/vr/ - Retro Games

Yeah, Dorky's down in Tacoma, WA. They're on the bar district, so they serve alcohol, too. It's fuckin' baller. I'm only matched at Galaga by those competitive assholes (which is pretty sweet considering most of my practice came from Namco Museum for GBA). Also Spy Hunter can be a horrible, horrible game. It's AVGN worthy when you spawn, hit the gas, turn onto the road, and immediately get rammed off and die again

>>355339
They even made the local variety program

http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine/Tacomas-arcade-from-the-past-201289151.html

I'm the guy in the red shirt playing Galaga while Caroline and Les are talking. That shot they use from Galaga is also mine. All the poetry in that game and they use my one shitty shot. I am beyond pissed.

Haven't been in a few years, but Salem Willows in Salem, MA is an arcade park with a bunch of coin-ops (a handful of REALLY old stuff too, Love Testers, etc.) and a nice lineup of pinball machines. Go get some lo-mein from the Chinese place next door, go back for another round on the Twilight Zone table.

I live ten minutes away from the only Playdium left in Canada.

>>355339

!!!

I love Dorky's but haven't been there in almost a year. I live in north slope tacoma near the parkway.

>>355339

Do they still wipe the Asteroids scores? I used to kill time on that machine while waiting for the 594.into seattle.

>>355339
That sounds like the kind of place I would love to run someday.

>>355387
I live in CT, might be worth a drive up for me if I can get some of my friends to join me.

>>355441
It's pretty cool, and once you're done, you have the rest of Salem to check out.

I go to Arcade Odyssey in Miami. Best arcade in the state. Love it. All the arcades are from the owner's personal collection. He also switches out machines pretty frequently to spice up the place and make sure it's not same old, same old all the time. I'll dump pics I took of the place if you guys don't mind.

>>355467

Xmen 6 players baby!

>>355450
Yeah, Salem looks gorgeous. I went to college in Worcester, and I kind of wish I had checked it out when I still lived somewhat closer. Maybe I can do an arcade trip weekend with friends. I know there's supposed to be an amazing arcade up in New Hampshire.

>>355479
A local roller rink had X-men 6-player when I was a kid. I wonder what happened to that machine once it closed down.

>>355479

They have the first 4 House of the Dead games as well.

>>355501
That's gorgeous. I can almost guarantee 2 gets the most play.

>>355501

They even have japanese imports like this Hakuto No Ken game

>>355523

I spent the most time in this arcade last time playing these 3 bad boys.

All my life there have never been arcades near me. I've never been in one.
I have played on one machine, though. When I was younger we got a Super Mario Bros. machine from a yard sale. It was really fun in our home but to get it to work, we had to manually touch these two cables every time. Eventually my mother sold it to some punk for 25 dollars.

>>355523
I know for a fact that I would, without realizing it, end up yelling ATATATATATATA while playing that.

>>355535

Lots and lots of pinball. Spent the most time playing the Super Mario one.

>>355543

There is a part in the game where you get to do the ATATATATATA thing where all the pads come at you and you need to punch them as much as you can at a small time frame. It's fun as hell.

>>355523
A kiddie arcade around here used to have that. What I wouldn't give to see it again.. it was a great workout and hard as balls.

>>355557
The only pinball I found in my town is a half-busted Lord of the Rings table. It's normally a fun table but half of it doesn't work properly, making it frustrating.

There are two tables in a mall a town over, but they're also poorly maintained, and too far of a drive for Dale Earnhardt Jr pinball.

>>355557

Time Crisis woo!

I had to re-read that sign a couple of times to make sure that it wasn't a dentist's office.

Planet Harriers took me a while to get used to but it's pretty decent after the learning curve.

>>355440
They shut the machines off every night to save power, which wipes most of the older games (unless they shell out for some kinda chip)

If they kept 'em, I'd be the only guy left on Galaga. It's probably for the best since modern flash games have Daily High Scores so the plebs can feel important

>>355425
I've spaced out my visits, too, sadly. Half my friends are unemployed so we generally chill at my place and have fun on the cheap.

>>355594
Holy crap Planet Harriers!!!! I've wanted to play this for years now and have never found a cabinet. Goddamn why doesn't Sega release it for download somewhere?

>>355606

You can see the japanese instructions in the pic. The owner knows his shit with arcades. He also has anime playing on TVs in the place too. They have a lot of cosplay nights every weekend and tournaments. I didn't get a pic of all the modern consoles they have. They have them all hooked up to monitors and tvs with 3D chairs that vibrate. Shit's awesome.

This is from their restroom.

>>355467
Those candy cabs are beautiful.

>>355639
Tingle goin' hard

>>355535
Every arcade is practically legal bound to have a metal slug game, its just such a token of the gaming era

>>355704

Forgot to mention that's my last pic of the place. I'll probably take more pics of the modern stuff next time I go. Place is pretty far from me so I only go about once a month.

>>355689
That Super Mario Bros table looks really fun. Does it have good sounds and lights?

>>355585

i hear ya. i went a year stretch with no job in this city. hell if i don't still love it though.

what're your initials on galaga? i'll keep an eye out for them

>>355723

Yep the pinball machines there are pretty well maintained since they're from the owner's personal collection. The game also have a platforming part in it where you use the flipper buttons to make mario jump and get through obstacles for extra points.

Portland, Oregon here. Ground Kontrol is the obvious choice (look it up), but the crowd that hangs around there can get irritating at times. I personally prefer my old standby dive bar, O'Malley's, for their Doctor Who and Twilight Zone pinball boards. There was a bar on 82nd Avenue called The Agenda for a while, which had the new (2010 I think) NBA Pinball, which was way more fun than you might think. Unfortunately they went under and now it's a strip bar called Assets. Bleh.

Rocco's Pizza used to have three solid pinball games and a multi-arcade machine at any given time before they closed up shop, counting the two in Rocco's Bar. My favorite LotR board was there - you could nudge the shit out of it and it wouldn't tilt. Last I recall, they had The Sopranos in the restaurant, and Spider-Man and Gilligan's Island in the bar. Also, the multi-arcade was broken half the time. You could play a mean game of Burger Time on it, though.

