Never really went to arcades as a kid.?.. post here!

[trueno92]

Am I alone in this hobby where I never lived near an arcade, or went to parties where it was hosted at one...?

I grew up watching other kids play and studying attract-modes...

I crowded around to watch others play at the corner stores or street locations, then later at pool halls and bowling alleys, but that's it..oh and the little hub of games in the outlet mall in buffalo where my parents would let us be until they were done.

Oh and the few units at the entrances to the mall in agincourt...

In being at this hobby for a short time, I'm realizing quarters never spent on this stuff...while I was growing up...

My friends are slowly starting to think I spent day and night and every last penny playing games but....

I just want to let you all know I'm a poser


Hahaha ok now that's off my chest, back to looking for pinball machines...

And I NEVER touched those for at least 25 years now...

[XeD]

I fit this bill. Growing up in Toronto and immigrating from another country my family did not have a lot of money. I always enjoy watching. When I did get money to play, most of the time I saved it for candy. This could explain why I have more fun repairing than playing

[trueno92]

I fit this bill. Growing up in Toronto and immigrating from another country my family did not have a lot of money. I always enjoy watching. When I did get money to play, most of the time I saved it for candy. This could explain why I have more fun repairing than playing

Yep... same here...

[jasonec]

I'll be the first one to say the opposite then

I grew up within two blocks of an arcade, and within 3 blocks of about half a dozen street locations (convenience stores, bars, pizza joints, movie theatre), all of which had several arcade machines. And I spent most of my time pumping in quarters that I earned from my paper route (the free Cambridge Pennisaver). I'd dump the newspapers in an overgrown field at the end of my street next to a Becker's store, and go to the arcade for a few hours so that my parents wouldn't get suspicious. At the arcade, my friend's older brother would help me set up some arcade-related bets (hustling, basically) that turned my few quarters into several more. I got pretty good at many of the games back in the day, and would play any arcade machine I came across (and arcade machines were basically everywhere ).

[OTTOgd]

I'll be the first one to say the opposite then

Yep, me too! Born in '74.

How did you get in to this hobby?
Long-winded arcade upbringing: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28060&p=245100&#p245100

What arcade games remind you the most of your childhood?
viewtopic.php?p=255567#p255567

[jasonec]

I'll be the first one to say the opposite then

Yep, me too! Born in '74.

How did you get in to this hobby?
Long-winded arcade upbringing: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28060&p=245100&#p245100

What arcade games remind you the most of your childhood?
viewtopic.php?p=255567#p255567

Those threads you quoted are definitely worth revisiting.....including the arcade dildo pic

[aerostarz]

Similar to Jason's comments.. I had 2 separate paper routes to pay for my arcade addiction. When I was 10 years old I would go to the oshawa centre and try to sneak into the arcade a few times a week. You had to be 14 to enter, so I allways got caught and tossed out.

I did get to play Atari Star Wars, Tempest, Asteroids and Major Havoc around 81 and 82. Now I own them!

[OTTOgd]

I did get to play Atari Star Wars, Tempest, Asteroids and Major Havoc around 81 and 82. Now I own them!

Yeah, I own a few of the games I played back-in-the-day too!

Joust, Ms. Pac, Super Sprint, Neo Geo MVS-4, NBA Jam, Space Duel, Street Fighter:CE, Track 'n' Field CT, Warlords CT and Demolition Derby!

... but missing a couple games I still miss, darnit. But I'll get 'em one day! Did I say Tron?

[RayB]

If you didn't walk or bike any distance necessary to get to an arcade, you were doing it wrong. Arcades are not convenience stores! When I was 13 or 14 I wrote to Atari to let them know I walked 3 km in a snow storm just to play Star Wars and Crystal Castles. (They sent me flyers, a poster and some photocopies of schematics). I would bike there instead of bus so I would have extra quarters to spend. $2 only gets you so far but that was all I had per visit.

[OTTOgd]

If you didn't walk or bike any distance necessary to get to an arcade, you were doing it wrong. Arcades are not convenience stores! When I was 13 or 14 I wrote to Atari to let them know I walked 3 km in a snow storm just to play Star Wars and Crystal Castles. (They sent me flyers, a poster and some photocopies of schematics). I would bike there instead of bus so I would have extra quarters to spend. $2 only gets you so far but that was all I had per visit.

Yeah, I would wear my Roos stuffed and heavy with quarters for the bike rides!

Although the Westdale Mall, right across the street from the building I grew up in, got an arcade in the mid-80's, so that was convenient.

Geez, sorry ... kinda opposite of the thread's theme. Diggin' the gaming memories.

[RayB]

Geez, sorry ... kinda opposite of the thread's theme. Diggin' the gaming memories.

