About two weeks ago, I was on a well deserved vacation from life! During that time, I went to New England to visit some peeps of mine, and no trip to the New England area would be complete without a drive north to the town of Laconia in New Hampshire. A typical northeastern town with typical folks. But as you drive down Endicott Street within the town, you will come across what has been renowned as “The Largest Arcade In The World”! (It’s even in the Guinness Book of Records!) That establishment is a business called “Funspot”, and unless you’ve seen it for yourself, you just don’t know how excellent it really is. Let’s take a tour!

First off, let’s take a look at the history of the place. Funspot Family Entertainment Center (aka “Funspot”), takes the carnival and arcade experience, and literally puts it into major overdrive. It was founded originally in 1952 by a gentleman by the name of Bob Lawton, and is your one stop shop for anything fun and creative. Inside of the place, you will find all kinds of traditional carnival and boardwalk style games. Everything from bowling (traditional and candlestick) to bingo, from miniature golf to skee ball, from Whack-A-Mole to air hockey. Everything you’d come to expect! It’s definitely already a great experience for the entire family.

But, when you get to the third floor, that is when it really, truly shines. The third floor is the home of the American Classic Arcade Museum, and let me tell you something. It’s more than just a room full of arcade cabinets and pinball machines. We’re talking a complete all around experience here. You walk into the room, and it’s dark, with lots of neon and other ambient lighting all around. The stereo is blasting everything eighties from Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Journey. All over the place, you see original posters advertising all of the “hot new games” that are found throughout the arcade. It is totally and completely original and authentic. When you walk through that archway, you literally step back in time to when a pocketful of quarters was enough for hours of fun. (And don’t you worry. Unlike other “museums” that you may have found over the years, this one is 100% available for play. After all, half the fun of the hobby is collecting, the other half is playing!)

The museum always has at least 180 different cabinets on the gaming floor at any time, and whenever a cabinet is need of some loving repair, it gets switched out with another game while it’s being fixed. (Sorry if you guys ever go there and want to play Tempest. I always somehow manage to make it a little less perfect by the time I leave!) The criteria for the cabinets in the arcade is simple: Any arcade title, pinball machine or electro-mechanic game built no later than 1987. This year was chosen because as they put it, it was the time that games switched from fantasy, puzzle and space shoot em ups to what they call “kick-punch-shoot” games.

While you will see a lot of game cabinets that you grew up with, including Donkey Kong, Missile Command, Hang-On and Tempest, you will also get to see some really nice classics that you may have forgotten about. Aside from original Pong and Tank II cabinets, you can also play games like Chiller. (Many of you may know of Chiller as the unlicensed NES port where you shoot everything until its a pile of blood.) There’s also the controversial Death Race, which again was released as an unlicensed NES port, which was the earliest form of Grand Theft Auto known to man. For those that like something traditional, Funspot also houses many of the classic Nintendo VS series, like Duck Hunt, Hogan’s Alley and Super Mario Brothers. But if you are a Pac-Man fan, you’ll definitely want to check out the wall of nothing but various Pac-Man cabinets and a wall of various collectables.

Other great games available for play include some rare treats, including a full arcade cabinet of the home brew arcade title “Donkey Kong II: Jumpman Returns”. There is literally almost ALWAYS someone playing this one, and for those that never had a chance to experience it, let me tell you, it’s HARD! Another favorite of mine is “Bank Panic”, which ironically, I played for the first time via the MAME emulator. There’s even a neat 1977 Exidy offering called “Robot Bowl”, which combines two pastimes: Bowling and Robots! There’s also a Playchoice 10 machine available with some NES games for play, and even laser disc based games like “Space Ace”. Practically every technology ever used for the arcade format is here, and just waiting for you to feed them with tokens!

If pinball is more your game, you’ll be thrilled at the various machines they have. One of my favorite pinball games of all time is “High Speed”. When I was a kid I used to play the hell out of that machine for hours on end. Pinball games based on Kiss, Playboy, and the Harlem Globetrotters are all here. They have a lot of other great vintage machines, everything from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Grand Slam” and “Joker Poker”. Some of these machines go as far back as the early 1970s! And if that’s not old enough for you, how about a game called “Drive Master”, which was an electro-mechanical game from 1969! Just about everything that you can possibly imagine, is all right here and ready to play!

If you’re looking for something a little more modern to play, they have you covered there as well. They have a nice selection of games from the 1990s as well, including one of the coolest arcade games-turned poor home ports, the one known as “Smash TV”. If you’re looking for games even more modern, you can play games such as “Crazy Taxi” and “18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker”. The point that I’m making here, is that no matter what generation you are in, if you are old enough to remember arcades when they were hot, or even after they started to fade, you are going to have a BLAST coming to this place.

Funspot has an excellent past, and an even better present. In 2008, Funspot was officially named as “The World’s Largest Arcade”, certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. It got this honor during it’s tenth annual International Classic Video Game and Pinball Tournament, which took place in late May and early June of that year. So there’s more to that than just a moniker: It’s officially recognized! In fact, The Boston Globe in 2007 called Funspot (and the American Classic Arcade Museum), “The Louvre of the 8-Bit World”. Not only that, the business was also featured as part of The History Channel’s “American Restoration” program series, and the documentary film called “The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” was also recorded here. If those kind of credentials aren’t enough to entice you to take a trip there someday, I simply don’t know what else to tell you!

Funspot is located at 579 Endicott Street North, in Laconia, New Hampshire. They are open year round (except Christmas Day), with various hours depending on the time of year, and weather permitting. (Remember guys, it can snow a lot up there.) Sorry, no alcohol permitted on the premises since these are classic games and there can be children present. Currently there is no cover charge, but the cost to play games is $20 which gives you 100 tokens, which can be used nearly anywhere in the arcade section. That alone is enough for a few hours of fun! But add to that the frequent specials they have online, including a free additional 50 tokens with the purchase of 100, that’s just insane! If you are looking for a great, fun filled morning, afternoon or evening out, you’ll definitely want to check this place out. You will certainly enjoy it.

In the meantime, enjoy the plethora of pictures from my latest trip, and my pitiful high scores, naturally with the initials RGN… And take a close look at some of the early Atari games, and you’ll see just how they got color on the games: It’s called tape! Have a boss weekend everyone!

Funspot: http://www.funspotnh.com/