My Guide to Classics 80's Arcades!

There's multiple things that I try to accomplish while I'm traveling the globe DJing which is of course finding records spots, eating the best burger, copin' some kicks and finding out if your town has a classic old school 80's style arcade. Not this new sh*t either! None of that Dance Dance Revolution crap or this put a dollar in nonsense, I'm talking about the official 25 cent joints. I've actually been collecting classic arcade machines since 1995 when I bought "Defender". Just like records, these arcades can be found in the most obscure small ass town that hasn't been hit yet, so over the course of a few different blogs I'll list the top arcades in the U.S. Normally I would start with #5 and work my way to #1 but in this case I'm starting right at the top, Porland Oregon has the "OFFICIAL" arcade, Ground Kontrol! Now this is the spot, I'm talking not only classic games from the 80's up but also a slew of pinball machines, all for a quarter! This place looks as though it was around in the 80's but it wasn't, its only been open a few years but it's set up to look classic. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was straight outta the 80's, everything from the dark blue carpet to the wood. But what also makes this spot official is that there is a bar that opens after 7pm and they have live bands / dj's playing from time to time. I've definitly been known to jump on a plane from Philly to Portland just to spend the day playing video games, its alot more fun then wasting money in a D&B!