I worked there for 3 years.

Ever go to My Three sons? its also in CT, its got a couple cool games.

>>355838
I've not been there. A quick google tells me it's in Norwalk, which is quite a ways from me (Wallingford). Is it worth the drive down?

I have a nickel arcade called Wunderland in my city. The place used to be an awesome arcade but it's been going downhill steadily over the years. They used to have a huge variety of games, a whole wall of pinball machines and even a small section of free play games. Every time I go there though they seem to have less actual games than the last visit. Most of my favorites, like virtual on and gauntlet, are gone now. It's mostly just the redemption games that are left.

I remember eight years ago the place would be packed at night. The last few times I've been there though it was pretty dead, it's really sad.

I have really hazy memories of going to some place around the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina when I was really small but I cannot for the life of me remember what the place was called. I do know that it had at least two floors and that I played one incarnation of Virtua Fighter there.

The only arcade nearby is at a bowling alley a few minutes from my house. It's not huge, but it does have some cool games like Time Crisis, Silent Scope, 2 DDR machines, a few racing games and some old school stuff like Galaga, along with good old pinball machines. Only problem is, it's in horrible shape. A handful of machines straight up didn't work. They had, if I remember correctly, Capcom vs SNK 2, but the screen was tinted bright green and you could hardly see what was happening. One of the DDR machines had no fucking music, and one of the racing games I played, the wheel was so fucked up it was literally impossible to drive straight. It's pretty tragic, really. A few years back it was awesome, but apparently it's been neglected quite a bit since that time.

no. All I have is Dave&Busters

>>355876 here

>>355809
It's a shame Rocco's closed down man. My friends and I would go there for pizza every time we went to visit Portland.

When you say Ground Kontrol has an irritating crowd, what do you mean? Is the place worth a trip to Portland for?

There are a few arcades were I live but they kind of suck. They are all Chinese operated which is not a bad thing in itself but every machine in there is either some version of King of Fighters or Initial D. That's it.

There's a placed in Houston called Joystix, it's both a bar and a retro arcade. First and Last friday of the month you can pay 15 bucks for a wristband and they set all the games to free play, so you can play old-school arcade and pinball machines while you drink. good times, I met my fiance there.

>>355757

CDB. They're my initials, and really easy to input with a joystick. What do you play, mostly?

>>356016

colin?

>>355978
Yeah, it's worth going if you're not close to any other major metro area. If you go during the afternoon or on a weeknight it's pretty tolerable.

The people who work there are so-so attitude-wise. Most of the people who go there are totally fine, but since it's also a beer bar, it has regulars (like any bar) and they tend to be the kind of people you always hated being associated with in arcades: game hogs, snide and superior about their abilities, there to show off rather than have a good time. Most of them aren't even very good. They're fine if you're looking for rivals, but they're cliquish and they make me feel uncomfortable when I go there, especially if I play a fighting game. You know that cliquish nerd type? The "that guys" from every /tg/ thread? That's these guys. But like I said, they're not the majority at all. Just a minority that somehow always makes its presence felt. If you're used to that it's no problem.

I usually just stick to the pinball arcade on the second floor, and it's fine.

Theres a mini golf place with a few arcades (used to have three times as many, barely has any now).

Chuck E Cheese and Dave n Busters are the only places with arcades these days and generally it's just really old and beat up barely working machines. I've never seen, like, a SF4 Arcade.

>>356138
fuck.

>>356117
Here's a photo showing about half or 60% of the bottom floor. They pack 'em in, the way God intended.

>>356149
And here's part of one wall of the pinball level. I guess they probably have about 30 machines. It's been a long time since I went, actually.

>>356173
According to the website, it's 28 pinball boards and 90+ arcade games, but some of those are in multi-game cabinets.

Pinball Pete's in Ann Arbor, MI. Best arcade in the state.

I seem to remember the Winchester Mystery House having a little arcade with old coinops on the grounds.

Which is an added bonus to an already cool thing.

>>356117
>>356173

I tend to stay away from fighting games anyways, I'm not too competitive, but I can see how a group like that could kill the atmosphere. I like an arcade where I can have fun playing co-op with random strangers, playing games online just doesn't match the feeling of playing next to an actual person. And it's got to have pinball which there's plenty at GK. I'll have to make a point to go there next time I find myself in Portland, probably not something I'd base a whole trip around though.

>not this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8zsm4_twvQ

>>355289
>ct
Where bro? West Hartford here!

We should meet up and make an arcade, I have a few neo geo games

i was playing a ton of retro consoles last night at the Emporium on Milwaukee Ave [Wicker Park] Chicago. They have a shitty craft beer selection but oh man...so many awesome old titles.

>>356238
I live in Lansing and have thought about going over there one day, what do they have there? Is it worth the drive?

>>356173
I want tot play the Rocky and Bullwinkle pinball! I was only ever mediocre at pinball, but it's fun.

Nothing but Dave & Buster's. They have fucking Fruit Ninja. A tablet game. That's pretty much their focus now.

>>356942
Oh man, that fruit ninja is just 2 much! So fany! LOL


...sigh.

The last arcade I came across here in Ohio was at a local mall and had about 5 games shoved into a space the size of a janitors closet. That was nearly 10 years ago. I really miss arcades, hope they eventually make a comeback.

there's one near me called "8 on the break" that has a few good machines. i like pop'n music, metal slug, and house of the dead.

Ohio here, only arcade I've ever seen around here is up at Cedar Point in Sandusky. Nice enough arcade, didn't get to spend too much time in it but I had fun playing some Donkey Kong for a bit. My local pharmacy used to have a DK Jr cabinet a long time ago. Used to get a few quarters off my grandpa and play it as a little kid. I always wonder what happened to it.

If anyone else knows of any arcades in north east Ohio I'd love to know.

