RolandSubject: Arcade Exterior, Location: Shinjuku, Arcade: Game Spot 21

Game Spot 21

RolandSubject: Arcade Exterior, Location: Shinjuku, Arcade: Game Spot 21
Game Spot 21
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This is a place full of wrong-turn-takers.

What a dive. Not intended to be seen in daylight. Game Spot 21 in Shinjuku has the words "Spot", "Game", and "21" written over it in every arrangement. I call it Game Spot 21.

You wouldn't come here to hang out – it stinks. You wouldn't come here to play games – the newer versions are nextdoor in Sega and Taito.

Why would you come? To get pickpocketed and bagsnatched while distracted by last year's Gundam? To get eyed angrily by people to whose mysterious and shameful reason for being there you are an affront?

Game Spot 21 is nowhere. Maybe that's why you go.

Photographer and writer covering Tokyo arcade life – the videogames, the metropolis and the people

RolandSubject: 中国龍プリティチャンス, Developer: Alta, Location: Shinjuku, Year: 1996, Subject: Blast City, Arcade: Game Spot 21, Year: 2001, Subject: Chinese Dragon Pretty Chance, Developer: SegaComment

Your Irresistible Game

Through Chinese Dragon Pretty Chance you will come to terms with your harrowing desires.

RolandSubject: 中国龍プリティチャンス, Developer: Alta, Location: Shinjuku, Year: 1996, Subject: Blast City, Arcade: Game Spot 21, Year: 2001, Subject: Chinese Dragon Pretty Chance, Developer: SegaComment
Your Irresistible Game
RolandSubject: Blast City, Subject: Arcade Interior, Subject: Arcade Artefact, Developer: Sega, Developer: Konami, Year: 2013, Year: 2016, Arcade: Game Spot 21, Location: Shinjuku

Japanese Arcade Observations

Game Spot 21 is a real-deal arcade. Finger-crossing that it comes back post-Covid – and dirtier than ever.

RolandSubject: Blast City, Subject: Arcade Interior, Subject: Arcade Artefact, Developer: Sega, Developer: Konami, Year: 2013, Year: 2016, Arcade: Game Spot 21, Location: Shinjuku
Japanese Arcade Observations
RolandArcade: Game Spot 21, Subject: Tokyo Street, Subject: Arcade Exterior, Year: 2017, Location: Shinjuku

What Game Spot 21 Did

If you say the machines don’t need to be cleaned on the parts people don’t touch then that’s your thing, I guess. If you think it’s OK to laminate a “Watch it! Bagsnatchers!” Sign over the urinal instead of creating an establishment where it doesn’t happen, your call.

But…

RolandArcade: Game Spot 21, Subject: Tokyo Street, Subject: Arcade Exterior, Year: 2017, Location: Shinjuku
What Game Spot 21 Did