If you could choose one.......

[OregonPacman]

All of us here have our favorite games from "back in the day". Likewise, we also have favorite arcades that we always used to go to. Picture your favorite arcade. What games were there and if you could have only one of them, what would it be? If you already own this game, what is your second choice?

[OregonPacman]

My favorite arcade had Moon Patrol, Popeye, Tron, Dragon's Lair, Super Pac-man, Baby Pac-man, Paperboy and Bagman (as well as a few others that I do not remember). My favorite games were Super Pac, Baby Pac and Bagman. Making a choice for just one of them is tough but I would have to go with Super Pac-man.

[yugffuts]

Here is a sad answer. My choices would be limited to Mortal Kombat (1 or 2, both at a Drug Fair near me) or Killer Instinct at 'In the Swing'. Those are the only games I remember specifically going to arcades to play. We used to go to Sportsworld, which had a 2 for 1 token deal for $5 (to get $10 in tokens) whiched worked at In the Swing. We would go, get the tokens, and then go to In the Swing to play cause there were fewer good players there http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/smile.gif Yea, we were losers.

I guess that's pretty weak, but I'm only 26, so those games caught my interest in my teens.

[noice87]

What did the "In the Swing" Tokens look like? I get a few Sportsworld.

My favoptire Arcade growing up Besides CEC and Showbiz was Diamond Jim's in the Metro Mall in Jackson. It has closed now. They had Tempest, a Tabletop Grab Machine (Which I own). I can't remember the other games I always played the Grab machine and Tempest. So my choice would be Tempest.

[timbre]

I remember going to an ice skating rink about twice a month. They had Mario, Spy Hunter, and Moon Patrol. I would spend more time in front of Moon Patrol than on the ice. Most of the time I didn't have extra quarters so I would just watch other play.

So I would have to go with Moon Patrol.

[ChaosJohn]

It was a place across the street from Golden West College in Huntington Beach. I think it was
called Video Space Games. They had like 40 to 50 games. The ones I played the most were
Robotron, Major Havoc (dedicated), Gyruss, Ms. Pac-Man, Tapper, I Robot, Crystal Castles,
Front Line, Marble Madness, and Time Pilot 84. I also played a little bit of everything -
Battlezone, Space Invaders, Pole Position, Centipede, Tron, Star Wars, Galaga, Q*Bert,
Berzerk, Arkanoid, Frogger, whatever. I remember when they brought in Dragon's Lair and
it was a big deal game and there would be a big line to play it.

If I could choose just one, it's Robotron and I already own it. Second choice would be
Major Havoc, but I'll probably have to resign to playing that on my MAME cabinet, as
most of the people who own one of those aren't parting with them for less than 3 or 4 grand.

ChaosJohn

[GameRoomKid]

My favorite game room I will never forget.. but I can hardly remember. The story is that the restaurant that it is now used to be a restaurant but had a gift shop in. Inside the gift shop they would sell all kinds of things, comic books, lottery tickets.. you name it. It was similar to a small convienence store but just not as big. I can remember going in there and buying comic books and other goodies but the outside between the gift shop and restaurant was a HUGE arcade room. It was huge to me being only 8 or so years old.. but there was a ton of games and pins. The only 2 I can remember plain of day was Bad Dudes and Arch Rivals. The first time I played Arch Rivals I think I was addicted and I'm pretty sure that is why I got mine a couple years ago. Oh if the places around now had the games they did 20 or so years ago.. I'd be in heaven.
Here are a list of some of the places I went to that had arcades but 'not anymore.

Uni-Mart convinence store - Hogans Alley
Ben Franklin craft store - playchoice 10, then changed to Afterburner and a pin
IGA grocery store - donkey kong
Jamesway (an 80s version of todays walmart) - Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles, Spiderman, some for pin, and the egg machine that spits out the eggs.

I wish that I could go back in time and take pictures of these game room areas just to see how times have changed.

[1up]

my favorite arcade was PAK MAN in Pasadena. That place was huge, they had tons of games plus you could smoke in there http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/wink.gif.

I think the game i played most was lethal enforcers but i dont think i want one http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/smile.gif

[DogP]

My favorite was a small arcade at a bar in Ohio called the "Hamden Inn"... I used to play Spy Hunter, Rolling Thunder, Pinbot, and shuffle bowling there. I've already got the shuffle bowling, so I'd definately take the Pinbot, although I'd like all of those eventually.

I never really had a large arcade that I consistently went to growing up (besides CEC), it was mostly just a bunch of small arcades at various places.

DogP

[noice87]

Wish I could go to some of the big arcades yall talk about. I only remember one big one and we didn't stay long and don't think it was open long.

