I spent a lot of during school hours in an arcade. Mall cop used to kick us out for being there on school days, then we walked to one that didn't care, but had less games.

I'd never make it in this day of automated phone calls home when not in school.

After school, after dinner, most Saturday afternoons. 100%

Only had a small arcade in town for a short time.

Generally hung out in the local news depots that usually had 3-4 pins in the 70's and a mix of pins and arcade games in the 80's.

You'd play games for a couple hours then buy some comics and baseball cards and head home.

Remember doing that when I was 7. Now I won't let my boys walk away from me in a store. Sad.

I spent most of my time there! Sometimes when I was supposed to be in school

Many hours wih donkey kong, centipede, Qbert, dragons lair, and of course firepower and other pins

Spent *tons* of time at the arcade as a kid...

My mom tells me this story about when I was five... it was 1977, and after having been give my weekly allowance and having gone out to spend it, I apparently came home, walked in the house, and said, "Mom, I'm addicted to pinball. I get my allowance, and I just can't help it; I have_ to go play!" I had a sad, shameful on my face, and my mom tried her hardest to not crack up laughing... here was this 5yr old kid, who took is 25c allowance, ran off to the arcade, and played his two 10c games of pinball... lol...

As I got older, the local mall had an arcade, but they weren't even allowed to be open until school was out. Found that out one day when I tried to play hookey and sneak in for a game or two.

Then in high school, the arcade/pool hall was just a block down the street. "The Sting", in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Spent *HOURS* in there...

Spent soooo_ much time there, in fact, that the owner relied on me and my friends to help keep the riff-raff out. He bought us our own pool cues (which no one else was allowed to use but us), regularly dropped coins into the juke box for us, and was just an all around good guy. Funniest part was that as the place changed hands several times over the years, *every* one of the owners was named "John".

When I wasn't there playing vids or pool, I was at work.... at "Shooting Star Comics" down the street a few blocks.

And on weekends, if we weren't working then we just about lived at the arcade. Sundays were always good days... the old Greek/Italian guys in the neighbourhood would come in to play pool and try to be all machismo. We'd start off playing "a buck a game", but things would quickly double their way up to $10 or $20 a game. That's when we'd reach behind the counter, take our (straight) cue from John, and then clean their clocks. Paid my rent for more than a few months by doing that....

Oh, yes. I wouldn't be into pinball if I hadn't.

Oh they were the days! Not an arcade,they were restricted to the Cities, but certainly down to the local milk bar to meet up with friends and play the latest machine-invariably a Gottlieb. I am somewhat embarassed to now admit that playing the pinball was financed by removing any loose change from the fob pocket of my fathers' hanging trousers.

Yup'. Always blew off my last class (study hall) to take the bus to South Hills Mall in Wappingers NY and the "Dream Machine" arcade. Two tiers back in the late 70's/ early 80's. Lower tier arcade games, shooters, driving games. Upper level was just pins and around 20 of them. Loads of Sterns, Flight, Meteor, Ali, some Williams and a few Ballys too. After draining the paper route money, off to Blimpie sub's to get out "eat" on. Then to hitchhike home as we were too damn broke to catch the bus back home. Sigh..... Good carefree times......~SpOoKy

Had a Majik Market 1 block away that had pins. A few more were a bike ride away. Remember trying to recognize machines from thier side art as we past by stores w/them in the front window. My meager allowance was blown on a regular basis on pins/vids. Then heavy metal came along............................

I used to play in our local arcade downtown. I was hooked on spy hunter (arcade). I would play for a while and then get pissed at the machine when I died. After kicking the machine or banging on it the old lady that worked the counter would come yelling at me. "Stop kicking the machines, your kicked out for the rest of the day." She would show me to the door; with her finger pointing the way.

The next day we would start over again and go through the same routine.

Chris

Me.

LTG : )™

would have been easier to ask : how old are you ? and than, you will know if yes or no people have had good time in arcades... and not only after school, also before, also at midday, and as said also while supposed to be at school

i'm 48, than you know the answer about me
btw, thats also why i got a pincab, but even more a MAME cab...

