My old arcade hang out is nothing but a memory now...

[kstillin]

Most of my old haunts are physically gone.

Take Ten at Woodhill Mall- the old mall was demolished and only Target remains. They set up new shops around the perimeter of the parking lot. They stayed in business a LONG time- They may have had 50 games back in the day. Some specific ones I recall are Star Trek cockpit, Jungle King, Exidy Fax, and a Quantum!

Putt Putt Golf and Games on Devine Street was razed along with a GodFathers Pizza and a Best Western for a strip mall that now contains a Staples, BiLo, and several other shops. The actual plot that Putt Putt sat on is vacant green that is bordered by access roads. They had tons of games including most Sega vectors, most of the Cinematronic vectors, and my favorite, Crazy Climber. I think I have an old photo of myself playing Crazy Climber taken by a buddy in Photography class in High School. This was the first place I saw a Dragon's Lair.

The last main hangout was a Robo's arcade. A local dry cleaning / laundromat owner branched out into arcades and had 3 of these scattered around town. The building is still there and was home to a gambling room back when Video Poker was big here. The adjacent laundromat is still a check-cashing business that was set up the same time the poker room was.

I could go on, but these were the most popular for me.

Kerry

 

[natey_boy]

To continue my story, after in the time that video arcades were huge betamax was going strong and vhs had just came out. We had a local video store in Columbia Falls called Flathead Video. There was a guy who ran northern vending and he had a place called Twilight Zone Arcade. I remember being there and playing a Space Shuttle Pinball, WWE Superstars, and a dual screen nintendo with hogans Alley and Duck Hunt in it. It was quite the place until videos became more popular and the arcade had to move to make way for the expansion. He then moved (will get to that in a minute). After he was gone all that was left were 4 games, a VS SMB, Silk Worm, Track & Field, and a motorcycle pinball game that kept yelling "Faster, faster, you're running out!" lol.

So anyhow in Whitefish the Mountain Mall opened up and everytime we went there I stopped in the arcade and played a few games. This is where the Twilight Zone moved to. I remember a ton of games that were conversions. I also remember beating Lethal Enforcers for the first time there at my cousins 8th birthday. I played a Road Riot 4wd inside a space harrier cabinet (with space harrier controls lol), and even played a Superstars in a blue DK Cabinet. He also had a Star Trek Pinball, the foosball table, and what not. By the early to mid 90's his games were so broken down and so converted they werent worth much other than parts. The mall never really did all that well because Whitefish was mostly known for the Big Mountain Ski Resort.

I miss the days of old. Now the only place to play a game is in the Kalispell Center Mall in the arcade they have. Its got a Pacman, a Pole Position which is in great shape (well as of 5 years ago they were there), and some newer shooters. I spent many a quarter in that place kicking everyones ass at Off Road. Wow how the days go by. I am going to try and track down a few people and see if I can get pictures of the places I mentioned. Would be nice to relive the memories a little longer.

Anyhow awesome thread again and great stories. Oh by the way A few of you are from Montana on here and a woman I believe is in that area, if you see this send me a message and I have a couple leads for you on some games in that area!

 

[Crazy Climber]

Nice post, Oh how I wish I took more pictures of the arcade/bowling alley/roller rink days in the 80's. My Mom claims she has a box FULL of pics from that era but I have searched high and low...

 

[MasterFygar]

Such a bittersweet story... my old hang outs have been long since gone, the arcade in the Mercer (?) Mall and this skating rink in WV... the rink has reopened since then under new owners but the games have all been replaced by widescreen TVs playing Guitar Hero and Halo if their website's pics were any indication. I considered checking back in but decided it would piss me off too much and I'm better off just going by how I remember it

 

[paulliadis]

It's always heartbreaking when an arcade or another haunt from our past closes. My favorite arcade closed nearly 10 years ago but it still stings when I walk past where it used to be.

At least the place turned into a restaurant and not some bank or cell phone place, which is usually what the cool stuff turns into around here when it goes out of business.

Thanks for posting this, though. It really does sound like a cool place.

 

[nesjess]

Story

Thanks for sharing Natey. It's amazing how much we can remember from when we were kids. I don't know how good my auditory/visual memory is right now, but it was spot on back then.

I remember almost every game that he had at one point. Championship Sprint, Double Dragon, SFII (and variations), Golden Axe, Golden Axe: RODA, Wrestlefest, Strider, Willow, Final Fight, etc. He occasionally had a pin as well, but the only one that I remember distinctly was Taxi.

Another thing to note is that I believe he opened the place after he had "retired" from a previous profession. The man was 80 when he finally called it quits. To have that kind of dedication to such a small business for that long is amazing. I doubt he was making very much profit (if any) especially during the last few years.

Maybe when I retire, I can open up a candy/diner/arcade and call it Frank's Alley or something to that effect. I probably wouldn't make any money, but it would be an interesting endeavor.

 

[nesjess]

With the recent thread on old arcade hangouts, I was brought back to my old thread. I decided to bump this since the image links I had got deleted and I can no longer edit them. Here are some of them again. I can't find the picture of Frank though, unfortunately.

A little update on this, I actually contacted the editor of the local paper there about the article and told him my story of missing out on visiting one last time and shooting some photos. He said he'll see if he can dig up any photos they may have. He's also going to put my "story" in the "Letters to Editor" section in their next issue to get the word out and see if there are any locals who have pictures to share with me. Very cool of him to do so. I'll report back if I get any photos. Issue comes out April 24. Crossing my fingers.

 

[nesjess]

Just a quick update. The local paper came out with the new issue today and added my request into the "Letters to the Editor." Still crossing my fingers.

http://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue0704/Letters-to-the-Editor.html

 

[nesjess]

Just to update this, I did hear back and I was sent a picture but it was only of the front. So unfortunately, no photos of the inside. It was worth a try.

 

[Itsgameoverdude]

Thanks guys.


The real point of my post was to share how important those childhood memories are to me and hopefully those of you who still have the opportunity to experience your childhood hang out again will take it without hesitation if there's a possibility it will close.

I want to go home and play games now.

+1 Good point to your thread. I have seen the same thing happening with mine over the last 10-12 years. Only 1 exists to my memory and that is Cedar Point, which was discussed not too long ago in a neighboring thread.

Good thread