Arcades in Northern California

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:50 pm

I'm especially interested in Sacramento, Berkeley, and SF. Anything worthwhile?

Battlesmurf · Post by **Battlesmurf** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:07 pm

when will you be in the area?

UC Davis has smallish- arcade buried in there. Stars Bowling Alley in Vacaville, Dave and Busters in San Jose, Golf Land in XX XX XX (all towards San Francisco.

I know I'm missing a few more. Dave lives in SF, I live in VV.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:37 pm

I'll be in Sacramento starting tomorrow for just over a week, and then I'm headed toward the coast.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:54 pm

Berkley has the Bearcade on campus. Not sure what's there now, but Bern-D used to play Gunbird 2 and some other stuff there.

SF State has had Raiden Fighters Jet, Strikers 1945 Plus and others in the past. They swap stuff out every once in a while so they may have something different in.

Great Entertainer in SF had a decent arcade when I lived there sporting Zero Gunner 2, Raiden 2, Puzzle Fighter and other stuff.

Don't bother with the SF Chinatown arcade unless you're looking to get schooled in whatever fighting game is hot.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:14 pm

They shut down Bearcade a year or so ago.

SFSU just rotated out Espgaluda II for Raiden Fighters or something (never been there myself).

SJSU now has Espgaluda II (never been there myself)

Dave & Busters is in Milpitas, but no shmups.

Golfland in Sunnyvale - Famous for fighters but I don't believe they have any shmups left.

Goldland in Milpitas - I think Wyvern Wings is the last shmup they have.

Golfland in San Jose - they only had 1945 II last time I was there over a year ago.

Nickel City in San Jose - Probably still has those broken Mars Matrix and Dimahoo cabs.

Battlesmurf wrote:Dave lives in SF, I live in VV.

I'm actually in South San Jose, pretty far from Sacramento, but if you plan to head towards the coast (Santa Cruz) then you'll pass by pretty close. Of course I'm like a month away from my wedding so things are crazy, but if I'm home, you are welcome to stop by and checkout the garage, otherwise my fiance would kill me if I had another shmupmeet now.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:46 pm

Thanks much for the replies! After visiting my hometown, Sacto, I'll be passing through Berkeley, then a night in SF, and then three more on the coast north of SF. So it looks like no good arcade action on this trip, but at least I get one night in Japantown in SF. I'm looking forward to that.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:12 am

The Sunnyvale Golfland had no shmups back when I was there in January.

(my hotel was right up the street from it)

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:06 am

professor ganson wrote:but at least I get one night in Japantown in SF. I'm looking forward to that.

There is a bookstore in the Japantown mall that sells Arcadia magazine (its in the downstairs part with all the manga of course).

LSU · Post by **LSU** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:16 am

There was a thread about Bay Area arcades a little while back, that got resurrected fairly recently, but here's my 2 cents...

You could do a lot worse than drive out to Starbase One on 4th Street in San Rafael - it's about 20 minutes north of San Francisco. Not only do they regularly have several good shmups in rotation there (e.g. Raidens, Strikers, R-Types, Carrier Airwing) but the place is crammed with older games in general (Metal Slugs!), as well as the obligatory few newer ones. It's a very small arcade, but they've packed in as many cabs as they can. From memory, maybe 25 or so machines?

IlMrm · Post by **IlMrm** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:47 am

cigsthecat wrote: Great Entertainer in SF had a decent arcade when I lived there sporting Zero Gunner 2, Raiden 2, Puzzle Fighter and other stuff.

Don't bother with the SF Chinatown arcade unless you're looking to get schooled in whatever fighting game is hot.

The Chinatown arcade is definitely gone. I believe the Great Entertainer is not there anymore either.

The arcade in Fishermen's Wharf had a Neo Geo cab with Strikers 1945 Plus before. Not sure if it's there anymore though.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:26 am

I'd love to go to San Francisco. It sounds dreamy.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 5:08 pm

Dave_K. wrote:
professor ganson wrote:but at least I get one night in Japantown in SF. I'm looking forward to that.
There is a bookstore in the Japantown mall that sells Arcadia magazine (its in the downstairs part with all the manga of course).

Yeah, it's the San Francisco Kinokuniya Bookstore --awesome bookstore for everything Japanese...they even sell anime and video game OST CDs as well but pricey in general. ^_~

Plus also visit the cool Japanese "Mikado" toy store upstairs on the opposite end of where the Kinokuniya bookstore is located at -- this Mikado toy store sells lots of Gundam model kits, Macross model kits and other cool Japanese toys. Just be sure to bring lots of $$$ as some of the model kits are easily in the two-hundred dollar range and up. You can even see some Gundam models that were professionally built, painted & put on display to the right of the Mikado's front display window... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~