I went to Cal Prep, right down the street from castle golf.
we had an open campus, so we would go to the castle
everyday for lunch, lots of robotrons, and pins.
But before that my mom worked in a flower shop, and
I would take the RTD from Encino oaks grammar school.
to chatsworth and whiteoak, to the arcade, until she got off
work. Had to make 1 or 2 bucks last a couple hours.
kiss, flight2k, firepower, space invaders etc...
the good ol days

maybe if I went after school I wouldn't have to ask every customer"you want fries with that"? joe

My goal as a high schooler was to get into the Naval Academy. So I really had to improve my math grades. I decided that in lieu of taking summer drivers education (and having a car/social life) that I would ride my bike each day to the local college, State U of NY at Farmingdale, Long Island, to take calculus. After class, all summer, I rode my bike to the nearby amusement park and played lots of pinball. I had always enjoyed pinball, but it was that experience that made it a lifelong interest for me.

Not common today, but we could leave school during lunch.
Of course we went to the crap little arcade just down the street.

Sure did back in the 80's. Every available minute playing pinball.

Cc

I remember going to an arcade after school for a while with two buddies while one was trying to beat Rastan. We'd give him quarters so he could continue and try to get to the end. He finally made it. For those who don't know, once you get to Round 6, the final round, you can't continue the game.

I also remember playing EBD on the weekends at a local arcade. That was the first pinball machine I spent a lot of time on.

I've spent lots of times in the arcades in elementary and high school.

One time In elementary school, I lived close by so I had the privilege of being able to go home for lunch but rarely ever did because I would spend it playing Street Fighter II at a local convenience store. The problem was I only had 45 mins and it is about a 15-20 min walk each way so I use to "borrow" whatever bike I could find that wasn't locked to the fence to cut my commuting time down. Unfortunately it was usually the girl ones with ribbons plastered and sort of resembled this except without the training wheel and mine had a Strawberry Shortcake basket on the front.

girly girl.jpg

One time I went with another kid and he borrowed a girl's bike too so off we went. Sure enough when we returned back from the lunch and put the bikes back where we got them the vice principal was waiting to greet us. He asked if those bikes were ours and we were both like what are you talking about we walked. He said don't lie because I was up there (pointing at the window on the second floor) and saw you guys scouring for unlocked bikes when lunch time started. So let me ask you again were those bikes yours? Naturally we were both like "yes sir, of course" and he rolled his eyes in disbelief say "Riiiiiiiight". He said tell you what guys, I'm going to find the owners and ask them to see if they gave you permission to borrow their bikes. If they say yes then you are free to go otherwise you have just got yourself a week's worth of detention and after school recycling duty.

usual.jpg

Here is what we both felt like except there was no one way security glass for the witness to identify us. I don't know how the vice principal was able to find the owners or had enough time to conduct a CSI type investigation for the short time we were gone. But we were brought into his office and the two girls were standing there and here is the kicker too, the bike the guy took was his cousin's. So I was thinking oh great, he' is going to get off scott free while I am screwed. I already knew the girl was going to say "Nope" because she didn't know me from a hole in the wall but the cousin said "No" too! I guess blood isn't thicker then water??

I lived in Calgary in the mid 70's. Our community had a hall, it was renovated for a teen drop in. Great stuff, I was in, helping to paint the place. Then the 12 pins showed up, even better. Sock Hops, Pins, fountain pop, chips, and music, what more did a kid need. Sadly, it only lasted for 4 months, it was busy on weekends, then the 18 to 19 year olds took it over, forcing the younger teens out.
On Saturdays I would tell the parents, going to Marcs house see ya later. I usually made a bee line to the bus stop and headed downtown where there were 2 really great arcades. Hey, 25 cents to get downtown was good. Later an arcade opened in a strip mall across the highway from our house. Even better.
Just hanging out watching older guys play, learning the moves, and shots was cool. Just plain good FUN, and that was all that was going on.

Time Out and Galaxy arcades, Sunrise Mall, Massapequa NY, every Friday and Saturday night when possible; they had Firepower 1 & 2, Black Knight, Centaur, Space Invaders, Orbitor 1, Haunted House, Black Hole and others, The supermarket and card store across from my high school also had Scramble, Pac Man, Spectar, etc., so that's where my lunch period and lunch money went. And our nearby Mr. Donut always had good games when they just came out - Wizard of Wor, Qix, Centipede, Robotron. It was great being a teenager in the arcade heyday.

I grew up in the "Heyday" of arcades. There seemed to be one in every mall. Then, you could find a game room in every bowling alley, gas station, and convinence store in town. Sadly, video games were more common, but there was always at least one pin to play. In our metro area, there were 6 bowling alleys, 1 pool hall, and 2 major mall arcades. Then you had games at the back of every gas station/C. store so there was never a shortage of places to go play. It just seems weird that one day they were all thriving and the next day they disappeared.

