With Oregon's reputation as one of America's centers of the tech industry, it's no surprise that the state has a number of video arcades. After a day of hiking around Oregon's green hills, or biking through its cities, sometimes all you want to do is grab a pocketful of quarters and stare at a screen for an hour or two.
Ground Kontrol attempts to coin a new term with its style of operation: barcade. During the day, this arcade plays host to a multitude of classic quarter-operated games from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, such as "Tron," "The Simpsons," "Asteroids" and "Dr. Mario," and makes for a fun destination for the whole family. After 5 p.m., it becomes 21 and over barcade that serves local microbrews and individual-sized bottles of wine. Every Tuesday night is "Rock Band" night, where players get on stage to perform their favorite songs. Ground Kontrol stays open until 2:30 a.m.
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch Street
Portland, OR 97209
503-796-9364
groundkontrol.com
No trip to Seaside is complete without a stop at the Funland Arcade. The arcade is located at Broadway and Columbia, making it difficult to miss for any visitor strolling the town's central promenade. This arcade features many of the newest games, along with arcade favorites such as skee-ball, whack-a-mole, and pop-a-shot basketball. If all that game playing causes you to work up a hunger, an outpost of local pizza franchise Fultano's Pizza is right in the arcade.
Funland Arcade
201 Broadway Street
Seaside, OR 97138
503-738-7361
Wunderland is an Oregon chain of arcades, with the flagship of the chain, the Avalon Theatre, in Portland's happening Belmont district. As of June 2010, the arcade charges a $2 admission for children and $2.50 for adults for access to a room full of the newest games at a price of only nickels per play. Beyond that, there also a number of games you can play for tickets, which can later be redeemed for prizes. After all that playing, you can head over to the second-run theater onsite, where you can catch new movies for a fraction of the normal price of a movie ticket.
Avalon Theatre
3451 SE Belmont Street
Portland, OR 97214
503-238-1617
wunderlandgames.com
