NARRATOR

Movieland Arcade has seen generations pass through its doors. Vancouver graphic designer Roger Allen recalls the atmosphere that made an impression on him as a suburban teenager looking for adventure in the city.

ROGER ALLEN

It was full of pinball machines, and basically it had older video games and some R-rated games, um, some of which I remember like uh, Gal’s Panic and Video Strip Poker.

There was always the same older, chain-smoking Asian man standing in the little kiosk as you entered.

At that time I remember the arcade had a real tense atmosphere. It was really run down, really dark, shabby.

And the further you moved through the arcade the darker and less crowded it got. [chuckles].

Halfway back through the room I remember there was sort of a break between two games. And you could walk through that and it was basically pitch black, but there were a bunch of porn booths that basically stood in the dark and I hear uh these porn booths are the only ones to this day that play 8-millimetre films.

And beyond that there was a washroom. And I never went back into this area. Even at that age it looked truly, uh, foreboding.

NARRATOR

Movieland was unique when considered alongside other arcades. Roger Allen considers how Movieland always felt like a relic from the past, even though arcades are typically about the future.

ROGER ALLEN

The traditional neon sign out front, to me seemed odd, as the name “Movieland Arcade” and then it said, “Games, Movies, Shooting”.

It’s interesting in the way that it doesn’t, in my mind—and I’m a product of the arcade era—it doesn’t really reflect arcades. Because arcades were always this idea of modernity, kind of thing, there were always about being in space, or something like that.

It’s an old-time carnival game kind of sign, in a way.

So even in the 80s that sign was outdated. But it was interesting because it was different. And that was probably what attracted me to it, because it was a, it felt like a city, you know.

There was, there was people smoking, and people that looked dangerous, and it was a place where you went as much for the thrill of characters in there as it was for the games themselves.