Arcade games in hotels.

M1A

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I remember when I was a kid, whenever we would get to the hotel, I'd scout it out for games. I remember finding them, but only in one instance do I actually remember the scene clearly.

I was staying at a Hyatt back in the 80s in Washington DC. I remember there was a Galaga cocktail in the lounge down by the lobby. I was on a "church" trip with the acolytes and we were going to serve in the big cathedral in DC, I forget what it is called.

Anyway, several of us camped by this game and played it over and over and over during the weekend. I had been to DC many, many times by this point, as I had family there, so there was no urgency for me to get out and see the sights.

I remember the great time I had with this group and playing this game late into the night. I remember the delight I had when I discovered this game.

Because of this experience, I'm particularly fond of Galaga cocktails. I have an upright, but would gladly replace it for a cocktail. I enjoy playing Galaga sitting down.

Anyone else scout out the hotels upon arrival back in the 80s? Got any memories of it?

- M1A
 
This was about 5 years ago, the wife and I stayed at the Penn Radison Hotel in Camp Hill and they had a small game room with a pinball machine, some shooting airplane game like 1942, and Pole Position. I called recently and asked if they still had the games but they don't have them anymore. :motz: Damn the bad luck!
 
Yeah, I did the same thing whenever my folks and I went on a trip and stayed at a hotel. In particular, I recall a game room at a Best Western in Kissimmee FL in the spring of '83 that had a Thief machine. It was the only time I ever saw Thief, and although I didn't play it, my dad did, and he got a kick out of the campy cop "chatter". They also had a Scramble, Ms.PacMan, Centipede, and about five others.

I stayed at another BW in PA someplace with my folks in 1982, and the main lobby had cabarets of Galaga and Ms.PacMan.

Yet another weekend trip around 1983, saw my Mom, uncle and I staying at the Holiday Inn in Norfolk, VA., whose game room had Kickman, Stargate, and Donkey Kong, and about four others. I don't recall the rest, but I do remember being disappointed that they didn't offer anything in the Pac-family! :(

Finally, in 1986, I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Port Jervis New York, which had three Midway classics... Tron, Pac-Man, and Galaga. Even by 1986, these games (especially Tron and Pac-Man) were becoming uncommon to say the least.

Kyle :cool:
 
games in hotels

My dad tolk me too the Everett Hollday Inn They had Pinball machines in with the Pool .

Boy i think that was a bad idea they had.
 
I remember my family taking the car to Disneyworld one year and the hotel we stayed at had a Tron cocktail!!! They also had a Phoenix, Gorf and some others.

I still have a picture somewhere my brother took of me beating Exciting Hour at a hotel back in 1985 or 1986. If I find it buried amongst my things I will share.

The movie theatres now all have crap, although I somewhat enjoy Confidental Mission if I'm way early to a movie and have to play something to pass the time.
 
Im also fond of the Galaga cocktail. When I was overseas my favorite bar had one and Id sit for hours at a time playing. The girls would just keep my drinks full and Id be there most of the night.

around 1980-82 When I was in high school there was a swanky motel (high class joint) not far from my house that had a full arcade next door to the inside pool. I cant remember what games they had but there were 8-10 of them. We used to sneak in all the time and play
 
Oh hell yeah, I was always scouting hotels for games. I was a late 80's, 90's kid though.

My most distinct hotel memory was at the beach when I was 9 or 10. I had saw a gameroom on the way in and wanted to go badly. That night a little after 11, I got down there with cash in hand. They had a vid or three, but I have no memory of them. What they did have was a Funhouse Pinball. Wow, it was pretty! I started playing, but of course I sucked back then, and had no concept of pin rules. After a game or two, all the sudden the lights started dimming on the game, and it said midnight was approaching. The doll in the game narrowed his eyes, and was all the sudden mean. WTF?!?!? It made it worse since midnight really was approacing. I about pissed right there. You have to remember that all kids my age were scared to death of Chucky from Child's Play.

I don't think I even finished the game I was playing. If I did, I drained the final ball really fast. I didn't come near that possessed machine the rest of the trip.

That memory has been thoroughly and vividly burned into my memory. As such, Funhouse is probably my only true grail game based on childhood memories.

I have a friend that has one, and maybe I can pry it from his hands someday.
 
When we would go to Disneyland we would always stay across the street at the Howard Johnson. They had a small game room but they had a Star Wars and it was there until the mid to late 90's.
 
I did the same when I was a kid. The one instance I remember really well was some random hotel in San Antonio. They had a small nook near the pool with a handful of games, one being a Polo Position. By this time, I was no stranger to the game, but it may have been the first time I'd seen a cockpit. That's pretty much all I did while I was there.
 
In the 1970s we'd always look for the arcade in hotels. They had to have vending machines, arcade games, and a pool. Usually the arcade consisted of electro-mechanical games and a few vids like Midway Gunfight or Night Driving.