>>355289

Holy Shit, I've spent so many hours of my life there. Went Mini-Golfing there when I was like 5, went to lock ins in high school. Makes me sad it closed.

but hot damn if it didn't cheer me up seeing it on the front page of /vr/. I love this board

got a gameworks near me a couple towns away so from time to time i head over there and just get my ass blasted from the arcade star wars game where you are in an X wing and you go slap the shit out of tie fighters.

>>356942

Dave & Busters is the shittiest place I've ever seen

no fighting games aside from fucking 1980s tekken and random ass shit

Haha, wow, a lot of CT folks in here, huh? Pretty much the only one that I've been to multiple times in the state is Golf Land and Games in Vernon, which has had good machines sometimes, but they seem to change a whole lot, so they're probably got all those 'arcade versions of iphone games' going on.

Virginia Beach here. Flipper McCoys is the last non-Dave and Busters arcade in the area. It's down by the ocean front and is pretty cool, all things considered. They've got a bunch of pinball games, and lots of older cabinets you can play for a quarter, along with some newer fightan and shootan games.

They've got pool and some carnival style games in the back too. Like, there's a fake saloon with fake guns in front of it, you pay 50 cents and shoot bottles and anamatronic shit.

It's alright, I just wish the owner and the people who worked there gave more of a shit.

Not sure if this qualifies for this board, but there was an arcade at my mall where I used to play Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 and F355 Challenge.

This place is close to me. Check it out.

http://yestercades.com/

>>357168
Trumbull county here. There's sadly fuck-all in the way of coin-op fun to be had. The Eastwood Mall's "arcade" is a cruel fucking mockery of its former self. No arcade in the Southern Park Mall either. Standalone arcades in Ohio seem to have died off in the mid-nineties.

OH, SHIT. I forgot, there IS an arcade of sorts at Jamie's Flea Market, but I haven't been there in years.

>>358585
Flea market AND arcade? Holy shit, I'd live there on weekends.

>>355865
I live in Norwalk. Hell fucking no, it's a baby arcade.

Derp, forgot that there is or was a game room at the Southern Park Mall, down the hall from Gamestop.

I've got a place near me called Nickel City. It costs two bucks to get in and games are anywhere from 1-5 nickels. There's also a reasonable 'free play' area which has a lot of the older games which I like to play anyway.

Not much in the way of pinball, though.

>>358609
To elaborate, it used to have a lot of great cabinets before, but they were all co-op adventure games. They stopped being profitable because you couldn't print tickets out with them.

I asked the owner recently what was going on and he said there was no way you could make one of those machines profitable, and that he gave pretty much all of them away for free. A few are still around but it's nothing worth checking out since the majority of them are two-player sit-and-race games.

The only viable arcade I can think of anywhere near FF County is Chinatown Fair, or what's left of it.

>>358658
>Chinatown Fair, or what's left of it.
Did they ever get any real games back in that place? Last I ever heard, it simply became a family fun center, and then nobody spoke of it again.

Michael Jackson's stash in 360 degree interactive panoramic views.

http://www.pinsane2.com/pinorama/events/MJ_09/kr/michael_jackson_arcade_entry.html

Aladdin's Castle, St. Clairsville, Ohio.

Used to be a happening place. For the last 10 years or so, it's been a win tickets/Namco hole now.

>>358672
Still got a 3S machine. As long as it's there I'll keep bringing my friends there. It's better than anything in Norwalk.

>>358685
Pretty sure Aladdin's Castle was part of a chain. We had one in our shitty mall in rural NW Florida that I remember fondly as a kid.

>>358679

Just moved to Melbourne, Australia and I swear to god there are no fucking Arcades in this damn country. Even the bowling alleys only have shit like Fruit Ninja and a broken Daytona USA machine.

Anyone from the area know where I can get my game on?

>>355289
ARE YOU ME?
I remember when that place was called Milford Amusement and it used to have one of these beasts.

Not to mention lots of Capcom stuff, even the D&D game and import cabinets of the Resident Evil lightgun games.

>>358679
lolwut

>>358679
Here's Michael Jackson's Virtual Boy. In a corner. All alone.

>>358679
>>358739
MJ had one of those.

>>358783
MJ had a lot of stuff. like a lot of people on 4chan, he never grew up.

>>358739
>>358783
Oh god, I would kill to play a legit After Burner cabinet like that. The only Suzuki sit-down cabs I've played were OutRun and Hang-On. I've never, ever seen a Space Harrier or After Burner sit down in my life. I can only imagine how awesome it is.

>>358585
Damn you're close to me, Mahoning here. Yeah Eastwood's pretty damn sad. I never even look at it. Only thing I recall in it is some test your strength thing. Like you said, "arcade." Haven't been in Southern Park in years honestly. Don't head up to Boardman too much, traffic's hell up there. Only bother when I want something from Barnes and Noble. Where's Jamie's Flea Market at? Sounds interesting.

>>356534
Wallingford here! I lament the passing of the Milford Rec Center, later Smiles. I'm fairly mechanically minded, and could fix up machines with some training.

I actually sing in West Hartford once a week at Westminster Presbyterian. You have Neo Geo MVS cabs?

>>358806
i use to go to an arcade that had one with hydraulics and everything for afterburner. It was amazing to say the least.

>>357173
Glad I could help, fellow CTbro. I drove by it today out of curiosity, and the building itself looks like it's starting to fall apart. It's a real shame.

>>358708
That's still a damn far drive from Wallingford.

>>358739
I'm right with you bro. Milford Rec Center, back in the day. That's where I played that glorious Afterburner. Man, I also remember they had Guitar Freaks. That was incredible.

>>358806
I played the Space Harrier with the moving seat. It was incredible. Why can't they make games like that anymore?

I don't remember Virtua Racing at all. Was it any good?

>>358851
Were you there when they had the Korean Punch Mania cabinet?
They even had Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

>>358875
I honestly don't remember. Most of my memories of it come from when it eventually became Smiles. If they had Jojo's when I was there, I probably walked right by it without knowing what it was as a kid.

