LogFAQs > #939685126

Zeus posted...

I guess you really got into things late?

Depends on how you define things.

Late for the era of arcade popularity? Yes - arcades were pretty much dead by the time I'd ever really had the option to go to one. I mostly only got shitty run down arcade rooms in bowling alleys or some of the arcade parlors on the boardwalk at the Shore. Or at my local grocery store - that's basically where I played most of my earliest arcade games. I'd go off and sink a handful of quarters while my mom was shopping, and then I'd go pester her for more. Other than Chuck E Cheese (which, like I said, I never went to as a kid), I can't really think of any real arcades anywhere local.

Late for me personally? I wouldn't say so - I was like 10 at the time. I can't imagine too many people were going to arcades much younger than that, unless they had weird or really permissive parents.

For gaming in general, I started somewhere around 5-6, which was pretty young for the time period.



Zeus posted...

That's not casual dining, that's an entertainment center. If anything, it's closest to an arcade that serves food.

Yeah, but I brought it up as an alternative because, like I kind of said, I couldn't really think of that many "casual dining" places near me that had arcade games at all (let alone Pac-Man specifically).

I remember my one local Ground Round had Altered Beast, but that wasn't until 1988 or so (it didn't come out until that year, and I didn't go back to Ground Round all that much after that). One local restaurant/banquet hall had the TMNT cabinet I mentioned, and one local pizza place had two cabinets before it closed. But no others did.

Oh, and a local borderline-bodega deli had Tron, which I loved, because it was Tron. But that place was a dump. And may actually be part of the reason why I tended to associate arcade games with dumps and run-down places, because those were mostly the only places that still had them. And even those seemed to dry up eventually. I don't think I've seen an arcade cabinet in the wild for decades at this point, outside of movie theaters and Chuck E Cheese.

I vaguely remember someone who used to be here on PotD actually used to work in an old style arcade/bar in NJ, but even they mentioned it was unusual and acknowledged there weren't really any other similar places anywhere close.

I suppose Dave & Busters could count, but that's basically just "adult Chuck E Cheese".
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