Column: Who remembers playing arcade games at The Shop?

It became apparent I wasn't going to find an era picture of the arcade during the period of Millie's movie rentals, which is one generation removed from Flam and Bandito video. 

It was a time when you’d drive the family to Video Arts on Queen Street or Video Chips — where Cambrian Mall now sits — to rent a VHS or Beta machine with a couple of movies. 

At that time The Machine Shoppe, officially called ‘The Golden Mile Family Amusement Centre,’ was located on Great Northern Road across from what is now North 82. 

People called it The Shop. 

My Mother clerked next door at the Assessment Review Board in a small office building with an Allstate sign on the front.

Some days I’d tag along with her to work. 

When I'd get tired of playing with the Xerox machine, I’d beg mother for a dollar bill to exchange for quarters at the Pinto store which sat at the end of the same plaza where The Shop was located. 

I'd spend the quarters in quick succession on Star Wars. 

It was the stand up version of the arcade game.

I'd insert a quarter and immediately I'd be in the movie — the first one I ever watched on a VCR

That was the promise arcade games made at the time and the dream would end after a minute before inserting another quarter.

It was the era of Dig Dug, Tempest and Moon Patrol before Double Dragon, Streetfighter and Mortal Combat.

When I’d go to The Shop, I'd keep my head down and go straight to the Star Wars game.

I’d stay away from the foosball and pool tables which acted as natural age barriers. 

I'd hear the snickers from the teenagers and be too afraid to look up from my game.

You'd see them smoking cigarettes in a circle outside when we'd drive by. 

A girl in class I crushed on, and never had a chance with, would hang out back there. 

I would see her on weekends when I'd chance a trip with friends on bicycles and if I was lucky she'd acknowledge my existence.

Other arcades had a draw. These included E.J. 's in the Station Mall and Top Hat, but for the time being, The Shop occupied the top spot. 

A rough comparison would be the arcade on Dazed And Confused where Matthew McConaughey delivered his career famous lines. 

But like any place that provided fun for the youth it got maligned by parents. 

Like the local bar scene twenty years ago, it had an egalitarian bent to it — everyone went there from all walks possibly colouring the memories of it. 

After a walk down memory lane on the topic, my mother was kind enough to post about it on a Sault Ste Marie memories group page where one person out of many commented about it negatively. 

I remember the cultural moment The Shop occupied. It was the time of the macho bad boy.

Girls would be impressed by the strut of the one who might play by his own rules, who wasn't afraid to get his fists dirty.

Then Two Dragons came out. 

A few restaurants in town carried Double Dragon: The Family Chef on the coffee shop side being one example, but most restaurants weren't cutting edge like The Shop. 

Blue Boy on Wellington had Pac Man.

Cracks started to show in the cultural monopoly when Street Fighter showed up one day inside the doors of the Cambrian Mall next to the Canadian Tire. 

Then Mortal Combat took the reign from Street Fighter. It had a realism that Double Dragon and Street Fighter didn't. It was a promise fulfilled for a movie that wasn't made yet. 

Then before anyone realized — at the pace of psychedelic dreams — home video games arrived that promised more than all the quarters in your parent's pockets. 

The monopoly shifted from arcades to places that carried video game rentals: The Great Canadian Video Network, Lucky 7, Bandito Video, Jumbo Video and Millie's hanging on one last moment before the arrival of Blockbuster.