Arcade Memories

For better or worse, arcades will never be the same.

The year 1992. The place, Aladdins Castle arcade. As i step into the darkness the stale stench of camel cigarette smoke fills my eight year old lungs. My feet stick to the filthy carpet as i make my way passed the crowded Street Figther 2 machine. I dare not stop at Street Figther. I was in no mood for public humiliation by kids twice my age. I wasnt there for Street Fighter any way. I was here for something much more glorious.

Something X-Men.

I reached into my grass stained Osh-Koshs and pulled out a couple golded tokens. Less than three minutes later GAME OVER. But i couldnt have been more satisfied. After all where else can you hack, slash, (and shoot lasers for some reason) as Wolverine? This game has it all! The art was amazing, based on the 1980's X-men animated series pilot "Pryde of the X-Men" that never took off. (if you can find it get it) And better yet you could play with up to five other friends. Ill admit that i never played with more than one other friend.

Magneto at his finest.

This game had it all! Play as Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, or Dazzler (or as i like to call her, a slightly better version of jubilee). And with so many awesome X-men an equal amount of awesome foes Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, The White Queen, Juggernaut, Mystique, and of course the mighty Magneto. And to this day, the only place you officially fild this is at an old arcade.

My parents had given me fifteen minutes to spend in here while they waited for me outside so i had some time to kill. A few machines over was another cartoon based game i loved. The simpsons! Another multiplayer game that i never played with another friend.

Makes me wanna do the Bart man.

If none of you have ever had the privilege of playing this gem of a game i must tell you, its the best simpsons game. I guess that doesnt say much if you compare it to The Simpsons Wrestling, but trust me, its a classic.This game is your standard beat em up starring all the Simpsons stars: Bart, Marge, Homer and Lisa are your playable characters trying to rescue baby Maggie from the evil Mr.Burns.

Marge and in charge!

The game was actually quite innovative at the time by including the use of various weapons found in game. Also a new feature that allowed two players to perform a special combined attack against a single enemy was new at the time. Also the fact that all the voice actors for the simpsons were used in the game was a first. But i think the one thing that made it best for me was the fact that i was being bad by playing it. My parents didnt let me watch the simpsons on tv, much less play the game. It was that very allure of "being bad" that made me love the arcade even more.

"ill tell you when ive had enough!"

The best way i could sum up an arcade in the late eighties and early nineties was a night club for kids. Aladdin's Castle was where kids would go to smoke, curse, fight and have fun. A very seedy place where it wasnt uncommon to see the police haul someone out for selling pot. My parents didnt like me being there at all, in fact i couldnt go in unless i was in eye view at all time. Hell my parents didnt even like going to that side of the mall because of the reputation it had for being trouble, no thanks to the arcade im sure. Lets just put it this way, my folks were used to the times when you could play some Ms.Pac-Man without getting stabbed. Wich brings me to my last stop on Arcade Memory Lane.

THE Ms. Pac-Man

If i ever had a token left before i had to leave, i would always make time for my beloved Ms.Pac-Man. Dont let her hear this, but one of my favorite things about her was that she was so cheap. Always just one token. I cant really say why but i have always preferred Ms.Pac-Man over just plain ol Pac-Man. I think it must have been the music that accompanied what probably was the first ever cut scenes.Or maybe it was just that vintage feel, i mean she just has old oozing out of her cabinet. Say what you will about good ol' Ms.Pac-Man but when you go into todays arcades is Killer Instinct still around? How about Mortal Kombat 2? Nope, but just about every other arcade in America STILL has an old Ms.Pac-Man hidden away in some dusty corner.

A sight of things to come.

Arcades as we know them are going the way of the buffalo. I know that "things today suck, things back then ruled" articles are over used, but this is just an insight on how i think things are going to end up for arcades. In the mid nineties, home consoles began to put good ol arcade machines out of business, with affordable games with better graphics who could compete? Well the arcade industry thought it could.

