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I haven't seen one of those old arcades in ages. You could walk into any mall in the 80's and hear the centipede game from halfway across the mall. The one I spent a lot of time in had a very distinctive smell of electronics and carpet cleaner. I could play Spy Hunter as long as I wanted to on one quarter, and my sister could do the same thing with Galaga. I remember being horrified the first time I wandered into a mall in Florida and realized they didn't have an arcade. That situation became more and more common as time went on. I think the demise of the American mall is in some way linked with the demise of the American video game arcade.

The loss of the mall was one factor among many. In order to have an experience better than what you could get at home, you need custom hardware. Moore's Law has kept the cost of bleeding-edge hardware approximately flat in constant dollars, but all the other costs - electricity, rent, lighting, air conditioning - are also subject to inflation over a 10-20 year timeframe. Nobody wants to deal with two slots for quarters/nickels, tokens are a PITA for an operator, and in the end, that means there are two prices for games in the US: $0.25 and $0.50. Nobody could be first to double the price of a game and stay in business, despite the fact that if you're charging $0.25 per play in 2014, it's the equivalent of charging $0.10/play in 1984.

One of the more surprising developments has been seeing them come back, although as playable museums this time, and maybe one or two per state. (Funspot in NH, Ground Kontrol in OR, The 1-Up in CO, and Pacific Pinball and High Scores in CA.) There's also the annual CA Extreme event in the Bay Area with several hundred vids and pins, coming up in about two weekends.

Some decent to great arcades I've been to recently that are filled with classic games, in order of decreasing awesomeness:

• Funspot, New Hampshire
• Richie Knucklez', New Jersey
• Barcade, New York
• Ground Kontrol, Oregon
• Crabtowne USA, Maryland

They're still out there.

Relevant: So You Want To Open An Arcade

There's always Ground Kontrol! It's Portland so it's really a bar with a lot of great arcade games. I haven't been there in a little while but they just finished remodeling. This thread reminded me to head down there again. My personal fave is Track & Field.

Some might balk at the idea of it being 21 and over only, but realistically anyone less than 21 isn't going to know what a true arcade is. They are used to the mall 'arcades' that are mostly games of moderate skill that spit out tickets that they exchange for some crappy toys when they are done.

It's mostly for adults, due to the bar, but still Ground Kontrol in Portland (OR) is a fantastic example of how arcades can survive: http://groundkontrol.com/arcade/index.php

Ground Kontrol awesome bar. http://www.groundkontrol.com/

I fell in love with pinball when I was 9, in the summer of '72. There was a machine at the corner drug store. Back then, before Pong, it was a lot easier to play pinball, because it was much more widespread. Where's a kid going to fall in love with pinball these days? Certainly not at the corner store. Arcades, when you can find them, rarely have pinball machines. The most common setting for them these days is in bars, which are off limits to kids.

As a result, fewer kids develop a love of pinball, which translates into fewer adults playing pinball. Fewer kids and adults means a smaller customer base and fewer machines sold.

The pinball manufacturers spent 30 years combating video games. First they moved to cpu control, then increased complexity, added DMD displays, and finally, Williams tried adding a CRT with their Pinball 2000 machines. After producing two different P2k designs, they dropped pinball for video poker. For me, that's a pretty sad ending for my favorite manufacturer.

One thing they were never able to do was make pinball machines appreciably more reliable. I have a 1973 Gottlieb that's more reliable than most newer pins, probably because it has fewer playfield parts. For an operator's perspective, that's a fatal flaw. Pinball machines require constant service. Video games require the occasional retightening of a button or joystick or the resoldering of a switch. Replace the marquee lamp every year or two. By the time the monitor needs re-capping, the game has probably been replaced with a new one. This is what encouraged operators to switch from mechanical games (not just pinball) to video games, as much as the popularity of games such as Pong, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.

