Forgotten Worlds - Rocky Mountain Edition

(This image is from a shirt I found in Manitou Springs.  Yes, I bought it.)

Ever since I started this column in The Ablogcalypse, I wanted to scour the US to find the remaining bastions of an era gone by.  I was awed by the American Classic Arcade Museum in Weirs Beach, NH (the largest arcade in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records).  Unfortunately, I can't make the trip up there (one day, I will) as I don't get out of Missouri much.  On rare occasions, I do get to travel and I decided to take those opportunities to see if I can find the last arcades that survive in an age where high powered consoles and online gaming have slaughtered all but these remaining few.

My search begins in the shadow of a mountain - Pikes Peak, to be precise (or Pike's Peak, as some people refuse to spell it the "correct" way.  Check out Wikipedia if you want to know more about that).  At the foot of that snow capped titan lies the towns of Colorado Springs and its sister, Manitou Springs.  These two towns are quite different from each other.  Colorado Springs is more of a typical suburban town.  There are department stores, movie theaters, restaurant chains, and car dealerships all spread in front of the mountain that looms behind.  Manitou Springs, however, is a haven for tourists, artists, vagabonds, and hippies (lots of hippies).  At its center is a main street lined with artisan shops, cafes, bars, antique shops, western outfitters, and an array of minor tourist attractions, including the mineral water springs which the town is named after that any passerby can drink from.  Despite their differences, both of them have their own places to find a good arcade.

In Colorado Springs, that place is Fargo's Pizza Co. This is a pretty good place to get a pizza, but what really makes this place great is its atmosphere.  The decor is part Victorian, part saloon.  The staff wear Victorian era clothes (nothing too fancy that you'd want to cosplay, though).  There's even a player piano plunking out old tunes from the 1950s and 60s.  There are murals and stained glass windows all over the place.  There's even a scene, in wax statues, where the eponymous Fargo is enjoying dinner with his sweetheart (it's actually kinda creepy).  To top it off, there's a pretty good arcade nestled to the side of the entrance.  Most pizza places have one or two video games (maybe a pinball machine), or, like Chuck E. Cheese, have more kiddie type games and rides.  At Fargo's, they have a nice game room full of some of the more modern arcade games (no room for pinball machines) as well as a couple of other arcade amusements (crane machines and a love tester) as well as two full rows of those quarter machines full of capsule toys (the American kind, not the Japanese kind).  I was fortunate enough to break away from the rest of the group who were there to eat and record myself going through the arcade...

Holy shit!  You mean there's a video of me here, as in some of you can, finally, see my face?!  Yeah.  It's pretty scary.  Brace yourselves.

As you can see (or maybe not; I need a better camera), the arcade's cool.  Since I've been raised on St. Louis style pizza my whole life, it's hard for any other pizza to come close, but the food here is pretty good (I would have liked it better if everyone didn't "settle" on getting the supreme pizza, which I don't like).  So, if you ever find yourself in Colorado Springs, CO and you need to find a place to eat pizza and play video games, Fargo's is a good place to go.

Now if you want to go to a really sweet arcade, you need to go next door to Manitou Springs.  My wife, brother-in-law, and I went down there to visit my father-in-law, who has a jewelry shop down there and we meandered the shops with him.  There's a spot on the main street where the road splits and an island divides the two roads.  On that island, you'll find Arcade Amusements Inc., though most people in town refer to it as the "Penny Arcade."  If you see the stand for Patsy's Candy Shop while walking down the street, just walk behind there and you'll find it.  You can't miss it.

The Penny Arcade is very much like those arcade's you might see on the boardwalk of some coastal town.  There are a number of buildings that make up the arcade.  Each one is full of video games, pinball tables, even some real, old fashioned, arcade amusements, such as the movie viewers that uses a crank to roll a flipbook as you look through the viewer.  The "peep show" titled In the Sultan's Harem must be seen to be believed (trust me on this one).  The best thing about the old timey amusements is that they still cost either a penny or a dime.  Between the buildings, you'll find other arcade games along the sidewalk as well as a lot of those kiddie rides that you'd find in front of your local WalMart back in the day.

Unlike the game room in Fargo's, the Penny Arcade actually has a lot of classic arcade games.  While it may not be as big or as well kept as the American Classic Arcade Museum (a lot of the games were not in the best shape), it still is a pretty significant arcade.  I found three of the original Asteroids cabinets, though one was in bad shape.  I played my first (and second) game of the pinball game Mata Hari (I always wanted to try it, mostly because I can't say no to a sexy woman, especially if she's enticing me from the glow of an arcade video screen or the backglass of a pinball table. Does that make me kinda creepy?).

I hope Bride of Pinbot doesn't find out...

Sadly, we forgot to bring our camcorder, so I don't have any footage of the place.  I really wish I did, because it was such a great arcade.  If you want to see what the place looks like, go on YouTube and type "manitou springs penny arcade" in the search bar.  There are some videos of people going there that will give you a good idea of the place.  Needless to say, if you're ever in the Colorado Springs/Manitou Springs area, check out both of these places.

One little side story to this.  I came to Colorado for the first time in 1989.  My parents dragged us up to Manitou Springs to do antique shopping (BORING!).  My younger brother and I found the Penny Arcade and Mom let us hang out there while she and my future step-father walked around doing stupid tourist shit.  While I wandered the arcade, I found an old Tron arcade cabinet.  Strangely enough, it was the only memory I have of going to Manitou Springs (or, at least, the most vivid).  Twenty-one years later, I went looking for that Tron cabinet at the Penny Arcade and I found it... with a little sign taped to the screen that said "out of order" (to be honest, I don't think it was working back '89, either).

Well, that pretty much puts a cap on my first arcade finds.  Hopefully, I may be able to find more arcades on my journeys, should I take anymore anytime soon.  I usually go to Iowa at least once a year for an anime convention.  Maybe I can find something there.

Until next time,

Keep your scores high and your pockets full of quarters.

By the way, if you know of a great arcade that still exists to this day, drop me a line at Kaiser.Crowbar@gmail.com.  Who knows, maybe I'll try to go there and visit it (if it's not too far away).