I do remember Mocap boxing, though, that was awesome.

>>358873
Not really. Sega's had a whole lot better racing games over their history. It's one of the few that just doesn't live up to the rest.

>>358873
Virtual Racing is a classic. Still manages to be fun, even today. The 32x port is my favorite.

>>358860

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxq00qQNxdA

I live in Tokyo so there are hundreds of arcades near me. My favorite is probably HEY in Akihabara because it has pretty much everything.

Some things I love about Japanese arcades compared to ones back home in the states:
- They still exist
- Tons of great, real games (not some golf simulator or deer hunting thing)
- Very well-maintained cabs
- No kids
- Recording equipment hooked up to cabs so you can save your runs

Amusement 2000 in downtown Montreal. Though they recently got rid of all their "old" fighting games: cvs2, mvc2 and 3rd strike. I still pop in while I'm drunk sometimes to get my ass handed to me by black guys at sf4 tho

>>358932

save to what?

>>358679
Guy had a fucking Zoltar.

>>358956
You can make DVDs or save to an external hard drive.

>>358932
Ever been to Game Bar A-Button in Akihabara?
Great place.
It's a bar with old game consoles you can play, some decent grub, and old gaming magazines and collectors guides.
Friendly staff too. One of the bartenders saw me and my girlfriend fiddling with a PC Engine and he brought us a whole bunch of Hu-Cards.

>>358970

oh cool..I played that big mechwarrior lan sit down thingie once and they give you a typed printout afterwards lol

>>358912
See, even given all that, I find Virtua Racing to still be fun and charming. Sure, Daytona is better, but VR is still a neat game, and I can still get into it.

>>358980
I haven't, but I'll check it out sometime.

Its amazing just how many of these small arcades (and game shops) there are around here. Very easy to miss if you don't know where to go.

>>358980

FUCK

I went there with a friend and his native girlfriend around midnight one day and they said they didn't have any more room (which was pretty clear to see). Just looking inside was amazing, but it was obvious that the regulars didn't want white scum and a race traitor around.

someday I'll come back, I'd love to become a regular...

>>355535
Man, that place looks incredible. Raiden IV next to a Metal Slug next to a... what's that? Muchi Muchi Pooku? It's Cave so I'm sure it's amazing.

>>355507
There're a couple good ones in NH. One in Pelham, I think it's called Pinball Wizard, yet it has lots of good video games along with the pinball, mostly in good shape. Another one in Weirs Beach, I think Fun World or something like that. It's huge and has lots of good stuff.

>>358932
Lucky bastard!

>>359058
They close at midnight.

>>359123
are you sure? They told us that we could come back sometime after 3am when they were less busy.

>tfw it's been over 10 years since the arcade I grew up going to closed down
There's an arcade hidden in a small mall in Little Tokyo. Been playing Typing of the Dead or whatever it's called there a lot.

>>359154
I guess it depends which day you went. On Fridays, Saturdays, and holidays they're open until 4 AM. Must've been pretty busy if they turned you away.

>>359180

Yeah it was a Saturday. Do you go often? I only had a few days in Tokyo, hoping for another chance to return.

>>358585
>>358814
Cuyahoga here, Southpark had a really sparse arcade maybe a year ago? There's a poolhall / mini arcade in Old Brooklyn called Play to win Cafe. I know they had a good handful of games, I just couldn't tell you exactly how many. Honestly, as far as major arcades go Cedar Point is probably the only one in Ohio with well over 50 cabinets.

>>358814
It's in Amherst, just south of Lorain city in Lorain county.

► 2:41► 2:41
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrk1Nq0yL3Y
Rossi's in Madison,WI has an awesome collection of games....and good pizza too.

>>357168
>>359231
Awesome, I'm going to Cedar Point this summer. Hopefully they have some fighters, shooters and beat em ups.

>>355339
I haven't been to Dorky's in for-fucking-ever.

Or B&I, for that matter.

You know, I guess we're kinda lucky if we're in the South Puget Sound area to have two old school arcades so close together. Too bad B&I is a dirtmall.

>>357087
That's pretty much the state of arcading here in Indy. Tiny kiosk setups with maybe 4-5 games, and half of them aren't even on. The only really healthy arcade is the Tilt downtown in the mall, and 80% of the games there are Initial D clones/DDR/Redemption, with some fighting games with busted sticks shuffled off into the back. Can't drive so I've never been to Dave and Busters but I imagine it's super casual due to it being in the "rich" part of town surrounded by bars

>>355557
>Lots and lots of pinball.
I fucking love pinball. All those flashing lights and sounds. Even when I'm doing badly I feel like I'm not losing, if that makes any kind of sense.

>>358875

I spent a few quarters in this game and I regret it dying.

Ever had the feeling of beating Fighting Mania without the timing lights because those lights got busted by either kids or morons who punch it too hard? Yeah. I wasn't able to.

As I'm from South East Asia at most all we got are Timezone branches (which are pretty neat on newer fightans and Initial D/Wangan) and other mall-based arcades.

Back then I'd also see an old Virtual On Cabinet without busted twinsticks, obscure fightans like Jackie Chan Fists of Fire and Simpsons Arcade.

>>356117
Sounds like the Brian Kuh type. Honestly that's probably enough to steer me away. It's been so long since I've been to an arcade that I'm more comfortable just playing at home anyway now.

>>358712

It probably is but still. It's sad to walk in there nowadays. I still grab a dollar's worth of tokens and hit the Galaga machine.

>only thing in there that is still 25 cents a play

>Haven't been to mall in a long time
>"Eh well I guess I'll go check out some stores and waste money at the arcade"
>Arcade has been replaced by an HnM

RIP in piece Sparkles. You were mediocre and the only full fledged arcade I ever lived near, but I loved you all the same

>>355289
A few miles where I live is a neat little arcade that also offers laser tag. Really fun place, and one of my friend's friends had at least one birthday there. Said friend won the jackpot at a Deal or No Deal arcade cabinet, and I just watched as the tickets slid out of that slit for a full minute and a half.
It's still up and running.