Yep.... Had a pretty good one in the mall about a mile from my High School, and the local bowling alleys generally had a fair collection of games, so spent more time there than I could count...

Also did not hurt being the 'resident' game mechanic at the local pool hall... They always had 3-4 pins and some other cabinet games knocking about.

Those were the days!

My arcade days were limited to one week per year at KU basketball camp, where there was an arcade with TAF, IJ, DESW, and JP. The rest were vids, and the most popular were Mortal Kombat, the T2 gun game and Neo Geo. Good times.

The other arcade I visited most often would be Penny Arcade during summer vacations in Manitou Springs, CO. Tons of EMs for 5-10 cents/play, and lots of other antique novelty games. You could spend an afternoon there for just a buck.

Definitely. That was pretty much the only way to play.

So that was YOU that took my Stingray while I was inside Pizza Pub playing pinball.

On the way home from high school I used to walk through the community college and they had a small arcade room with an EM Joker Poker that I would play on an almost daily basis. 25 cents would go a long way in that machine.

there were two local arcades I would spend a lot of time in as a kid. as well as a local pool hall, bowling alley, many mom and pop stores, 7/11, pizza places. one that comes to mind is a pizza place in the strip mall my dads book store was in. every day I walked from school to my dads store to work. on the way I would stop and play the kiss pinball in the pizza place. I would often ditch classes to go across the street from school to the bowling alley to play flash and gorgar. I actually bot busted doing that. my dad was actually cool with it because he used to do the exact same thing and the principal that caught me was his gym teacher who popped him for doing the same thing 25 years earlier. yup, pinball, its in the blood.

I wish, I grew up in a town with a population of 900. Pretty much just darts, 3 lane bowling and pool tables. I wasn't exposed to pinball till my late 20's.

Oh yes, 2Kaulitz. Those were the days.. the late 70s/early 80s in the golden age of the arcades.

In Jr. High it was less common to go after school, since it was a long, long way home from there... but the weekends were spent on my Mom's 10 speed scouting out kwik marts (Sheetz's in central PA) for games like Spy Hunter, Gyruss, Tempest, Sinistar, etc.

High School it was easier. Soph and Jr. years I would go to the Station Mall (two blocks from the H.S.) after school many times and kick the crap out of Elevator Action, Spy Hunter, sit down Star Wars, and others. Pinball was always kind of another option... but I was more in awe of it than a participant in it. It always seemed so difficult.

Senior yr. of H.S. it was harder because of football practice after school.

It wasn't until college years (during the Kurt Cobain early 90s) that I got into pinball,, which just so happened to be the golden DMD age. Spent many a quarter in D.E. Simpsons, T2, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Addams Familly, Fun House, EATPM, and others.

Fun times.

Guilty as charged.

Buffalo bills was the hub of our young community , almost all my free time and cash was spent in that place . No cell phones , no computers, it's where you met all your friends and found out where the party's were . I wish I could go back to that time .

That's the name of a brewery restaurant that I go to often... arg.. wish they had pins..

And miss the afterschool specials?

I kid.. I grew up in the country so chores, work then homework sleep rinse repeat.

Every time I ever walked into an establishment that had arcade or pin though I would downright beg for a quarter to play just one game. 7 eleven, minute mart, laundry mat etc....

summer nights like we are having right now. staying at my friends house. down the block was a mini mart that always had a couple of pins. we would hang out there until midnight playing pinball and drinking sodas. those were the days. no school. a part time job and free to do what ever we wanted. youth is wasted on the young.

Not I.
Gulfport, MS was backwater back then... we're lucky we had city water, power, and a phone.
Forget a real arcade.

The only arcade we had was at the Mall during the hey-day... and our mother would never have given us cash to blow at the arcade.

I'm making up for it now damnit.

I didn't...

but technically I have a Star Trek at home so I play it after school

There was a "Mr Arcade" near my school. I would go there after school most days. They had their pinballs lined up at the entrance, and its my memories of playing Comet, Taxi and later Lethal Weapon 3 that I carried with me for 20+ years that brought me back to it.

My basement arcade (frolicsarcade.com) is modeled very much after that particular arcade.

I was involved in a lot of sports as a kid, so never after school. Saturday morning was the day I went though. I have always got up early (6am today on Sunday!) and would go until just after lunch.

Ironically, only when TAF came out, when I was 18, did I make a point of going many weeknights, leaving my girlfriend's place early to play 30 min before they closed and no one was there. That's how much that machine drew me in. I only hit the arcade after 15-16 when I was actually at the mall for something then otherwise.

Girls had better buttons to push at that age