If mall arcades still existed do you think you would of turned into one of those old dudes hanging out at them? I would love to go hit a Space Port but maybe I am just imagining myself at 13…
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No because somehow as I got older I became obsessed with how dirty public places are.
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It would be great to see kids and older people gaming together.
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I’d like to think so.
That’s kind of how I feel at a lot of shows I go to. I look just a little too weird to be mistaken for someone’s dad.
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definitely would go for couple rounds on caddilacs and dinosaurs
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I have a feeling that an arcade in the modern day, would have way more “old dudes” than young folks lol
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I would like to play Space Harrier with the rumble seat before I die.
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There are some pretty awesome arcades in and around Chicago but I don’t frequent them as much as I would like. There’s one particular spot called “Beercade” that is also a bar, which is where the money is, so all the machines are rigged to free play; from Rampage to several iterations of Mortal Kombat to pinball etc. (it’s a legit arcade with dozens of machines).
So to sum up, I would like to be more of a creepy old arcade dude but haven’t pulled it off…
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I would on occasions but they slowly got rid of pinball machines so not anymore. I would feel kind of “cool” with 40 odd years of piny experience, really smack those flippers hard.
Now they are mostly in pubs but have the level adjusted super steep so the ball just goes in the guts too easy.
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You need to travel to Asbury Park, NJ, USA. They have a playable arcade museum there.
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This is a good point. My kids go to an arcade on the shore in the summers and they will only play the “casino training” games that exist solely to take their money by promising to vend tickets (which can be exchanged for junk at the counter).
All the good coin op games from the 90s are in the back; many fall into disrepair.
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I use to go to this amazing arcade as a kid called Fantasy Island, on Long Beach Island, NJ. I was thinking about it when I was falling to sleep last night that when my family was vacationing there I was at the age that I was more into “cruising” than actually playing the games, or maybe even embarrassed to be seen by the opposite sex playing one but that “cruising” more or less amounted to the lyrics of How Soon Is Now and I would of probably had less disappointing evenings if I just wasted my $3 in quarters in 30mins or so and sulked back home after.
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I saw the Chicago Philarmonic Quartet play a Stranger Things set on Halloween.
That entire place felt sticky.
But the biggest sin of all…. No Addams Family pinball.
But great cocktails, and it was cool playing all the games. I played the Terminator shooting game, and it knocked me right back to being a kid.
I grew up in Pennsylvania, and I remember real arcades. The ones with white vector lines, and Centipede. Two that I remember. The Star Trek one where you sat in a captains chair. And a Fire engine driving Arcade that you had a partner steer the back as you steered the front.
Also, the smell of all those crt’s and circuits filling the space with a hazy ozone smell.
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