In business for 50 years, the Los Angeles-based Family Amusement Corporation has had a difficult couple of years after a devastating fire at their arcade in 2019 followed by the pandemic in 2020. As of May 3, the Family Arcade is finally reopened – albeit with reduced capacity.
According to Spectrum News 1, the arcade business has also switched from tokens to a $25 fee to play all day. Robert Peck, who runs the family business with his cousin Stephen (his father and uncle started it), said he was unsure they would survive the pandemic after rebuilding due to the fire.
“It was just hard – hard on my dad and my uncle because it is like watching their baby be sick or something,” Peck said. Yet he added that the revival of classic games based on their nostalgia factor is what keeps people coming back.
“We’re seeing this resurgence of classic games,” he said. “We’re getting calls every day from people asking if we have a Pac-Man for sale. It seems that almost everything is going back to what the ’80s were.”