My brother build an arcade cabinet with an old monitor and uses a raspberry pi to emulate games. I know emulators aren't perfect but they are reasonably good and I think that's something I might do in a year or so.

I remember watching the older kids play Mortal Kombat as a little guy. It was so realistic and bloody it scared the crap out of my 9 year old mind, however it was also the coolest thing I had ever seen, and the older kids playing it seemed like these mythical gods that could do no wrong. I played whatever else was there too, but that Mortal Kombat machine has always stuck with me.

When I was a kid (and I won't admit to how long ago that was) every pizza place, 7-11, and grocery store in my area had at least a couple of machines. In addition to that, there were a couple of dedicated arcades within 10-15 miles of me. My faves: Punch Out, Karate Champ, Front Line, Paperboy, Jack the Giant Killer (deep cut), Star Wars, Tron.

I miss them all, but mostly because of the controls. Console controllers can't compare to big, sturdy arcade joysticks and buttons or the sheer variety of dedicated controls for different types of games.

There were two nearby in my youngin' days and both were in malls. Both were pretty gnarly in retrospect, smelling of sweat, farts, and what I now know to be weed; but dammit, I loved 'em both.

... Although, in hindsight, neither had a Windjammers machine, so fuck 'em.

Hell yes I remember them! I try to make a trip up to Funspot in New Hampshire once a year just to blow money on their many pinball and arcade machines. Marble Madness with the trackball, that one crazy Tron game, Contra, The arcade version of Punch-Out, Puzzle Bobble. Bunch of good stuff.

I'm in Massachusetts and the other stuff around me is not great, and I'm not a bar-goer, so I don't know of any cool barcades around here. If people have suggestions around the Worcester or Natick area, I'd love to try somewhere new/closer.

@tviddy: They are called barcades now. I don't where you live but here in Columbus we have three. The games are free as long as you drink and they only charge you for pinball.

@redwing42: For pinball here in North Carolina, there is the Asheville Pinball Museum. You pay $13 at the door and play all you want. They also have classic 80s arcade games in the back.

Yeah where I live they're all gone. A new one was opening up downtown but the place went out of business before it even opened its doors.

I live within reasonable driving distance of arguably one of the top arcades in the US Galloping Ghost. I could never even try to pick an all time favorite. However a series I've recently come to love thanks to going there is DoDonPachi.

Sportsworld in Paramus, NJ was possibly the coolest place ever. I'm a bit bummed out that the younger generation just doesn't have access to what basically was gamer culture back in the day.

Laser tag, shitty pizza.....what's not to love?

Despite being alive to experience them, I never was big on arcades. There was one in a shopping center my family used to go to and I would play Street Fighter 2, TMNT, and Ridge Racer. I was never obsessively going to one, however.

Oh yeah. House of the Head is a muuuch different game than the one sega made.

Guess that'll teach me not to internet while tired.

I really loved arcades. Started by playing Donkey Kong, Galaga, Popeye, and those sorts. It was the beat em ups like Final Fight that really drew me in. Golden Axe in particular. The attract sound was SO good. Street Fighter 2 and MK was where I went bananas for video games. The idea of adding tactics and strategy to a competitive game showed me video games could be more than just button mashers. I was constantly in search of the good home port of these games. Street Fighter 2 turbo and MK2 were great SNES ports. I was content until my local arcade got a few SNK machines. I spent sooooo much money looking for a good port of Samaria Showdown. Finally got one with a 3DO from Babbages after those things started getting marked down. The Street fighter 2 and Samaria Showdown ports were fantastic.

Like yourself, the PS1 killed it for me. Still would pick up arcade fighting game ports (Samaria Showdown 3, KOF series) but games like Gran Turismo, FF7, Resident Evil, and Castlevania SOTN took over my love for gaming. The PS1 also out arcaded the arcade. The ports of Tekken were better than the arcade games, and even the console exclusive shooters like Einhander were better than what was on offer in arcades. RIP arcades.

@grizzledwolf: yeah I live in Summerland. There is an arcade up in Kelowna but I heard it's pretty shitty. I'll have to check that one in Abbotsford out. I loved going to Playdium in Metrotown too bad they closed down.

Galloping Ghost is like 20 minutes from my house, and whenever I go in I hit the Asteroids machine until I beat whatever current score is on top.

@bartok: I've never been to a barcade but they sound like a lot of fun. I would like to bring my kids though so no bars. I want to show them how Dad used to get his gaming fix.

@wolf_blitzer85:

I think I was 13/14 when I first played MK. I'll never forget the first time I saw Sub Zero rip someone's spine out. I knew right then I had to learn and watch the older teens so I could one day do that.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so I never went to any arcades. Probably for the best since I most likely would have lost a lot of money at them. =p

I had a couple of decent arcades nearby growing up. One of my best arcade memories was when I was 5 I went to Wisconsin Dells with some relatives. There was a little teal hut with a bunch of games in the campground thing we were staying at (I assume it was a camp ground, we were technically in a camper but it felt like a camp ground that also had some campers from what I remember). Not only did I go in it every chance I got, and not only did it have a 4 player Ninja turtle arcade machine, but there was also a day where it basically raining like a motherfucker all day, and I had nothing to do but sit in that arcade all day :D.

Now I'm a grown up and can just go to Galloping Ghost as a few other posters have mentioned whenever I want (which I do not do nearly enough >_>;;;; ).

I'm getting married in two weeks, and three out of my four groomsmen I wouldn't even know if it weren't for our local university arcade. It hasn't existed for quite a few years now, but it made a pretty severe impact on my life in a good way.