Your Hometown in the Classic Gaming Era

[Deleted member 17210]

What was your hometown like for video games 15, 20, 30, or 40 years ago? Was it good or bad? Was there anything unique to the area that stands out for you? Do you have any photos that capture your city/town for video gaming in the past? I think it will interesting to read different anecdotes and experiences.

I grew up in Vancouver. It's much bigger and busier now compared to when I was young but I think it was always a pretty good place for video game fans. There was never a shortage of arcades with obscure games, there were places to buy imports from Japan, pirated European computer games were in circulation, and I never had a problem finding games for less popular systems (the largest mall had five or more places to buy Master System games, for example).

For me it was cool reading the Nintendo history book Game Over and realizing Minoru Arakawa had come here and opened restaurants I knew, and the Chuck E. Cheese's I went to. Being owned by Nintendo, that Chuck E. Cheese's had almost every Nintendo arcade game and so I was fortunate to play NES games in arcade form around 1984 before the domestic release of the system. That building also housed Nintendo of Canada's first offices before they moved to a bigger location. I had to go over the border to Bellingham, Washington to find 'World of Nintendo' kiosks, though.

The '80s and '90s saw lots of immigration from Asia. This seems to have resulted in Asian bootlegs (and legit imports) becoming more common to find locally, first for the Famicom and Mega Drive, then to a larger extent for Playstation and Dreamcast.

Vancouver didn't have the amount of game developers back in the day it does now. Don Mattrick from Distinctive Software and EA became more famous later on. It was interesting watching EA Canada here grow from a small outfit to a large building that looks more like a college campus.

Neon lit Granville Street downtown was home to a bunch of seedy adults-only arcades. These arcades inspired William Gibson's science fiction and he coined the term "cyberspace". One of the old arcades on this street called Movieland opened in the '60s and is still there if you want to play Daytona USA and watch '70s coin-op porn. I don't know how it survives.

1972

2016

 

[OneThirtyEight]

Karlstad, Sweden, 1990's.

Home of Nordic Games, Swedens, at the time, biggest game store for used and new games via mail order. The dude who started up that store and mail order company is now CEO of THQ Nordic.

We also had a big arcade wich later moved and shrunk in size and is now all gone. The only arcade cabinet in my town today that i know about is a Sega Rallu at a bar.

Can't find any pictures of any of theese places sadly.

 

[carlosrox]

Hey OP I'm also in Vancouver! I've lived here since 1987 when I was 2 years old.

You just brought back memories. Do you remember the Johnny Zee's (is that the right name/spelling?) arcade we used to have in Metrotown? That was the shit. Sigh. I miss that. It used to be bustling. I remember always seeing Darkstalkers and the early Marvel Vs Capcom games there.

We still have that newer arcade CHQ in Metrotown near Metropolis but it's not quite the same feel as the old arcade. I guess arcades haven't been the same since the 90s.

That Movieland Arcade looks pretty sketchy to me and it always has. It's adults only first of all, and the area it's in is also kinda sketchy. There's something shady about that place. Perhaps it's a front operation haha.

 

[RM8]

Welp, misunderstood this thread. I'll fix this ASAP :P

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Hey OP I'm also in Vancouver! I've lived here since 1987 when I was 2 years old.

You just brought back memories. Do you remember the Johnny Zee's (is that the right name/spelling?) arcade we used to have in Metrotown? That was the shit. Sigh. I miss that. It used to be bustling. I remember always seeing Darkstalkers and the early Marvel Vs Capcom games there.

We still have that newer arcade CHQ in Metrotown near Metropolis but it's not quite the same feel as the old arcade. I guess arcades haven't been the same since the 90s.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I remember Johnny Zee's. I was playing the Atari Star Wars sit down cabinet there around 1994 and it broke while I was playing it. Sadly they never fixed it and just got rid of it.

 

[carlosrox]

Being owned by Nintendo, that Chuck E. Cheese's had almost every Nintendo arcade game and so I was fortunate to play NES games in arcade form around 1984 before the domestic release of the system. That building also housed Nintendo of Canada's first offices before they moved to a bigger location. I had to go over the border to Bellingham, Washington to find 'World of Nintendo' kiosks, though.

Click to shrink...

Hey, I actually live just across the bridge where that Nintendo HQ used to be. I was pretty sure they moved but I wasn't sure where to. As a kid I would always get excited driving by it with the parents. I used to fantasize that maybe they had game development or early prototypes/demo units there haha. I remember always telling my older brothers "do you think they have the Ultra 64 there??".