Tokens=Tickets. Tickets=Cheap Crap

A few years later as home consoles became more popular and arcade graphics started to become obsolete, Aladdins Castle moved to a new location and re-nammed itseld Namco:TimeOut. It was a bright, clean place with none of the bad stuff i had come to enjoy at the old location. Also gone were many of my favorite games. In there place? Machines that involve me hitting a bag, or kicking a ball, or stepping on an arrow to win tickets for "prizes" that my 11 year old mind knew were just cheap crap. I must admit this change from old school games to interactive games did give the arcade industry a short boost. That is until Nintendo dropped its arcade atomic bomb onto the world.

The Wii.

For so long the arcades always had the "Well we offer something you cant get anywhere else" attitude. Nintendo listened then promptly gave the finger to the arcade industry. Now i could punch bags and kick balls in the privacy of my own home. Sounds dirty doesnt it? Well thats just it, its not dirty at all. You see even though TimeOut was cleaner and was pretty much crime free, as the nineties went on, parents got more paranoid about the safety of arcades. The Wii became an answer to that paranoia, and in the process killed the arcade industry.

I wandered into a TimeOut a few weeks ago, now nearing my 24th birthday. I hoped to relive some of that old wonder at the arcade so i got five bucks worth of tokens and walked around. I almost cried when i saw that it had pretty much become a claw machine/ Dance Dance Revolution warehouse. I found my Ms. Pac-man in a cluttered corner unplugged and covered in graffiti. I walked back to the counter to try and get a refund for the tokens when out of the corner of my eye, like a beacon of home, i spotted The Simpsons Game! Needless to say thats where my five dollars went. And to top it all off, one of my tokens was an old banged up Aladdins Castle token. I infact did shed a tear.

This was my first article here on RetroJunk.com. Ive been a reader for years though, so i know how ugly you ciritics can be. Please forgive me for the typos and just plain bad parts and remember,keep it golden.

Comments

I never got to go to Alladin's Castle arcade, but there was always Chucky Cheese and arcade games in the bowling alleys. Any kind of arcades that exist today can never compare.

On a side note, I recently found a token from Alladin's Castle at work. From what I've heard, they can be quite valuable depending on the collector.

I spent a lot of my childhood goin' to arcades at the local mall too. Sadly I quit going around the mid 90s when it started getting too expensive. 75 cents a game? Screw You! My favorite games were:
Spy Hunter
APB
WWF Wrestlefest
Street Fighter 2
Lethal Enforcers
Operation Wolf
X-Men
Teenage Mutant NINja Turtles
The Simpsons
Gauntlet

Brilliant work mate, Beautifully written with fluid writing. It's such a shame it was so short though.

Arcade games will never be forgotten. My favs when I was a kid:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Simpsons
X-Men
Final Fight
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Marvel vs. Capcom
Sunset Riders
NBA Jam T.E.
Lethal Enforcers
Operation Thunderbolt
Mechanized Attack
WWF Wrestlefest
Crusin' USA

WOW I REALLY ENJOYED THE X-MEN & SIMPSONS ARCADE GAMES!!!! SO MANY COUNTLESS HOURS SPENT THERE!!!

Good article. I remember the Simpsons game, a roller rink about 30mins. from my house had one. Since I sucked at roller skating I always played it more than I skated.

Hey i remember Aladdins Castle we had one in are old mall, until in the early 2000's they took it out and put another chinese food restraunt in. and then a few years later when they noticed it was a big blow to them b/c kids stopped coming to the mall b/c pretty much the stores they had in there were just for old people. they tried to replace Aladdins Castle with a cheap gay imitation called the lollipop. which was mostly made of one deer hunting game, a cheap claw machine, and two roller ball games. i don't know what the hell they were thinking. since then the lollipop closed, even the old people stopped coming to the mall, they only have two stores. but i tell ya that chinese restraunt is still there! And even the minature arcade in the movie theater acrossed the street can't even do Aladdins Castle justice. What a Shame

this was a good article' i also hung out at the arcade but mine wasent in a mall it was in a pizza shop which had only four game but it was always the latest games x men mortal kombat street fighter the avengers also the simpsons ninja turles which i could never get past the first stage that blasted bomb' i spent most of my day at the arcade if not playing watching other ppl play' didnt have enough money to play but was always able to get a buck or two worth of quaters even loose change on the floor or in between the couch just to get in a few games at the arcade to play my favorite titles