When I get a chance I am goign to go through my collection of Arcade tokens and list them on my web page and have headings for Chain (Y/N), Location, Time Open. Some of them I will not know that info unless someone remembers and emails me.

Didn't they close the Pak-Mann arcade? I have tokens that say 25th Anniversery.

[jeff]

real hard to single out 1 arcade as in the late 70s early 80s over here there were arcades everywhere.
HINDLEY ST was the place to be in the city, i remember criss crossing the road between TILT, DOWNTOWN , KALIEDESCOPE ,GINOS
and play games like
LUNAR LANDER, SPEED FREAK, INDY 800 (yes there was at least one over here),and my favourite ASTEROIDS DELUXE http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/laugh.gif
was pretty rough back in most arcades back then and you had to be careful who you were looking at (or look tougher), remember clearly being upstairs in the old TILT building on KING WILLIAM st with my mates GRIGGSY and ELIX http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif
ELIX was the little guy with the big mouth and attitude, and this tough guy comes in the area where playing at and goes up to ELIX and says "what are you starin at http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/mad.gif
ELIX wearing his ripple sole shoes ( as we all had back then )looks back and says F OFF http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/cool.gif
so tough guy punches my mate in the face http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/frown.gif
then he moved onto my other mate GRIGGSY and said the same thing, i cant remember what he said back, it wasnt as confronting as ELIX but he was a pretty handsome guy back then so tough guy slapped him in the face just for the hell of it http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/mad.gif
then he gets to me, still dont know why but he didnt say or do anything and just moved on. http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/cool.gif
thats happened to me a couple of times, hey sometimes it pays look "different" http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/tongue.gif

ahh those were the days http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/tongue.gif

[OregonPacman]

So, I guess we know the game you would choose to have from that list if you could have it, huh, Jeff? http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif

[osver]

One game would be 720. Arcades I remember playing it at - Quarters in Kirkland (but the colors were all F'd up), and an arcade in the U. District (don't remember the name - it was torn down to make room for Wizards of the Coast, which was then replaced by Tower Records).

[herbertsmart]

720 is mine too. Its my most fav. game!!! Yeah! http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/laugh.gif Its also the reason I got into the hobby.

[Mattroid]

Well, from "back in the day," it was Rampage. A few years later it was X-Men and SFII. More recently (and by that, I mean 10 or so years ago), it was T-MEK. T-MEK is still one of my favs of all time. Getting a bunch of people in on that for multiplayer was a blast!

I guess my fav arcade was the Tilt at the nearby mall...I mean, it was the only one I got to go to on a regular basis. They had all the good stuff and is where I got my start on games like SFII, T-Mek, MK, Lethal Inforcers, etc.

Other places nearby were the Stop 'n' go which had a SFII, the theater which had a Ninja Gaiden, the Two Pesos which had Avengers and later had Knights of the Round. The ol' skating rink also had a lot of the "real" classics as well as X-Men and a few shooters, I think.

[timbre]

After reading most of these I really wonder what the age grouping is? I wouldn't be surprised to find that the older the collector is the older the favorite game is. It is probably also reflected in our game rooms.

[the-f-man]

When I was young there was a CEC that had Galaga, CliffHanger (awesome), Dragon's Lair (sucked at), Gyruss, Whack-a-Mole (I really miss this one), and every other game from that era - including turds like Zaxxon.

When I got into high school there was this joint that had Rampage, Off Road, Lethal Enforcers and Crime Fighters (not the best game, but crazy sh!t like the gay leatherman looking dude that grabs you and tries to hump on you, made this a game you had to play to see what was next!)

For me though it has always been Galaga.

[Mattroid]

I'd say that's a fairly accurate statement, timbre (wow, I'm just seeing that post now?!).

One of the main reasons I'd want T-Mek over most others is because I rarely see it for sale anywhere, especially for one in good condition. If I could find one working in damn good shape, I'd have to pick it up in a heartbeat assuming I have the money/room.

Most other favorites, I see for sale ALL the time. I don't think many of the ones I'd want are very rare http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/tongue.gif

[zfcamaro]

Yeah you can tell what age someone is by the games they have usually http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/smile.gif When one person has a TailGunner and a Moon Patrol and the other has a Heavy Barrel and a Bad Dudes it kind of sets the tone...

[Spit_5_Ace]

The games that really stand out in my recollection as being earthshakingly advanced and having a real draw for me were
Lunar Lander
Asteroids
Defender - (or Avenger bootleg)
Battlezone
Space War

I remeber being on summer vacation at Sauble Beach and was playing Space Invaders at the local go-kart track/arcade (1979-1980 ish) when a couple guys wheeled in a cocktail game. This was the first time I saw or even heard of Asteroids. Needless to say I could not get my hands on enough quarters the rest of that week.

