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Tuesday, October 21, 2003
A couple years ago, Matt spoke to me of a little heaven-on-earth called "Funspot"... the second largest arcade in the U.S., and more importantly, the largest collection of classic arcade games in the world. Lucky us, it's in New Hampshire of all places, just a quick drive north. I mean, how could I not want to make a trek up there? I'm a child of the 80s, raised by Taito, Atari, and Bally/Midway as much as by the TV. Visiting Funspot would be like my own personal pilgrimage to mecca.
Time passed, and though my northern intentions were always there, it's one of those things I just never got around to. Little hard to convince Amie to drive almost two hours just to play old videogames for hours on end, y'know? Can't say I blame her hesitation on that one. What I needed was an enthusiastic co-pilot. Then a recent article in the Globe prompts Heath to mention a Funspot road-trip in his Media Diet. Ah ha! A co-conspirator! A plan was hatched, a date was set, directions and coupons were printed. We met in a Cambridge church parking lot and were confronted with a sign that, at first glance, listed the "Reverend Father Asteroids", but actually said "Reverend Father Asterios". Our trip was blessed from the get-go.  Funspot's motto is perfect in it's simplicity : It's "The Spot for Fun!". Hell, I'd definitely pull my car into "The Station for Gas!", or grab a snack at "The Store for Convenience!". There's no need to get complicated. Funspot tells no lies.  Matt warned me I'd be overwhelmed as I climbed the stairs to their 3rd floor, the land of all games eighties. Lit from overhead with dim red bulbs, rows upon rows of stand-up machines, walls full of pinball machines, the songs, sounds, and bleep-blip-bloops of all my old faves blended together in a mighty chorus. I swear, I almost welled up a little there. Heath and I grabbed our tokens and got straight down to business.  Time has no meaning inside Funspot's walls. Once we'd finished playing through four (out of ten!) rows of games, we met up to check in. Three hours had completely disappeared. Not even halfway through and we'd blown three hours without no breaks. Our tentative plans for mini-golf, go-carts, and boardwalk exploring were out the window... it was all about the pixels now. A quick break for bad food and we were back at it, picking up the pace and flying through the best of the rest in another couple hours. Five hours of gaming, eyes and brains bugging out, big smiles on our faces. I found games I'd once been obsessed with and completely forgotten (Frontline! Pleiades!), found familiar faves I was still damn good at (Scramble! Ikari Warriors!), and some of my old nemesises (nemesees? nemesissies?) that never failed to frustrate the crap outta me (Marble Madness! Battlezone!). It was worth every second of the drive, and the $20 we each spent on 130 tokens ($32.20 worth... a steal). We've still got a bunch left... time to start planning the return ... Ready for a full-on flashback? Check out my Funspot photos here & here. Heath also writes up the trip with a few pics over at his Media Diet. Geek out!  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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