Los Angeles’ Last Arcade…Maybe.
An interesting fact about my apartment is that it’s located near the only video arcade left in Los Angeles, called The Family Arcade. Actually, this fact might not be entirely accurate as I haven’t done any research on the subject, but I’m willing to bet its true.
In the past decade the once dominant arcade world has gone the way of the drive-in movie as another staple of American awesomeness that’s been discarded for something much more convenient but far less grand. In those ten years the thousands of video arcades across the nation turned into hundreds, turned into tens, turned into just one. The Family Arcade located near my apartment. The last video arcade in America. Or so I suspect. Again, I’m not big on research.
But that’s not the point. The point is this: I used to love the arcade. It was my home away from home. I can fondly recall a much smaller Randy running/waddling through a giant mall in furious pursuit of the local arcade. I remember that each time I found the arcade I would stop just outside the entrance and take in the glorious sight of coin-operated happiness. But the games weren’t my favorite part of the arcade, although I loved those too, my favorite part was the excitement shared by all the gamers. We were our own community, our own club. It was a bonding experience. It was a beautiful thing. And then, much like my childhood, it just disappeared. Until now. For today I will return to my home away from home; today I will enter The Family Arcade a man, but, hopefully, come out a boy.
The Family Arcade – A First Person Perspective
Chapter 1: My New Friends
I walk into the arcade at twelve thirty in the afternoon on a Monday. (Yes, I’m unemployed, what of it?) When I walk inside I’m delighted to find that that indefinable smell I remember as a child is still present in today’s arcade. I’m less delighted to find that almost all of the games here are also ones I remember as a child. I scan the tops of the machines for hopes of seeing a title I’m not familiar with, but I have little success. The only new game I can see is a giant brightly lit shooter called Time Crisis 4. I haven’t played it, but I can’t help but wonder how different it is from Time Crisis 2, a game I’m quite familiar with…
I turn my gaze to the players in the arcade, or as I like to call them, friends. It seems my new friends are Hispanic men in their’ twenties or late teens. I smile at them and head off to the token machine.
It’s amazing how something so unimpressive as a five dollar bill can turn into something brilliant like twenty gold painted tokens. It almost brings a tear to my eye. But the arcade is no place for tears, so I suck it up and begin my first lap around the arcade.
Chapter 2: Pinball Machines of Gloom and the Original FPS
After about five quick steps I come to the pinball section. There are seven pinball machines set up in a row, but only one player. He’s an Asian man in his forties who’s dressed in business attire and looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s playing Playboy Pinball, a game that must have been made in the eighties. There’s something captivating about watching this man channeling his frustrations of life into flipper swats at a small metal ball in a long forgotten game. I can’t be sure but I think I might be watching the saddest game of pinball in the history of humanity. He looks up at me for a second and I throw up a fist, my way of telling him to keep on trucking in these dark economic times of ours.
I walk past the gloomy pinballer and come to my favorite part of the arcade, the shooter section. God I love arcade shooters. Of course, the game in this section getting showcased is Time Crisis 4, clearly the pride and joy of this place. But I see that they want six tokens to play and that’s a little too rich for my blood. So I turn to a reliable classic: Area 51, the be-all-and-end-all of mutant alien shooters. I pull the cheap blue plastic gun out of its holster and plunk in two tokens. As I wait for the game to start I stare at my weapon and think about how the consoles never matched the arcade in terms of fake firearms. Sure they made their own which you could buy, but it wasn’t the same. You never felt like you were actually shooting aliens. You never had a holster for your gun. It just wasn’t the same. As I’m thinking this I realize I’m still waiting for the game to start. That’s odd. I bend down to check the change dispenser and that’s when I see the dreaded masking tape stretched across the machine. I put the gun back in its holster and continue my lap. I will say this about consoles, they don’t have a habit of eating your money.
Chapter 3: Car Racing Must Still be Fun?
Feeling spurned, I decide to leave the shooters for the time being and head to the racing section, which happens to be my second favorite section. I mean where else can a child careen down a city street with an entire police force chasing after him. I once dreamed that real driving would be like this, but that was a long time ago.
