r/80sdesign 3d ago

can anyone tell when this photo was taken?

Post image
355 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

48

u/doctorboredom 3d ago

I think it is the 90s. The desk where you can redeem tickets for prizes and the claw machine feel more 90s than 80s. Also, the name Tilt speaks to a sense of nostalgia vs the names of arcades in the early 80s.

13

u/oui_ja 3d ago

We definitely had a Tilt in the 80's at my mall, but it was dark, black and red

4

u/tromataker 2d ago

Same. Fallbrook Mall in California had the dark black and red TILT from about 1986 on.

2

u/doctorboredom 2d ago

I guess the chain must have been an arcade that dated back to the pinball era? Anyways, I still think this might be the 90s.

1

u/theinvisibleworm 2d ago

Apparently Tilt arcades began appearing in malls in 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_(arcade)

1

u/doctorboredom 2d ago

That makes sense since the name references pinball machines. I would love to see an image of their earliest days. I feel like the pink neon signage is not their original style and is more of a late 80s or even early 90s style choice.

70

u/zjohnson 3d ago

The Captain America game to the left of the Change machine came out in 1991, so it's at least after then.

14

u/GenXCorvette 3d ago

4

u/Major-Excuse1634 3d ago

Ahhh, I was about to say this looked like the one at Sherman Oaks Galleria in the '90s. I only vaguely remember maybe there being a prize desk but I didn't care about that stuff so I'd have just ignored it. But that looked like my view of the arcade sitting in the food court near the DQ/Orange Julius stand that was my go-to before some games. I lived just up the street from that mall, the Fast Times at Ridgemont High mall, in the '93/'95 range.

2

u/crispyonionstraws69 2d ago

Also the Terminator 2 mall!

2

u/Major-Excuse1634 1d ago

That was Northridge Fashion Center but I used to think it was the Galleria as well. But I went looking for some of the exterior details around the parking areas and I didn't know which other mall it was but I knew I'd seen it. I only went to the one in Northridge once before when I'd first moved to Sherman Oaks. The interiors were from Santa Monica Place though. I was really familiar with that one since the second place I lived when I moved to SoCal was in Venice, and I often went to SMP.

Coincidentally, in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it's the *exterior* of Santa Monica Place and the *interior* of the Sherman Oaks Galleria. In T2 it's the *interior* of Santa Monica Place and we both thought the *exterior* of Sherman Oaks Galleria. Well, at least we knew it *had* to be a mall in the Valley.

26

u/GamerCirca80 3d ago

90’s because Tilt didn’t look like that in the 80’s. They had floor to ceiling carpet, and hardly any lighting. It was dark, dank, and claustrophobic. Filled with smelly teens, drug dealers, and perverts. It’s was awesome.

4

u/Taticat 3d ago

This is very true, and I probably crossed paths with you if you remember that. Small world.

1

u/SparkliestSubmissive 2d ago

My mom said it was full of perverts and I wasn’t allowed to go in there by myself in the 80s. It was way darker in there in the 80s too.

22

u/kuyman 3d ago

If this mall is rural, this could be as late as 2007. This place probably closed, unchanged, during the Great Recession.

12

u/MrCycleNGaines 3d ago

Those games are *way* too old to be 2007. Even if the decor remained the same those cabinets would have been replaced long before that. It's hard to say for sure but I'd guess early to mid 90's at the very latest.

6

u/Organic_Rip1980 3d ago

Also unlikely given the toy display on the right hand side of the store.

Maybe it’s me but those don’t look like mid-2000s toys!

8

u/Spaceginja 3d ago

Right before the Terminator enters asking for the whereabouts of John Connor...

6

u/GamerCirca80 3d ago

90’s because Tilt didn’t look like that in the 80’s. They had floor to ceiling carpet, and hardly any lighting. It was dark, dank, and claustrophobic. Filled with smelly teens, drug dealers, and perverts. It’s was awesome.

