What games were located WHERE, in the 80s (geolocation)?

Well, in my little podunk town of Orangeburg, SC in the middle of nowhere, the operator at our local arcade in the middle 80's had some top-notch stuff.

There he had on location an environmental Discs Of Tron, an actual Exidy Chiller (as well as Combat and Crossbow), a Two Tigers, Bank Panic, and then more common stuff like Moon Patrol, Tutankham, Elevator Action, Mr Do and such. You could find the rarest stuff in unlikely locations, apparently.
I saw something similar down the road from you in Augusta Georgia. I mostly hung out in arcades from about '82 - '85. Our arcades were fairly small, but seemed to have pretty popular games. Long lines for Pole Position, Dragon's Lair, Star Wars, Paperboy, etc. Always a couple of guys on Golden Tee.
 
I saw something similar down the road from you in Augusta Georgia. I mostly hung out in arcades from about '82 - '85. Our arcades were fairly small, but seemed to have pretty popular games. Long lines for Pole Position, Dragon's Lair, Star Wars, Paperboy, etc. Always a couple of guys on Golden Tee.
I forgot about the Space Ace, Dragon's Lair (w/ overhead monitor), Star Wars, and Paperboy we had on location. No lines tho, I had the EDOT all to myself. The lines were just a a couple years before my time I guess
 
Wow!

A local pizza shop I rode my bike to in Pike Creek DE always had Asteroids, and at least 1 other game. The alternate slot, during my tenure, held:

Commando
Paperboy

I don't remember PB being there for very long.
 
I saw something similar down the road from you in Augusta Georgia. I mostly hung out in arcades from about '82 - '85. Our arcades were fairly small, but seemed to have pretty popular games. Long lines for Pole Position, Dragon's Lair, Star Wars, Paperboy, etc. Always a couple of guys on Golden Tee.
Golden Tee? The first release wasn't until 1989.??

It seems like there sre a lot of Mr. Do! fans Down South for some reason. They must of devided up the area with Dig Dugs. Because California had mostly Dig Dugs, although I always liked Mr Do!.
Arkanoid is another game that seems like alot of Southern States got. While California got alot of Breakout and Super Breakout? Arkanoid good game though😁
It is kind of an interesting subject, though

Maybe its just me but I kind of think of Golden Tee as the line where It was a second era for arcades, before Golden Tee and after Golden tee. The games just got really advanced at that point. Don't get me wrong some really great games came out in that era but I wouldn't consider it "Golden Age".
:50:
 
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Well, in my little podunk town of Orangeburg, SC in the middle of nowhere, the operator at our local arcade in the middle 80's had some top-notch stuff.

There he had on location an environmental Discs Of Tron, an actual Exidy Chiller (as well as Combat and Crossbow), a Two Tigers, Bank Panic, and then more common stuff like Moon Patrol, Tutankham, Elevator Action, Mr Do and such. You could find the rarest stuff in unlikely locations, apparently.

:50:
Discs of Tron was my jam for awhile there. Never saw Chiller, kind of a weird oddball game🤣 Yeah actually you never knew what you were going to find at some of those small Arcades, I guess it was partially how much the operator was into what would get the kids to drop the quarters?I am sure some operators were more into Video games themselves than other operators?
 
I forgot about the Space Ace, Dragon's Lair (w/ overhead monitor), Star Wars, and Paperboy we had on location. No lines tho, I had the EDOT all to myself. The lines were just a a couple years before my time I guess
Exaggerating a little to say 'long lines' I guess…except I remember when they brought in the Star Wars cockpit….we lined for that one!
 
Exaggerating a little to say 'long lines' I guess…except I remember when they brought in the Star Wars cockpit….we lined for that one!
Yeah, The Star Wars Arcade was a pretty big release. There were definitely kids standing around that game, just watching and waiting to get on that one.
Funniest thing I think the biggest crowd was ever around was Karate Champ (1984) It was like an hour to get on that machine first weelend. Hilarious you rarely hear about that game. Although a lot of hub bub around Commando (1985), that took awhile to get on at release.
It was always funny to walk into an arcade and see like 8 dudes around a game. :50:
 
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Tinley Park's Just for Fun had Bally, Williams, Midway, Gottlieb and others.

