personally wanna thank op for making this thread...... i'm getting all nostalgic now
skipping school to go playdium, always admiring rainforest.
dinky little chq where we'd take sticker pics and card pics with chicks

station square used to be THE spot.... metro was so much more fun back then, worth skipping school for

Doesn't matter how much metrotown has changed as long as there is a steady stream of Jail Bait ;)

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Nah man

MAL is where that Rogers store is located.

Lazer Illusions @ Brentwood mall was the BEST arcade out there! I remember my aunt taking me there everytime she came to babysit me. It was heaven on earth :haha:

Micky Dicky's has been there for a while. Same with (f)Lush -- been there since it moved in, I think in the late 90s. Purdy's has never moved. Gap has been steady since they moved in, Jacob beside it and Le Shithole and HMV across the way have been there a while too.

Now, who remembers Cave-on foods?

ok i remember way back when i went shopping @ metro on boxing day. And the mall WAS PACKED TO THE TITS. And back then there was only ONE walk way between the 2 big chunks of the mall and that was on the second floor. There was a 2 way system but everyone gets stuck there for at least a good 15 min each way.

perhaps its already been discussed in another thread but why did playdium actually close?

i know athelete's world has been at the same location for a long time, i still remember how it looked like before with all the cement wall bricks inside haha

the rent was raised and with all the upgrades that needed to be done they had to shut its doors. I remember when it first opened man it was awesome.



I met Michael J Fox at Metro once man it was cool and sad at the same time. :(

remember when the roof of the Save on foods fell in?

These days, arcades are generally not viable businesses. Most of you kiddos might not remember but there were a LOT of arcades out there in the 80s and early 90s (Johnny Zee's at OAKRIDGE, Circuit Circus on Commercial Drive, all the shady and kinda gross ones on N Granville street). It used to be that an operator could buy a board for a crappy shoot-em-up for $300 and by recycling their old cabinets they'd make their money back in less than a month - 1200 plays.

In the mid 90s, stuff like PSX really hit arcade games hard. Why go the arcade if you can play games for "free" in the comfort of your home? The arcade concept moved to the sorts of things you couldn't really replicate at home. These machines got really expensive for the operators (we're talking thousands of dollars) yet people notice a loonie a lot more than they notice a quarter. 5-10 000+ plays (at $1!) to make that money back...

I don't think that Playdium brought in a lot of revenue / sq ft. I was actually surprised that it stayed open as long as it did. I would be mildly surprised if it actually made money over the term of its lease.

yeah athletes world hasnt changed location at all :lol

Oh Metrotown...that place was amazing :) Especially Playdium, the unlimited play for $25/hr from like 10pm - 4am was pretty fucking AWESOME :D I went there when it was still pretty much new, so they had that virtual fighting game and that IMAX thing :D Really cool stuff but too bad both machines broke and I guess they didn't bother to fix it, so they took both of em away.

They got TC3 first at Playdium and I kept playing it, then they got Initial D V2 and that was the best game they had there LOL mmm the time where DC2 was one of the best cars...good times! The DDR projector sucked, either their was a weird glare or the alignment of the project would be off. Then the pads would be sticky from idiots spilling pop on it. I still remember how packed CHQ was on a regular basis, not packed but more like the place was too small for the amount of traffic they had, good thing they put the ID2/ID3 machines near the front or else it'd be really fucked up..The place was so hot inside, even hotter then the CHQ now..

I remember Mike's Karaoke place, went there for a friends birthday once and it was pretty cramped and never went back. Ahh toobad I didn't get a chance to hit up Rainforest Cafe though, I saw it but never felt the urge to go inside lol. I was contempt with beating Taco Bell at the old Metrotown since that was basically the only location in BC aside from the rip-off Movie theaters.

I remember one boxing day where we would get stuck during the bridge that connected Old Metrotown and Metropolis, it was so packed that everyone was pushing each other. I was actually a little scared that the bridge would collapse since so many people was on it but luckily it didn't.

I remember the CHQ having like 10 machines haha

i was 7years and remembered the car racing game :)
me and my cousins would just go there so much lol

I remember skipping out all the time and hanging out at SuperSlice, underneath Station Square and buying Raider's and Bull's jackets at the store around the corner.

Remember how the Save On was the latest and greatest and they had those cool ass escalators where the shopping carts "stuck" and didn't roll down. Then the roof collapsed......

heard they weren't making enough money. weird though because i always found it busy most of the time too!

Damn, I remember them INSTALLING the elevators in the centre atrium of Old Metrotown. (they ripped them out during the latest renovations). Crap I'm old. :(

Yes, the land bridge joining Metrotown and Eaton Centre, and Cave-on Foods, remember reading about it in the newspaper. The Eaton Centre also had that cool (at the time) signs outside the parking lots that had pixels flipping between yellow and black to show information.

There was also that Brettons department store (anchor store) that has since gone bust.

I am surprised they still haven't bothered to link the different underground parking lots.

@ EL COUPE:

Playdium lost a lot of money, their lease expired, and winners/homesense was bidding on the location as well. I remember hearing this while it was happening, before playdium closed down. One of the reasons they lost money was that everyone always knew someone that worked there, and friends would always hook up friends with free cards and what not. and even though the "Cafe/Diner" there was pretty awesome... it was always empty as far as i can remember, it was pretty cool though, it had a virtual waiter and your table was a screen so you can play games while u wait for your food. I miss that place too. Metropolis used to be awesome, anyone remember Glow? or those other stores that were there. Millenium is the only original store there i believe. and Swatch just closed down, that was there from the beginning of metropolis as well.

I remember when there was a basketball court/hoop that kids could play, and they had 2 playstations!!!! and 2 N64's with sports games running.. it was the shit. when playstation first came out!! We used to go to the mall just to play. lol.

I think there used to only be one CHQ which was beside what now is T&T
T&T used to be another food court!

Then there were 2 CHQs. The one that exists now and the one by the old food court. Then the original one shut down and the new one expanded.

and what now is the connection between the 2 main malls used to be the big food court!

If memory serves me correct!

anybody remember that sports store with the track on the ground that runs all the way outside the store? this was when I was in grade 9 and all i can remember was that the mall was dark with lots of neon lights

The Glow store, where they sold blacklight everything.

Ah the good ol days of metro. they use to have unlimited play nights at playdium I use to like to go eat at the rainforest cafe. and the Planet superstar with the 100m track inside. Now metro sucks its all about the shopping no more fun stuff in there. They should reopen playdium.

Man San Francisco was the stupidest most random store ever.

playdium, rain forest cafe, ghetto station square, karoke station

good old days