>>358875

not him, >>357173 again, but I remember this machine at Smiles. One of my fondest memories there was the first time I played it and I went full Kenshiro on it, screaming "WATAH-WATAH" with every punch.

I cant help but realize most of my social life died around the same time they closed. Pretty sure there's some correlation there...

>>358806
>>358739

That is not an After Burner cabinet. That's a SEGA R-360 cabinet that played G-LOC and Wing War.

>>356558
Yo fellow lansing person, we've a pinball pete's in east lansing... but it's kinda nothing special and is always full of drunks at night because MSU... of course, the drunks are nice to challenge in the capcom vs snk machine.

Walked into the Tilt at Southland Mall for the first time in a while
>Soul Calibur II gutted in the corner
>HoD2 and Ghost Squad replaced by some brown and bloom light gun game that's a dollar per play
>Metal Slug 4 still has broken sound
>An entire wall of racing games, but no Daytona or Crazy Taxi
>All Super GT and Sega Rally cabs have different screens
>Tekken 5 has missing parts
>Stacking games have shit prizes
>No more MUSHI KING
>Jurrasic Park is broken
On the upside they got that Let's Go! Island game, but nobody plays it. They only had to get rid of the still functioning Virtual-On cabinets to make room for it.

I'm pissed off at Cedar Fair Amusement for buying Geauga Lake Park and BULLDOZING ALL OF THE FUCKING ROLLERCOASTERS AND DUMPING THE WRECKAGE INTO THE WATER when the town of Geauga all but BEGGED to be able to buy the coasters to make a museum for the park. CFA said that "other investors" had already bid on them. Bullshit.

>>359780

>Spoilers

I know that feel.

>tfw over here they replaced perfectly working cabinets of GGX2 and Gundam vs Gundam with yet another Tekken Tag cabinet with busted controls
>they also replaced virtual on with more basketball machines

God damn it.

>>359758
Ah, didn't know that. I'll have to get over there sometime.

Don't ask why I'm asking this, but if you set up a MAME cabinet in a private setting, could you charge people to play it?

Turner, KS here. The best arcade in town is still at the local bowling alley, but it's a pretty decent one by now with lots of vintage machines. Among others, there's an old Police Training Simulator game that's good, two versions of Area 51, a Sniper Scope, a Junior Pac-Man pinball/arcade combo machine, and my personal favorite, a Twilight Zone pinball machine that I once held the high score on.

If the place ever shuts down, I'm considering buying the TZ pinball machine and the Junior Pac-Man.

Golf N Stuff in Norwalk, CA.

I used to live a couple of miles from this place and it was amazing when I was a kid. They had a HUGE selection of games in two separate buildings from the late 70's/early 80's along with current stuff. In the early-to-mid 90's in turned into gangsta central and I stopped going. Then in '97 I moved across the country.

I went there for the first time in 15 years a few months ago when I was visiting family and it's basically nothing but kiddie games and ticket redemption bullshit now. At least they still had a Ms. Pac-Man and a Galaga machine...

>>359812
Uh... no.
I mean you can, sure. It's completely illegal, but you can.

>>359812
I have a working coin mech in my MAME cabinet that uses .9" tokens (slightly smaller than a quarter). Why would you want to charge people in a private setting?

Holy shit OP that's the Smiles in Milford. My childhood.
Why did it have to close down

>>355865
My Three sons has been GUTTED they got rid of Marvel vs Capcom and X-Men Arcade all thats left is simpsons and wrestlemania and they are in the "you must be under 12 to enter this area" part, on free play.

>>355289
RIP Smiles.... fuckin sucks.

Closest arcade to most of CT is New Roc City in new rochelle

>>358953
wow he had all that money and all he got was the economy model.

anyone live in philadelphia? theres a place called 'barcade' great drinks and whole building filled with classic machines. paperboy is my personal favorite

Tiny place with mainly car racing set ups
they also have time crisis, a pinball machine and one of those new multigame cabs
every time i go it is a ghost town in there

>>359839
Know that feel with Camelot Golf in Anaheim, CA.

Used to have tons of machines. Classics from the 80's, every kind of fighting game you could think of, dozens and dozens of pinball machines, several DDR's, and even rare imports.

Now? Those rigged machines that dangle a 500 dollar prize in them, shitty ticket machines by the boat load, two fighting games left, and fruit ninja.

Oh, and of the 20 arcade machines they once had....two remain. Fuck...I miss arcades so much.

Disneyland used to have a fucking MASSIVE one in Tomorrowland called "The starcade", and another in Critter Country with all Western themed machines like Mad Dogg Mcree and such. I remember the starcade even having some weird full body VR machine where you wore a helmet and went into the world of Alladin.

Now? The entire upstairs is closed. The downstairs is now another clothing shop selling shitty disney clothing. Theres a few shit machines left and nothing else. I don't think Critter Country even has it's arcade anymore. The downfall started with Columbine in 1999.

I remember right after that happened, Disney vowed to remove all arcade machines that involved violence against people. So MK, Time crisis, etc all left. Critter countries machines were all western so they also all left.

>>360392
sorry, 20 pinball machines*

>>359898
I know, man. I was driving down the post road, pulled in, and snapped the pic. It is very bittersweet driving past it.

>>362334
Its a damn shame. I wish arcade machines were easier to loot.

I hate my city so much, not a single building even close to an arcade, the closest we get is a movie theater with small arcade room with maybe 3-4 games

The closest 'arcade' to here is in a mall over 50miles away and even that is not really an arcade more than it is just a 'ticket redemption' place

I hate my city so much... I can't even begin to explain the lack of fun around here

>>362397
Any idea who owns it? I would buy and fix up as many machines as I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz0M9mk3rqo

I used to live next to one in West Valley, UT that had some pretty cool shit.

Sadly most of the older machines had problems (sticks not registering a direction, sticky buttons, etc), and the big House of the Dead 4 always seemed to have a gun not work properly.

