80's decor that hasn't been done in home arcades

nutballchamp

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A pm from Endofline asking questions about my arcade got me thinking about decor that I use to see in 80's arcade that I haven't seen anyone do in their home arcade. Here's what I can think of.

Mirrors on the ceiling. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I've seen some cool 80's arcade pics with stripes going into the ceiling and continuing in the mirror. Mirrors also double up the lights in your arcade. I'm seriously considering doing this soon.

Mirrors on walls. Much easier to do than on the ceiling but not as cool. Only saw a few arcades with this.

Carpet halfway up walls. Super 80's would would be carpet halfway up the walls from the floor and the rest of the wall wood paneling.

Stripes on carpet. The arcade in Nightmares had a stripe coming down the wall and continuing on the carpet. Super badass! That's probably my dream arcade size and layout. Love the balcony with the pins.

Big space theme sets like lighted tunnels, a big rocket ect. Phet has one of the coolest space theme arcade's I've seen. I had a space ship hanging in my loft arcade but it was pretty weak compared to stuff I've seen in the 80's. Some of those arcades were like they built a movie set.

Games not so close to each other. I remember being in big arcades seeing sideart and standing inbetween games while watching friends play games. Some arcades had games at 45 degree angles. Tom Cloud did this which was really cool and nostalgic.

Add to this list or post any new or old pics of anything mentioned or unique. Hope this inspires someone to do some of these things as I'd love to see them recreated.
 
Mirrors on ceiling.


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FECs still do this sometimes, though only mostly with linkable games (most famously Daytona USA -- seems like every state has at least one complete set of four twins) and then it's limited to the maximum number of linked cabinets that game supports. Also has a tendency to happen to well-earning redemption games that have a long (for redemption) play-time -- a LOT of places bought 2-4 Deal Or No Deals and line them up on a wall.
 
I actually looked into getting a raised LED-lighted Disco Dance Floor grid for under my bar, but it would cost me in excess of $3000. The wife would not approve.

What about hanging some cheap tile? Put some lights between it and the ceiling to get a glow.
 
This is a cool thread. Starting to think a little bit about decor for an arcade barn that I'll be putting up in the future. Don't know if I want to go for the blacklight carpet look, etc, or something a bit more designed looking.
 
This is a cool thread. Starting to think a little bit about decor for an arcade barn that I'll be putting up in the future. Don't know if I want to go for the blacklight carpet look, etc, or something a bit more designed looking.

Don't forget 80's was all about stripes if the 80's look is what you're going for.
 
What about hanging some cheap tile? Put some lights between it and the ceiling to get a glow.

You can actually order colored plexi squares from TAP Plastics in any dimension and then back-light them as well. It would work for a ceiling installation at least. I would assume the floor tiles are much thicker.
 
You can actually order colored plexi squares from TAP Plastics in any dimension and then back-light them as well. It would work for a ceiling installation at least. I would assume the floor tiles are much thicker.

Wow, cool idea. I may do that in my arcade in the middle. My ceiling might be too low. I tried hard to get 9' or taller ceilings for my remodel. You can do so much cool stuff with tall ceilings hence the photos in this thread.
 
Wow, cool idea. I may do that in my arcade in the middle. My ceiling might be too low. I tried hard to get 9' or taller ceilings for my remodel. You can do so much cool stuff with tall ceilings hence the photos in this thread.

Here are 11" squares I had them cut for a sign I am making:

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They also have black light reactive colors.
 
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