Nothing caused sensory overload quite like an early 80s arcade. The sights, sounds, smells, beeps, bloops and knife fights (real or imagined) kept our 12-year-old selves humming along better than six bowls of Cap’n Crunch ever could.
Growing up in suburban Long Island, arcades and video games occupied a very real part of our lives. From standalone arcades like TimeOut! in the nearby Smith Haven Mall, to walls of flashing lights at local roller skating rink, Studio 25, or just a single standalone game at summer hotels and pizza parlors, we grew up amongst a weird world of strange games and stranger gamers.
Arcades may have come and gone, but judging by establishments like Williamsburg’s Barcade, they won’t soon be forgotten. Sorry hipsters, we were into it before it was cool.
On this, our third episode, we plunk our hard-earned quarters into the podcast to discuss arcades, the Star Wars cantina of adolescent adventure.
Special thanks to Andy Hofle for providing the arcade sounds we used at the end of this episode.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, where we’ll even let you have next game.