High Scores Arcade

One of our most fun Unilocal finds in recent memory.
When we told the kids we were driving across the Bay Area to play video games from the 1980s, they looked at us like we were nuts. Even I suspected we would only stay for an hour, since arcades are usually loud, claustrophobic and dirty… and I wasn’t sure the vintage games would hold everyone’s attention for long.
Turns out that the $ 10 all day pass was money well spent. We all had a blast — two of us by reliving our middle school days, the others just having fun with games they’d heard about but never played. We even returned after a lunch break (there are lots of eating options nearby) since everyone was eager to keep going.
The Arcade has a surprising number of games — and even has some programmed machines that each have dozens of different games available. My personal favorites included Joust, Spy Hunter and Q-​Bert. The place was also pleasantly clean and uncrowded during our visit. Have fun!

Went to High Scores last night. A lot of cool old school arcade games on freeplay. I played games I wouldn’t normally play if I was using quarters like Tron. Played old favorites like Punch Out, Smash TV, Star Wars, etc… That Time Pilot high score looks beatable, so I may have to go back,

$ 10 for all you can play retro arcade games!
I visited on a weeknight and it was slow (only 6 people playing), which was really nice because it didn’t make me feel rushed to play. I logged in so much Tetris playtime that I had dreams about it the next night. I’m not sure why, but there’s something fulfilling about using a knobby joystick vs a game controller. Anyway, if you don’t think that you’ll be there for over an hour, they also offer a $ 5/​hr unlimited play.
If I lived in town, this would definitely be one of my unwind-​hangout spots!

+Throwback to the days of wasting quarters!
+No quarters necessary as you buy increments of time playing for a flat rate.
+Time goes by fast when you are playing.
+Need more shooting games. The Aerosmith game was lame.
+Come for the nostalgia. Show the kids what grown ups used to have to do for video game entertainment.

Haven’t been in here for sometime. And with the way I was treated by the staff will not be back for sometime. Must be getting money from the state or private donations to keep the video games in pristine condition. The one star was for the video games– they were still performing well. «No eight bit entertainment for you! Next!»

This place is totally radical. I took 15 kids and 7 kids at heart on a Saturday morning for a birthday party. Everyone loved it. We reserved it for 2 hours. So many classics — Centipede, Q*bert, Star Wars, Joust. Then we went down the street for pizza.

I’ve been coming in here from time to time they opened this place up, they have a good selection of games, it’s not very expensive only $ 5 for an hour or $ 10 for the whole day of playing, there is no tokens which is a huge plus. They also have a super friendly staff especially the guy in the Alameda hat.

It just happens that every 100^th review I write happened to be a 5 star and my 600^th is no exception. But instead of a memorable restaurant, this time it is an old school arcade with retro games from the 80s and 90s fit for a throwback any day.
I admit that I did not really play much arcade games as a child but did play many of these on the computer. Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man (which I still suck at all these years), Tetris, Frogger, Atari Star Wars, Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and what I was so psyched to see and the first game I played, Tapper! As a kid, I think it was modified to sling lemonade or root beer and not beer. Now as an adult I get to sling Budweisers!
The back room is a bit tight especially for the Aerosmith Revolution where we must’ve spent a good 20 – 30 min playing together racking up over a million points for me and almost two for my sharp shooter hubby.
It is $ 5 for an hour or $ 10 for unlimited play all day and you can leave and return throughout the day since you have a wristband. We were there for almost 3 hours and was probably the best $ 20 spent in a long time. Chuck E Cheese may be where a kid can be a kid but High Score Arcades is where adults (and kids) can be a kid. The jukebox blasting classics was just the icing on the cake.

First time visiting the Bay area… I was looking for something to do that wasn’t just a typical bar on a Saturday.
Found this place on Unilocal and I’m into video games so I thought I’d come check it out.
5 dollars an hour or 10 dollars for the whole day. Which is a pretty good deal. I opted for an hour. The place was really clean. Didn’t get a grimy vibe from it. Also the games were not broken down or in bad shape
What more could you ask for? Some cool old school games for cheap in a clear arcade.
No reason not to give them 5 stars