It takes a minute to decide which race I want to experience. Do I want to go through the treacherous waters of Arctic Thunder, or do I want to try my luck through the bumpy desert of Death Valley in California Race. Ultimately I decide on San Francisco Rush 2049, a game that ingeniously combines the thrill of jumping off the steep streets of San Fran with the creative license of driving futuristic race cars. I give the arcade two more of my tokens and start browsing through the cars. I’m on the third car when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look over and find a small Hispanic boy looking at me with very serious eyes. “You wanna race?” He asks me, but I can tell that this is not his real question. His real question can be found behind his serious eyes, the real question is one I used to ask way back when, the real question is “Do you want to lose to me?”
Sure, kid, I’m your huckleberry.
It’s a close race. It takes me a second to switch from my real driving instincts to the fantastic and reckless driving skills you need to be a winner. In the end I lose the match when my car flies off a ramp and lands in a tree twenty feet before the finish line. Oh well, still had fun. I wink at the kid and he runs off. I continue my exploration of The Family Arcade.
Chapter 4: Back Room Battles
I reach the back wall and discover the most crowded section so far. I’m speaking, of course, of the fighting section. Personally, I was never a big fan of fighting games as I was never very good at them. I know that usually puts me in the minority and this place is no exception. There are at least ten fighting games laid out across the back wall and for every game there is at least two players. These players are a bit older than the rest of the gamers here, the average age seems to be mid-twenties. These players also seem to be more vulgar than the rest of the gamers, as many of them shout obscene and boastful words at one another. I think about skipping this section, but something compels me to stay. So I challenge a man named Roberto to a game of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. In this game I’m allowed to pick three different players to fight. I go with Captain America, Ryu and, of course the Hulk. Roberto picks Chun Li, Guile, and Spiderman. But he could have the entire army of China for all I care. I have the Hulk, I’m going to win.
As I throw haymakers with the Hulk I think about the similarities between him and myself. He smashes things when he gets angry, I smash buttons when I play fighter games. Together we should make the perfect team, but sadly, we play three rounds and lose quite badly each time. I wish Roberto well and I leave the raucous fighters with a lot less tokens in my pocket. It’s time to conserve.
Chapter 5: Ms. Pacman and My Last 6 Tokens
I notice a Ms. Pacman Machine in the far corner and head towards her cheap pill maze. However, as I reach the little lady I find a doorway that leads to a back room. From the outside looking in, I can see it’s a gaming room. There’s an air hockey table, a DDR station and one of those basketball set-ups where you try to make as many baskets as you can in one minute. I love those things! I walk across the back room, heading straight for the basketball game when I get the feeling that someone is watching me. I turn to my side and discover numerous tough, tattooed youths standing next to a billiards table, staring daggers at me. The room is silent and I feel unwanted. But I’m no coward so I continue my trek to the basketball game. The youths continue to stare as I put two tokens into the machine. Silly carnival music fills the backroom and I can feel the annoyance level among the youths increase exponentially. I try to ignore them and focus on making my shots. Alas, I’m only able to make four shots in one minute. The carnival music plays out as I leave the backroom. I now realize that in all my excitement I forgot that the arcade can be a pretty rough place sometimes.
Safely back in the main room I count the rest of my tokens. I have a six left, which means I have just enough for one shot at glory. Considering that I haven’t even tried to play a shooter since Area 51-gate I figure I owe it to myself to go out doing what I love. I pull the gun out of the holster and step on the pedal. The words Time Crisis 4 fill the screen and I get ready to make the world a better, terrorist-free world.
I walk out of the arcade with my head held high. I fell quite short of making the high score, but I know quite a few bad guys who won’t forget me anytime soon. There’s no denying it, at the end of the day I had a great time and made some new friends. Unfortunately I am still a man, but at least I’ve found a new home away from home. As long as I stay out of the back room…
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I need to know where this arcade is, and if the old, OLD Donkey Kong is still kidnapping that Princess. I will chase that punk down AGAIN.
I miss arcades that aren’t swarming with little kids and weary people in mouse costumes.
Yo you are forgetting Teken, virtual fighter, Mortal Combat, Killer Instinct!! Great article though love the descriptions! Good shit Randle!
Anyone ever play the Mortal Kombat IV at the arcades? That game was amazing.
Oh, one more comment – I like how rappers about 5 years ago thought they would be cool by buying old arcades and putting them in their houses and then…BAM Namco and others created the little plugin arcades that retained the original games and let you play them on your TV. Haha, pwned.
Great post!