ARCADE MEMORIES… Aladdin’s Castle arcade from the 1980s.

Hey Arcaders!

The arcades of the mid/late 70s through the 80’s is where I grew up, socialized, worked, and learned. To someone who wasn’t there, it would be hard to understand what it was truly like. So, when there was pictures taken, or more importantly, videos made- it makes me so happy. There wasn’t a lot of media taken of arcades- because of copyright issues, arcade companies didn’t allow media to be recorded often back then.

From USA Store Fanon Wiki-

“The shopping-mall arcade chain that became Aladdin’s Castle began as American Amusements, Incorporated, in the early 1970s. It was purchased and renamed Aladdin’s Castle by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1974. Over the next several years, the number of store locations grew from 20 in 1974, to 221 in 1980, to 360 when the chain was spun off in 1989.

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Namco Limited purchased Aladdin’s Castle, Inc. in 1993, merging it with Namco Operations to create Namco Cybertainment (NCI), becoming the largest arcade operator in the world.”

Let’s take a walk around the past.

A special thanks to Jon Exidy- for keeping the arcades alive.

Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981.