A lot of my childhood could be described in terms of arcade games and where I played them.

The candy store on my corner had Asteroids for a long while, and then Phoenix. I would sometime miss the bus for school because I was so deep into an Asteroids game.

There was a pizzeria around the corner from my house that had Gorf and Tutankham (very underrated game). They'd rotate new games in every few months and there was always a line of kids putting quarters up on the machine for nexties. 🤣

About 10 blocks away was an arcade that had everything from the old black and white 2-player Atari football (with the X's and O's and trackball controls) all the way to Dragon's Lair.

On my route to my grade school was a bodega that had Jungle King, which was the Tarzan game where you swung from vines and jumped over boulders. And a block away from there was a pizzeria with Donkey Kong and Crazy Climber (another vastly overlooked gem).

The best was, several of my relatives had houses at the Jersey shore, and we'd go down there 2-3 times a year. And my uncle would routinely give me and my brother $5 to go to the arcade on the boardwalk, which had EVERYTHING. It was a buffet of the greatest arcade games every made, but I think Tron was the one I kept coming back to.

There was an arcade inside Asbury Park as well which had some novel games you didn't see many other places, like Death Race, which was a really old B&W game where you drove over pedestrians and left gravestones in their place. Great for every 8 year old! 🤣

So many great games. If you miss that era of arcade games and haven't discovered MAME yet, I'd recommend looking into it 😀