The sound design of an arcade
Chicago’s Bit Bash splits the difference between an art gallery and a music festival.
Arcades
A new art exhibit turns a coin-op arcade into a cathedral
Tracking the intersection of religion, consumerism and videogames with FAILE.
Come by the Ace Hotel May 26 for games, drinks, and music
I mean, why wouldn’t you do this?
An Ode to an Empty Game Gear
A look back at games in film, from Surf Ninjas to Boyhood
Never forget the surreal delight of Chuck E. Cheese with these old photographs
It was around 7 p.m. on a Sunday night when a mob of raucous adults turned violent at the local Chuck E. Cheese in Parma, Ohio. A woman attending a birthday party there complained that the photo booth wasn’t working. When the manager told her she would have to wait, one of the men from the party fol
What are you doing tomorrow? Kill Screen takes over the Ace Hotel April 28
Stop by to see the best in new interactive experiences.
Play Russian roulette with a laptop at Kill Screen’s Two5six arcade
Discover beautiful new games at the Two5six arcade hosted by Kill Screen.
Videogames and electronic music: still the best thing
Michna and Heathered Pearls will be spinning at Two5six’s public arcade.
The unexpected pleasures of playing a game from the top down
Looking down never felt so good.
Arcade game Divorce brings enjoyment in splitting a household up
Who knew divorce could be so fun?
The Argentinian arcade cabinet NAVE turns play into a performance
Just like the good ol’ days.
Tucked into a corner at E3 was a messy, brilliant satire of online culture
Tetrageddon and the heart of the interne.t
Build your very own (miniature) arcade cabinet
Does it accept regular sized quarters?
Whoa Dave! actually deserves that exclamation point in its title
Whoa Dave! is one of those modern-retro games that makes you wonder if videogames weren’t close to perfect like 30 years ago. Deep down, all they really need is a setup mirroring Mario Bros., some pixel-y beasts hatching from eggs a la Joust, and a couple of players lapping up coins and trying to sa
An arcade cabinet restorer creates the light-cycle racing game of our dreams
For us children of the ‘80s who had our young and naive brains dazzled by Disney’s Tron, it doesn’t get much better than a sit-down, light cycle-riding arcade game. Oh, wait. Yes, it does. That’s because this light-cycle racer is VR-enabled, played while sitting on a scrap of wood and welded metal w
Arcade-themed yearbook from ’82 is great in a way that only a yearbook from ’82 can be
Ah, the 80s; when teenage smoking was still glamourous, punk was holding on by tooth and nail, and it was culturally viable for a yearbook to be themed around the concept of arcade games. When I came across this nostalgic album from a Florida high school on IDEA Books of London’s classy Instagram fe
Local-multiplayer game Heli Brawl is Matisse meets Messhof
Something about developer 2bam’s depiction of Walter from The Big Lebowski getting his head blown off is distinctly Henri Matisse. The art direction in their game Heli Brawl, alternatively, Helibrawl, has a similar striking color palette and deformed abstract quality. But the other half of it—the fi
Treachery in Beatdown City recreates an NYC childhood in 16 bits
“We’re in New York, the land of great character design.”
Pac-Man Museum has a dearth of worthwhile exhibits
Nightmare at the museum.
Babycastles and the hunt for new arcade spaces
Creating a more permanent place to play.
Cave, the last great maker of shoot’em ups, is pulling out of the West
Our days of piloting a little spaceship through beautiful firework patterns of bullets are sadly coming to an end, as the Western branch of Cave Interactive—the preeminent Japanese studio that makes impossible shoot’em ups known as danmaku, or bullet hells—is ceasing communication with the West. On
Las Vegas’ new king of pinball doesn’t care what you think
Next time you’re in Vegas, go where the real men play: Tim Arnold’s Pinball Hall of Fame.
Drinking games are broken. This beer-despensing arcade cabinet can help.
After seeing this brilliant arcade cabinet that pours the winner a pint of pilsner, I’m suddenly optimistic about the future of drinking games. Called the Barcade, the machine was made by an ad agency to promote Big Boss Brewing Company of Raleigh, North Carolina’s sweet carbonated golden brews. It
Ever dreamed of running your own arcade? Arcadecraft points the way.
New mediums spend their early years as platforms for what hasn’t yet been possible, gathering material from the unsatisfied impulses of their creator’s brains. Eventually, with enough time and accumulation, the material echoes its very creation. Arcadecraft, a new indie game on Xbox Live where you m