Nintendo owned Chuck E Cheese or just a specific location? I never knew about this. That used to be a Chuck E Cheese? Musta been before my time.

Do you know if there is still a Nintendo HQ somewhere around here? I was honestly dreaming of finding a job there, in any position. Fuck I'd gladly be a janitor at Nintendo.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Yeah, Nintendo of Canada HQ is still around. They moved from Richmond to Virtual Way near Rupert Skytrain Station.

That Chuck E. Cheese's is long gone but it was located where the Lougheed bus station in Burnaby currently is.

 

[carlosrox]

Yeah, Nintendo of Canada HQ is still around. They moved from Richmond to Virtual Way near Rupert Skytrain Station.

That Chuck E. Cheese's is long gone but it was located where the Lougheed bus station in Burnaby currently is.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I miss Chuck E Cheese. I think they're incredible rare in BC, if they even exist at all anymore, it seems to be more of an American thing these days?

I remember playing a lot of the Simpsons and TMNT arcade games there. Good times.

Ooh, they're near Rupert now, gotcha. Good to know. I'll probably wanna pass by there one of these days now!

Isn't the worldwide HQ for EA located here? There used to be one downtown near Canada Place but there's also that giant location near Burnaby. It's like a country club I hear. I know a lot of people who've worked there over the years and I hear the facilities are incredible.

Not sure if you know this but Capcom's got an HQ pretty close to the Lougheed Highway area as well. I only discovered it a few years ago and was really excited when I first saw it. It was really surreal seeing their logo atop a building. Funny thing is that entire area seems to be a giant crow's nest as there's always been a tonnnnnnnnn of crows there. It's pretty strange.

 

[PassiveObserver]

The Namco CyberStation at San Francisco's Pier 39 of the 90s was the most robust arcade I ever spent time in. Bumper cars in the middle. Full size Ridge Racer cab (with the car). Linked Tokyo Wars cabs. The big screen Super Street Fighter II Turbo. I remember playing Alien v. Predator, Shadows Over Mysteria, Die Hard Arcade, and loads others. The ticket redemption games were fun too. Tossed a lot of tokens into the coin pushers.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Yeah I miss Chuck E Cheese. I think they're incredible rare in BC, if they even exist at all anymore, it seems to be more of an American thing these days?

I remember playing a lot of the Simpsons and TMNT arcade games there. Good times.

Ooh, they're near Rupert now, gotcha. Good to know. I'll probably wanna pass by there one of these days now!

Isn't the worldwide HQ for EA located here? There used to be one downtown near Canada Place but there's also that giant location near Burnaby. It's like a country club I hear. I know a lot of people who've worked there over the years and I hear the facilities are incredible.

Not sure if you know this but Capcom's got an HQ pretty close to the Lougheed Highway area as well. I only discovered it a few years ago and was really excited when I first saw it. It was really surreal seeing their logo atop a building. Funny thing is that entire area seems to be a giant crow's nest as there's always been a tonnnnnnnnn of crows there. It's pretty strange.

Click to shrink...

I think there's a Chuck E Cheese in Langley but I never go out there. I have been inside the Burnaby EA building. It's massive and looks like a college campus inside. And yeah, I know the Capcom crow infested area. I go to the Costco near there.

 

[carlosrox]

I think there's a Chuck E Cheese in Langley but I never go out there. I have been inside the Burnaby EA building. It's massive and looks like a college campus inside. And yeah, I know the Capcom crow infested area. I go to the Costco near there.

Click to shrink...

That's the Costco I got my current TV at! It was always a bit more of a budget TV but it has its moments. 60 inch Sharp, it actually doesn't look too bad but definitely dated.

I actually spent NYE in Langley with some friends! I'll have to ask my friends who live there if Chuck E Cheese is still around. It's a 1.5 hour commute if I bus, train, AND get picked up by a friend there. It's pretty brutal. This one friend always needs me to bring my Switch AND Wii U every time I visit and it's a major pain in the ass lugging all that around.

I've never been to the EA building. Not sure if I've ever seen the outside. I just have a good idea where the building is.

I also studied Animation/Modeling for Games and Movies at the Art Institutes there. Super inspired by Dead Space when it came out and it made me pursue something in that field. It turns out it wasn't for me due to lack of technical know-how. I suck with that kind of stuff. I'm more of a traditional artist who likes character design and concept art.

Do you know of Happy Console Gamer from YouTube? I believe he lives in Surrey, but I've run into him several times at Metrotown during certain gaming events, like the Mario Odyssey E3 Demo and Launch Day. Never had the courage to talk to him, but I'm always thinking about it. I just figure it might be awkward.

