I will never forget when they opened the first Play Land Arcade in my hometown. Looking back, it was little more than an abandoned laundry mat that someone had gutted so they could make room for a dozen or so games and line them up against the back wall. We did not care that the drop ceiling was covered in water stains and that only half of the fluorescent lights worked.

I still remember that the owner of the games arcade had a scary resemblance to trolls I have seen in story books. He used to sit swilling beer in his little closet of an office while watching television on his little black and white model. We were fine as long as our coins were not getting stuck in the machines and there wasn’t any problems getting coins from the bill changer. It was our goal to disturb the beast in his lair only if there was absolutely no other option as he scared us senseless.

if it was necessary to ask for help our biggest problem presented itself when he opened the little door on the front of the machines where the coins are held. His belt could only support that much when he bent over and the result was the exposing of a certain part of anatomy no one wanted to see. It is just so difficult getting some of these images out of your head. They linger forever.

Despite those horrific images games like Galaga, Centipede and Donkey Kong are forever etched in my memories. I am not saying that they were the best video games ever, but they do represent a much simpler time in my life. If you ask most gamers they would probably say that modern arcades have improved the experience for everyone, but I would have to respectfully disagree with this.

In my opinion the new games over stimulate you visually and you don’t appreciate the value of a classic 2D game where a little basic hand eye coordination and imagination was needed. I don’t think anyone really needs the tickets, tokens or any of the junk crammed into those glass showcases. Just give me a monochrome monolith like those in the old arcades and an hand full of quarters. Bliss in my opinion.

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entertainment · games · games arcade · online games · recreation · Recreation & Sports · video games