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Posted: Jan 05 2009 04:44 pm

Ok, maybe it's different in other areas, but when exactly did the pizza parlor die. Let me further explain. When I was a kid, I remember the highlight of the week was visiting a local pizza parlor. Pizza and up to date arcade games (ninja turtles beat em up and Final Fight, even MK1) what more could you ask for. The lighting was dim with a couple bigscreens really illuminating the place. There were always people there watching games or whatever. I would play games until the pizza was ready, scarf it down, then resume playing.

Now, when I go to a pizza parlor, it is always brightly lit, with incredibly old and shitty games. They are almost always vacant aside from the few people waiting to pick up. When did this happen? I miss it. Is this a regional thing? is the pizza parlor a cornerstone to many a family still, not on the west coast? Do families not go out or eat together anymore? Crying

Posted: Jan 05 2009 04:49 pm

hey wow. You can find games at yours. They local pizza places here do not even have games. Except for this on about 40 minutes away. They have pac-man and some street fighter II machine.

Joined: Sep 17 2007 Location: The Opium Trail Posts: 3475

Boo friggin hoo. My parents wouldn't even let me play arcade games that were in restaruants. Said it was "rude." Rolling Eyes

Posted: Jan 05 2009 05:35 pm

JRA wrote:

Boo friggin hoo. My parents wouldn't even let me play arcade games that were in restaruants. Said it was "rude." Rolling Eyes

And kids in Africa don't even have pizza parlors.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 05:36 pm

I remember those days, but when I was little, the only pizza parlor worth a damn was Pizza Hut, but even they had some sort of Championship Bowling game.

There were two places that were the arcade headquarters that were within walking distance. There was 7-11 and Holiday Foods, both of which are now non-existant. Holiday Foods had three pinball machines and a couple of the general racing games of the early to mid-1990s (Final Lap or Final Lap 2 and VR) and there was 7-11 with the godlike Street Fighter II Special Championship Edition, and they may have had a bowling game of some sort.

Of course I was too young to cherish it, as all of the local 7-11's went out of business and are now "Mini-Mart"s with Apu clones and Holiday Foods was taken out of business by the state for selling alcohol to minors.

There was and still are the movie theatres in town, but one of them has turned non-profit and only shows documentaries and indie films so they got rid of the one Ms. Pac Man machine they had. The one Ms. Pac Man macine where I had the high score of which I dont remember what it was/is. I loved that machine. It was an original 1981/82 (dont remember the year) machine too. Of course my initials were ASS.

The other movie theatre is a great movie theatre for games, where they have the standard garb of today such as Deer Hunting, stupid stacker games, photo booths, etc. But they also have the good 1998-2004 ish shooters such as House of the Dead and this one underwater one with big turret controllers that was terriffic. Its the main place to go for arcade fun in town. I mean our bowling alley has a game room, but the new ownership has stripped everything which made it good and all it is now is a bunch of ticket games, the main shooting hoops game and the lost world game with a bad screen.

Of course we have an actual arcade place with mini golf, go karts, etc. That actually has some good newer games such as Silent Scope 2, but lacks the feel that I am looking for. Thats the place that has the Capcom/SNK EO game I was talking about. Its a good place to take your girlfriend to win her that bear for 100 tickets, but not a place to get a kill screen on Donkey Kong, if you get my drift. They do have that big trucker game that seemed to be the fad with Big Mutha Truckers 2 in the cheapo bin for Xbox.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 05:41 pm

Simple. Times are hard, people are lazy and wanna stay inside more, They wanna get stoned, eat the pizza, and play games in their houses.

The Pizza Hut I used to go to in my old hood used to have this Neo Geo machine with one of the latter King of Fighters games and Bust-a-Move, and Crazy Taxi. It's not even there anymore, and hasn't been since 3 years ago =/

Posted: Jan 05 2009 05:47 pm

There used to be a Pizza Hut in Frisco, the next town over from where I live. I would go there with my friends all the time. We'd usually each get a personal pan pizza and then play some arcade games. They had a pretty good arcade there as well. Sadly that Pizza Hut shut down sometime in 2001. There is another Pizza Hut in Silverthorne but I've only been to that one maybe once or twice. There is a great Italian/Pizza restaurant a couple blocks from me but they have no arcade, it is more of an upscale restaurant. The only other place like that with an arcade here is Downstairs At Eric's. It is a large family restaurant, They sell many kinds of pizzas as well as other all American style food. They have a great arcade there.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 05:54 pm

Mr. Bomberman wrote:

Simple. Times are hard, people are lazy and wanna stay inside more, They wanna get stoned, eat the pizza, and play games in their houses.

Amen, especially to the latter.

It is kind of sad. We don't even have any decent arcade around here anymore. I am saddened by the fact that, unless there is a resurgence, I will never be able to experience the full intensity of the arcade. I was born in '86, so I wasn't old enough to comprehend anything like that going on. Even this town, very sleepy back then, had a bustling arcade scene, as some of my older friends have told me. A part of this scene was pizza parlors, as they would be primary eateries for those partaking in arcade awesomeness.

I really wish I could've been a part of that scene. Now that a majority of multiplayer gaming is online and convenient, I doubt I'll be able to. I'm cool with playing games online, but I still prefer to play games with people in person, and the closest I get to that is LAN parties nowadays.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 06:32 pm

I'll never forget the local Pizza Hut and it's Play Choice 10 machine, on which I played SMB3 for the first time.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 07:53 pm

Rycona wrote:

Mr. Bomberman wrote:

Simple. Times are hard, people are lazy and wanna stay inside more, They wanna get stoned, eat the pizza, and play games in their houses.