Yeah Aladdin's Castle was the ultimate.I go into the same mall where its now a bookstore but everytime I enter it I still can feel the memories of seeing everyone OOOOs and AHHHHs from the crowds while someone was playing Dragon's Lair.Putting up your token on the machine to take on the champ.I still have a token from that place wonder if it is worth anything?To ME TOO MANY MEMORIES that I would give up for the world.Two years ago I was fortunate enough to work at a arcade game distributor.Alot of the shore arcades still have those old school games.Wow I was playing Paperboy and the 3 in 1 Donkey Kong game for free

AH the arcade. I can remember walking almost 2 hours to an arcade with my brother and a few friends. It was a dingy place with pool tables, darts, and "shifty characters". I can remember 5$ worth of quarters making my eyes pop. Nothing was like 20 quarters hitting your pocket. 1,2,3,4 dollars worth of quarters never felt like enough. But that magic 20 quarter feeling was great. I can remember cigarette burns on table tops and buttons as people smoked thier way to a boss stage. I was to young to smoke but I'm sure I had a pack or 2 just being there. GAWD I miss the arcade I do like my Xbox 360 but man I long for a quality game again that will munch my quarters.

Man I remember alladins castle we had one in the old walnut hill mall in petersburg va. For me the first time I went was like walking into a spaceship or something. No lights, only the warm glow of the machines. I played star wars there for the first time and was blown away.

A true sign of the times: I read the Street Fighter IV will not receive an official arcade release in North America. Oh, sure, it has turned up in a few places for tournamnets and the like, but, like I said, no official release. According to the magazine I read, there is no longer an arcade culture in North America, just alot of those token games people play when they have nothing else to do at their birthday parties. Strange for the country that created a quarter shortage over Space Invaders and has three arcade games (Space invaders, Pac-Man, and Dragon's Lair) in the Smithsonian Museum. But, this is the power of the console system. People would rather play at home instead of some smoke-filled arcade or game center somewhere. Too bad? Time will tell. As a substitue, I suppose, parks are becoming arcades with groups of kids gathering together outside not to kick or toss a ball around, but to play some multi-player game on a portable system like the Nintendo DS. Just the other day I saw four kids huddled together under a jungle-gym (Nintendo DS screens do not show up well under direct sunlight) playing a game instead of playing on the jungle-gym. Go ahead, Mom. Send me outside. Now I can get my precious fresh air and still play my video games. Ha?

End of line.

ya a couple malls around here still have arcades in them! also a hotel in Wisconsin has a small video game room that has about 10 arcade games. Our local mall has a Namco arcade with like 20 games but mostly recent games and very few retro.

Good article LuckyHawk! The town where I lived had NO arcades! The only machine that I had access to was a Donkey Kong Junior machine tucked away in a COLD corner of my local grocer! It was between the fresh veggies and the freezer! So every time my mom would go grocery shopping even in the middle of July I would put my winter coat on and ask to go! LOL You should have seen the looks I received when I walked in the store! It was a riot! It didn't phase me at all thought, because I was soon lost in a world of pixelated fantasy that was Donkey Kong Junior's revenge! Thanks for reading.

Scott

X-Men and the Simpsons were the only games I would play at the arcades. Those and both Ninja Turtles games.

where was this aladdin's castle? there used to be one in centre mall hamilton.

