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Why were/are Arcades so Sleezy?

batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
edited January 2009 in Strut Central
Why were/are arcades trpically sleezy.The ones on Forty Duece used to be like Mos Eisley.U can go to a nice suburban Chucky Cheese and Olaf and Them had the The Bowling alley near me used to be a big hangout cause of the Video Games.All the grimey cats ran up in there.There's a kinda new mall in New Rochelle that has that new style arcade steez w/ the big ass motorized throw-up on yourself machines. My grown ass had too keep an eye out. Too many teenagers w/ the funny vibe lurkin around. And there was hella security guards.To this day i dont get it. Even the Pinball Machine era had a grittiness.Is this linked to the Pool Hall vibe?Hood chicks smokin newports at Ms.Pacman and shit.
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  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    Too many teenagers
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    U and I used to be those teenagers.
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I'm just answering your question.

    Anything filled with teenagers = sleazy.

    Also you have to figure at least half the people
    over 25 are just chickenhawks.
  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    The arcade I used to frequent when I was kid always struck me as a sort of foreign element in the mall it was in. You had like The Dollar Store, Foot Locker, GNC, and then this cave that smelled funny with the lights way dimmed and weird pimply dudes stalking around.

    I saw a fist fight break out once between a really, really fat guy and a really, really skinny guy over Virtua Fighter. It was awesome.
  • rootlesscosmorootlesscosmo 12,848 Posts
    the scene in Ferris Bueller where the principal gets coke spit on his face.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Back in the day it was no big deal to see a young couple on a date tryin to outdo one another on millipede or even dad w/ the kids handin out quarters and shit.

    But over by Tempest would be I'm Rick James Bitch.
  • soulmarcosasoulmarcosa 4,296 Posts
    The GC Murphy's (kind of a 5 & dime store) in the old Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh NC around 1981 was pretty sleazy. You were in a brightly-lit store whose target market was housewives who were 50+, and off to the side was huge room with the PLAYBOY, KISS & ELTON JOHN pinball machines (including the extra-sized one called HERCULES) along with early-80s faves DEFENDER, GORF, TRON, etc. There were cigarette burns on all their consoles and if you put your quarter on the machine to reserve the next game you better not be a nerd 'cos Kelly Leak or David Wooderson was going to steal it and laugh in your face.
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    The GC Murphy's (kind of a 5 & dime store) in the old Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh NC around 1981 was pretty sleazy. You were in a brightly-lit store whose target market was housewives who were 50+, and off to the side was huge room with the PLAYBOY, KISS & ELTON JOHN pinball machines (including the extra-sized one called HERCULES) along with early-80s faves DEFENDER, GORF, TRON, etc. There were cigarette burns on all their consoles and if you put your quarter on the machine to reserve the next game you better not be a nerd 'cos Kelly Leak or David Wooderson was going to steal it and laugh in your face.

    That what im talmbout.
  • nzshadownzshadow 5,518 Posts
    The GC Murphy's (kind of a 5 & dime store) in the old Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh NC around 1981 was pretty sleazy. You were in a brightly-lit store whose target market was housewives who were 50+, and off to the side was huge room with the PLAYBOY, KISS & ELTON JOHN pinball machines (including the extra-sized one called HERCULES) along with early-80s faves DEFENDER, GORF, TRON, etc. There were cigarette burns on all their consoles and if you put your quarter on the machine to reserve the next game you better not be a nerd 'cos Kelly Leak or David Wooderson was going to steal it and laugh in your face.

    Damn straight.

    the last real beating i took was when i got jacked between two pinball machines in a shady ass arcade in downtown auckland.

    TCG's: real kiwi heads know the deal.

    when i think back to the amount of cash i spent on arcade machines... damn.

    good shit.
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,896 Posts
    We used to frequent the "Corner Pocket" pool hall during school lunchtimes. Happy days, walk 20 mins, waste dinner money for 20 mins, walk back before the bell. We were all thin.

    It had all the "Latest" early 80s classic video games. Jukebox would always have Northern Soul/The Who/Kraftwerk in full effect. Had a little cafe hatch where you could get hot orange cordial and a microwaved pie (which tasted like papier-mache dipped in HP sauce).

    I was pretty good at Defender, but I was told by the owner there was a dude who came in the evenings (I wouldn't go there at night even now - proper "Mos Eisley" rough) who used to wear purple jeans and jumper and maroon Keo's and stand in "Crane Stance" and he would always beat my lunch score and leave "MAC" as the initials.

