Electric Castles Wunderland in Portland, Oregon

When my husband was a child, he spent hours and many nickels at the local nickel arcade playing video games. Thirty years later, we're living in the same area, and that same nickel arcade, Wunderland, is still in operation at 10306 NE Halsey Street in Portland, Oregon.

No, my husband is not spending all our spare nickels down there! But we have been down there for birthday parties, and it's a great way to entertain a group of children fairly inexpensively.

Electric Castles Wunderland operates five locations in Oregon, four in Portland and one in Salem. All have arcade games, and two (the Avalon and Milwaukee locations) also have inexpensive second-run movie theatres.

Wunderland on Halsey Street has a wide variety of games, including video games, pinball, Skee Ball, and other chance-type ticket redemption games. Each game costs one or more nickels to play. The arcade sells bags of nickels, so you don't need to bring your own. Players can earn tickets by playing some of the games, and can then redeem those tickets for prizes.

Kids ages eight and older will have fun roaming around and trying the different games. Younger children may need adult assistance with the games, and if you have preschoolers, you may find that there is not much for them to do. Wunderland does have different styles of Skee Ball games, some of which are more appropriate for younger children. There are no rides available like at Chuck E. Cheese. You can see a list of some of the games available on the Wunderland website.

Prizes are the usual junky arcade prizes, but there are sometimes a few worthwhile things available. For instance, my children are still using and enjoying the sequined coin purses they won at the last birthday party.

Wunderland does charge a per-person admission fee for their arcades (movie tickets are separate). Admission at the Halsey Street arcade is currently $2.00 for children and $2.50 for adults. You can also buy a Round Trip admission for $3.00, which gets you admission for that day plus one more admission within the next four days. Wunderland always has coupons available on their website, and if you join their mailing list, you can get even more special offers.

The Wunderland on Halsey Street is open 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 12:00 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and 11:00 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays. For more information, visit Electric Castles Wunderland on the web.