I miss good ol days of arcades now when you do find some they are full of dance games,... driving or shooting games... sad really

The last arcade in my hometown finally closed its doors last year

So many memories I had spent at these wonderful establishments. At age 13, I was lucky enough to *work* in one. It was one of those little independent 'game room' arcades, attached to the back of a diner/ice cream shop. I swept the floors/kept an eye out for trouble for 4 hours in the afternoon. My pay? $4 for each hour and *all the free games I could play*! (As long as I didn't run the customers out and gave them their ample time with the games of course). Being 13 and having the keys to the arcade machines/being able to access the DIP switches/service menu was the closest you could get to godhood at that age.

GAUNGLET! i remember me bringing acouple friends over to a random arcade and we would play that for hours

I think arcades can still be great in samll towns miles away from any other town or city.

I haven't bought a Wii game yet for my Wii. I have only been buying the points cards and downloading classic NES and SNES games.

Wow, I never thought there was more than one Aladdin's Castle. Awesome. Being that we're close in age obviously if you just turned 24, growing up in the late 80s/early 90s we had such a great variety of games to choose from in the arcades. Many of the places kept the older games around just because they were only 6 or 7 years old and still worked fine. Someone mentioned Gauntlet? Hell yeah! I can still hear that weird start menu music in my head. But guess what Gauntlet sat next by at the arcade? Street Fighter II. Then they moved SFII and put in Mortal Kombat, while Gauntlet stayed put. Now THAT'S respect.
One multi-player game that I think took WAY too much of my money (which was well worth it of course) was the great TMNT Arcade game. Talk about your awesome multi-player arcade games all you want, TMNT was insanely popular at our Aladdin's Castle. Kids used to get into fights just to be next. Of course, if TMNT was filled up, I used to just hop over to the Rolling Thunder machine and shoot a couple hooded creepy dudes while I waited.
Remember, vintage doesn't mean old, it means timeless. You know what isn't timeless? Dance-Dance-Retardation. Bleh. Who wants to look back at the glory days of DDR? That would just be pathetic.

I miss arcades, they were so much fun. BRING THE ARCADES BACK!

Great article! Thumbs way up.

Great First article!!! My Hat is off to you!!! Aladdin's Castle I do remember going to as a kid... God those were the days.. I went there during the mid 80's and spent major bucks on games..

My games back in the day were Gauntlet, Operation Wolf, Space Ace, and Dragon's Lair.

Ahh .. the memories!! Thanks for mentioning this arcade in particular..

Once again.. Great article!!!

If you knew about the Homebrew Channel for the Wii, you would probably talk about this differently. I pretty much turned my Wii into a personal arcade myself.

Great article. I was into the arcades back in 83 when they mostly had pinball ! oh the great times and the money i spent. Use to spend all my Christmas money in there. I was out of them by the 90's but i do remember the slow long depressing slide of the arcades. Brings back good memories thanks!

That's weird the Aladdins Castle I go to has all those arcade games the simpsons, x-men and ms.pacman

To answer your question Chillygal, im a big wii fan. I slept in front of best buy to get one on launch day

)

great article! so just a quick question- are you not a wii fan?

I remember when I was little there used to be an arcade in our local mall called Tilt but its now closed down. We do have a new arcade that is in our local movie theater and the only retro arcade they have is a machine that has various classics like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and so on. That new arcade used to have the original Pac-Man arcade but my dad broke the joystick by accident, they did get it repaired but then they took it away for no reason. Anyways, great article!

Great article! You grew up during the right time for arcades. I don't think I'll ever forget the 2nd boom that arcades got in the early 90s. I owe that decade to my uncanny skills at the first 3 MK games and The Street Fighter 2 series. Thank goodness my local arcade has captured that time for me to revisit whenever I wish. If you're ever in Portland Oregon check out Ground Kontrol - http://groundkontrol.com/arcade/index.php

major magics and chuckie cheese were the best in my time.

Im from the bay area. And how I miss those old downtown dirty rundown underground arcade wherehouses. I could swear some of the teenagers I knew there were part of the "footclan". LOL

When I lived in Florida, there was an arcade in the Edison Mall called "The Goldmine", and it was very similar in the sense of being a Hive of Scum and Villiany(joking). Somebody actually got stabbed in there back in '88! My favorite games there were Dragon's Lair and Star Wars. I miss that place.

