The classic "Pac-Mania" arcade game is located in Fud's Retro Arcade in Muncie. Chris Wallace added an arcade to his business Fud's Video Games in November 2019. Garrett Chorpenning, DN

Learn more about Fud retro arcade

Fud's Retro Arcade is located at 2100 W White River Blvd.

Open from Monday to Thursday from 11 am to 8:30 pm

Friday to Saturday from 10 am to 8:30 pm

Sunday from 10 am to 5:30 pm

There are different prices for wristband passes.

The family pass can cover up to five people, which can be two adults and three children under 18, or one adult and four children under 18.

Source: Fud's video game website

The traditional arcade has almost disappeared. Gone are the days of breaking the piggy bank and dragging a bag of money to the shopping mall to grab the high score of "Space Invaders". Almost everything is fully digital and portable, but there are still some people who desire coin-operated machines, and a local business owner hopes to attract this crowd.

Chris Wallace, better known as "Fud", first opened Fud's Video Games in 2016. A few years later, he decided to add a retro arcade to his business, and now shares a wall with his current store in Baihe Square.

"A lot of people came in and it brought back a lot of memories, they were very nostalgic," Wallace said. "The other cool thing is that [for] many 10-year-olds who come in, they have never seen an arcade like this. They may have been to Dave & Buster's or Chuck E. Cheese's, but they haven't experienced it. The original arcade."

Fud's Retro Arcade has more than 40 years of arcade history, including old school favorites such as "Centipede" and "Galaga", and recent hits such as "Mario Kart Arcade GP" and "Guitar Hero Arcade". In total, there are more than 30 machines lined up on the wall, not including the machines he rides in and out.

"I'm always looking to buy other machines," Wallace said. "I'm not here all the time, but when I come in, I will try my best to pay attention-especially on weekends, which must be our busiest time-to see which machines people are really paying attention to and which ones are not" not so Multiplayer. "

In order to keep his inventory fresh, Wallace exchanged the machines he kept in exchange for machines that he didn't play often.

Ball State University's 2021 Master of Education Management and Supervision alumni Jim Widmer described the arcade as "extraordinary", with friendly counter services and excellent machines.

"I've been there twice," Widmer said. "Its price is very reasonable... the classic arcade games are all intact.

Fud's Retro Arcade may be one of the few arcade machines that focuses entirely on its games. According to the 2015 [coin-operated entertainment] industry report of Play Meter Magazine, of the nearly 167,000 companies that have arcade equipment in the United States, only 2,520 operate as arcade machines only. Most are designated as "street" venues, while the other part is dedicated to enterprises that choose a mixed mode-combining games with entertainment and food, or are built as arcade bars, restricting the entry of people under the legal drinking age.

In Muncie's Fud's Retro Arcade, four MarioKart machines line up in a row. All games in the arcade are set as free games, and customers pay for wristband passes instead of each individual game. Garrett Joe Penning, DN

Fud's Retro Arcade may be traditional in the gaming sense, but his entry system is unique, using wristbands instead of swiping cards or tokens. The wristband is provided for a fixed fee, with unlimited access on the day, and all games are set as free games.

"Because we are a small store, we don't have a lot of salary to keep multiple people watching whether people are here for more than an hour or something like that, so we decided to just use a direct fixed fee," Wallace said. "We did make some changes to it to make it cheaper this week, because that is always your less busy time. This is a good time, we actually have a lot of people."

Since customers do not pre-determine the number of games based on the amount of cash they carry, Wallace said that the wristband model helped him modernize the arcade game and in the process brought some extra fun to the Muncie community.

"I really don't know what will happen to [arcade]," Wallace said. "I mean, you have to think about it, everyone is closing arcades and stuff. I'm here, I'm going,'Let's open one! I'm proud that people love it and appreciate it more and more."

The number of traditional arcades may decrease, but Wallace and his clients prove that the arcades still have some extra life.

Contact Garrett Chorpenning via gachorpennin@bsu.edu or Twitter @gachorpenning to comment. 

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