Right. This is what I originally intended to post for all those who never got to go to arcades in their youth:

[jasonec]

If you didn't walk or bike any distance necessary to get to an arcade, you were doing it wrong. Arcades are not convenience stores! When I was 13 or 14 I wrote to Atari to let them know I walked 3 km in a snow storm just to play Star Wars and Crystal Castles. (They sent me flyers, a poster and some photocopies of schematics). I would bike there instead of bus so I would have extra quarters to spend. $2 only gets you so far but that was all I had per visit.

That sounds horrific!
I just got my mom to drive me if it was far away (coincidentally, the car ride allowed me to learn fluent profanity as well ).

[trueno92]

What got me really into this was one experience where a friend of mine biked to the corner store.

They had 2 street fighters in the back room of their employee-only area. It was not open to anyone, you had to be invited.

Since my buddy appeared to be a, "regular" we were allowed back there as long as we had quarters, and the guy at door got the nod from the man behind the counter.

We play a few rounds and I'm out like after $1 cuz shit, now I don't have money for the beef patty I wanted on the ride there, but my bud goes the distance, round after round against the kids from this hood.

There are some sharp words exchanged and one kid goes best-out-of-5 and its on the line. Respect, is on the line and he barely scrapes by, even a bit cheap to the other kid. It wasn't a huge deal, we stay a bit and enjoy the win.

Things get more interesting as we get back outside, its now getting dark out and those kids are waiting for us. We were like oh shit.. but they threw down a bike at us and take off.

At first we didn't really know what happened, but we look for our bikes to go after them and realize that the bike thrown at us was my friend's and it had the wheels bent up, tires flattened and stuff scraped off it... unridable.

Yeah.... I went home and hugged my PC and played that terrible Korean sf2 hack for a while after that hahaha.

[SaraAB87]

Am I alone in this hobby where I never lived near an arcade, or went to parties where it was hosted at one...?

I grew up watching other kids play and studying attract-modes...

I crowded around to watch others play at the corner stores or street locations, then later at pool halls and bowling alleys, but that's it..oh and the little hub of games in the outlet mall in buffalo where my parents would let us be until they were done.

Oh and the few units at the entrances to the mall in agincourt...

In being at this hobby for a short time, I'm realizing quarters never spent on this stuff...while I was growing up...

My friends are slowly starting to think I spent day and night and every last penny playing games but....

I just want to let you all know I'm a poser


Hahaha ok now that's off my chest, back to looking for pinball machines...

And I NEVER touched those for at least 25 years now...

You went to the outlet mall in Buffalo, I think you mean Niagara falls. I live in Niagara falls, NY. Do you remember anything about this outlet mall arcade? I can definitely see it in my memory but do you remember which cockpit games were outside the arcade, they were lined up against the wall? I think it was a Sega Turbo and a couple others, but I don't know what the others were. Basically the only arcades here as far as I know were the mall arcades, but I am too young to know the real era of arcades before 1983 since well, I was 2 years old in 1983 and obviously I don't remember much from that time. I do not know a building that was solely an arcade unless we are talking about places like Chuck E Cheese or Major Magic's or Showbiz pizza, but those were not the type of arcade buildings I keep hearing about, the ones that didn't have kids party rooms and that sold minimal food and were dark and dreary where the teens hung out. I didn't ride my bike to arcades or anything like that, only visited them when I was in a mall. My family didn't have much money either and couldn't afford computers or video games at home in the 1980's. I didn't even buy any home games until I was 18. Even then I would play mostly skee ball or go on the kiddie rides, and the occasional other game, I do remember games like out run and pole position, and the star wars cockpit from back in the day.

I did go to the birthday parties, and that was one of the main trips to the arcades I remember, but it was mainly Christmas parties that my mom's work used to have for the kids, basically when companies were more generous and would actually do stuff for the employees and you know, be nice to them (you certainly wouldn't see companies here holding a children's Christmas party these days). The Christmas parties were at Major Magic's in Amherst, NY where I encountered the after burner for the first time. Of course I would look forward to the parties because it was something I wouldn't usually do and the tokens were provided so there was no cost for the parents. The tokens were also provided at the birthday parties. I did hear about a showbiz pizza place here in Niagara falls NY however I do not personally remember the place at all, not even the most faint memory of it. I have no idea how that is possible but it is.

[CanadianRyGuy]

It's funny, but for me arcades were never like a daily thing that I could go and experience. It was mostly when away on trips where we would visit an arcade. We used to do a lot of camper trips as a kid, so places like Niagara Falls, Darien Lake, Atlantic City, Myrtle Beach were where we would drive and those places always had arcades that we would visit. Then there were the trips to the mall during the Christmas season that I might get to play some games, Sherway Gardens was always a big deal up in the food court area, they always seemed to have great games there. Erin Mills Town Center I think had a smaller arcade, I just remember spending like 5 bucks worth of quarters to beat X-Men there as a kid...clearly I wasn't that good as I think towards the end of the game I was just paying for Colossus' special move and would die again shortly after when I had to actually fight lol...felt like a King among peasants after beating that game though