Yeah! In Virginia we had arcades in all the malls (Aladdins Castle), and the "putt-putt" golf courses and in stand alone buildings. I was there in the golden days of Double Dragon, Afterburner, and the rare Castlevania tabletop arcade.....to the revival of Street Fighter in the 90's peaking with Tekken 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in 2000's. Sticky floors, hustled tokens and nicotine odor still haunt my dreams. Good article!

Awww...arcade games...I'm 23 and I'm old enough to remember a time when these wondrous machines graced pizza parlors, ice cream shops, drug stores, and of course the local mall...in fact often times a whole store's space in the mall would be dedicated to nothing but arcade games. I don't remember the name of this particular arcade but it was magical.

I'm from Cleveland, OH and here are some of the best arcades I can remember off the top of my head from when I was 7 or 8 at the peak of my arcade going days:

-Swings 'N' Things Family Fun Center (Olmsted Falls, OH)--Mostly defunct. Nothing more than a light gun and DDR despository; It was at this arcade that I first discovered the arcade version of Battletoads and Aliens Versus Predator. Neither of these machines is there anymore. The putt-putt is still good though after all these years. Not sure about the bumper boats or the go-karts. And I was never really a batting cage fan.

-Goodtimes (Avon, OH)--Closed and remodeled since about 2005 or 2006 into a Petitti's Garden Center; This place was a real gem let me tell you. In addition to another huge putt-putt course this place was everything Swings 'N' Things was but on a larger scale or maybe it was just big to my little 8-year-old self. They also had bumper boats, go-karts, and a huge arcade. It was at this time that I really got into fighting games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Goodtimes was the place to have your birthday in the 90's. In about 2000 or 2001, Goodtimes rented out their arcade space to a Laser Xtreme franchise and moved most of their remaining arcade machines and pinball machines into their dining room/foyer area. It was sad to see this place finally close its doors as it had become a spring/summer fixture each year when it opened for about 15 years.

-Power Play (Cleveland, OH)--Another great 90's style arcade in the Flats at an entertainment complex known as The Powerhouse. I spent quite a few Saturdays here as a kid and it was here that I discovered the T2 Arcade Game, Sega's Time Traveler, and Mad Dog Mc Cree. I also remember this place had a few photo booths from one of which I still have a strip of photos from when I was a little 7-year-old boy. Saturday was a magical day. Now this awesome arcade is no more than eight or nine machines in a small alcove across from a bar/restaurant and a banquet hall called Windows On The River. This place also had a comedy club called The Improv which is also no longer around. The only place left is a country music/bluegrass saloon called Howl At The Moon. This building once lived up to its name and really was a 90's "Powerhouse".

-Chuck E. Cheese (North Olmsted)--Christ. I haven't been to a Chuck E. Cheese since I was nine years old and don't plan I going there again anytime soon. The games were cheap (as in unfair) as I can recall and the pizza was a lousy excuse for a grease spot on a napkin. One bite of that calorie laden monstrosity would turn any healthy active kid into Eric Cartman instantly. My favorite memory of Chuck E. Cheese was playing the original 1989 TMNT arcade game and winning one of those chomping dinosaur wands (remember these??) by cheating at skeeball. Those were the days.

-Maumee Bay Resort and National Park (Maumee, OH)--This is a vacation spot for my aunt and uncle every summer which once included a thriving and bustling arcade complete with pool tables, claw machines, chance games, pinball machines, ping pong tables, about half a dozen arcade machines (including Rampage, Gauntlet, Ms. Pacman, and Galaga), and a ride on wave runner simulator by Sega.

Anyway, the closest thing us Cleveland 90's kids still have to a fully stocked and "live" arcade would have to be Dave and Buster's in Westlake, OH. I haven't been there in roughly a year so I have no idea how it is still. Last time I was there they still had a lot of great machines and a lot of machines that gave out tickets to be redeemed for cool Dave and Buster's swag like T-Shirts, Shot Glasses, and Boxer Shorts. No, the true arcade may never return in its full form, but we'll always have our memories to hang on to.

