Do you think 80’s arcades were dark rooms with colorful carpets and neon lights? That was hardly the truth. This video does a fantastic job covering the diverse aesthetics of several chains of amusement centers as they tried to distance themselves from the seedy establishments where teenagers would skip school.
I mean… The arcades I’ve been to in the late 80’s and all throughout the 90’s were definitely the stereotype. Blacklit rooms with bright neon colored floors and walls that would glow under the lighting.
Shit, even Chuck E. Cheese’s were pretty fucking dimly lit back in the day. The brightest spots in the entire place were the stage so you could see the animatronics and the ball pit so parents wouldn’t lose their kids.
The most well-lit arcade I remember was the one in Tomorrow Land at Disney Land. Because it had huge floor to ceiling windows and half the games were unplayable during certain times of the day just due to the glare from the windows on the screens.