In the words of 90s kids everywhere, this place was rad! (LOL) As an expert button masher, I’ve been eyeing this place for quite some while now. However, I could never really justify making the trek all the way out to Alameda so High Scores sat lost in my bookmarks until I recently rediscovered it when looking for things to do in/​around Oakland. I’m glad I decided to go! It’s a great place to go to bring back some of that childhood nostalgia and to kill time as well! With a rate of $ 5/​hr or $ 10/​whole day you can have unlimited play on all the machines there, no quarters necessary! A real bang for your buck if you’re a broke college student… or at least have a budget of a broke college student haha.
Although size wise it’s not the biggest arcade, there definitely is a good selection of games available. You have your standard arcade cabinets for games like Donkey Kong, Fix-​It Felix Jr., Tron, etc. BUT there’s also arcade cabinets that have some 20+ (rough estimate, could be more, could be less. didn’t count tbh but it was a lot!) games as well. In other words, there’s plenty of options for everyone. It was cool playing some of my old favorites and trying a bunch of new games too! I was particularly keen on the beer game where you try leveling the bar to get the ball in the correct hole in a kind of vertical labyrinth fashion. Didn’t get the name but it was easily THE most frustrating game there. The Aerosmith shooting game, complete with corny lines from Steven Tyler, is wildly entertaining as well.
Not much else to say other than I wish more places like this still existed!

This place takes me back! Ok, I lie. I didn’t grow up playing arcade games all too much because I always thought of those machines as pocket feeders. They’ll take all your money before you can realize it. But an arcade at a fixed rate? For an hour or up to an entire day of unlimited play?! Call me cheap, but that’s honestly a really good deal. $ 5 for an hour and $ 10 for all day, you’re given a bright neon wristband with an indication of the time you’ll be given the boot.
We paid for an hour worth of play, and that time flew right by us. I feel like, unless its jampacked, they don’t really assert a strict policy of kicking you out when you’ve surpassed that hour… but it’s also an honor system!
Alameda is pretty cool for housing a business like this. I’d come here everyday if I lived closer.

Super fun place. They have an excellent selection and they’re constantly rotating cabinets and bringing new stuff, too. Great place to spend a few hours, try those obscure games you haven’t seen in a few decades and revisit favorites.
Come on out and support the arcade, bring a friend, and have a blast. The Gauntlet machine is never full of all 4 players, join me on it as we go deep into the dungeon! ;-)

I used to play a lot of video games – Nintendo, specifically – but then I kind of grew out of it as I got older. It doesn’t mean they weren’t fun anymore – they are – but I just don’t have the same levels of patience and enthusiasm that once drove me to throw in endless hours into these games.
The fascination, however, can sometimes creep out. I’m a real Romantic with a capital R (although I guess it’d be nice to be the other kind of romantic) sometimes, and that means that I really like the feel of playing old-​school arcade machines.
Thus, I decided to take a day trip with my brother to the island of Alameda, where we could actually come and go to a dedicated arcade filled with some of the coolest classics of the 80’s and 90’s as well as some sleeper hits I’ve never even heard of before.
Entrance to High Scores is predicated not on age but rather on the time you wish to spend inside – $ 5 for an hour, $ 10 for unlimited gaming. It all depends on how much time you’re willing to spend here, but we just opted for the hour.
Once you’re in, you’re in. You can play any game your heart desires. We tried so many: Rampage, Street Fighter, this super weird music shooting game with insanely loud machine guns, this super difficult Budweiser beer game where you have to balance a metal ball into specific holes (my favorite), Tron, Joust (probably one of my other favorites)…Honestly, the list goes on and on, but we played certainly upwards of 15 games.
A few things: a lot of games are two players, but many are of the variety where you take turns. That really isn’t fun at all, especially on a time crunch, so you’ll have to scout out the ones where you can both play simultaneously. Also, you can leave food at the counter, but don’t forget to pick it up (yeah, I’m preeeetty sure I left my chicken sandwich up there).
I want to share with you what this little kid was saying as he playing Mortal Kombat. He was playing his friend, and he was just going H.A.M. on the machine. He was smashing the buttons and slamming the joystick insanely hard – the employee girl had to remind them to be gentle – and screaming, «BUTTON MASHING IS THE BEST!!! BUTTON MASHING IS THE BEST!!!» over and over again. It was probably the most hilarious thing I have ever heard.
Anyways, the whole experience was pretty fun. There was a pretty good variety of arcade games, and given the time we had, it was enough to really try out most of what was offered, albeit not in amazing depth because we were pretty terrible at most games. Certainly a fun place to go with some friends or even alone to get some high scores.
However, if there is one thing you must take from this review, it’s this: BUTTON MASHING IS THE BEST!!!