Victor Lucas from Electric Playground is from here too and I've seen him around a few events as well and randomly Downtown a few times. Same deal, kinda interested in chatting him up but I'm worried about it being awkward.

Ps. I hear EA has a mean cafeteria and theatre.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Happy Console Gamer is a big Wonder Boy fan so he gets a thumbs up from me. I don't typically go to gaming events so I don't run into these guys.

 

[IrishNinja]

^same. also your threads are awesome, NeoZeedeater!

miami in the mid 80s was...something. i was that one kid with a sega master system, so i basically played NES stuff at everyone else's houses. there was a jamaican patty spot around the way, so i'd stop at radio shack to play whatever garbage they had on demo on their tandy computers, then whatever coin-op said bodega had...street fighter 1 for a bit, rastan (later on they switched out for saga...huge mistake) and eventually and SF II bootleg that guile could handcuff people in, haha.

we had big arcades - flippers was king, but every mall had em too. aside from a sega convention i got to attend & win a bubsy doll in the early 90s (they had a playable prototype of jurassic park for genesis) i can't say there was much particularly unique to the gaming scene here that i can recall though!

 

[Deleted member 14002]

Toronto 90s.

Was alright. Microplay was cool.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Charlottesville, VA. A couple of years ago, nobody would have known this town, but now... sigh. I moved very early in life, so my memories probably aren't completely reliable.

I remember being the only one who liked video games, even among my friends, at least in the vein of Mario and such. There was one other kid who liked Mortal Kombat...

At that age, everybody loved Power Rangers, though.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

^same. also your threads are awesome, NeoZeedeater!

miami in the mid 80s was...something. i was that one kid with a sega master system, so i basically played NES stuff at everyone else's houses. there was a jamaican patty spot around the way, so i'd stop at radio shack to play whatever garbage they had on demo on their tandy computers, then whatever coin-op said bodega had...street fighter 1 for a bit, rastan (later on they switched out for saga...huge mistake) and eventually and SF II bootleg that guile could handcuff people in, haha.

we had big arcades - flippers was king, but every mall had em too. aside from a sega convention i got to attend & win a bubsy doll in the early 90s (they had a playable prototype of jurassic park for genesis) i can't say there was much particularly unique to the gaming scene here that i can recall though!

Click to shrink...

Thanks. Do you remember what that convention was called? It sounds like it would have been really cool to go to.

 

[JusDoIt]

I'm from LA.

 

[Macs]

Sicily in the 90.

Well, I had lots of friends interested in games until i entered high school.

After that games became a solitary pleasure but I didn't really mind, and I have fond memories of the 2 arcades in my city, which were big and had lots of good games. They have since been replaced by slot machines rooms.

 

[brotz]

los angeles

I'm 18 but it's been cool all my life

 

[CthulhuSars]

My home city really had a strange arcade situation. Tied to movie theaters and mini golf courses was where one had to track down import machines. Egghead software had a few guys that would flip "off the truck" software to us kids and Comp USA/radio shack would take care of any strange hardware orders we needed to make or restore arcade cabinets that the local community would try to save from dying bars or out of business restaurants that had Neo Geo and Atari cabinets. The barcade scene is taking over now but the gaming community is still little pockets all over the place. I kind of miss Funcoland as they would host their own fighting game tournaments. That is now taken over by whatever mom and pop local used video game stores scrape by trying to survive.

 

[IrishNinja]

Thanks. Do you remember what that convention was called? It sounds like it would have been really cool to go to.

Click to shrink...

wish i did, i'd only seen that one come through here...i recall reading they were way more common in cali or NY, and that one of those is supposedly where sega lost an early sonic 2 cart with extra levels

things have gotten better out here though, we had someone make waves in the FGC after winning MvC3 evo a few years back

 

[Deleted member 17630]

Grew up in a small town about 40min outside of Austin, TX. Any and all arcades were in the city. There's a place called Blazer Lazer Tag that had (and still does) a small but decent arcade. I remember playing the hell out of Galaga, Time Crisis, and Austin Powers Pinball there. I should go back.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

wish i did, i'd only seen that one come through here...i recall reading they were way more common in cali or NY, and that one of those is supposedly where sega lost an early sonic 2 cart with extra levels.

Click to shrink...

The "Simon Wai prototype"?
http://hiddenpalace.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(Simon_Wai_prototype)

 

[IrishNinja]

The "Simon Wai prototype"?
http://hiddenpalace.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(Simon_Wai_prototype)

Click to shrink...

i think that's it, yeah! there's a level select or something otherwise that'd let you see an empty zone, i wanna say? that link sounds about right