Poll of the Day > Were arcades a big part of your life?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Born in '76, saw arcade machines just about everywhere when I went shopping with my mom. Played my first game of Pac-Man at a roller skating place in San Diego, and as they say, the rest is history.

Arcades started disappearing around 1984 or thereabouts, me and my family moved to Florida in October '85, and offhand the only arcades I knew were at Regency Square Mall and a local bowling alley. Said local bowling alley shut down when I was a sophomore in high school, and Regency Square Mall had an Aladdin's Castle and a Tilt at one point - only for both of them to shut down eventually (hell, Regency Square Mall is near deserted now).

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I grew up in the country so, they werent a big part of my life, but whenever my mom went shopping, you bet I went along so I could hit any cabinet anywhere she went. If she went to a mall? Hoo boy, off to the arcade. So, I guess they werent exactly a regular part of my childhood, but in spurts they were the best thing ever. I still remember being pissed when I saw the arcade at a local mall had been replaced with a (very short lived) peanut shop.

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Alex1976 posted...

Born in '76, saw arcade machines just about everywhere when I went shopping with my mom. Played my first game of Pac-Man at a roller skating place in San Diego, and as they say, the rest is history.

Arcades started disappearing around 1984 or thereabouts, me and my family moved to Florida in October '85, and offhand the only arcades I knew were at Regency Square Mall and a local bowling alley. Said local bowling alley shut down when I was a sophomore in high school, and Regency Square Mall had an Aladdin's Castle and a Tilt at one point - only for both of them to shut down eventually (hell, Regency Square Mall is near deserted now).

I grew up in San Diego, was it the Aquarius roller rink? That seemed like the one everyone went to when I was a kid.

Not a huge part, but I did go to them a bunch. There were not a lot of arcades in my area oddly enough until they started "dying out". I did go to Chuck-E-Cheese and/or Putt-Putt once ever few months, and the bowling alley near me had a Final Fight machine that I would play after my league wrapped up and my parents were waiting for our pizza order. Oh, and Pizza Hut had a Shinobi arcade machine I would play when we got pizza from the "read X amount of books and get free pizza" thing they did at my school.

Now that I think about it, arcades and pizza seem to be linked together for me. Huh...

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There was one in my local mall used to love playing soul Calibur 2 there as a kid but it closed in the mid 2000s. Find memories but not really huge in my opinion.

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I remember a couple when I was a teenager but consoles were really starting to eat into their appeal.

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DeathMagnetic80 posted...

I grew up in San Diego, was it the Aquarius roller rink? That seemed like the one everyone went to when I was a kid.

I don't really remember the name of it, all I recall was it was somewhere near Miramar (naval base, IIRC - I'm a Navy brat).

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Alex1976 posted...

Born in '76, saw arcade machines just about everywhere when I went shopping with my mom. Played my first game of Pac-Man at a roller skating place in San Diego, and as they say, the rest is history.

Arcades started disappearing around 1984 or thereabouts, me and my family moved to Florida in October '85, and offhand the only arcades I knew were at Regency Square Mall and a local bowling alley. Said local bowling alley shut down when I was a sophomore in high school, and Regency Square Mall had an Aladdin's Castle and a Tilt at one point - only for both of them to shut down eventually (hell, Regency Square Mall is near deserted now).

Actually now that I think about it mine would have been the exact same except it was an ice skating rink.

They still had good arcades there even after the 80s. Just typically in a mall near movie theaters or at expensive theme parks. The Family Fun Center had a really good one. I think that place still exists but was bought out and renamed. I have no idea if it even still has an arcade.
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Not huge but they had them at the store my grandma worked at so I got to play them for free. Played a lot of street fighter 2 and marvel vs capcom (cant remeber if 1 or 2 I was like 5 at the time)

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You could say that yes ^_^


So much so that I brought it home with me when I reached my mid thirties.

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I remember realizing arcades were mostly dead and gone around '99 or so. There was an arcade franchise out here, Wonderland, that were all nickle games instead of quarters, you just had to pay for admission. I used to go there a lot with a couple of friends of mine, then one day they were just, gone. Was a bummer.

DeathMagnetic80 posted...

I remember realizing arcades were mostly dead and gone around '99 or so. There was an arcade franchise out here, Wonderland, that were all nickle games instead of quarters, you just had to pay for admission. I used to go there a lot with a couple of friends of mine, then one day they were just, gone. Was a bummer.

Was it this? http://www.wunderlandgames.com/locations.asp
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Revelation34 posted...

Was it this? http://www.wunderlandgames.com/locations.asp

Yup! I forgot that it was spelled like that. Glad to see some still exist, even if it's not in San Diego.

DeathMagnetic80 posted...

Yup! I forgot that it was spelled like that. Glad to see some still exist, even if it's not in San Diego.

I probably went to one. Just don't remember if I did or didn't.
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