Arcade suggestions near Sunnyvale CA

frankf

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I'm going to be heading out to Sunnyvale CA in August (yeah I know I am missing CAX by a week) and was curious if there are any notable arcades out there. I see that Nickel City is a short distance away. Are there any other places I should check out while I'm out there?
 
not sure there's too much in that immediate area. You might look into golfland and see if there is one near there although they will likely be all newer games.

Not sure but I seem to recall someone telling me malibu grand prix was still open. They may have games as they used to BITD. Once again I'm not sure they're in the area you'll be in.

If you can make the trip to the bay area there is the pinball museum and the musee mechanic which are pretty cool. Or you could drive up to Santa cruz. Not sure how much free time you have. Santa cruz and the pinball museum would be the best two spots IMO although they are different directions from each other. I suppose if you weren't into pins then the pinball museum might not be the best option as they have no video games there.
 
There are several Golflands in the area, (Sunnyvale, Milpitas, San Jose), but they will almost certainly only have newer games...I haven't been to them in years, but they are still there. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is your best bet for classics if you can make the approximately 40 minute drive south.

Or the Musee Mechanique is pretty cool in SF itself. Last time I was there, they still had a working Death Race, Robotron, Battlezone, Star Wars, Centipede, Moon Patrol, Monaco GP (cockpit), and few others I'm sure I'm forgetting...

Oh yeah...Malibu Grand Prix is still there in Redwood City...also haven't been there in many years, but I can see it from the freeway when I pass by, and there are games there...again, most likely all new stuff.

So there are some options for 'ya...I'll still be recovering from CAX no doubt ;) .

Jon
 
Thanks for the info. I'll have to map out the places and pick my airport depending on what sites I want to see twice. I'll be there M - F so I have plenty of time to goof off in the evenings.
 
I wasted hours of time with Nickel city. They only have a few classics, all Jamma crap conversions in generic cabs with terrible sticks and few work.

Milpitas Golfland has a Namco Classics 2, Ms. Pac, and Galaga and always work. A really nice golf course, too. I haven't been to any others so I can't soeak for them.
I reccomend Musee Mequanique, though cab condition isn't great and most games have repro sticks.
 
There's a pizza place near the AMD headquarters (which I think is in/near Sunnyvale) that had about 7 or 8 pinball machines & a NeoGeo when I was there a year ago.
 
If you go to the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz, be aware there are 3 different arcades, each with a few classics. I didn't know this until I went last week, I found a small arcade hidden near the mini golf course that I'd never seen before. Among a few other classics, it has a very nice Marble Madness, which I played for about 30 minutes, it works perfectly. The main arcade has the most classics, not just in the "classics corner", but it also has a few others spread around, like Super Sprint, T2 and maybe one or 2 others. The classics corner itself has some nice titles, but in overall pretty bad shape in my opinion, which is a shame. The 3rd one has a Rampage, a Galaxian and some other stuff I don't remember, that one's located in about the middle of the boardwalk on the beach side. As far as I know, the Boardwalk is the best spot in the bay area for classics, hands-down.

There's a nice Donkey Kong at Jersey's Cheesesteaks on Hamilton avenue, and good sandwhiches too, that's pretty close to Sunnyvale, not a bad place to go for lunch and a beer. I think they also have a pacman cocktail, or maybe it's a Space Invaders clone? Can't remember...

I wouldn't bother with Nickel City, it's all 60-in-1 sort of stuff, nothing resembling the classics there at all.
 
There's a nice Donkey Kong at Jersey's Cheesesteaks on Hamilton avenue, and good sandwhiches too, that's pretty close to Sunnyvale, not a bad place to go for lunch and a beer. I think they also have a pacman cocktail, or maybe it's a Space Invaders clone? Can't remember...

Damn that is right around the corner from me.
I have to check that place out.
I found out a while back that an ex-girlfriend's boyfriend works there and she hangs out there,drunk.
I just need to avoid that mess.:eek:
Hopefully I can get in eat play a game or two then split.
 
I wasted hours of time with Nickel city. They only have a few classics, all Jamma crap conversions in generic cabs with terrible sticks and few work.

Milpitas Golfland has a Namco Classics 2, Ms. Pac, and Galaga and always work. A really nice golf course, too. I haven't been to any others so I can't soeak for them.
I reccomend Musee Mequanique, though cab condition isn't great and most games have repro sticks.

Yeah Milpitas Golfland out of all of them is the best . Sunnyvale is crap now , really bad . Haven't been to Nickel city in years .

The Santa Cruz beach boardwalk is the best arcade around . If your gonna go any where go there and you won't be disappointed . Its right there on the beach and theres ride and lots of stuff to do .

Heres a little article I found that has some pics and talks about the boardwalk arcade . http://kotaku.com/Virtua-Fighter-4/
 
Santa Cruz beach boardwalk is the best spot for classics here's some pics I took since the last time I was there.

SataCruz023.jpg

SataCruz024.jpg
 
So I made it to the boardwalk arcade today. Thanks everyone for the suggestion, it was awesome! The classic corner was decent, except about a third of the games weren't working. I was excited the most when I saw the robotron cab, which of course was one of the broken games when I walked up to it. The Tron was working, which is the first time I've played Tron in about 20 years. Whoa throwback...

I think more than anything the pins they had in the "Neptune's Kingdom" section were the best:
LoTR
Roller Coaster Tycoon
T3 (no I didn't bother to play that one :))
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tron
AC/DC
Family Guy

The Tron was bugged as I would get ball over when the ball was in the middle of the playfield and the Family Guy playfield was dirty to the point of causing the ball to not roll straight a good bit. All and all though it was a great trip and I'll be hitting it up again before I head back home.

Thanks again!
 
Go on the Water Log Ride , its scary , its so high and old I think its gonna fall apart when I'm on it !
 
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