2 Warps to Neptune

All of the photos in this installment are via Rad Arcade’s Vintage Arcade Pictures and Magazine Scans set on Flickr. The set makes up more than half of the Growing Up In Arcades group and is a hugely important cultural document.

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(1) Damn, it’s hard out there for a pimp. (2) How awesome is that raised platform in the background? Talk about product placement. That’s Tempest on the left, so this must be at least ’81. I think that’s Turbo on the right, which also came out in ’81. (Click on the pics for a bigger image.)

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating in space.

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Check out what’s playing on the big screen in the background.

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“Here comes John Travolta. Let me just flash my bell-bottoms…”

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“Over here, John!”

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The wall art. Gnarly.

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What a great shot. I knew kids that never skipped school to go to the arcade. I just wasn’t one of them.

These pics are all via from a righteous Flickr pool called Growing Up In Arcades: 1979-1989. I’m going through the entire series and posting my faves, adding commentary where I see fit. Here’s the first installment.

AaronCaldwell/Flickr

May 24, 1983. Love the moonscape and the Berzerk marquee, but especially the moonscape. What’s an arcade but a series of trips to other worlds?

AaronCaldwell/Flickr

Homeboy on the left reminds me of the funny fat kid on The Cosby Show (what was his name?). Le Tigre dude is grabbing his balls or something; dude next to him is taking a shit in his pants; and dude next to him (the birthday boy in the previous pic) is sporting a killer E.T. shirt that I would wear today, if I could find one that fit.

David Atkins/Flickr

Another one from 1983. The socks. My God, the socks. And another Le Tigre polo (those were the shit back then). And the cut-off jean shorts. And a green t-shirt tucked into green, elastic banded P.E. shorts. Why not? It’s 1983, and we were there, and it was awesome.

Rad Arcade/Flickr

In the arcade cocoon we were kept warm by the fantasies our quarters bought us.

Rad Arcade/Flickr

Dad watches on, bemused by these newfangled games, but secure in the comfort of his pocket protector.

Rad Arcade/Flickr

Put those dice away, players! No gambling zone.

Rad Arcade/Flickr

Oh my sweet heaven. A Space Port.