    Then they got the sequel to Defender in; Stargate. That was insane. You also got about 97 characters to leave your name if you were #1. I remember putting in "JJJ DIG IT MAC" which he followed with "HAIL MACCA DEFENDER KING".

    Brian Walker was the king though. He was a few years older, in a punk band and could make "Missile Command" go round the clock, and get 50+ sheets on "Galaxian" (with the big "10" flags). He also threatened to slap me in the face if I breathed on his arm again whilst he was playing.
  • deathvalley90210deathvalley90210 398 Posts
    i was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago after watching "fast times at ridgemont high" for the first time in 10 or so years. in the opening seen where the viewer is getting introduced to all the characters you see a shirtless spicoli smoking a cigarette and playing pac-man or some shit.

    seeing that reminded me of the arcade i went to when i was a youngster. it was called "the gold mine," and it was designed to look like the inside of a mine, so it was dark and grimey as hell. the oldest employee had to be 16 or 17-years-old, so it was basically a free-for-all, with kids doing whatever the hell they wanted to do--smoking joints, making-out, fighting, stealing people's quarters, being scared shitless of having their quarters stolen, etc. oh, and as somebody already mentioned, the place was always crawling with chicken hawks.

    i think there something to the teenagers + chicken hawks = sleazy argument above.

    for proof, i just look at the skating rink i went to as a kid. as far as sleaziness goes, the skating rink was always the arcade X 100.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    What's really amazing is how down here in the South you can drive through one stop-light towns, towns too small to even have a Wal-Mart, and they all have a local "Arcade".......usually in a small, mostly unoccupied strip mall. It's the ONLY thing that teens in that area have and they are usually packed on Friday/Saturday nights.

    Sleazy Arcades and Sno-Cone Stands = Life in Rural America
  • CBearCBear 902 Posts


    < < < Grimey
  • DjArcadianDjArcadian 3,630 Posts
    There used to be an arcade in the Sunvalley Mall in Pleasant Hill, California. I heard it got shut down because employees started dealing out of it. Feds came in, busted them and tore apart all the arcade games looking for drugs hidden inside them.

    They're usually dark, filled with obsessive gamers, some video game hustlers and are usually unclean.
  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
    besides the one featured in "the king of kong", do video arcades even exist any more?
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Do they even have arcades anymore? They used to be really grimey for sure. Games in the front, pool tables in the back, always shady. Philly in the early / mid 80s is some real headz know the deal shit.

    Space Port
    Zounds
    Supercade
    Supercade (off 13th St. - ugh)
    The joint up on 40th St.
    Galaxy up at Roosevelt mall..

    Goddamn
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    the change-guys were like carnies in the making. you get a bit older and notice that the dude working at the poolhall is a slightly different version of the dude working at the arcade.


    unless one has popped up recently, all the arcades on Yonge St. are gone, Funland was the last one to go I think. Not that surprising given home consoles, right? Kinda like record stores - the main chains like Sam's, A&A, Cheapies - are gone, too.

    sigh.
  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    I found a tempest machine that needs a little work, but damn if I didn't seriously consider buying it. I wish I lived in a bigger apartment on the first floor.
  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    Oh man.This just made me remember jellef rec center in Georgetown. Me and this dude alfie used to RUN major havoc. One day this kid on angel dust hit me with a pool cue.
  • undertheradarundertheradar 619 Posts
    I used to ride my bike to Video Forest and Jakes Arcade, both in random strip mall around town. They always seemed dark and had all of the town stoners there playing Jungle Hunt, Crazy Climber, etc. The local bowling alley always had some of the latest pinball machines and video games.
    I'd always come home reeking of these, of course I never partook. Weird thing is my mom never, ever questioned me about how I smelled when I got home.




    Speaking of Tempest, who knew how to get the 40 free games? Mad days were wasted playing those 40 free games.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Crazy Climber,

    I found one of these at a Garage Sale for $50.00 back in the day....my brother and I had that machine mastered after a few weeks....was addicting as hell....wound up giving it to a neighborhood kid after we got tired of it.
  • Garcia_VegaGarcia_Vega 2,428 Posts
    We had "Time Out!," in the food court of the big mall. The mall is next to a huge housing project, and all these project kids would hang out there and terrorize the joint. Apart from video games you had the games you'd play for tickets to exchange for a prize at the counter. Well, a lot of those games were in the back and kids would wait to your tickets came out, punch you in the face, grab the tickets and run. All for a f*cking eraser or something. I saw a lot of big brawls there, like 20 kids all fighting each other. Place eneded up closing for a while after a shoot out there, then re-opened but no moms would let their kids go.
    We rediscovered it in high school when we would go stoned or tripping and play Jurassic Park while cutting class.

