Local Arcade Culture
[ 2 comments ]
What was your local arcade like? Tell us about it. Were the machines new, with their own artwork? Or were they generic cabinets, converted from other games?
Was it a welcoming space or somewhere less than safe to hangout? A full arcade, or just a few machines? Do you have any vivid memories of events in or around this space?
If you need some help remembering, try here.
In the 1970s the Geelong pinny arcade was down a dodgy alley in the city (maybe Union Street?). It had bare concrete floors and a roller door entrance. A pretty uninviting space and as a young kid it always seemed like crossing to the other side of the tracks. My memory is it had more arcade games than pinball machines but maybe that was just because I was drawn to the “new” type of game. The other place to play was the “Top of the Town” pizza parlour, at the top of Mooroobool Street but I wasn’t vaguely tough enough to go in there!
Hi Niko,
I remember visiting Top of the Town in Geelong, I was an out of towner so did not know of the impending threat of visiting the place. Was too shy to play so watched others.
The first Arcade machine I remember was a Pong machine in the Fish and Chip shop under Canterbury Station in the late 1970s. Mostly I recall the bright yellow and the unfamiliar sound. We would watch people play whilst the chips cooked once again to shy to play.