What Game Spot 21 Did

Ugh. Another game centre obituary.

You never did decide what order the words in your name should go. But hey, it’s your name. If you say the order’s not part of it then I guess I need to shake off my chauvinism and let names be like that.

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.

If you’re happy to stick to smoking as competitors chase it out, that’s you doing you. If you’re happy to keep dragging your Spot 21 Game sign to the curb every day, even though the acidic handgrease of your staff has bleached the colour off one half of it years ago through repetition of that very act, I will make no comment. OK, no further comment.

If you have found after decades of independent trade, spicing the bland Sega-Taito pot of Shinjuku, scraping by and defying the megacorps, giving gamers a way to play without buying into a marketer-designed culture, having atmosphere, feeling like reality, smelling like dying reality, welcoming us – if you have found that, after it all, this time, you must let your doors stick shut once more and for eternity, well…

…that’s heartbreaking.

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Game Spot 21 will cease operation in January 2021. I have made several posts about it on my blog over the years. Not all flattering, but all written with love.

Thanks to Arcade Belgium for sharing this shit news.