A
setting not seen as much these days due to their decline, this is where all the kids used to go to play their
videogames. Rows of them, in big, gloriously fashioned cabinets. Often in darkly lit rooms to let the video displays shine and maintained in states from squalid to spit-shined, the machines flash and
burble to themselves even when not being played. More recent examples often feature
Dance Dance Revolution-style fun.
Special mention must go to arcades as locations in video games.
See also
Suck E. Cheese's.
Pac Man Fever optional.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- The characters in Sailor Moon often hung out at the the Crown game center. In the live-action series—created after arcades were dead—this was changed to a karaoke parlor.
- A video arcade features prominently in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, where Kyouko is proficient in a DDR-esque dance game.
Film — Animation
- A video arcade was also seen briefly in Monster House, in the scene where the main heroes enlist the help of a friend in information dealing with the possessed house.
Film — Live Action
Literature
- Time Twister by Ged Maybury has many scenes set in a video arcade, as the eponymous game machine is the device around which the plot is built.
Video Games
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: Bart will still occasionally hang out in one, playing such games as "Escape from Grandma's House II" and "Hockey Dad". In a Flash Back episode to the early eighties, a group of kids go play a video game version of "Kick the Can", and a Mumbly Peg arcade machine can be seen in the background.
Real Life
- Video arcades remain popular in Japan (where they are known as game centers).