Good work! we had a Aladdins Castle in our Mall at one time and we had those same games. I Loved the Simpsons game also dont forget the great Ninja Turtles arcade game that was awesome! We used to go there when MK2,Ultimate MK and MK3 were NEW! we used to go there and take out cheat sheets that we printed on the net and use them to perform fatalities and moves. Great place and now days it looks similar to what yours does now as well. The mall used to have stores in every space i think at one time there was like 35 stores and now there is like 10 just goes to show how times change and the economy is different.

I loved your arcade games article, good work. When my family and I vacation in SeaSide Oregon each year, I do venture to the Funland Arcade there, they do have some retro Aracades like and Galaga/Pac-Man cocktail table, the TMNT game, X-Men, and Simpson, but it is not totally that same with all those ticket games. Great pics and article!

I live near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and go to the New Jersey shore almost every summer, especially Wildwood, which is known for its boardwalk chock-full of amusement rides, t-shirt shops, pizza parlors and arcades. Back in the 1980s there was at least one arcade every block along the boardwalk. There is nowhere near as many arcades today, and most of the arcades that are still there now resemble casinos with rows of slot machines that pay out tokens or tickets for prize redemption. You also see a lot more of those claw or "crane" machines as well.

I lived too far away from the nearest arcade to go too often as a kid. The only arcade was in a mall about 25 miles from my house. When I got my drivers license, I would go with a friend of mine. We would play Tekken 2 and air hockey. After awhile, the arcade would get rid of half of their machines and brought in computers so people could play capture the flag and any other PC games where groups could play together. After that, they got rid of the computers and brought in the interactive games. After being away for a while, I was sad to see it closed down. It was due to a Chuck E Cheese opening around the corner. I will always enjoy the memories of the place and being with my friends.

Even though I know that with today's generation it could never work out, I still wish arcades would make a comeback. Personally, I'd still be going to them today if I could just find a few left. The very few that are left only have games, like you mentioned in your article, that are the claw-grab or Dance Revolution type. No good old fighting or adventure games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, The Simpsons, or X-Men. Personally my favorite of all time were X-Men, The Simpsons, and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I swear I could play those games forever. I'll never forget taking a trip to California as a kid and finding an arcade that was all nickel machines. I played for HOURS! So as I was saying, I'd be at them now if arcades were still around, but I think kids today would think they were just dumb and say "Why would I go to an arcade when I could just play at home...and be online with people too!". Yeah, I guess so, but I sure miss good old fashioned interaction with other people these days. Everything is done hands-off and remotely today. Good article!

I never get tired of hearing the arcade memories, even though they always include The Simpsons and X-Men games(heck, I wrote about 'em in my article!). Definitely a moment in time that has passed, where will the kids go now to get stabbed?

I, too, have a deep love for the X-Men and The Simpsons arcade games. I've beaten The Simpsons, but never X-Men. Man, those are some really fond memories. Thanks for the reminder.

Pretty good piece overall. Excellent explanation of the games, your memories, and the nostalgia value for you. I would have liked to seen a little more explanation of gameplay on X-Men.

I agree that the Wii is definitely a death nail for arcades, but it comes on the heels of years of downturn. I haven't walked into an arcade and been excited by new machines since very early this decade. It can be quite successfully argued that by the time the Wii came around, gamers were already wondering what was left that was worth going to an arcade for. So, that being the long way round of saying, I'd politely dispute your point about parents' paranoia being a deciding factor. The arcades I grew up going to, with the exception of one, were all pretty safe places that my folks had few qualms about (except that I blew every quarter I could get my hands on at them). I don't go to arcades anymore because home consoles offer more compelling gaming experiences, which is the bottom line of the industry. I don't dispute the validity of your childhood experiences, but I don't believe that they are widely applicable to the rest of the country.

Keep writing. We'll keep reading.