The owner does have The Act though, and if you ever get a chance, play this motherfucker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSyQ3a1oVZc

>>355289
Arcades still exist..?
I should go outside sometime.

>>362448
Well, that's a defunct arcade. Building is still there, machines are still inside, sign is still there. It's decaying slowly. A painful death, much like the one it suffered in life.

>>362407
>>362407
Actually I used to live by North Park Mall in Iowa and they had an awesome arcade for years a huge section of the mall dedicated to arcade games and ticket redemption games up until like ~2000, and it got replaced with a food court, and a gamestop.

What an awful visit to the mall that was when I was a kid

>>357087
>Ohio

I've seen some boring money waster games in movie theaters (fucking Nickelodeon Racing) and there's the Formerly Known as Gameworks at Easton in Columbus, which having been sold is also slowly getting rid of all the machines that made it worth going. Used to be Sega-provided and thus got everything awesome (best to me are Outrun 2 SP DX, Super Monkey Ball, and 2 Spicy) but now they're slowly selling off units and it's not the same. The Outrun is thankfully still there, but 2 Spicy got one of the machines sold off (no 2 player, what's the point?) and many other cool machines are disappearing.

I'm honestly convinced that Ohio is simply dead to arcades. I've been around the Akron-Canton and Columbus area and I don't know of anything good. Not even that many good retro stores, save for one in Maumee.

>>357125
>pop'n music

infinite jelly. I played that at an anime convention last year and have been quietly searching for cheap ways to play at home.

>>359367
Don't expect too much. I've been there a number of times (I hate big roller coasters so I was often waiting for others to come around there) and while it is the place where I learned to love Berzerk, the arcade is kind of lacking. Most of the games are either random 'attractors' (drum machine games) or early 80s machines. Not that I don't mind, but shooters and fighters are slim as I recall. Some good capcom fighters I think.

The other problem is that many machines are in less than stellar condition. I remember playing the Gauntlet machine and dealing with a broken stick on the Elf. I also recall Berzerk once not taking my coins on one side, and some other machines (like Wizard of Wor or one of the two Donkey Kong machines) wouldn't take your money at all. However, there are some bright spots to make up for this. Some of the really fun games do still work (pretty sure they still have 6-player X-Men), there are some interesting games to see (like an Atari racer from the 70s), and if the video games don't work out there's a wall of pinballs (including two double-size hercules tables).

I just wouldn't get TOO hopeful for those three genres, most of their stuff is very Golden Age. But there is fun to be had.

If you hunt around, I remember there's a second arcade with Outrun 2 machines set up. I'm >>362483 and so this is a very good spot for me to spend time when I'm waiting on my friends.

Not really an arcade, but a friend of mine used to own a pretty decently sized game store.
He'd have the bottom floor for selling game stuff, plenty of retro hardware, as well as toys, generally stuff like superhero stuff, and magic the gathering cards.
Upstairs had a ton of consoles, TV's, couches, you name it. Basically a comfy, homely arcade.

Unfortunately the FUCKING POPObought the whole lot that he was in, and the land around it, so he had to move into a much, much smaller shop that barely has enough room for his retro stuff. Makes me sad.

After having visiting japan and spending close to 100 buck in the arcades, I looked up some arcades near by and found a place called game center in San Mateo, CA. Never knew that something like it existed around here (aside from the near by bowling alley with like 5 games), but then again I never really cared about arcades since about 15 years ago.

Game Center doesn't seen awfully large though, since the main focus seems to be competitive play on PS3 rentals more than anything. Better than nothing I suppose, but I still rather the smoke filled arcades of japan.

Although I don't really know if I even should go there, since almost everything they have I can play at home (I did spend anything 70 bucks buying sanwa and seimitsu parts too)

>>362535

>dont like big roller coasters
>going to Cedar fucking Point

Why would you even do that to yourself

>>358679
MJ is the perfect person to collect arcades, because he's an honest-to-god manchild.

I remember when they were auctioning off his stuff. I totally wanted to snatch up one of his candy cabs.

I don't remember if it was in San Francisco or in Seattle, but there was an open marketplace (I think they threw fish at one of the places, that's what made it notable at least) and in one of the stores there is a small arcade which contains a Japanese F-Zero AX machine. I know it's not retro, but for the love of god go and play that machine if you're in the area. It's not the super deluxe but it still has hydraulics and everything.

>>355379
There are still Playdiums around?

>>362570
I still enjoy other rides there, like MaxAir, the various spinning rides (fuck Witch's Wheel though), and some of the smaller coasters. Also Thunder Canyon, I've been on that way too many times.

The main reason I've been there many times is because of school trips and friends who love it there (just as I do). I just can't handle big coasters and so when some would inevitably break off to do that, I often went to the aforementioned rides I liked, or went to the arcade.

>>362667

Makes sense. I guess I just dont get it because all the fond memories I have of Cedar Point are of the big coasters, so someone who doesnt like them is a very alien concept to me.

>That feel when the local mall had an arcade with a Virtual On machine that I used to play all the time when my mom shopped
>It shut down 5 years ago
>Apprently all the machines were thrown away or destroyed
>Place where the arcade was been replaced by an EB Games

I swear the universe is mocking me.

>>362729
That's disgusting and I feel for you.

>>362729

I went to Gamestop the other day to hopefully buy old gameboy advance games, apparently they just send any old games to the dump to be incinerated and compacted.

The oldest handheld games they carry anymore are DS games, and they only have less than 50 left.

>>363068
>they just send any old games to the dump to be incinerated and compacted.

That's a travesty.

>>362615
Speaking of SF, there's the Musée Mécanique, which is a museum of old penny arcade machines. It's pretty nice and it has a small section of retro video games like star wars and battle zone, as well as a few newer ones like terminator salvation.

I spent a lot of money on the music boxes there. They're all so awesome.

>>363105
Just imagine all of the 4th and 5th generation games that got destroyed when gamestop took over Funcoland...

>>363152
I saw that place on GCCX! Looked really cool. Unfortunately I live on the east coast.

