Arcade "must visit" places in South West USA ?

UDb23 · 20 Jun 2018, 18:52

As I'll be on holiday in the US (California, Arizona and Nevada) this summer, is there any "must visit" classic arcade related place you would suggest ?

lilbud · 20 Jun 2018, 19:35

@udb23 I think there is a pinball museum down in Vegas, so check that out. Really wouldn't know because I'm on the other side of the country (NJ)

mediamogul · 20 Jun 2018, 20:21

@udb23

There's always 'Golf N Stuff' in Norwalk, CA where they filmed 'The Karate Kid' and most recently 'Cobra Kai'.

UDb23 · 20 Jun 2018, 22:01

@mediamogul said in Arcade "must visit" places in South West USA ?:

Golf N Stuff'

Not sure we'll go thru LA this time, but in case we do we'll visit. thanks.

Lurker · 20 Jun 2018, 22:08

This is hard to answer, even for a native Cali. It is difficult because of the environment we are speaking in. This is a community where you may have built an arcade and thus played or tinkered with thousands of titles so going to an arcade location may be a "meh, I have this at home." experience.

But in the effort to give you things to look into, there is;

M.A.D.E (Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment) in Oakland Ca. It is not as museum-ish as you might think and more of that one friend's house who had all the games, repeated a few times and smashed into one building. Look at the site and you will see what I mean.

There is also the "Pacific Pinball Museum" in Alameda Ca. (Kind of central California) This as you can guess is pinball focused and they are crammed full of both display only and free play machines.

On the southern side is the "Museum of Pinball" in Banning Ca. (Think L.A. south) Similar to Pacific Pinball Museum.

Everything else I might suggest is not a unique experience and if you've been to Dave and Busters then you have seen it.

Last option is time dependent. IF you are around at the right time the arcade equivalent to a comicon is coming up "California Extreme" 7/28/2018-7/29/2018 in Santa Clara Ca. That is central California and I have no idea on what kind of turn out it might have but layout wise it is arcade and pinball all free to play. Plus vendors selling games and other swag and I expect the smell of sweat and musk as all large gatherings of humans have.

@mediamogul If we are nominating on a classic movie basis then The Santa Cruz Boardwalk

mediamogul · 20 Jun 2018, 22:13

@lurker said in Arcade "must visit" places in South West USA ?:

If we are nominating on a classic movie basis then The Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Ah, nice! That's a good one.

UDb23 · 20 Jun 2018, 22:32

@lurker Thanks a lot for the detailed info. Surely California Extreme must be interesting; unfortunately I'll be on holiday late August.
Was already considering visiting Alameda for the Hornet so also the Pinball museum and/or MADE would be nice.

KN4THX · 21 Jun 2018, 02:08

Its not really classic arcade, but I always wanted to visit the Cabazon Dinosaurs from the video game movie The Wizard

Lurker · 21 Jun 2018, 22:36

@thedatacereal said in Arcade "must visit" places in South West USA ?:

Its not really classic arcade, but I always wanted to visit the Cabazon Dinosaurs from the video game movie The Wizard

Wasn't that place also in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Ah I see. Trying to maintain a thread to video games [slow clap] well played.

Personal note, I am still mad that the power glove was not as good as that movie made it look.

Honestly, Unless you happen to drive by anyway heading somewhere else, you get the near same experience of everything to see from google street view. The location also gets a little strange as it was bought by a creationist museum in the late 90's... so... ya.

I don't want to crush your dreams. It's just apparently what I am good at.

KN4THX · 22 Jun 2018, 01:43

@lurker Yes it was in Pee Wee! Good catch!

The Power Glove. Actually it was as awesome as the movie made it out to be. If you bought the Special Edition DVD it came with over 15 hours of deleted scenes of them trying to position the sensors and attempting to get it to work and then finally them unplugging the power glove and having the guy pretend to control the Rad Racer car while a hidden producer used the controller to steer it :P

I remember when my neighbor's mom bought the Power Glove for him and he showed it to me on Punch Out!. I still remember him saying " Look how awesome it is! I can control the guy with the glove! If you want to see me beat him I'll switch to the controller but man! This is awesome!"

Parabolaralus · 26 Jun 2018, 17:19

I spent a lot of time at Gameworks in Vegas as a kid and it was a pretty awesome arcade with 100s of games and a sweet deal for unlimited play by the hour. I think it was $10/hr, but were talking almost 20 years ago now...

A buddy of mine who still lives there told me a a while back that the original Gameworks closed, but i just looked it up and its now at town square still on las vegas boulevard, but at the 215 instead of downtown. It never made sense to me as a kid to have to walk past drunken debauchery to get to a freaking arcade, but at least its moved since.

Also i live an hour from Santa Cruz now and i dont recall at least on my last visit the arcade being anything special. Theres a couple old rather crappy games available, but if I were to do anything in that "arcade" it would be minigolf. Youll see it if you stop by and dont forget to ride the roller coaster!