I can read minds.
Sicko.
Click HERE to register.


 Forgot your info?
Remember me

Don't mess
with the bull.
JOIN!!!
2 COMMENTS
RETRORATING: 5
FAVORITED 2 TIMES

Rescued By A Fistful of Quarters

Life in Jacksonville, Florida has not always been...rewarding, for nerdy folk. Growing up in the 90's about the only thing to do was go to the arcades and movies. Well, aside from the Discovery Zone, but that's another article for another day. I was born in 1991 to the great black hole of a cultural void that is Jacksonville. Even now, in my mid twenties, I find the lack of cultural activities minimal. My family never really traveled growing up and I haven't since... well ever. So Jacksonville is all I've ever known. But I digress. Growing up I knew two loves, Karate and arcades.
 
My mother only had one child and one alone. My uncle acted as my older brother and was actively the only male role model in my life. James, my uncle, was a child of the eighties. The dawn of a new era for video games. Sure games like Pong and Pitfall were all the rage in their day. But James grew up with heroes like Mario, Link, Samus, and even those maddening creatures Domino's had brought into existence, Yo! Noids. So sure enough, I grew up with the greats. No EA sports, only NBA Jam, BOOM SHACKALACKA!!! Aladdin's Castle was our local mall's arcade. Precisely the size of your local school cafeteria with none of the mystery meat. Walking into Aladdin's Castle, the echoes of new challengers rung through the air. Whether your game was DDR, Mortal Kombat, Simpsons, or even Hydro Thunder, the castle had it all. That was until about the time I turned twelve. The castle was turned inside out and filled with jerseys and the newest basketball shoes. Childhood had ended before I even had time to cash in the tickets I was saving for an alien lamp. Ended by a couple sets of shoe strings and a never ending supply of Bulls memorabilia. By all means, if you are a sports fan, have at it. But my fortress of solitude was destroyed by the everlasting Air Jordans. What was a child to do with no arcade?

A solid decade of what felt like Purgatory had passed. Where there was once flashing screens and never-ending Hadoukens was now a void. Quarters never turned to tokens. The closest thing to an arcade was a poor excuse for an arcade park with mini golf or a bar/arcade crossover. Ticket games were plentiful. Prizes were dull. Memories and nostalgia buried underneath a claw game. Fighting games, Co-op games, FUN GAMES were gone. All hope was gone.

Que Guile's themes song here. A new challenger approaches. Their names, Dustin and Deanna. Husband and Wife. Mario and Peach. Link and Zelda. The renaissance returned. With a little hard work and a ton of flea market sells, these two saviors opened a little store called Video Game Rescue. At first it was what Jacksonville wanted. A store with Retro Games, staff that knew your name, and an environment that felt like you belonged. For a year, the store thrived. Until the two owners decided a store wasn't enough. Jacksonville needed a castle again. The nerds needed a home. At first, Dustin started with a few arcade cabinets. Games like Tetris, Pac-man, and Galaga. All legends in their own right. Then the man with the plan returned with more cabinets. My childhood had returned. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 stared me in the face. Beside it Killer Instinct. Opposite of that a row of pinball machines! Ninja Turtles! TROG! Quarters now had meaning again. The doors of purgatory were slammed shut. It may not mean much to you, but those of us here, we were once again rescued by a fistful of quarters.
Digg Share
Looking for more from Dravenkid7?
READ 132273 TIMES
Close

Dravenkid7 Posted on Sep 25, 2015 at 01:22 AM

these also do gaming tournaments and events. Jacksonville is pretty huge but everyone loves this place. I lost when i played against a guy in the arcade but I didn't care. I was stoked just to play in a real arcade again.

Vaporman87 Posted on Sep 24, 2015 at 05:09 PM

That's a great story. It's always nice to hear of places opening up that try very hard to recapture the magic of a golden era. I wish them all the success in the world. In a place like Jacksonville there should be no shortage of customers, but around these parts such a place would probably have difficulty surviving.

G.L.O.W. Two-Timers

Last year on the eve of the Netflix GLOW series premiere, I wrote an article talking about some of the wackiest moments in the 80's wrestling sho...

Kids VHS Tapes of the 80s and 90s

My journey back in time through the medium of VHS continues. In my previous VHS Odyssey article I shared a few home video oddities with you (many form...