Moved from California to Sweden. I searched for arcades around, but all I get is laser tag. I'm itching for some DDR and Galaga. Can someone point to some arcades in the Stockholm area please?

>>363157
I hate you.

When's the last time any of you saw a cabinet with a NEW game in it?

>>363157
No, anon. I don't want to.

>>363178
yesterday in japan.

I also saw old American games in japan, which I wasn't expecting. There was a small arcade right above sega joypolis in odaiba (which I was disappointed with, mostly becuase of the massive wait time. Full size car initial D isn't worth the wait BTW) that was the 70-80s equivalent to Musée Mécanique. It even had a line of pinball machines. Didn't have time to play though, unfortunately.

It's only been a day and I already miss shinjuku, ueno, and shibuya (fuck akihabara and it's over priced machines and high comp level)

>>355523
Man... I lived in a small town with a small arcade, and it randomly had this. I used to cheat and play it two player, those hard modes were hard as fuck.

>>355809
Seconded on the crowd at GK. I used to love going there nights, buying a beer or three and hitting the pinballs upstairs, working my way down to the arcade games, but a different crowd of people has changed the vibe ever since they changed the layout to put cafe tables downstairs and serve food. Not quite as fun now without that fourth beer.

Only arcade of note in RI is the Ryan family amusements in Newport. Been a couple of years since I've been in, but was still open last time I checked.

>>363205

That makes sense that they have new games in Japan, they used to make a lot of them. I was going to say, because one of the last arcades I visited had the games as when I was a child, which was years and years ago (Time Crisis, House of the Dead, Wave Racer, etc). They must have closed down and moved since the part of the mall they occupied is now a Buffalo Wild Wings, but there's another arcade with the same name at a different mall.

I go to this arcade.
http://www.aurcade.com/locations/view.aspx?id=1564
If you are ever in North-West Arkansas you should definitely check it out.
It's a really cool place. $5 at the door to get to the free play goodness for the entire day.
Unfortunately a number of cabinets are down including Moon Patrol, Chase HQ, and Tempest, but things like Discs of Tron and T2 that went down have been brought back.
Plus they tend to bring in more and more all the time; including some old school console games hooked up to CRTs.

>>363243
Too bad Newport is about 2 hours from me.

>>363178
Newest tekken machine last year

>>355289
I used to go back when it was just the Milford Recreation Center. Place was around forever, pretty dirty and not well-maintained, but it was still the only real place to go. Most of their machines were rented from the Pinball & Video Game Store (also in Milford), a place which charges absolutely ludicrous exorbitant amounts of money for arcade games. If I had to guess, I'd say their crazy fees were singlehandedly responsible for shutting Smiles down.

That Dadd's Xtreme whatever arcade up the road also got their games from the same place. I don't know if they're still open, but last time I went a little over a year ago it was fucking awful. Most of the games are gone, laser tag is closed, and the whole building reeks of mold so bad I started getting dizzy after like 20 minutes. The PB&VGS lists most of their shit on eBay, and some of the pictures are directly from that arcade.

Since I play Bemani games these days, I've been traveling down to 8 on the Break in Dunellen, NJ, but also recently heard of a place called Gamers Underground somewhere up in MA that I plan to visit.

>>363243
I severely miss Tokyo Game Action. Andy was a fucking saint.

>>360392
IIRC, they recently reopened the Starcade with an air-hockey table and a bunch of vintage games (stuff taken from what they used in Flynn's Arcade when they were promoting Tron Legacy).

>>360392
I worked at Disneyland from 1992 to 1995. Even then, the upstairs part of Starcade had several machines from the late 1970's that I've never seen anywhere else like Steeplechase, Canyon Bomber and Quadrapong.

>>366260
When I was a kid, the entire back part of the lower level of Starcade had at least 8-10 air hockey tables.

I go to a place called Arcade Legacy near Cincinnati OH, they have a pretty good selection of games and they're all set to free play. Just pay $10 to play until close.
They have Pop N Music too, I'm a sucker for rhythm games.

http://arcadelegacyohio.com/

>>356485
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

>>356485
>64 games
>$1 million
Uhh

>>356485
Huh. I live in Irvine. Not sure where this is.

>>366286
Shit, quadrapong? I've never seen any of the pong machines beyond the original.

I used to manage an arcade in Orange Park, Florida! My first real job and one I'll never forget. It closed shortly after I left. They put a damn shoe store in its place. I'll never forget this dying form.

>>366309

I gotta go there. Any cheap buses from Columbus to Hog Town?

>my old roller skating rink had JoJo's Venture
>one day it's gone, replaced by Virtua Cop

I live in Tallahassee, Florida and there is absolutely nothing here arcade wise. We have a Funstation with a few arcade machines, I think there's some fighters, lightgun games, and maybe some racing games that aren't Fast and the Furious but that's about it.

In 2010 (I think) we had this neat exhibit at a local museum that was basically just about the history of video games and a ton of arcade machines and older consoles were brought in there. You just paid to get in and were able to play all of them, it was pretty fucking neat. I saw mostly 80s arcade machines instead of ones from the early to mid 90s which are my favorite, but it was still really cool. It was there for a year but I only ended up going twice, I regret not going more since it was really fun.

>>366574
Oh, this reminds me that at my local skating rink there used to be several good arcade machines in the sideroom. Some golf shit, Mortal Kombat IV, TMNT, Battletoads, and there was even a tabletop Mario Bros. which was really neat. I doubt they're still there, though. I haven't even gone there for four or five years.

>not living in japan
club sega ftw.

The movie theatre in Smithfield, NC has a few arcade cabinets. Notably Donkey Kong (1981)

>>355479
You sir are in Odessy aren't you, I live right next to there.

>>362575
So I just went to game center. I'm sort of disappointed, as they really do seem to focus on PS3 cabinets more than actual arcade cabinets. The PS3s are stuffed into something that looks like a Namco noir cab (Google says CloNoir). I think they have 8; 4 running Gundam Extreme VS and the rest you can choose games (mostly fighting games from what I can see). Those run of a flat rate fee, which includes home console play. Actual arcade cabs are low in numbers, but they do have virtual on.

