The Pong at Starport Arcade and Pub is not your parents’ blocky back-and-forth once played on an old tube TV.
Neither is the Pac Man who aims to eat up dots and ghosts. The colorful characters have gone from a quarter-for-play arcade game to battling each other on a flat screen TV.
Arcade games have come a long way, and the kids of this generation got the chance to relish in that Monday at Starport at the Fall Family Fun for All.
Screams of both sweet victory and bitter defeat filled the arcade as kids and their parents came together for the event.
Skye Spalding, one of the managers at the establishment, said the owner of the arcade is very community-driven and being a parent himself he wanted something that would benefit children in the area. Spalding said he loves charity and donates to local charity often.
Games were free from 2-9 p.m. Five dollars got each individual into the event, but the money went back to two good causes.
“Seventy [percent] will go to a local family and 30 will go to the Ronald McDonald House. It’s really for a single dad who is really struggling right now. We’re doing this to help him out,” she said.
Spalding said the family being helped really wanted money to go back to the Ronald McDonald House because they recently had to stay there while a daughter was ill.
“It means a lot to them to also to give back,” she said.
Spalding said when she was a kid there was a small arcade at her local mall and it was neat to see the kids so enthralled with playing the games on Monday.
“I loved going to that arcade; it was so fun. There’s been a resurgence, I think, of arcades,” she said.
She said arcades are way cooler than she remembers as a child.
She said it’s nice to see families playing together and not on their phones, but interacting.
“This is what we’re all about,” she said.
With their $5 ticket for entry, patrons could win a flat screen TV, a $700 bottle of bourbon or a photo session. Tin 202 donated dinner for two and gift cards were up for grabs. There was also a photographer on site taking professional photos of the families.
Starport will be opening at noon on Black Friday, offering deals throughout the day. First round of deals will be from noon to 5 p.m. with discounted food and free game play.
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