As far as only one game.........Defender would have to be my choice. Nothing warps me back to 1980 faster than flicking the power button under the control panel and trying to roll the score past a million....except maybe my white pants, salmon shirt and white cotton jacket with the sleeves rolled up.

[robxf]

There is this amusement park, Sylavan Beach amusement park outside syracuse, NY. I remember walking there every day to watch the demo screen for dragon's lair. Man that game still brings shivers to my back when i think of how different it was. I remember it costing $.50 to start and i could never afford that, so i sat for hours watching others play. I think i want to get a dragon's lair. I've just aways been worried about ld trouble or something i can't fix. Also Time Traveler was one i always wanted.

[mikecarport]

back in michigan i played the hell out of Mortal Kombat at Putt-Putt on super saturdays.

[Robotron]

We never really had any arcades locally. My first real love was Starship 1 (it was at a bowling alley), my second was Robotron (ditto), my third was Sinistar (at a small gas station). Since I have one of each of these. I would have to say Joust.

I have been hunting the ever elusive Joust for most of 16 years now. Everytime I think I'm close, it gets jerked out of my hands. Someday Joust, you will be mine!

[FullThrottle]

For me, I got into arcades in the late 80's... The place my friends and I usually went to was Fun-and-Games, at Northgate mall in Seattle. During the summer, my dad would leave money posted to a board for me everyday, so I had food/fun! I also mowed lots of yards, my friend and I had a monopoly on mowing the whole neighborhood! So quarters weren't a problem. I loved frogger, pacman, 1942, mario, asteroids, snow bros. I loved playing Ironman Offroad with my friends, pumping the quarters in! Narc, but it ate too much money I thought! PIGOUT! Pigout was one of my favorites! I gotta get a PIGOUT!

[osver]

There's been nothing arcade related (EB's still there for console stuff) in Northgate Mall for years now... where the arcade was is now an Azteca Mexican restaurant.

[FullThrottle]

Yeah, I remember when they were closing fun-n-games and they were selling off the machines! I must have been 14 or 15 years old. My guess is that it closed 10 years ago or so. I wish I could have afforded a game back then! They were liquidating fast... also missed an Indiana Jones pinball that went for $800 at a bar closing auction. God damn, didn't have enough money at the time, I truely love that pinball, and the other guy bidding was just trying to resell it! http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/mad.gif Why doesn't Seattle have a good old school arcade? Does gameworks downtown still have the vintage gameroom off in the corner? Are they still even open? Never see arcade machines out and about anymore! Sometimes at a Red Robin or something...

[osver]

Why doesn't Seattle have a good old school arcade? Does gameworks downtown still have the vintage gameroom off in the corner? Are they still even open?



There hasn't been a good old school arcade since Hi*Score closed down. Shorty's in Belltown has some classic games, and a bunch of pinball. Gameworks is still there, but I don't know about what games they have in there (I've only been in there once). A few other places have a couple games, but no big collections that I can think of. Jillians at S. Lake Union has Moon Patrol & Centipede off in a corner.

I'd say ~10 years ago is a good estimate for when that Northgate mall arcade closed. I worked in the mall for a while and was there when it closed, so it had to be in the 8 - 11 year ago range.

[machfelon]

The game I played the most was 720. Me and a friend used to ride our bikes about 5 miles to a Drug Store that had a 720 Degrees inside by the front door.... We would play that game for hours. I played it so much I would get a blister on my fingers from spinning the joy stick around and around. God I love that game. Would love to find one to add to my collection

[InstantArcade]

The arcade at my local roller rink had... Phoenix, Time Pilot, Kung Fu Master, Centipede, Buck Rogers, Space Invaders and Mikie.

If I could have just one, it would probably be Space Invaders, because it's looks so cool even when it's turn off, and it's instantly recognizable. (I already have that so next I would choose Phoenix).

[jscott]

I remember playing all the great games from Seawolf on up. I would have to say Star Wars for my 1st choice followed by Joust.

[Qupla]

Wow that is hard back in the day there was a arcade call flipper fanticy in the mall.
lol bring back a memory of mom comming and pulling me out by the ear.
spent all my papper rout money there.
they had all the good old games but think we spent most are time on astroids so that would be it.
but man there are so meny good ones.

