April 12Apr 12 CB Team I just spent the day at a retro arcade with all the old games from the 70s Atari days, 80s and 90s cabinets, pinball machines, and even rooms with home systems like NES, SNES, old Playstations, XBox, etc. It really got me thinking about how much fun those games have been over the decades.There’s a lot of nostalgia in playing them the way they were originally meant to be played.Do you still go to places like that, or would you if you had one nearby? What are some of your favorite games to play in that setting?
April 12Apr 12 CB Team The closest I get these days is an occasional trip to Dave & Busters, but there's actually an arcade that I've been meaning to try out.The classic brawlers like X-Men always feel best when you're playing on an actual arcade cabinet, and racing games tend to shine there as well. We actually were in a comic shop that has one of the newer cabinets with a host of games included, and my daughter totally got hooked on playing haha.
April 14Apr 14 CB Team I try to whenever I have the opportunity. We have a few places not too far from where I live that at least have a lineup of pinball machines, but my husband and I usually seek out retro barcades and the like when on vacation, too!
April 14Apr 14 Author CB Team On 4/12/2026 at 8:24 AM, MattAguilarCB said:The closest I get these days is an occasional trip to Dave & Busters, but there's actually an arcade that I've been meaning to try out.The classic brawlers like X-Men always feel best when you're playing on an actual arcade cabinet, and racing games tend to shine there as well. We actually were in a comic shop that has one of the newer cabinets with a host of games included, and my daughter totally got hooked on playing haha.Our Dave & Busters doesn't have much except those machines where you try to win tickets, which I kinda hate because they don't last long, but my oldest is a wizard at the claw game and won me an entire set of Ghostbusters plushies : ) Does your area have an old-school arcade? We have one about an hour away but you just pay a cover charge and play all day. However, most of their games are a little dated.
April 14Apr 14 Author CB Team On 4/13/2026 at 10:02 AM, Allison Schonter said:Yes! Not as often as I'd like, but I always have so much fun when I go.I've started to love them! Never was a big fan of pinball machines until I started going to retro arcades, but now I think they're awesome!
April 14Apr 14 Author CB Team 10 hours ago, Amanda Kay Oaks said:I try to whenever I have the opportunity. We have a few places not too far from where I live that at least have a lineup of pinball machines, but my husband and I usually seek out retro barcades and the like when on vacation, too!I'm really starting to like pinball machines! I never really cared for them in the past, but recently got into them at a retro arcade and it's my favorite part now! I played the Stranger Things pinball last week and it was pretty cool!
April 15Apr 15 CB Team There was a barcade that I used to go to a lot in college, but I haven't been to many over the past few years. Whenever I do go, though, I'm always at that Ms. Pac-Man machine.
April 15Apr 15 CB Team There are no arcades near my current home in France... But when I was still in Brazil, I used to go to a few. I miss it
April 15Apr 15 CB Team Hell yeah. Never stopped. When I was living in NYC in the 2010s, "Barcades" really started to take off; now, raising a family, there are bigger barcades/family fun centers all around us. One here in Nashville is free-play, and sections the arcade games by era (70s, 80s, 90s, 00s/premium games), has outdoor games, etc. We spend a lot of time there, and I trained my kids on all the basics, from Q-bert to Paperboy, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Joust, Centipede, Ghost n Goblins, Contra, the side-scroller classics (Double Dragon, X-Men, Avengers, Simpons, TMNT) the top fighters (Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Caliber - gotta skip Mortal Kombat... for now), a few arcade shooters (Time Crisis, Jurassic World, Halo) and the big racers from Mario Kart to Cruise N' World, Hydro Thunder, etc.Gotta Raise 'em right. Getting beat by arcade games or other players builds good character. Fortnite has made these kids emotionally fragile... Edited April 15Apr 15 by KOutlaw
April 15Apr 15 CB Team 20 hours ago, FantasticJerome said:Our Dave & Busters doesn't have much except those machines where you try to win tickets, which I kinda hate because they don't last long, but my oldest is a wizard at the claw game and won me an entire set of Ghostbusters plushies : ) Does your area have an old-school arcade? We have one about an hour away but you just pay a cover charge and play all day. However, most of their games are a little dated.Yeah, we've got one of those too. You pay the fee and then go in for a few hours. Mostly classic arcade games and pinball, but still cool!
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