Amen, especially to the latter.

It is kind of sad. We don't even have any decent arcade around here anymore. I am saddened by the fact that, unless there is a resurgence, I will never be able to experience the full intensity of the arcade. I was born in '86, so I wasn't old enough to comprehend anything like that going on. Even this town, very sleepy back then, had a bustling arcade scene, as some of my older friends have told me. A part of this scene was pizza parlors, as they would be primary eateries for those partaking in arcade awesomeness.

I really wish I could've been a part of that scene. Now that a majority of multiplayer gaming is online and convenient, I doubt I'll be able to. I'm cool with playing games online, but I still prefer to play games with people in person, and the closest I get to that is LAN parties nowadays.

Yeah, I remember arcades were the spot, as well as pizza places. Here, even back in the day the bowling alley had all the current arcade games. I remember when MK2 came out, I played it at the bowling alley down the street from my house. I suppose that the increase of online gaming etc, has effected these industries, but much like you, It's so much more satisfying whooping down on somebody that's standing right next to you. But i can't place exactly when but it seems like the whole pizza parlor experience died before the arcades... I think I noticed the change in the late 90's maybe very early 2000's.

Posted: Jan 05 2009 11:54 pm

pizza hut, chuck e cheese's, and peter piper pizza were the joints for arcades and pizza.

we still have peter piper pizza here in az, but all the arcade games are either stupid ticket games, or just kid games. i havent seen a fighting game arcade at a pizza place in a long time. and i remember spending tons of quarters on SF + MK arcades back then.

sigh, sucks to be old.

Posted: Jan 06 2009 01:42 am

There is a bowling alley in Dillon, a few towns over. It was closed for a while but it has recently been reopened. I have yet to go to the reopened bowling alley though. However when I was a kid they had a huge arcade right next to the alley in the same building. There used to also be a movie theater in the same building. I remember first playing MK2, Killer Instinct, The Simpsons, among many other great arcade games for the first time at that arcade.

The movie theater is no longer there, they moved it up the street from the bowling alley and made it a six screen theater. The old one used to be a two screen theater with old school seating, not stadium. They then added two more screens but then finally moved to a larger building with six screens and stadium seating, They ran the smaller theater for a little while longer but I believe it has since been shut down. They did use it for a while for the Breckenridge Film Festival but I think they've stopped that as well. I sometimes like the old school seating. I saw The Dark Knight at the local community college single screen theater with old school seating, I loved it.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

i remember this one place when i was a kid that had a pinball machine

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

There are still pizza hole in the walls here in CT, but rarely do they ever have video games. I think that is a mistake on their part, but I suppose that with space as a premium and these places not usually having much of it... seating makes more sense.

Posted: Jan 06 2009 01:59 pm

I have found the same thing GP. It seems the space at a lot of the parlors around where I am has now been taken up either by coolers of beer or soda, more than was their in the first place years ago. Also, take out seems big, but rarely do I see the eat in or Friday night pizza party. On occasion, my wife and I will go to Pizza Hut, one I remember from when I was a kid that was popular and always busy. Instead of busy, with that table arcade machine, and either Guns N Roses or Aerosmith blarring from the juke box, it is quiet and dead, and no games. Hell, this one even took out the freakin salad bar. It's just sad is all. If I'm ever up your way we will have to go to a real pizza place, best one I know in CT, and one of the best I have ever been, Sally's APizza.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

King wrote:

I have found the same thing GP. It seems the space at a lot of the parlors around where I am has now been taken up either by coolers of beer or soda, more than was their in the first place years ago. Also, take out seems big, but rarely do I see the eat in or Friday night pizza party. On occasion, my wife and I will go to Pizza Hut, one I remember from when I was a kid that was popular and always busy. Instead of busy, with that table arcade machine, and either Guns N Roses or Aerosmith blarring from the juke box, it is quiet and dead, and no games. Hell, this one even took out the freakin salad bar. It's just sad is all. If I'm ever up your way we will have to go to a real pizza place, best one I know in CT, and one of the best I have ever been, Sally's APizza.

Fucking A right!!!

Sally's is the best pizza in the world and they don't give a fuck what you think.

Last time I was in there was only a month ago, unfortunately the Jukebox was down for the count, but the attitude was raging, the line was out the door an hour before they opened and though we got there at 4:20pm we didn't exit until 7:30pm. Worth EVERY fucking second though.

God I love New Haven Pizza.

#1 Sally's
#2 Pepe's
#3 Modern Pizza
#4 Bar

Come from out of town and check out any one of them. I guarantee that you will agree New Haven Pizza is the best.

Posted: Jan 07 2009 09:33 pm

There was this fucking awesome place in Tucson called Uppercrust. They didn't have any games, and they only had a tiny TV, but that place was the shit. I remember riding my bike with my Dad in 100 degree weather just to go to Bookman's and get some pizza.

Posted: Jan 08 2009 03:21 am

The pizza parlors around me turned into pizza taverns. No arcade games, only beer.

Okay, there's still like 3 arcade games, but one of them is digital bowling - that doesn't count.

Posted: Jan 08 2009 07:41 pm

When I was a kid, I would see arcade games in everything from laundrymats to 7-elevens to retail stores.

Now, the only arcade games I ever see are "Golden Tee" and "Big Game Hunter" in bars.

Posted: Jan 08 2009 07:48 pm

The closest think to a Pizza Parlor that I've been to was my Pizza Hut, which doesn't deliver and it pisses me off.

Posted: Jan 09 2009 12:28 am

You guys are missing out. My local pizza hut still has Gauntlet: Dark Legacy and a Neo-Geo machine.