Pinballz!

Back in the 1990s you could find an arcade in pretty much every major mall in America. While they ranged in quality you could be guaranteed that most of the classics would be there: Time Crisis, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Terminator, Cruisin' USA (ugh), etc. The sounds, sights, smells (yes, those smells), and the allure of prizes that cost more in tickets than actual retail was intoxicating. It was also incredibly expensive, and many people ultimately realized that you could game at home for much cheaper, and game online, thus the death of the arcade slowly came on. Now you'll either have to track down a standalone arcade or resort to playing Time Crisis at the local Cinemark. For my birthday I decided to track down a decent arcade, and what resulted was none other than Austin's Pinballz arcade.

This arcade was STUNNING. From the old school section featuring Mario, Donkey Kong, and Tron, to the 90s section featuring X-Men, Simpsons, Ninja Turtles (both Turtles in Time and the classic Turtles II) it was absolute bliss. The arcade features a huge assortment of pinball machines, although in all honesty I am not the biggest fan of pinball. $20 lasted me well over two hours and I was able to beat my first arcade game alongside my friends. Being in an arcade like this was a timewarp and cemented for me the very reason why I started doing this game collecting: it's just good, simple fun, and these games defined the games that we have today. Now that's pretty cool to me.