The death of the arcade

Back in the early years of the great Phillip's life, I always remember my mom and dad taking me to the local Wal-Mart and I would always pass by the arcade machines. There would be two at the Wal-Mart and I would ask my mom for a quarter. There would be times I would just look to see what the new games would be and play them to my hearts content. I remember, one year, that I went to Wal-Mart and blew my entire birthday money on Dark Adventure, a game that I really can't describe good anymore. My mom was none to happy about that. I remember that there was an arcade, called Tilt, at the Washington Square Mall and I could get lost in there for hours on end.
Sadly, those days are gone. Now at Wal-Mart are all those Cabela hunting games. Yeah, great way to teach kids about violence.

"No, Billy. Don't you dare play that game that you shoot fake people. Go over there and blow that bucks head off, though."

The Tilt is gone, and also is the crappy replacement, the Golden Nugget. Those machines were in need of so much repair that half the games didn't work and no one was around to even fix those. Now, the only places to go and play arcade games is a building attached to batting cages, one attached to a putt-putt, and the ones you play while waiting for a movie to start at the cinemas. I just wish there was an area where people could congregate where all people would do it play games and chat about games. I know that we have the Phil-n-Rob'd games podcast (where you can watch us live on operator11.com every Sunday at 3:30 CST), but being able to play with a person right next to you was so much more...intimate. Those were the days.

Phil