When we used to visit relatives in Minneapolis we were shocked to discover that you had to be 18 or older to play pinball machines. I don't know if that's still the law or not but it seemed really weird.
 
When we used to visit relatives in Minneapolis we were shocked to discover that you had to be 18 or older to play pinball machines. I don't know if that's still the law or not but it seemed really weird.

I just read an article on GRM's website, and it mentions that some states/cities still have restrictions on pinballs. In Ocean City NJ, it is still illegal to play pinball on Sunday apparently.
 
Anyone else scout out the hotels upon arrival back in the 80s? Got any memories of it?
Dude, this is a great post. Like certain songs remind me of certain events in my life, certain arcade games remind me of places I've been.

We traveled quite a bit as a family and we almost always stayed at larger hotel chains with a pool. The obvious benefit of this was they almost always had great arcades. It was always the first place I would scout out. Always.

I knew every single game that was in every single arcade, bar, restaurant, grocery store and bowling alley in my town. Traveling gave you a taste of different games that for whatever reason you didn't have in your own town.

I remember sinking many quarters into Crazy Climber, Sinistar, Pole Position sit-down, Major Havoc and a ton of other obscure/uncommon games I never saw that often at home. I remember some places were notorious for having tons of bootlegs. One hotel had a crazy collection of Cinematronics games including a "Sundance", which most people have probably never seen, let alone played.

Great memories indeed.
 
I grew up in a small town and we I was a kid, like ages (10-12), my parents would take me to this hotel a few towns over for my bday. They would rent a few rooms and allow me to bring like 6 friends. It was one of the nicer Hotels I had stayed in. Had a huge indoor pool with an indoor water slide park. Off of the hotel lobby there was an "arcade" with like 5 or 6 machines. The arcade was my favorite part because it only had a handful of games but 3 of the machines were always TMNT Turtles in Time, Pigskin Footbrawl, and Super Off Road. That was the only spot where I ever saw a Pigskin Footbrawl. Totally fell in love with that machine.

BRING IN THE TROLL!
 
This is a resort hotel I was at last fall (that's '08):

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My brothers and i who were about 12, 10, and 8 at the time were staying in a hotel on vacation in Hawaii and in the Bar of the hotel right beside the entrance way was a Ms. Pac-man, a Defender cocktail a Cowboy game 2 players vrs eachother black and white (can't remember the name of the game) and some others. We would sneak in and try not to draw attention to ourselfs so we could play. I can only remember once getting the boot! haha
 
Back in 93 or 94 I got dragged to some Amway event in Dallas with my family. My mom and dad had gone to the meetings and my brothers and I had discovered the very small arcade in the hotel. There was a Galaga and a Whirlwind pinball. They both got lots of love that boring weekend, that is, until the hotel mysteriously "ran out of quarters."
 
On driving vacations in the 1980's, I would go through the hotel guides and look for hotels that had the game room icon in their description and that is where we would stay. The Holiday Inn's always seemed to have good game rooms in the 1980's. If the hotel had no game room then it was not where I wanted to stay. I usually got my way so had games to play.

Back at that time period just about any hotel would have a couple of games.

The machines I always found were Galaga and Pac/Ms. Pac. Centipede was probably the next most common machine to find. I really like Galaga since that time.
 
I'll have to look through my pictures, but most of the cruise ships we have been on usually have a few machines stashed away in a small crevice near the kid's area. I usually wander in at least to take a couple of snaps. Most are the newer Walmart fun zone style, but one ship had a couple of pins. That was interesting after midnight when they turned the stabilizers off :D.

One of the best hotel arcades was a Holiday Inn somewhere in Wisconsin, I think it was Eau Claire, but it might not be. This was one that had the Holidome with the "jungle" atrium around the pool and on one side was a stash of game machines hidden my some tropical hedges. It was great because the bushes muffled the sound so they had the games cranked. They all took tokens and somebody forgot to reset the token machine (they had noon to midnight special on Thursdays), so you got 25 tokens for $1. Man, that was sweet.

ken
 
I was staying at a motel near Newton IA last weekend, which appeared to be an old Holidome (had the indoor pool and huge recreation area, most of which is now empty), but happened to find a Turbo mini and Off Road. Last year while at Funspot, stayed at a nearby motel and while looking for a vending machine, came across their gameroom (which I didn't know they had) that had a few games, including Pac-Man :)
 
Not quite a hotel gameroom, but back in the early 80's our family went to the Lake of the Ozarks and brought my best friend. We headed out in the boat to get some bait and realized they had games at this combination bar/restaurant/bait & tackle/marina place.

We hardly fished at all that weekend, and spent everything on games!

Here's an awesome article on X-E about hotel gamerooms, "The Worst Gameroom Ever!":

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0887/
 
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