After a long break (weird how having a baby just eats up all your free time!) I’m back. I wish I had better things to report, but I must tell you that my local arcade finally closed down. I can’t say that I was shocked to find this out. After I initially reported the status of my local mall’s shameful Namco arcade, the condition of the place went even further down hill…FAST.

After my initial report, each time I returned, not much had changed. If one game that was previously broken was now fixed, there was a new problem with a different game to take it’s place. Once, I was very shocked to find a game that had it’s rear door leaning open allowing a gaping hole in the back of the machine. Of course, I naturally looked for unapplied NOS artwork at the bottom of the cab – However, what I did find was not good. The game, which appeared off from the front, actually had power going through it as the monitor still had neck glow. If I noticed the back was open, who’s to say some kid doesn’t get curious as well and decides he wants to grab the back of the monitor? ZZZzzzzap! Um, can we say negligence?

As shocking as that was, I think the final nail in the coffin came when my daughter arrived to play some games and went to get the necessary tokens. Although, it is pretty hard to play any games when BOTH token machines are out of order. No big deal, right? Wrong. Don’t forget, this place is now an unmanned arcade, so I (nor anyone else, for that matter) can’t play a single game! Think about all that revenue they lost by simply not servicing their token machines (or swapping to quarters!). It’s not like they were making a killing in full swing anyway, but you factor rent and utilities on top of ABSOLUTELY ZERO REVENUE on top of that and you have one arcade with a death wish.

It actually wasn’t that disappointing to me to see it go. I don’t think I ever went there to play any games for myself as I mostly went there to let my daughter let off some steam and play some redemption games (not that you could redeem the tickets for anything since there wasn’t anything to buy there…GRR!!…Ah, I digress!). However, it is still very disheartening to see these things that were such a memorable part of my childhood disappear never to return again. Rest in peace, friend.