The BIG mall arcade was Lincoln Mall. That had pretty much everything - including Exidy II - they had a Tail Gunner II back in the day.
 
You could pretty much find anything in Idaho traveling around to different malls, pizza joints, movie theaters, dedicated arcades, and grocery/convenience stores. Bowling alleys and roller skating rinks always had killer arcades too.

What always blew my mind was one the M&W markets here in Boise that had a Pop-Man (Pac-Man knockoff with a Popeye head and really horrible mazes and controls made by Potomac Mortgage Company). I would have loved to listen to that sales pitch to get that game placed. So random. Absolute worst game ever made.

IMG_3856.jpeg

Thanks,
Jason
 
Where I was in southern CT from 1982-1989-ish (when I was old enough to actually be paying attention) had the standard fare scattered all over (convenience stores, pizza parlors, lobbies for department stores, malls, fast food joints, gas stations, diners, laundry rooms, even hotels and hospitals had game rooms- shit, they were everywhere) but there were a few spots I could get to like Arnie's Place and Milford Rec that had a LOT of machines all in one spot.
And they had girls there too 🥹
I remember Bourne Go-carts when I was out on the Cape in the summers back then had quite a few machines too actually.
There were mall-cades scattered around but nothing like the Time-Outs and Alladin's Castles I see were in other areas.

Atari
Nintendo
Midway
Konami
Universal
Gottlieb
Centuri
Sega
Taito...
Those come to mind immediately.

I don't really recall seeing a lot of bootlegs or games that I have since learned are rare birds.
Lots of the popular titles from all the above brands though, and they were everywhere you could see someone could stuff one.
I sucked at all of them but I did get to play a lot of what existed at the time because I tried pretty much every machine I saw instead of obsessing over any particular one.
And the lines for some of them were reeeeally loooong sometimes- marquees with quarters across the entire frame.

Now I think about it, pins were a rarity by that point too.
I remember seeing far more of those when I was younger (1976-1981) living in western MD and that was pretty much the last time I saw a lot of Bronze Age stuff in the wild too.
By the time we left MD most of what I remember seeing was Space Invaders and Pac-Man everywhere.

Strange to think how much all of that changed in such a short span of time- especially when still in 1983 everyone I knew figured that arcades would be a forever thing.
Man...
 
Where I was in southern CT from 1982-1989-ish (when I was old enough to actually be paying attention) had the standard fare scattered all over (convenience stores, pizza parlors, lobbies for department stores, malls, fast food joints, gas stations, diners, laundry rooms, even hotels and hospitals had game rooms- shit, they were everywhere) but there were a few spots I could get to like Arnie's Place and Milford Rec that had a LOT of machines all in one spot.
And they had girls there too 🥹
I remember Bourne Go-carts when I was out on the Cape in the summers back then had quite a few machines too actually.
There were mall-cades scattered around but nothing like the Time-Outs and Alladin's Castles I see were in other areas.

Atari
Nintendo
Midway
Konami
Universal
Gottlieb
Centuri
Sega
Taito...
Those come to mind immediately.

I don't really recall seeing a lot of bootlegs or games that I have since learned are rare birds.
Lots of the popular titles from all the above brands though, and they were everywhere you could see someone could stuff one.
I sucked at all of them but I did get to play a lot of what existed at the time because I tried pretty much every machine I saw instead of obsessing over any particular one.
And the lines for some of them were reeeeally loooong sometimes- marquees with quarters across the entire frame.

Now I think about it, pins were a rarity by that point too.
I remember seeing far more of those when I was younger (1976-1981) living in western MD and that was pretty much the last time I saw a lot of Bronze Age stuff in the wild too.
By the time we left MD most of what I remember seeing was Space Invaders and Pac-Man everywhere.

Strange to think how much all of that changed in such a short span of time- especially when still in 1983 everyone I knew figured that arcades would be a forever thing.
Man...
You could probably get some games from California/Nevada sent over in a shipping container, If you could get a big enough order together and spread it out over a few different buyers? That's about the only way I could see getting games out to the Islands. Probably take some leg work and logistics though. Between California and Nevada you could probably find pretty much everything you are looking for.
 
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