I co-own Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade in Portland, OR, and AFAIK, we operate the most pinball machines west of the Pinball Museum in Vegas. I'm discouraged that I don't see more kids playing pinball. But I do see a lot of people in their early 20s playing. Many of them say pinball is a recently acquired taste. So I'm hopeful that the decline in the number of players has stopped. I don't foresee a resurgence like Gary Stern does, but I'd be glad to be wrong.

I hope Stern can survive, because without them, pinball is doomed.

Meh. I'm just cooling my heels a bit before going out to a New Year's Eve party at a local arcade.

What? Going to a New Year's Even party at an arcade is just further indication that I'll never reproduce?

CRAP!

Somebody already mentioned it, but I believe you are talking about Ground Kontrol. As I live in Portland, it is a favorite hangout for myself and a few of my friends. They do indeed have pinball, to the tune of 19 (yes, nineteen) pinball machines. Ground Kontrol is also a regular hangout for the Portland Pinball League, which I am a part of. If you live in Portland and like pinball, or arcade games in general, I'd suggest checking it out.

Not to be picky, but it's "Ground Kontrol." The do have pinball too. I used to live near there. Now I live in Brooklyn, I've heard talk of a place called "Barcade," I look forward to going there soon.

Video games are *the* reason I learned anything about computers, at least at first. I still have an Aladin's Castle token from the first arcade I ever played in, in 1977.

My first PC was a Compaq Deskpro 8086, with a couple of classic games. One was the original text-only Zork. Graphics? Zero (draw your own map!). Gameplay? 10+. Kill Troll With Sword!

For actual video games on this ancient machine, we had a BASIC program named LEM (aka Lunar Lander). The thing to do was go into the code and find the fuel quantity, and add a little bit more fuel than the game normally started you out with; otherwise, the only game I could play was "How big will this crater be?" I still have this PC and it still runs, by the way!

Then there was Sopwith, a Defender-style WWI game with some seriously aggressive enemy planes. There was a nice bug: If you bombed the middle enemy base enough times, the enemy plane there would not be able to take off, and this was nice, becuase it was the only way to avoid being harassed constantly (each enemy plane had a territory).

The BEST arcade I have ever been in was Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon. When I was there in 2000, they had some CLASSICS and some later machines as well. Everything from Pac-Man to Marble Madness. If you're ever in Portland, check them out.

(Disclaimer: I co-own and operate GK, so this qualifies as shameless self-promotion)

Yes, Ground Kontrol has all but one of the Blip exhibit's games and about 50 more. Our goal is to present arcade gaming's "greatest hits", spanning the decades, all for .25 a play in a true arcade environment, as originally intended.

At the old-timer 'museum' end of the spectrum, we're refurbishing a 1973 QuadraPong. It's the first cocktail table game and only the third Atari produced. It's so early, the screen is a modified off-the-shelf B&W television!

At the top end, we've got Gauntlet: Dark Legacy and San Francisco Rush: The Rock. And, in the middle, plenty of golden-age (1980-1982) classics. Pinball, too.

We have some big names in the arcade preservation hobby involved, and the place is looking good. If you live anywhere west of the Rockies, please do pay a visit. It's a lot cheaper than driving to NYC. ;-)

They Already have Arcades like this without the need for special occasions! same old ONE QUARTER per play too. Those of you in Portland, OR should all check out GROUND KONTROL. for a good time

If you are a geek who likes 80's arcade games, may I suggest the Ground Kontrol Retrocade

Recently bought by a number of well known collectors, including the maker of many arcade multigame kits Clay Cowgill. Checking their web site, they now have free wireless net access.

If you go let me know what you think, as I'm all the way in NY.

Just found pictures of the arcade - http://www.multigame.com/arcade/

Yeah, there is one downtown and one here in SE Portland. They have a website: http://www.groundkontrol.com/ The downtown one is cool because you'll see a bunch of businessmen in their late 30's/early 40's in there on their lunch hour with 200,000 on Joust. (Including one guy who makes it a point to hold EVERY high score spot with some variation of his initials). I never see anyone with a string of quarters over the top display panel of a game anymore. Maybe nobody wants to look cool nowdays.