A couple of months back I was out of town visiting a friend of mine who lived where I went away to school. During an early evening when he had to work I was walking around downtown looking to get dinner when I passed by a sight that shocked me. The video arcade that seemed to be an institution was closed and the window was empty except for a for lease sign. I was shocked by this. I’m not sure why I was shocked. It had been a number of years since I last stopped in there (I can’t even remember when it was) but to see it closed down and gone still took me by surprise.

Maybe it’s the realization that things don’t last forever or maybe it was another sign that I’m getting older but I still was really surprised by the arcade’s closing. It seemed to be going strong and still could be considered a hangout for the town’s youth. There seemed to be people there when I drove by the place over the years. Still, noticing it was closed and that the space was up for lease was shocking to me as I walked by that Sunday afternoon. I wondered to myself how this could’ve happened but still couldn’t shake the shock as I arrived back at my friend’s house.

In retrospect, it’s fairly obvious what factors lead to this place closing down. The main reason is the growth and proliferation of home video game systems and their increasing quality. In the late 70s, some people could argue against getting the early home game systems (such as the legendary Atari 2600 or the early Colecovision system of the 1970s) on the grounds that the home versions of arcade games you could play on these systems bore little resemblance to the arcade versions and their vivid color and pictures.

Many people still bought them, but that was something that held some back. These days technology has allowed the home systems to catch up with the arcade versions offering games that are of equal (and in some cases superior) quality. Cost also factors into the equation. While a home game system may cost money up front, in the long run buying it (and the games you want) saves money in the long run; it’s cheaper to buy an arcade game for your computer or gaming system for about 30 or so dollars and play all you want versus the cost of spending 50 cents a pop at the arcade (I’m using current prices, not the 25 cents that a game cost back in the day). As cost and quality of the games for these systems (and the game systems themselves) dovetailed together, the arcade eventually lost ground as a meeting center for teenagers who might not have money for a movie or have anything else to do.

There are other factors in play here as well. Young people today face much more monitoring and scheduling of every activity and event than they did as recently as the late 1980s, thus leading to less time for kids to venture out by themselves and find spaces to just exist and socialize. There’s also the role of urban (and now suburban) sprawl where the increasing outgrowth of residential areas find subdivisions now far from walking distance of many strip malls and other areas where an arcade once could thrive (or at least have a fighting chance). Add to this a cultural environment that tends to frown on the concept of teens hanging out without some scheduled sanctioned activity or event and the decline of the arcade becomes more present. In fact, the idea that an arcade could’ve been open this long may be seen as a miracle by some people.

So does that mean the arcade as we know it is dead? Not necessarily – though it may be harder to thrive. Yes there are still arcades inside of a lot of malls but if the slow growing trend of curfews for teens at malls that don’t allow them without a parent after a certain time really catches on, one can expect that their business may take a hit (an ironic twist given the status of the American mall as an iconic hangout for American adolescents in the last few decades). Even with this taken into consideration arcade games still have a place in areas of many multiplex movie theaters as well as the occasional restaurant and even some bowling alleys. Also, some colleges may have arcade areas of their own (possibly attached to a bowling alley, but sometimes not) which keep the arcade vibe alive to a degree.

Still, we have to acknowledge that times have, in fact, changed and that the video arcade (like the pinball arcades before video games took over) may not have the same place in the hearts of young people that they might’ve had two or three decades ago. While the rise in quality of home gaming systems (and computer versions) may make games once available only at arcades easy to play at home, one can be assured that, while the arcade may be slowly fading away, there will still be a place for the coin operated video (and yes, even pinball) games somewhere in our landscape. As arcades close and the memories many of us who came of age in them have may fade, knowing these games may still carry on in some form or another makes things a little less bleak as times inevitably change.