[XXI21]

I would really love a Sea Wolf. Sea Wolf was the first game I really cut my teeth on as a teenager. I was 13 in '76 when it came out. It was all over the place. I can hear the little PT boat speeding across the screen right now! http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/cool.gif

[madmanmic]

My favorite was Punch-Out. Their was one on my College Campus. (I think I failed one of my classes because of that game). I had two cool arcades by me. One was Mr. Billiards. They had a couple of Arcade Rooms, pools tables, and that kinds of stuff. The other one was Red Baron Arcade, just a bunch of games. Both are gone now...

http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/frown.gif

[_sentient_]

Ive been playing games here as long as I can remember.......
http://www.martysplayland.com/

[juztbecause]

"back in the day" is over 25yrs ago. But I'd have to go for defender and galaga.

Place was an arcade near a bank (how convenient).
Its was called Top Hat amusements got shut down because of all the drug deals (imagine that).

[meauxmeaux]

Star Wars Cockpit

[andyman]

My back in the day is about '82 '83 (39 going on 17)

1st Defender (got it), then Stargate (got it) ,then Robotron (not yet but it will come) & Star Wars cockpit (might be coming soon) http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif

Andy.

[ENDOFLINE]

my favorite arcade back in the 80s was the local chuckecheese in garden grove, ca off of valley view blvd. sooo good. wall to wall cades, shity pizza, and an amazing music show. pure bliss. i had many o' bday partys there as a kid. i think a star wars cockpit or edot would be my ultimate arcades too.

[freebeer]

I collect what I played as a kid, the games that I still need to find are Lunar Lander, Berzerk, and Dragon's Lair.

[FullThrottle]

LOL Freebeer, we're both looking for a Lunar Lander! I try not to be obsessive over aquiring arcades, but a LL is one that I will snatch if you don't get it right when you see it! http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif Good luck on your aquisitions... hell, good luck to both of us getting LL's!! http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/smirk.gif

[punkahontas]

St. Louis here. I often played Popeye, Star Wars, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Centipede, Burger Time, Paperboy, Night Driver, Pole Position, and Battlezone at The Esqire Theatre, the Route 66 and Ronnie's Drive Ins, Pantera's Pizza, Sears game room, and Ron's Roller Rink. In fact, I was the king of the Esqire Theatre Burger Time! I'd have to say Burger Time, Paperboy, Star Wars, and Spy Hunter rank high on my wish list.

[questor]

I used to like to play Paperboy and Turkey Shoot at our local shakey's pizza..

[rm]

I'd like to find a Dig Dug, Elevator Action, and a Reactor. But if I can choose only one that I don't already have - Dig Dug.

[VideoRob]

GALAGA!!!! 11 years old, first full size game I ever played at a local diner http://forums.lymphoma.com/forums.arcade-museum.com/images/ubbgraemlins/grin.gif

[SaraAB87]

My favorite arcade (and still is my favorite arcade) is the arcade at the basement of the Skylon tower in canada. Its still quite the sizable arcade however there were more machines when I was younger, and a whole amusement park, that place was just huge, and it was ZOMG! I would have the Sega R360 out of the arcade however its not there anymore. Can someone invent a time machine? I think a lot of us here could use one!

[jerzeydevil7]

first choice tie between ms. pac man and donkey kong, but I own both so 2nd choice would be hyperball pinball, that was a fun game.

[VideoRob]

2nd choice....ASTEROIDS

[meatloaf]

1. Tapper CT....already owned! Played that thing at Showbiz Pizza constantly. I probably bought that for them! I never played the UR when I was young, so CT is the only way I accept that game in my head! (I know the UR has nice sideart...I don't have to be told)

2. Would have to be MK 1. Hate to say it, but being only the ripe young age of 27, I was in arcades later than most on this forum. First time I did the Subzero mirror match game freeze glitch, I claimed my quarter back at the counter and did it whenever I went to Gala.

I might be young...but not so young as to not know it was called Gala! Good old Galaxy World. I miss red carpet all over the place.

[retroACTIVE]

Tailgunner... cockpit! I grew up in NH and spent many summers at Weirs Beach and Funspot. There were always a ton of games... but Tailgunner was my first wow! game.

[crowbarz]

in the 70's, my family and i used to vacation in New Smyrna Beach Fl. at the N. end of the beach was the perfect arcade. it had pinball machines, gun games like RED BARRON, S.A.M.I., AMBUSH, and SPOOKS, ski-ball games, and putt-putt golf on the top of the building. my fav. game was SEA DEVIL. this is the game with the manta ray that you had to shoot. i remember when you hit him, he would spin around clockwise with his belly toward you, and gush blood from his mouth! to top it off, he would make a sound like a whailing banshee. you could here this sound above anything around the whole arcade. my second fav. game was the gun game Haunted House which i have in my home arcade now. good times!