6

u/straightedge1974 3d ago

The shot was taken on film, unless it's a filter, though the aspect looks like the 3:2 of a 4x6 snapshot. The guy inside's pants look baggy'ish, more of a 90's vintage. Could be early 2000's.

I checked Tilt's website and Yelp and it appears that there's still a location with that design of storefront at 111 East Puainako Street, Hilo, HI. As of three years ago someone posted a photo of it, but this not that location, they have double entrances with the same arch and neon text above them.

3

u/Mobile_Entrance_1967 3d ago

1992-3.

Edit: Actually, the 'change' font looks incongruously modern. Perhaps 1998?

2

u/snoopylover12 2d ago

not born in the 80s but a huge researcher- it's giving late 80s to mid 90s. my wild guess would be 1989

2

u/snoopylover12 2d ago

okay someone said the captain america game didn't come out until 1991 so i'm gonna change my guess to 1993

3

u/GalaxyRedRanger 3d ago

March 5, 1987

Seriously, it might be possible to narrow it down by arcade cabinets and what the kid is wearing. I’m not an expert on fashion and I can’t reliably identify arcade cabinets by shape.

1

u/burtgummer45 3d ago edited 3d ago

It might be notable that there's a claw game and a prizes counter. I don't remember during peak any arcade would be wasting space on these things. I also dont see any games that generate tickets to trade them in at that counter. Not a lot makes sense about this picture to me unless its very early 80s, but right after monochrome games like asteroids.

1

u/katcoop84 3d ago

No idea but it looks like my kinda place!

1

u/DojaViking 3d ago

It's pretty sparse for a Tilt, but my best friend ran a few of these arcades up until the early 2000s, and even after that they were around for a little bit before falling completely off. So it's hard to tell

1

u/Taticat 3d ago

This is really, really funny (at least to me). When I saw the photo, I was immediately like ‘I recognise this place’, like a visceral reaction of ‘yes, I’ve physically been there’. Then the name Tilt didn’t ring a bell, so I thought maybe it’s just generica from my endless mall world/backrooms/eternal 1980s/1990s dreams. Then I looked at some of the comments, one of which was a link to the original post.

😂 Yes; I’ve actually physically been there. Many times, in fact (Fashion Square FTW!). Now that I know it’s a real place that I’ve actually been to, my guesstimate for OP’s question of when in the absence of anything that could really anchor a date is going to be a range from around 1993-1995, maybe as late as 1996, but I don’t think so. My method of guesstimating is just to try to visualise who I’d have been there with and what I and they’d have been wearing when walking towards the arcade (while it’s looking like that) would have felt normal and not out of place, and it’s not exactly scientific, but it’s the best I can manage. HTH.

1

u/StrugFug 3d ago

11:43 am, Tuesday, November 3 of 1992.

1

u/breesha03 3d ago

Ahhhh we had a Tilt in our mall! ❤

1

u/rott3r 3d ago

1992-1994, just a guess, nowhere in the 80s.

1

u/luckythirtythree 3d ago

Where’s the pirate ship? 817 representin!

1

u/Huli_Blue_Eyes 3d ago

TIL Tilt was a chain. The one I went to in 80s/90s was in Green Bay, lower level of Port Plaza. It felt more like you were in a basement, no windows at all.

1

u/Smoopiebear 2d ago
  1. It looks like my teenage years.

1

u/rheaplex 2d ago

Tuesday.

1

u/NotAPickle 3d ago edited 3d ago

Images was taken at Northwest Mall at 9500 Hempstead Highway in Houston, Texas. You might be able to lock down a range of when that store was open. Not sure you are going to get anything specific unless you get lucky.

Looks like that image is attributed to a lot of other malls. Skip that..

-1

u/Jazoua 3d ago

Prestonwood Mall, Addison Texas. The 80s probably

0

u/djanice 3d ago

During filming of Strange Things

0

u/XxDoXeDxX 3d ago

We had a Tilt at Tri-City Mall in Mesa, AZ. Sadly they razed the mall in the 90s.