the quest for a pic of my childhood arcade continues :(

vintagegamer

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the quest for a pic of my childhood arcade continues :(

As unbelievable as it is (at least to me), I still have not been able to locate a picture of my childhood arcade.

During the Holiday weekend, I'm hoping to get to the library and at least see if there's a black and white photo on microfiche somewhere. The blasted MALL office doesn't even have pics of the arcade on file!

I will not give up on this. Ever.
 
Christiana (Delaware).

A bajillion people remember the blasted arcade (Galaxy, then Champions), but noone has a pic. For whatever reason things that were fun in Delaware, when they closed, seem to take any blemish of pre-existence with them! You should have seen what I went through to get a pic of my childhood drive-in!

What's funny is I'm not even picky about it! I'd even take a pic of some kid giving their friend the finger with the arcade showing in the background!! Cripes.
 
You'd think the media or city offices would have some sort of historical archive.

That would be the logical way to go, you're right. Any kid who ever held a quarter in their hand in Delaware from about 1977 until 1995 or so knew of that blasted arcade. And now it's like trying to find Moses' jockstrap.
 
The City probably has owner information in their business license records if they go back that far. Which they probably do. It's all public information so you should be able to go dig around through that. Then if you can contact the owner they will almost certainly have pictures and maybe even some old shwag from back in the day.
 
The closest I ever got to getting info on it was when I bought my Robotron cab, now currently owned by Wick. The guy worked for Champions, and had to go to all of the different locations in the area. He remembered the one in Christiana, and remembered it being a Galaxy before that. I told him if he had any pics, or knew anyone else who might have some, I'd love to have copies. He said OK. And then I never heard from him again. :(
 
Man, would I love to hop into a DeLorean, go back to the early 90s and give a Sports Almanac...err...camera to my younger self to take at least a roll of pictures per arcade location that I hung out at.

There were three main ones for me. Local bowling alley (demolished), local diner/candy shop (now a mediterranean restaurant) and Aladdin's Castle (now some food place) at the mall. Sad. :(

Good luck in your search!
 
Man, would I love to hop into a DeLorean, go back to the early 90s and give a Sports Almanac...err...camera to my younger self to take at least a roll of pictures per arcade location that I hung out at.

There were three main ones for me. Local bowling alley (demolished), local diner/candy shop (now a mediterranean restaurant) and Aladdin's Castle (now some food place) at the mall. Sad. :(

Good luck in your search!

I totally hear you!! And I WILL get a pic of this place, I SWEAR IT!! And when I DO GET ONE, I already have plans to make a sign for my garcade that matches it.
 
that and cameras were kind of expensive and not everyone had one. Especially kids. Add to this the cost to develop film and the odds get even less that anyone would take pics.

Yes, I don't remember us ever taking a camera to the mall back in the early 80s. But, maybe somebody else could have if there was a birthday party there or something.

Besides, my Kodak "Disc" camera only took 15 photos, IIRC... :D
 
I feel ya man, I'd love to find pictures of my old arcade:
It was either "lazer one" or "laser one" arcade in westgate mall austin texas. The entire mall was torn down to make room for a grocery store called HEB Central Market South around 1995.
 
that and cameras were kind of expensive and not everyone had one. Especially kids. Add to this the cost to develop film and the odds get even less that anyone would take pics.

Exactly.

The prevalence of cameras in phones and other devices lately, in addition to most of those photos being instantly tossed onto the internet to be shared with thousands of people, really spoils us to the concept of how little random, pointless stuff was photographed just 25 years ago.

We kind of expect photos of everything we're looking for to simply be there, when in reality, someone at that time taking a specific photo, developing it, keeping it, scanning it, and finally sharing it online is kind of a longshot.
 
I keep thinking I could at least find a newspaper article of its grand opening somewhere

That's a good bet. Hopefully the local press covered it.

Unfortunately my local arcade only got visits from the press for a story when they were running something about how video games were destroying the minds of children, and then later, how Mortal Kombat was programming a generation of murder-crazy teenagers.
 
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