Take it back to the good old days when you put in a quarter into a video game machine during your sport team’s pizza party and that’s what you have at High Scores Arcade… well EXCEPT you get unlimited play and if you die, its auto respawn with where you had started, which is great for me since I’m pretty bad…
$ 5 for an hour and $ 10 for the whole day.
My boyfriend and I only bought an hour because we had other plans, but we had so much fun. We loved playing the old originals like Donkey Kong Jr., Pac-​Man, and Street Fighter. My boyfriend felt like he was back in the 80s for sure.
I totally suggest this for a date because there are soooo many 2 player games plus you learn a lot about your significant other like my bf is awful at fighting games and I’m awful at Mario :(
TIP: Be patient and hopefully you like children because they are everywhere, but dont worry you will get a turn.

What’s High Score mean? Is that bad? Did I break it? Let’s start with the fact that $ 10 gets you all you can play from open to close. I love this.
The ambiance is on point, black lights, lasery type business, and one of the most kick ass juke boxes I’ve seen in a hot minute.
Dude…Tetris, Pac Man, Tron, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Super Mario Bros, on and on, and on. Games I’d never seen before. It’s like I died and went to Peter Piper Pizza, but instead of a lame ball pit in the corner, there was an awesome juke box, playing allll my favorite tunes, and my parents gave me unlimited quarters. I could spend hours here. I will definitely be back and recommend ANYBODY who has any level of interest in 80’s arcade games to stop in.
*Bonus tip: no school aged children allowed before 3pm on weekdays — FYI

This place literally is my childhood dream made real and improved upon. The black lighting, the jukebox blasting 80s hits and the games, the glorious glorious games. If you’ve ever seen Wreck It Ralph and didn’t get the games referenced, most are here, even Fix-​It-​Felix.
$ 5 for an hour of all the games you want or $ 10 for all day. You know what $ 5 in quarters used to buy me back in the day? 10 minutes or so of getting my ass whooped on street fighter 2 and another ass whooping that evening from my mom when she found out what I did with the quarters for the laundrymat.
We had a blast here. I can’t wait to bring my kids here so they can see how we used to do back in the day.

Seriously, this place is 5+ stars!!!
A group of friends and I practically spent all day here (dorks, I know)! Great variety of games and the best part is the unlimited play. If you’ve never beat an arcade game before, here’s the place to do it. You could easily spent $ 10 worth of quarters in a couple of hours at a traditional arcade… so why not just get the all day pass? They allow you to bring outside drinks in — they just ask that you sent it at the front desk. The wristband will allow you in and out access. Can’t beat it — video games and good food in the area.
I can’t wait to try the pinball museum. This is definitely one of my new favorite places!

High Scores Arcade is one gnarly spot! My friends and I are in downtown Alameda often and it makes me wonder why I haven’t stumbled upon this place sooner. This arcade consist of every known classics game that you can think of. Every machine seems to be in good condition and still in its vintage-​original form. My group of friends and I randomly walked in while walking to our cars at 10:45pm. Not knowing they will be closing at 11pm, the owner welcomed us and told us we can play for free til the store closed. SWEET! All staffs were friendly and helpful. The price for playing games are $ 5 per hour or $ 10 all day. You had to do a double-​take didn’t you? Such a great deal. Games that we saw and/​or played were: Street-​Fighters, Rampage, Metal Slug, Fix-​it-​Felix, Tetris, Pac Man, and Donkey Kong. Worth checking out if you’re in the area. it’ll definitely bring back some nostalgia.
Four stars because I only spent 15 minutes here. My friends and I hope to come back to experience a longer time at High Scores Arcade :)

If this place had beer and bar food after normal kiddie hours, it would be 8 stars.
Not too huge, not too tiny of a place. Just reminds me of those arcade from the 80’s, games, music.
My little ones had a blast.
spend the whole hour playing donkey kong and street fighter, just thinking, a beer would be great right now.

Oh, this is a fun place. I could easily spend hours trying to beat the the arcade games. Th only drawback would be that I would not want to give up a game even if a crying child wanted to play it.
The arcade is dark. It is busy. Donations to play all day $ 10 or $ 5 for an hour

If you’d like to re-​live your childhood gaming memories, then come check out this arcade. The price is awesome for $ 5.00 per hour or $ 10.00 all day. A hour goes by fast when you’re in your gaming zone playing classics like Street Fighter Turbo, Neo-​Geo, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Tetris and Paper Boy.
You are not allowed to bring outside food or drink inside but you can leave any drinks at the counter and come back to quench your thirst.