This Machine Is Non-Operational: a Study of the Pocket Change Arcade

1 This Machine is Non-Operational: A Study of the Pocket Change Arcade It’s only minutes till lunch time in the food court of the Park City Center mall, revealed not by a clock but by the melange of cooking aromas hanging heavy in the air. It’s as if the competing vendor’s wares are dueling for customer olfactory space, influencing their bellies as they consider where to purchase a meal. A soft draft conveying the warm, buttery scents of Annie Anne’s Pretzel overpowers the smells of Burger King, Sbarro, China Party Express and others. A rapidly growing line of customers forms by the small counter with the whirling rack full of soft baked pretzels, confirming that this war does in fact have a clear victor. Customers who have made executive decisions concerning meal-time seat themselves on small wooden chairs at white laminate tables. Other patrons ride up and down the escalator to the second floor of the Mall, the skylight in the ceiling framing their journey in a brilliant square of mid-day sunlight. Nearby, children shriek and tumble in a softly padded play area, while exhausted parents slump on benches taking a moment’s respite. It is only after wandering the perimeter of the food court taking careful observation that one notices that there is,in fact, a video arcade in the midst of this consumerist hustle. The large sign that reads “Pocket Change” above the entrance to the arcade bears accidental anachronisms. The word Change is emblazoned in fire-engine red and leans to the right with an elaborate script-style font. The effect is Nagel-esque, harkening back to the apex of arcade culture in America, the decade of the 1980s. The word Pocket is formed by a vaguely Art- Deco type font, and the protuberance from the letter P is formed with the shape of a Quarter, given greater distinction by the rough effigy of George Washington. However, the games within 2 the arcade no longer accept quarters or any other coinage-- instead accepting only the gold discs of the Namco token traded for at an ATM-like kiosk. Game Over “Mommy!” A young boy standing in front of a stout arcade machine cries out as he mashes the buttons on its face. A middle aged woman in tan slacks adjusts her glasses and peers closely at the machine. “C’mon honey; this one isn’t working. Let’s find another one to play.” The woman leads the child by the hand away from the machine, which typically would be eating tokens two at a pop for a chance to win some tickets, but instead flickers on and off, indicating some kind of electrical disturbance. It is not the only machine in the dim, rectangular confines of Pocket Change that is not accepting customer’s patronage. Just inside the entrance, a large mechanical game called Stacker offers high stakes prizes for eight tokens a play. The small digital display next to the token slot flashes ERROR1 with a hypnotic frequency. The Harley Davidson: King of the Road motorcycle riding simulator sits inoperative nearby, realistic pipe styled handlebars protrude from beneath a darkened video screen. In the far left hand corner of the room, five other non-operational games are clustered together, screens faced inward as if conducting a football huddle. They remain inert and immobile as an employee in a red vest with NAMCO emblazoned on the back squeezes past to enter the door to a small office behind them. The mother and her son have wandered back out into the food court now mobbed by a lunchtime crowd. The arcade stands empty. “It’s not just us; everyone is down. Burger King is down. Apple is down. Everybody is down.” 3 Luis, the house manager of Pocket Change, explains the lack of patronage in his store, despite it being a busy Saturday afternoon at the mall. “We’re down eleven-percent since last year. Everybody is hurtin’.” Luis is positioned between the faded blue pastel wall and the rear panel of a large-two seater futuristic video racer called Hydro Thunder. He reaches out from behind the machine, revealing thin, black tattoos on his heavily muscled arm and grips a socket wrench in his paw, removing it from his maintenance cart. This machine has been “called up” by the district manager to be placed at another arcade. Since having been acquired by Namco Cybertainment Inc. many years ago, the arcade machines no longer belong to the store, and instead belong to the larger corporate entity. They are rotated in and out of different locations based on a perceived need as determined by a district manager that oversees multiple former mom and pop arcades now existing under the benevolence of the larger Namco umbrella. Luis will have to deal with the absence of the machine for the time being and wait to see if corporate will send a machine in its stead. “I got parts comin’ in for one of those busted machines over there in the corner. Computer parts; sometimes you get lucky with those, sometimes you don’t, ya know?” As the Hydro Thunder machine is wheeled away, all that is left behind is a dusty rectangular space between the other machines. On the floor, a wide fissure in the carpet has been repaired with black duct tape. The rip spiderwebs out into the store, and evidence of similar self repairs are everywhere. Next to the tear where the machine once stood is a heavy brass plated outlet housing the twin 220 volt receptacles required to power the machines. More brass plates pepper the floor elsewhere in the arcade, the tell-tale sign this was where an video game once stood. There are still more machines than not in Pocket Change, but that distinction is closer than 4 ever now. Press Start to Play Of the twenty or so machines that line the arcade’s confines, the majority are mechanical amusements, most offering a chance to win tickets which can be exchanged for a variety of prizes found in and around a glass case across the room from the broken Stacker machine. These trinkets range from small baubles such as pencil toppers and army men up to larger prizes like whoopee cushions and oversized inflatable baseball bats. The most costly item is a Hello Kitty themed version of the enduring classic board game Monopoly, priced at five thousand tickets. A bulk of the attractions contain their own prizes, earned through crane style claws that the player attempts to maneuver into snatching up a stuffed animal or other tantalizing trinket. Two teenage boys pump tokens into one such machines shaped like a fire truck and covered in licensed Namco character art. A plush orb shaped Pac-Man continuously falls from the ineffectual claw before reaching the prize hopper. “C’mon dude; let’s get out of here,” One scruffy teen punches his compatriot on the arm, and the two take off in mock chase. The play area outside of the arcade is now overflowing with children climbing on the molded plastic play apparatus. Nearly all the food court seating is occupied and a constant stream of customers descend from the second level of the mall on the escalator. The “biggest earner” in Pocket Change according to Luis is Sweet Land, a large mechanical attraction that dominates the center of the arcade’s open floor space. The circular machine contains a series of rotating platters and troughs overflowing with loose candy. Inserting two tokens allows a player to manipulate a small shovel that extracts a portion of candy that can then be maneuvered onto one of the moving platters. The candy will fall in an area where several 5 moving ledges will push the pile around. If enough candy has accumulated in one of these areas, the excess will spill out into a bin as a reward to the player. It’s no coincidence this arcade game draws the attention of the parents and children who sporadically trickle in throughout the day-- it offers a form of instant gratification the video arcade machines do not. The video game units are attractive to customers based on far different criteria. Namely, they offer an interactive entertainment experience that cannot be found in the home or elsewhere, presenting huge spectacle through cutting edge graphics and audio technologies. They are often designed with gameplay conceits that are hard to replicate in the home, such as the racing titles featuring a cockpit or seat with a steering wheel, gearshift and foot pedals. The light gun shooter games similarly have massive gun peripherals with heavy recoil motors built in. These games also rely on creating tension between the player’s skills and their wallets-- performing well is incentivised by having to pay less money to progress further in the game. Displaying this skill in public is also a way to gain minor celebrity status as being able to complete an entire arcade game on just two initial tokens is a sight to behold. This, of course, requires the public be present for such a spectacle. Upgrades Available In terms of technology, the most current video arcade machine is a racer called Fast and Furious, styled off the popular film series of the same name and produced in 2004. The rest of the video games reach back well into the late 1990s. The rear wall of the arcade is dominated by several machines from the Time Crisis series of games, shooters that require the player to use a brightly colored plastic light gun to shoot their way through swaths of fictional terrorists.

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