Badmovies.org Forum

Hey all.
Share your memories of those glorious establishments where kids (maybe adults) would gather round and play games.  Of course nowadays the term "arcade" is synonymous with video games, but way back in the day they had pinball machines, Skee Ball, electromechanical games (often with a rifle controller), and shooting galleries.  I remember an arcade at the Oregon coast had tons of Skee Ball (a dime for 9 balls!) and a shooting gallery with all sorts of critters like buzzards, squirrels, rats, etc. sporting targets on them that you could shoot and try to get tickets for prizes (most of which I got candy).  That gave way to video games, of course, and I have great memories of them too!  Share all your arcade experiences!  Skee Ball, shooting galleries, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, House Of The Dead, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.

I remember when they had entire rooms dedicated to playing FASCINATION

(https://i0.wp.com/farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4873221613_7a2c7b6f31.jpg)



My father loved the traditional pinball machines. I always wanted to play the games with shooting and explosions and stuff. Like the submarine games.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-67I_deNDo_s/Ul-Z7fZgJiI/AAAAAAAAA2k/AwPNkaVBSg0/s1600/Periscope_machine1.jpg)

I just love this virtual arcade video.  Definitely captures the feel of 80s arcades.
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YE4S5i6atY#)
This arcade was a staple in my early teens.  WUNDERLAND!  A nickel arcade with TONS of games-- this location (SE Portland) actually still exists!  I only went to this one once, while I was at the adjoining AVALON theater to see TIME RIDER.
(https://www.thingstodoinportland.org/images/zenfolio/img/s11/v37/p517618126-3.jpg)
Some arcade images to take you way back:
(http://im.ziffdavisinternational.com/ign_es/screenshot/l/las-recreativas-mas-legendarias-de-la-historia/las-recreativas-mas-legendarias-de-la-historia_bvqb.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2604/3928208574_f0985c0fb9_b.jpg)
(http://www.bitrebels.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/80s-style-arcade-room-2.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UfregXWTjrY/TucW3no817I/AAAAAAAAnEQ/kkbkdf0ZGpc/s1600/Arcade+Rooms+in+the+1980%2527s+%252810%2529.jpg)

Ill always remember how the arcade versions of certain games where just of much higher quality then their console equivalents

Me and a couple of buddies made sure we had enough quarters to get through this one.
 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgF_VMQ19aA#)

We used to go to this arcade at the Salisbury Beach amusement park when I was a kid in the 1970s:

(https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/newburyportnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/10/610af5e3-aef8-5daf-af26-c74e074c1060/53e7e1897d33c.image.jpg)

There were also arcades at Canobie Lake Park (New Hampshire) and Revere Beach (Massachusetts - - but then they tore down the amusement park and built a bunch of condos and apartment buildings . . . bastards!)

I missed this era by about a decade, maybe less, but I remember when this massive arcade in a nearby mall was where the cool kids a few years older than me hung out. My cousin used to go wearing a real short skirt and carrying  a roll of quarters for the machines and she'd come back and tell me stories and made it sound so awesome there. (Of course I just plain envied her life anyway!)

Well then came the console era, Nintendo, Sega, PS, and that A-list arcade just one day pulled bars up over its doors and there it sat all through my high school years, untouched, like a 1980s time capsule. You could look right in the doors at Frogger and Pac-Man and DK, and all these once trend-setting games just sitting there in the darkness.

Finally one day the mall evicted every tenant on that side of the structure to renovate for shops with lifestyle center designs, and my friend Rob called me and said get down here, quick!

I got there in time to see workers smashing up all these '80s vintage game consoles and throwing their carcasses into dumpsters. My friend thought the ear-breaking destruction was like Christmas in summer but to me it felt more like murdering the past.

Anyway, that's my arcade memory!