> I vaguely remember an arcade around there in the early 80s.
Is Jillian's still there? The pool hall/arcade? I don't know if that was the Combat Zone... I've rarely gone into Boston since I moved up to New England in '96, but I did go to Jillian's sometime in the late 90's/early 00's. Jillian's had a cool retro arcade section... I played Asteroids there which piqued my interest in old arcade games and eventually led me to Mame/Mameworld.