Arcade Game Heaven

Normally, I wouldn’t recommend the podcast Hak5 to a wide audience, but only to my most enthusiastic tech friends. The show gets extremely technical at times, to a degree that I don’t always know what they’re talking about, so I end up skipping entire chunks of a particular show at times.

Their latest episode though is completely different, it was a solo show where the host traveled to Springfield, MO to visit 1984 Arcade, where the purveyors wanted to create a place where people could play all the classic 1980’s standup arcade games they grew up playing, especially since it is getting harder and harder to find working standup boxes for some of these games.

The idea is pretty cool, especially since they decided that instead of having people come in and feed quarters into the arcades all night, they charge $5 at the door and they outfitted all the games with buttons, replacing the quarter slots and you can play for free all night (keep in mind you, this gives you unlimited continues)!

Here, back in NYC, when I want to feed my urge for standup 1980’s arcade games, I’ll usually go to Barcade out in Brooklyn. The biggest difference between these two arcade experiences is that 1984 Arcade is an arcade open to everyone, while Barcade… well, is a BAR with standup arcades filling every wall space. The best part about the bar though, is their beer selection, they always carry a ton of US microbrews, oh and they always seem to have Doc’s Cider on tap as well, a BIG plus in my book.

1984 Arcade is a great idea, too bad it has to be absolutely nowhere near anyone I know in Springfield, Missouri. The people I know who probably live the closest to the place is at least 3 hours away in St. Louis.

Thanks to Fun Merchandise for the above pic.

Dany