Thursday, July 3, 2008

Where did that Memorial Union video game arcade go?

A Capital Times story today has the answer:
After 37 years of operation, the video arcade on the first floor of the UW's Memorial Union shut down in May. In its place, a Peet's Coffee Shop will open in the fall.

The revenue for the arcade room had plummeted 80 percent in the last five years alone, according to Roger Westmont, vice president of Modern Specialty, a southern Wisconsin company that rents out video games, jukeboxes, pool tables and dart boards.

Now, all those games have been "dispersed into the ether," as Bob Wright, the Union's recreations service manager, puts it. Modern Specialty has relocated most of the machines to the Dells.


Update: A related article -- the rise of the DIY neo-arcade? -- at Isthmus.

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