Video games killed the arcade

My friend and I were talking the other day about what happened to Dark Zone. What was once a bastion for kids looking to kill some time or have a kickass birthday party playing laser tag, quickly closed up almost a decade ago and that was that. Nothing ever sprung up in the city to take its place.

I believe an organic food market now sits in its place on Osborne Street at Confusion Corner. The Adventure City that was beside it is now a Dollarama.

Granted, Dark Zone suffered from a lot of maintenance issues - near its end, I remember guns and packs were working less and less, and fewer and fewer people were coming out to play.

But I remember that for the longest time, the place was packed. Sometimes you had to wait 30 minutes to an hour before you could even get in to play a game.

It got us talking about other things from our childhood like Topo Gigio’s, Discovery Zone, and arcades. These things just died out. Why?

I’m sure that as video games an the Internet became more popular, the need to go out and spend an afternoon with your friends at the arcade became moot. What was once a very social activity has turned today’s youth into basement-dwelling anti-socialites.

I want to track down some of the owners of these once-popular refuges for kids. Apparently Stonewall has had a laser tag place that’s been growing, but I’ve heard mixed reviews and have never been.

But I want to talk to Dark Zone’s owners and find out just what the hell happened. I’ve searched endlessly on Google, but alas, my efforts have been fruitless. All I can find was this Facebook group of former employees, and a thread on some forum from some guy with a pipe dream to open something similar in the city. His idea has never materialized.

Oh well, at least we still have glow bowling.

Or maybe, I’m just out of the loop. Are there still cool places like this to go that is NOT the Playdium at SilverCity Polo Park? Either way, I think there’s an interesting article about this somewhere out in the city.

Hit me up in the replies if you have any leads or ideas.

Later skaters.

Also, Justin Bieber killed the need for guys to start playing guitar to pick up chicks. Why he’s famous and not this kid, I will never know.