For the majority of us, when we think of an Arcade, we are reminded of a building chock full of video games, dim lighting with some cigarette smoke lingering around you.
The earliest arcades were created in the early 1900’s with the invention of skeeball and later pinball.
However, in the 1940’s these arcades suffered a big hit. The Mayor of New York City made pinball machines illegal. He saw them as a gateway to gambling and called the people who owned them a “slimy crews of tinhorns, well dressed and living in luxury on penny thievery.” Granted the earliest pinball machines did have a lot in common with a slot machine. This sentiment was backed by other areas across the country and would be in effect in New York City until 1976. They viewed arcades as the place where young hooligans could meet up and cause trouble. When this ban lifted and with the creation of games like Pong from Atari, the arcade saw a resurgence. Suddenly new video games were being created, and new arcades were going up all across the country. Popularity peaked with the invention of PacMan. That small yellow disc who avoided ghosts and looked for those cherry treats caught the heart of the country. People from any generation are still familiar with that game. However, this craze didn’t last long, and the same downfall that befell the pinball arcade came to the video arcade. Parents and legislatures started to cry out that arcades were a place for young delinquents to initiate and cause trouble. Before long, these outcries and the rise of the home video game system saw the vast majority of arcades closing down.
If you loved arcades and want to recreate that magic for yourself, you can look at our arcades games. We have some updated arcade classics that will keep you having fun for hours! Check them out in our arcade shop!
