Took a quick family trip over the weekend to visit the Dragon’s Lair Arcade in Bangor, Maine. I love checking out arcades, seeing the selection of games, and just being in the atmosphere of the flashing lights, explosive sounds, and button mashing.
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How to Get There
There is a ridiculous amount of parking at the Bangor Mall – you would be wise to drive slowly through there, though, and watch for any minor potholes. The arcade is inside the Mall, closest to the Furniture and Mattress Gallery (name?), but going in through Dick’s is also a viable option.
We went in through J.C Penney and walked about halfway through the mall to get to the arcade. Like many other shopping malls in the country, the Bangor Mall has multiple vacancies and the entire property seems to be in legal trouble over the matters. But there were still several clothing retailers open inside the mall.
The Food Court
The Dragon’s Lair Arcade has actually taken over the previous mall food court and sells their own pizza and sandwiches there. I have some fond memories of this location being a Sbarro in the past, back in the glory days of shopping malls.
We did not see any other food options throughout the portion of the mall we walked through, so it is good that Dragon’s Lair Arcade and Pizza is filling a void for anyone who gets hungry – you would not have to leave the mall to find something. I did not try the pizza this time, but would plan to on our next visit.
The Arcade Games
Dragon’s Lair Arcade had a pretty large selection of different games. They did have a prize counter so there were a good amount of games focused on earning tickets – claw machines with tickets as prizes, arcade style games to win tickets, etc.
We played a few rounds of a game where you try to catch a fish and can earn tickets for the fish you catch. Every so often, a golden lobster would sprint (essentially) across the bottom of the screen. Catching that lobster would earn a jackpot of tickets – despite some valiant tries, we did not catch that lobster!
Besides the ticket-earning games, there were racing games, shooter-style games, an air hockey table, and a few pinball machines. I am definitely a fan of pinball, so I like to try whenever I happen to be around one. Having some millennial childhood memories of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, you know I made a beeline for that machine. I had a good time playing it. At one point, the ball got sucked into some kind of magnet (or force field??) and started spinning around in circles like the centrifugal force had just taken over. I can’t remember ever seeing something like that before, so that was definitely a unique experience.
The prize counter had a nice selection of things to win after playing. There were large prizes like board games, backpacks, and Squishmallows, then plenty of smaller prizes and plastic toys. The lowest amount of tickets needed seemed to be 5, and that would earn you a piece of candy or a spider ring, but there was a lot of selection if you had between 10-50 tickets.
Logistics and Extra Games
Most of the games took quarters as payment and were priced between 50c to $1 per play. There was a coin machine to exchange your money into quarters, and there were also machines to count up your tickets when you were ready.
We saw a sign saying there were even more games in a “classic arcade” next to J.C. Penney, so on our way back we stopped by that, too. It did not seem to be open at the time we were there, but I could see through the window that there were a ton more arcade games set up.
All in all, I think a family (or just yourself!) could spend a while playing games at the arcade areas here and there should be something for anyone who likes games.
See more about Dragon’s Lair Arcade in our directory, or go straight to their website here.
