20 Pictures That Show Just How Awesome Arcades Used To Be

A video arcade on the corner of Rupert Street and Brewer Street in London's Soho, circa 1979.

A teenager plays an arcade game on Dec. 27, 1981.

Girls play Pac-Man at a video arcade in Times Square, New York City, on June 1, 1982.

A girl plays a Pac-Man-themed pinball machine at a video arcade in Times Square, New York City, on June 1, 1982.

BBC Radio 1 presenter Dave Lee Travis helps Mandy Strong carry a Space Invaders arcade machine at Saint George's Hotel in London, Nov. 30, 1979 (left). Girls at an arcade in Brighton, England, in 1985.

A group of teenagers at an arcade inside a video store in Chicago, 1987.

Bob Geldof of the rock 'n' roll band Boomtown Rats playing a Tron arcade game in October 1982 in Detroit (left). A Space Invaders arcade game, 1980.

A group of boys hang around in the amusements arcade at Butlins Holiday camp in Skegness, England, on Aug. 15, 1982.

A new, foot-operated video game is demonstrated by model Linda Petersen at the Amusement and Music Operator's Association's 1985 Expo in Chicago. Musician John Mellencamp with a Q-Bert arcade game in Jan. 1983 in Detroit.

An arcade in Pigeon Fork, Tennessee, circa 1990.

Pac-Man candy and chewing gum at the Paramus Park Mall in New Jersey, Aug. 14, 1982.

Teens gather around a Nibbler video game in Ottuma, Iowa, known as the self-declared "video capital of the world," on Sept. 22, 1983.

Ten-year-old Carlos Tunneman prepares for battle with the video game Contra, on July 22, 1987, in Miami, Florida (left). People play video games at a New York arcade, Dec. 20, 1981.

A couple at an arcade in Brighton, England, 1985.

A group of children play Space Invaders at an arcade in 1980.

Jason Dallaire, 11, tries his skill against Krull at a Seattle arcade in 1983.