The Disappearing Arcade

Whatever happened to the arcade? You know the kind I’m talking about. When I was younger and travelling with my parents and we would stop at some service plaza along the highway for gas and lunch or just a quick washroom break. Inside, next to the souvenir shop there would be a room filled with pinball machines and all of the latest video games, such as they were back then. The technology pales by today’s games but they were the latest and the best to be found anywhere. There was always at least one that I had never seen before.

I would marvel at every single one before asking for a quarter to try your hand. Yes, they were only a quarter back then kids. And the pinball machines gave you five balls for that quarter as well. I remember feeling ripped off the first time I encountered a pinball machine that only gave me three balls for my quarter. This marked the beginning of the downward spiral of high scores for everybody.

So with my quarter in hand I would wander back and forth attempting to decide on which game is worthy of my money. Something new, something old, something using the bright orange plastic gun (oooh, a shooter game!), or see if I’ve gotten any better at pinball, even though I haven’t played since the last time I came across an arcade much like this one.

The excitement is powerful and a decision is finally made. I insert the money and listen for that all too familiar sound of the coin clinking through the mechanism as it drops down the slot. Then the unit chimes and whirs into action as it registers your play.

So now I begin playing. And then within about fifteen to twenty seconds I’m feeling totally robbed and dejected when my game abruptly comes to an end.  It seems that I didn't know what to expect because, in my haste to play I failed to read the instructions clearly posted on the front of the game. Ahh, those were the days.

Nowadays when I visit one of those travel plaza arcade rooms I’m shocked. Only one pinball machine? Really? It looks as if it may very well be the same one from years ago. It looks old and abused. There are a couple of video games, racing ones at that. The rest of this downsized space now shares a corner with the washroom entrance and is filled with another type of machine that now cost $2 for only one play.

Now here’s the kicker. With this new type of “arcade game” you insert your money and press a button. A wheel spins or blocks drop or something similar that is only a game of chance with no skill involved whatsoever. Quite similar to a slot machine but with slimmer odds of winning.

Now here is the evolution of rest stop arcade game play. I insert my money into this machine for the slim chance that I could win an electronic prize that plays video games.

What the hell?