TNT Burns

I have a lot of fond memories of arcades from the 1980s — and secretly, I’ve always wanted to own one of my own. Unfortunately, there is a huge chasm between the vision and the reality of running an arcade. The vision is that of a dark, cool place full of neon lights and arcade games. The vision includes kids, teens, and adults playing arcade games all day long. The reality is, most kids, teens and adults aren’t all that interested in playing arcade games all day long. Most gamers get their fill via consoles or computers these days. Gamer socializing takes place online these days, not in person. Another problem is, every single thing related to arcade games has increased in price except the standard currency for playing them, which is the quarter. Games are more expensive, parts are more expensive, rent is more expensive … but when owners charge more than a quarter or two to play a game, people balk. Had the cost of playing games increated equally with the cost of buying games, most arcade games would cost two or three bucks to play. There are multiple ways to compensate for this: arcade owners can either add ticket redemption games (which are WAY more profitable than regular arcade games), add food and/or a buffet (which is more profitable than arcade games), or simply raise the price of playing games and/or make the price-per-play more confusing to determine through the use of game cards (Incredible Pizza, Dave and Busters, etcetera). I daresay there’s not an arcade open today that pays its rent a quarter at a time through arcade games. I’m not saying it would be successfully run an arcade today (see the 1984 Arcade). What I am saying is that it would be impossible to do so using the old business model from the 1980s.

The future of arcades, I think, is privately owned arcades — places like Peter Hirschberg’s Luna City Arcade. Peter has around 80 arcade games, the worst of which is nicer than the best of mine. The only thing keeping Peter’s privately-owned 2,000+ square foot arcade from being 100% authentic is that, quite frankly, it’s too nice! It’s missing the stains in the carpet, the cigarette burns on the control panels, and the carvings on the sides of the machines. :) Peter’s arcade obviously goes above and beyond what most other enthusiasts have done, but that’s the direction I see things going.

Last year I was invited to attend a private game day at a local, privately-owned arcade. The arcade was about an hour’s drive from my house, and getting directions to the place was like extracting the location of The Batcave. I was cautioned by others not to mention the town the arcade was in. One person suggested I remove the one photo I took of the outside of the building, lest someone recognize it.

Me playing Q*Bert as cameras roll.

Here are dozens of pictures taken that day.

The arcade has since been dubbed TNT Arcade (Troy and Terry’s Arcade … or Terry and Troy’s, not sure which!). TNT is the most impressive private arcade I’ve ever personally been in (I’ve never been to Peter Hirschberg’s). The building itself was around 7,000 square feet, with two large rooms dedicated to arcade games. The pictures I took did not do the place justice. Between the two rooms there were 60 to 70 arcade games and another dozen pinball machines. TNT was far from just being a private arcade. There was also a huge kitchen, a gigantic “family” room with a foosball table, a pool table, a bar and more machines, and a couple of bedrooms. Yes, bedrooms — technically, the building doubled as Terry’s house.

While gaining admittance to the arcade for the first time might have been a little tough, once you’d been out there, you were welcome for life. The first time I was there, Terry’s parents were there cooking and serving Frito chili pies. You literally couldn’t turn around without walking into a 20-gallon ice chest full of cold cans of soda and beer. If you ever want to see an example of honest-to-goodness Oklahoma hospitality, you could find it there. In fact, the only way I found to offend the guys was to suggest that they add a tip jar near the entrance. I would have gladly dropped a few bucks in the jar, just knowing what it cost to keep all those games up and running. The guys wouldn’t hear of it.

And you know, you can’t “buy” an arcade like this. Everything was done by hand. I don’t just mean the wooden cut-outs that adorned the walls or the custom neon that the guys made … I mean the rooms themselves, which the guys (Troy, Terry, and his brother Darryl aka “Darry”) built, framed, designed and painted themselves.

There are many collectors who collect massive amounts of impressive and valuable items … and unfortunately, many of those items never see the light of day, save for a few pictures online. There are collections of arcade games across this country stashed away in storage buildings and mounds of rare console games tucked away in people’s basements. TNT was not like that. The guys bought every single UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) pay-per-view. Anyone who knew the location was welcome to attend the fights (which were shown on a giant projector screen) for free and play arcade games as well. The guys also opened the arcade frequently to disadvantaged kids for game days. It might sound too good to be true, but Troy, Terry and Darry were just about the most nicest guys you could meet, and for those who enjoy arcade games, TNT was just about the closest thing you could find to Disneyland.

Last week, TNT Arcade burned to the ground.

According to a local news report, three dozen firefighters battled the fire, but due to the building’s construction (cinder blocks combined with a tar and metal roof), it was nearly impossible to fight the fire from outside the building and entering was either difficult or dangerous. As a result, the building burned and burned and burned. Here comes part two of the one-two punch:

TNT Arcade had no insurance.

Terry tried to get insurance on the building several times and was denied. The estimated loss is at half a million dollars. Not only did we lose an awesome arcade; Terry, his wife and his daughter lost everything but literally the clothes on their backs.

Without sounding sappy, it’s really hard to put in words the loss. There is the loss of a friend losing his home. There’s the loss of a gigantic collection of classic arcade games and pinball machines. There’s a loss for the entire arcade community, to see that many machines destroyed all at once. And, there’s the loss for the local community, all the people who used to stop by the house, the people who came to watch the fights and the kids who came there to get away from their lives for a bit. If there is a positive side to any of this, it’s that no one was hurt in the fire.

For anyone wishing to donate to Terry’s family, you can send a donation via PayPal to EBAY.MACHINES@NTLWORLD.COM. 100% of your donation goes to Terry’s family; also, the PayPal pages are being printed out and delivered to the family, so if you add a personal note to your payment, they’ll see it. It should be noted that the donations are not being used for arcade games — these guys lost everything. The money is going toward food and clothes.

I know this is the second time in a week I’ve suggested making a donation to someone, but to be fair, this is only the second time I’ve suggested making a donation to someone in ten years. These are good people, and any donations would be greatly appreciated.