{"id":1856,"date":"2024-11-26T17:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/?p=1856"},"modified":"2025-06-10T19:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:51:16","slug":"memories-of-the-bag-a-tel-arcade-in-valley-west-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2024\/11\/26\/memories-of-the-bag-a-tel-arcade-in-valley-west-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of the Bag-A-Tel arcade in Valley West Mall (Glendale, AZ)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When I was a boy, the #1 game arcade I went to in Glendale, AZ was Bag-A-Tel in Valley West Mall. My #1 go-to game was, of course, Atari’s Star Wars sit-down cabinet. Released in 1983, this game came out the same year as Return of the Jedi, yet it involved the first Star Wars movie. I remember playing Atari’s Red Baron, a similar vector graphics shooter cabinet, before Star Was was released. The Return of the Jedi game by Atari came out in ’84, featuring an isometric view that I really could not get the hang of. Then in ’85 the first game was modified to play the Empire Strikes Back vector graphics game, which was not as good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If Star Wars was occupied, my #2 choice was the Namco’s Pole Position II (released by Atari in the US) sit-down cabinet, which was located next to Star Wars. (This animated gif is actually of the first Pole Position game though.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have very fond memories of Bag-A-Tel. I loved that place. Whenever we’d catch a movie at the dollar theater, we’d be sure to stop by that arcade. Valley West Mall was eventually closed down, then later re-opened as Manistee Town Center. Eventually that mall went goodbye as well, and the mall was used for filming the movie Eight-Legged Freaks<\/em> starring David Arquette and featuring a very young Scarlett Johannsson. The mall was demolished for that movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a photo of the movie theater in Valley West Mall, courtesy of the CinemaTreasures nostalgia website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I was a boy, the #1 game arcade I went to in Glendale, AZ was Bag-A-Tel in Valley West Mall. My #1 go-to game was, of course, Atari’s Star Wars sit-down cabinet. Released in 1983, this game came out the same year as Return of the Jedi, yet it involved the first Star Wars … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Memories of the Bag-A-Tel arcade in Valley West Mall (Glendale, AZ)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[223,219,10,222,12,106,282],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nostalgia","category-video-games","tag-1980s","tag-animated-gif","tag-gaming","tag-pole-position","tag-retrogaming","tag-star-wars","tag-the-80s"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1429,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2024\/04\/17\/moar-80s-game-arcade-memes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":0},"title":"MOAR ’80s game arcade memes","date":"2024-04-17","format":false,"excerpt":"So, here is Pac-Man, Frogger, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Defender, and the last two on the right are kind of small and I can't recognize them. For me, when my family would go to Valley West Mall in Glendale, Arizona, there was a game arcade there called Bag-A-Tel. My first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "humor"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/smartphones-in-the-80s.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2535,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/09\/05\/visiting-the-outpost-arcade-in-chandler-az\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":1},"title":"Visiting The Outpost Arcade in Chandler, AZ","date":"2025-09-05","format":false,"excerpt":"My friends and i visited the brand new Outpost Arcade on August 16th. It's small, but cozy. No booze at the time of the recording, which was a shame because I could've gone for a beer if one had been available. I settled for an IBC Root Beer instead. Lots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1739.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2497,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/09\/04\/a-visit-to-tiltstudio-arcade-at-arizona-mills-mall-in-tempe-az\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":2},"title":"A visit to TiltStudio Arcade at Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe, AZ","date":"2025-09-04","format":false,"excerpt":"So while I got to spend time with friends on my recent trip to Arizona, on the day which I visited Andy's Hobby HQ and Book Off, we also went to AZ Mills Mall in Tempe. TiltStudio is there, and this is where I found the Pac-Man Capsule Factory I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1676.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":450,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/09\/18\/i-finally-made-it-to-saturn-in-gyruss-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":3},"title":"I finally made it to Saturn in Gyruss today!","date":"2022-09-18","format":false,"excerpt":"I pigged out on Korean BBQ (yakiniku) with the female spouse unit (the female offspring unit doesn't eat much) while watching The Last Crusade (she likes Indy Jones movies, but not so much Star Wars, but that's alright) and then Message from Space. Played some Gyruss and booze doesn't work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/gyruss-220918-104128.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2156,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/its-the-80s-and-you-have-only-one-quarter-which-game-will-you-play\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":4},"title":"It’s the ’80s, and you have only one quarter. Which game will you play?","date":"2025-05-09","format":false,"excerpt":"Pac-Man is my all-time favorite game. In fact, I'm wearing Pac-Man boxer shorts underwear as I post this. I'm nuts for anything Pac-Man. That said, Star Wars was my #1 go-to game every time, as I mentioned in my post about the old arcade Bag-A-Tel as a kid. I didn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nostalgia"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/which-game.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":610,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/10\/18\/a-couple-of-clever-80s-game-arcade-memes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":5},"title":"A couple of clever ’80s game arcade memes","date":"2022-10-18","format":false,"excerpt":"The first time I visited Japan was in 1998, and at that time all I saw were sit-down cabinets like the Sega Astro City, Taito Egret, Namco Cyberlead, etc. So, I was unaware that game centers here in Japan once had standing cabinets like America did until talking with my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "humor"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/your-childhood.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2262,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}