Customers seem ok. Mostly seem and act like college kids of the animu club kind. There sort of is a gundam thing going on, with the gundam games on the 4 cabs and the gundam models. A few fat bitches playing farmville on iphone taking up cabinet space too. Gave me attitude when I asked them to move so I can play KoF with a friend.

I have 2 bucks on the card (which the arcade machines run off of) and probably will go back to play those off on virtual on and metal slug. Probably won't go back though, since I can just play PS3 games on the new sticks I'm going to make with my sanwa and seimitsu parts.

>>369309
God I wish I could find somewhere with a Metal Slug cab around here. I want to 1cc that so bad.

>>362653
Yep. I remember going to one in Mississauga. But it was too full.

>>363157
God...I miss Funcoland man

>>355289
Good news, there's still an arcade in CT. Go to golfland in vernon. Shit's great.

>>369309

huh, I didn't know there were gundam VS setups in the US.

What I really want to see is entire floors for rhythm games like I saw in akiba/denden

>>372294
Really? I'm going to check that out. What does it have?

>>372271
Me too, bro, me too. The employees were all the cool older brother type and would recommend me games. They also introduced me to Game Informer back when it wasn't a piece of shit corporate rag.

>>372306
It's just the PS3 version stuffed into a cabinet (I seriously doubt their practice is legal, but I don't think anyone cares). Apparently it's their most popular game and they hold regular tournaments (I think they held an unofficial tournament at evo 2012), despite not being the latest version of the game.

There is a site that is selling full boost cab set though (4 cabs+spectator monitor), but no price listed. Gamecenter said that they aren't going to buy full boost cabs becuase they're too expensive (They're just namco noir cabs, although the spectator monitor isn't sold separately from what I've found), and they waiting for the PS3 version (which probably comes out at the end of the year anyway).

full boost is crazy popular in japan. almost every arcade in akiba and shinjuku had a floor or half a floor dedicated to it (20+ cabs) , while other arcades in usually had only 8 cabs. I found a really small arcade in akiba that had only 4 though, and hardly anyone was playing them, which I found odd. Good thing though, since it allowed me to play on my own without having to worry about someone butting in or having to wait in a long ass line.

I never really saw a floor just filled with music games, that or I didn't really notice (I only really played jubeat. most music game cabs seem to be project diva). There was one in shinjuku that was almost all music, but they had some gundam kizuna machines tucked away in the corner.

Castles 'N' Coasters is a somewhat shitty yet nostalgic little amusement and mini-golf park in Phoenix, AZ.

They also have one of the only surviving classic arcades left in the city. The two-story building is so popular that the arcade itself has its own hours and entrance from the park itself.

When I went there in 2010 or 2009, many machines were broken or in varying states of disrepair. They had some really obscure shit, like that hologram fighting game and the SNES in an arcade cabinet. They also had a huge selection of pinball machines.

This picture had to have been taken before January.

Castles 'N' Coasters is a somewhat shitty yet nostalgic little amusement and mini-golf park in Phoenix, AZ.

They also have one of the only surviving classic arcades left in the city. The two-story building is so popular that the arcade itself has its own hours and entrance from the park itself.

When I went there in 2010 or 2009, many machines were broken or in varying states of disrepair. They had some really obscure shit, like that hologram fighting game and the SNES in an arcade cabinet. They also had a huge selection of pinball machines.

This picture had to have been taken before January.

>>372495

I went there again with some friends a few months ago and they made quite a few changes. Almost all the pinball machines on the first floor are gone and replaced with huge modern games, like DDR and an absolutely gargantuan version of Connect 4 (a huge waste of space imo). The bottom floor also has most of the popular fighting games.

The second floor still holds retro arcade cabinets and some remaining pinball machines, but this time they were all working and looked to be in pristine condition. It looks like they're all being regularly maintained; I even saw the Addams Family pinball machine break down and get serviced in the span of 45 minutes while I was there.

Image is how it currently looks upstairs.

>>372536

We also have a GameWorks at the AZ Mills mall. It's really shitty. They change the location of their classic game cabinets every month or so, and always hide them in a corner somewhere like if they were ashamed of them. The buttons on the tetris machine have been broken for a year now.

The only people that go in there are retarded teenagers, drunk frat boys, and confused Mexican families

In the UK (Sheffield) there is nothing. We have a few shit machines in a bowling alley but it is largely populated with dance machines and air hockey tables (which are ok I guess).

Having been to arcades in Japan I don't think the UK is capable of recreating them. Our "youth culture" is such that there would be a gap of 0.25s after the arcade opened that you could enjoy the place in then a horde of scum would descend and smash the place up.

>>355501
>DDR EXTREME

The arcades in London aren't as good as they used to - Funland was pretty much the go-to place but is now a shell of its former self.
It had a shitload of DDR machines, a fighting game section with linked SF4 machines and pretty much every other SF that came before that, some Metal Slugs, lots of Time Crisis, House of the Dead, pretty much everything you could want. it was HUGE.

It got closed down and now in its place is a one floor arcade with only a few of these games remaining and a lot of generic shit.

The only arcade around my city was in the mall nearby. They took it out.
Now there's really no reason for me to want to go to the mall

>>372294
>>372353

i remember that place being fucking awesome when i was a kid. did they get rid of the xmen machine?

Anyone in Tampa? Bunch of shitty arcades here like Grand Prix and Gametime, The bowling alley on Dale Maybry is pretty cool but the games hardly ever work there at times.. we had one IIDX Cabinet somewhere in tampa and now the one arcade that had it went bankrupt.. are there any awesome places to hang out?

>>374105
I'm gonna check it out tomorrow. I really hope that X-men machine is there!

The last arcade I've been to was the Circus Circus arcade in Reno, NV, ( I went there on vacation) It stinks of smoke and it has mostly shooters and redemption games. it also had DDR and Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Metal Slug- the only 2 joystick games.