My visit to Challenge Arcade in Reading, PA (with pics!)

[dsheinem]

As some of you may remember, in April I interviewed Joe LeVan, owner of Challenge Arcade live at TooManyGames in Reading, PA. At the time I promised to check out the arcade when I could, and this weekend I got the chance.

I haven't been in a mall arcade that impressed me since the mid-late 90s, so I was happy to find that Challenge Arcade offered a huge variety of games suited to my tastes. I managed to play about a dozen or more in my short time there, and am eager to go back and spend more quarters. I got to play:

19XX: The War Against Destiny (I even got the high score for the day!)
Donkey Kong 3 (somehow I got the high score on this too, though died on level 2)
Beast Busters Second Nightmare (VERY VERY FUN SNK HOTD knock-off - but even better!!)
Tron
Gorf
The Simpsons
Initial D Version 3 (even got a card for future use!)
Cruisn' World
Street Fighter II (tougher then I remember!)
Raiden Fighters Jet (I am much better on the 360 version)
Crazy Climber
Orbitor 1 pinball (this has some crazy magnet action which makes it novel but tough)
The Black Knight pinball (I am better at the Williams Arcade compilation version)
COPS (Joe mentioned this in the podcast. It is extremely cheesy and tough, but worth a play)

There were quite a few I didn't get to play, some of which you can see in the pictures below. They also had a cool NES Vs. cabinet with Super Mario Bros 1 and Castlevania 1 set up on it, a 6 game SNK machine, and some other things which may not show up well in the pics below.

In any case, if you get a chance to stop into the Wyomissing Mall in Reading, PA, it would be easy to spend a few hours here and not even get close to playing all the games. Unfortunately I live about 90 minutes away, but I am eager to get back when I have the chance.

Sorry for the poor quality pictures. The lighting in the room didn't play well with my phone camera, so you get what you get. Be sure to ask if you need help identifying something.

[dlmvii]

I get jealous whenever I see a nice arcade like this. The 2 that were in close proximity to me both closed about 5 and 10 years ago. There is one on the other side of town for me with like 3 non-name light gun games and a bunch of games that spit out tickets. I'm going to have to make a trip to a real one again some day

[gtmtnbiker]

How many people were in the arcade? Maybe you were deliberate to not take pictures with people in it but it's not a good sign that there's nobody playing games.

[CRTGAMER]

Beautiful Arcade, hope those Retros stay in business.

TRON! And is that CRAZY CLIMBER (Taito) teasing me?

[Gamerforlife]

Pacman! Simpsons! Q-Bert! Popeye!Freaking Tron!!!House of the Dead!Lethal Enforcers!

That place is paradise!!!

[Luke]

Note to self: Turn off flash when taking pics of cabs.

I'm just kidding, but I'm not.

Great job man. That place looks like a little slice of heaven.

I have a connecting flight in PA in a few weeks. If Challenge isn't that far away, I might just take a cab and visit the arcade for an hour.

[dsheinem]

Note to self: Turn off flash when taking pics of cabs.

I'm just kidding, but I'm not.

Great job man. That place looks like a little slice of heaven.

I have a connecting flight in PA in a few weeks. If Challenge isn't that far away, I might just take a cab and visit the arcade for an hour.

The flash was off in almost all of those pictures.

Challenge Arcade is probably easily an hour or two from either Philly, Harrisburg, or Scranton, and a 4+ hour trip from Pittsburgh. Where in PA are you flying in to?

[dsheinem]

How many people were in the arcade? Maybe you were deliberate to not take pictures with people in it but it's not a good sign that there's nobody playing games.

I was there on a Sunday afternoon, and there were probably 4-5 other people in the arcade at any given time. Not many, unfortunately. Hopefully they can stick around a while longer (though I've seen rumors to the contrary ). On the plus side, no waiting to play!

[alexis524]

nice coverage. I too am from Reading, well, i work in Reading and live about 15 minutes from the city. The lack of people in the photos fit the number of people in the mall itself, not many go to this mall since King of Prussia mall is only 45 min away, granted with no arcade, but still all the stores one could ever wish for are there. Anyway, check out Level Up games right down the street from the mall next time you are in Reading. They're a sweet lil retro shop with TONS o'stuff in side. Thanks for putting Reading on da map.

alexis

[weasels]

oh man another reason to go to reading. personally i can't wait for another toomanygames again. i need to get out there again.