Playland vs. Sportland.

It isn’t a trip to Ocean City without a trip to the boardwalk, and it isn’t a trip to the boardwalk without a trip to the arcade!

So we pose the question…. Marty’s Playland or Sportland Arcade?

Growing up in Ocean City, we were always partial to Sportland, we had birthday parties there, spent entire summers saving up tickets, and always got to take a trip there if we got all A’s on our report card! But we would always take some time to sneak over to Marty’s Playland to play the 10-cent Claw Digger games too!

So… Which arcade is better? Well we don’t think you have to choose! There’s no reason why you can’t go to both- they’re literally right next-door to eachother! However, they each have something a little different to offer….

Marty’s Playland

Ocean City Maryland Boardwalk

The selling point for Marty’s is that while a lot of things in Ocean City have changed, Playland has kept a lot of its original games! Go there to play on vintage Skee-Ball tracks, there’s 13 of them! Or they’ve got six pinball machines from the 1980’s (which pretty much no one else in Maryland has anymore). In the back you’ll find original Crane Digger games, or you can even have your fortune told by a 1940’s fortune teller! They’ve also got Pac-Man and other similar video-arcade style games. Plus they’ve kept 5 original Pokerino machines too!

Not to be completely stuck in the past, Marty’s Playland has just updated all of its games to also include card readers. Gone are the days when you have to stop by the bank or an ATM to get cash to play. You can now load money onto a Playland Card from your credit card (or still pay cash). And there’s two cool things that come with that…

For one, the more money you load onto your card, the more bonus money Playland gives you for free! And, an even cooler feature is that you can store your tickets on the card as well! You’ll no longer have to find a special place to store your ticket receipts, or stash physical tickets away somewhere. The card will keep track of your money and your tickets for you! It’s like a credit card for kids!

Right now if you put $20 onto a Playland Card you’ll get a $2.50 bonus, $30 and you get a $5 bonus, and for a $50 card you get a $10 bonus! Sounds like a Christmas present idea to me!

So with a history dating back to the 1940s, and a convenient location 1-block north of the Inlet, there’s no reason not to make sure you include Marty’s Playland in your vacation! This winter they will be open at 10am everyday until January and February when they will limit their hours to weekends and holidays. And of course in the summer you can find them open everyday from 10am until at least midnight!

[Since updating to the card-swipe system, they have had to disable the ability for the Claw Digger machines and Skee-Ball to be played for 10-cents. You can see photos of Playland through the years on their website.]

Sportland Arcade

Ocean City Maryland Boardwalk

So while many of us might love to walk down memory lane by visiting all the old vintage games at Playland, there may be some youngsters in your group that prefer newer games and newer prizes. That’s when Sportland truly shines!

This boardwalk staple has updated their arcade to include lots and lots of brand new games! People are loving the Wizard of Oz game and Tower of Tickets, and Whack to Win- where we won 500 tickets on our first try!

Just check out Sportland’s Facebook page and you will see winners with literally trashbags full of tickets. The Stacker game has produced winners of tv’s, ipads, Beats headphones, the list goes on to include GoPros and drones!

The staff at Sportland has also always been extremely friendly in the off-season, we cannot thank them enough for all the prizes we were able to cash our tickets in for!

But there are three huge reasons why we love Sportland and always will….

First it has our favorite game of all time… Colorama!!!!

And they are still doing their 7-7-7 prize wheel! We’ve been looking for tickets ending with 7-7-7 since we were in elementary school! It’s always fun to spin the prize wheel.

And lastly- while Sportland has updated many of its games and done away with many classics, it still has vintage/original photo booths! What a great souvenir to have from Ocean City!