    This summer I was in Indianapolis and walking around Circle City Mall. We passed an arcade and my kid wanted to go in. I had a rush of memories about Time Out and was ready to ice grill folls. This modern arcade was huge and well lit, and on a Sunday afternoon there was all of 5 people in it :/
  • tripledoubletripledouble 7,636 Posts

    The joint up on 40th St.

    Goddamn

    block from where i grew up. shady as shit.
    used to be arcade,laundromat and poolhall open 24 hours
    when i started getting drunk and high id go there before going home until i was halfway presentably sober. if i didnt have money(often) i would play the free bowling video game with the big roller ball that they had in the laundry section. there was some pool hustling dudes in there along with some thuggy asian gang elements. i was never too much into video games, but i remember getting weed there once. i also remember watching these two old dudes square off on the ms pacman...they played one game against each other for the 90 minutes i was there and i left when it was faaaar from over. pretty impressive. it was like they were running routes on each screen
  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts


    seeing that reminded me of the arcade i went to when i was a youngster. it was called "the gold mine," and it was designed to look like the inside of a mine, so it was dark and grimey as hell. the oldest employee had to be 16 or 17-years-old, so it was basically a free-for-all, with kids doing whatever the hell they wanted to do--smoking joints, making-out, fighting, stealing people's quarters, being scared shitless of having their quarters stolen, etc. oh, and as somebody already mentioned, the place was always crawling with chicken hawks.

    we had a Gold Mine in Albuquerque too
  • deanosoundsdeanosounds 181 Posts
    My local arcade / pool hall had a huge snake on display.
  • behemothbehemoth 2,189 Posts

    There's a kinda new mall in New Rochelle that has that new style arcade steez

    New Rochelle would be the key word in that statement
  • SnappingSnapping 995 Posts
    There were cigarette burns on all their consoles and if you put your quarter on the machine to reserve the next game you better not be a nerd 'cos Kelly Leak or David Wooderson[/b] was going to steal it and laugh in your face.

    You mean this guy ?

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,471 Posts
    When I was growing up, Arnie's Place in Westport was the arcade, and definitely the most popular spot for kids to have their birthday. Seeing as how it was in Whiteport--oh, I mean Westport--it was decidedly less sleazy than the average arcade, but it was still kinda on the sleazy tip. The attached pool hall was sleazier (wasn't that always the case?). The owner, Arnie Kaye was a character, though. He was constantly battling the town of Westport and threatening to do shit like turn the arcade into a porno theater. One time, the town nailed him on some back taxes, several thousand dollars' worth. Dude paid it off in pennies; he hired some armored trucks to deliver the bags of pennies to city hall. I thought that was fantastic.
  • Big_StacksBig_Stacks "I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
    Hey,

    These stories bring back fond memories. I used to go to the arcade in Cross Creek Mall (big up, Fayetteville, NC), and yes it was as grimy as the other arcades described. It's strange because the rest of the mall didn't look like the arcade, dark and dingy (smelly too). I used to run 'tings on Tron, Defender, ang Gallaga. We also had arcade games in the laundromat near my crib, that's where I got down on Tron and Elevator Action. Then, there was also Putt-Putt Golf and Games (and Showbiz Pizza Place too), which in stark contrast to the typically, nasty-ass arcade, were nice, clean, and well-lit. I used to hold it down on Kangaroo, Punch Out, and Dig Dug up there. I also shot a great game of miniature golf. Also, there was Crystal Dungeon arcade on Bragg Boulevard that was also grimey as hell, those rough Bonnie Doone (neighborhood) characters would roll up. I had to swing on one of those fools once, "n***as know." Those were the days!!!

    Peace,

    Big Stacks from Kakalak
  • deathvalley90210deathvalley90210 398 Posts
    Also, there was Crystal Dungeon arcade on Bragg Boulevard that was also grimey as hell....

    that's gotta be in the running for best arcade name ever.
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