Theme Parks: Adventures in New England

I really wish that I could write about Disneyland.My parents had promised us over and over again that we would go, but we never did. To the six y...

Disney Days: My Trips to Walt Disney World

We all had that dream of going to Disney World as a kid. Some had that dream come true as a kid, others as adults. For me, I was eleven when my famil...

My Childhood Family Vacations

Thinking back to my childhood, I remember that I always wanted to go to Disneyland for a family vacation. That's a really common kid dream that pretty...

CDbException

CDbException

CDbCommand failed to execute the SQL statement: SQLSTATE[01000]: Warning: 1265 Data truncated for column 'rj_classics' at row 1. The SQL statement executed was: UPDATE `articles` SET `id`=:yp0, `posted_by`=:yp1, `title`=:yp2, `content`=:yp3, `icon`=:yp4, `column`=:yp5, `type`=:yp6, `featured`=:yp7, `contest_winner`=:yp8, `official`=:yp9, `smurf`=:yp10, `posted_on`=:yp11, `status`=:yp12, `category`=:yp13, `action_on`=:yp14, `edited`=:yp15, `reads`=:yp16, `retro_rating`=:yp17, `favorited`=:yp18, `theme`=:yp19, `colorcode`=:yp20, `show_in_header`=:yp21, `approved_on`=:yp22, `rj_classics`=:yp23, `reviews`=:yp24, `review`=:yp25 WHERE `articles`.`id`=717

/home/ghostofvapor/public_html/yii/framework/db/CDbCommand.php(354)

342             return $n;
343         }
344         catch(Exception $e)
345         {
346             if($this->_connection->enableProfiling)
347                 Yii::endProfile('system.db.CDbCommand.execute('.$this->getText().$par.')','system.db.CDbCommand.execute');
348             $errorInfo = $e instanceof PDOException ? $e->errorInfo : null;
349             $message = $e->getMessage();
350             Yii::log(Yii::t('yii','CDbCommand::execute() failed: {error}. The SQL statement executed was: {sql}.',
351                 array('{error}'=>$message, '{sql}'=>$this->getText().$par)),CLogger::LEVEL_ERROR,'system.db.CDbCommand');
352             if(YII_DEBUG)
353                 $message .= '. The SQL statement executed was: '.$this->getText().$par;
354             throw new CDbException(Yii::t('yii','CDbCommand failed to execute the SQL statement: {error}',
355                 array('{error}'=>$message)),(int)$e->getCode(),$errorInfo);
356         }
357     }
358 
359     /**
360      * Executes the SQL statement and returns query result.
361      * This method is for executing an SQL query that returns result set.
362      * @param array $params input parameters (name=>value) for the SQL execution. This is an alternative
363      * to {@link bindParam} and {@link bindValue}. If you have multiple input parameters, passing
364      * them in this way can improve the performance. Note that if you pass parameters in this way,
365      * you cannot bind parameters or values using {@link bindParam} or {@link bindValue}, and vice versa.
366      * binding methods and  the input parameters this way can improve the performance.

Stack Trace

#2
+
 /home/ghostofvapor/public_html/protected/controllers/SiteController.php(1262): CActiveRecord->update()
1257                 $ifFavorited = $ifAction = 0;
1258             }
1259 
1260             $this->render('article', array('model' => $model, 'article' => $article, 'postedBy' => $postedBy, 'comments' => $comments, 'commentCount' => $commentCount, 'ifFavorited' => $ifFavorited, 'ifAction' => $ifAction, 'allArticles' => $allArticles, 'pages' => $pages));
1261             $article->reads += 1;
1262             $article->update();
1263         } else {
1264             $this->redirect(Yii::app()->createUrl('site/error', array('code' => 404, 'message' => 'This page was not found.')));
1265             exit();
1266         }
1267     }
#15
+
 /home/ghostofvapor/public_html/index.php(16): CApplication->run()
11 defined('YII_DEBUG') or define('YII_DEBUG',true);
12 // specify how many levels of call stack should be shown in each log message
13 defined('YII_TRACE_LEVEL') or define('YII_TRACE_LEVEL',3);
14 
15 require_once($yii);
16 Yii::createWebApplication($config)->run();
2026-04-18 09:22:17 Apache Yii Framework/1.1.11