A little happy and sad memories of Canada's best ever arcade "Funland" Toronto

CossackWarrior

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A little happy and sad memories of Canada's best ever arcade "Funland" Toronto

Oh how I remember the days (few days) my dad would bring me to Funland with my brother. My father would go take care of the rooming house downtown, and drop us off occasionally at Funland, each with a pocket full of quarters. Both of us wearing our signature heavy metal cut off shirts with our six pack abs showing through and our zip up Kangaroo shoes that were just soooooo cool at the time........me playing the games, and my older brother having that VERY forbidden smoke and picking and trying to chat up the occasional cute girl that came in here and there. The place would be filled with smoke at times, and non of us would give a damn. My brother was a pro at Gravitar and Gyruss and would attract crowds on occasion.

This place had the coolest sign on the outside and when you walked in the dingy smoke filled dungeon, you would be met with the overwhelming pungent smell of whatever the heck that arcade smell was, lol. The sounds, and lights of the games were beyond spectacular. It was an age for me when EVERY day was a day of discovery and an adventure like Goonies and Stand by Me.

Oh how I miss those days......

Here is a small write up from the Toronto Star a few years ago about the history of Funland. I also added a few pics of the outside and inside:

https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/07/05/game_over_for_funland_arcade.html

Links to some more pics on this other forum (sad day of closing.......)

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/funland-arcade-closing-603935/4/

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Been there ... done that.
Best memory is of traveling to downtown and watching everyone play the new Vector Star Wars machine(s). :)
 
Been there ... done that.
Best memory is of traveling to downtown and watching everyone play the new Vector Star Wars machine(s). :)

Such as cool time in history. Innocent fun............well, besides the few forbidden smokes I watched my brother have. Him and I still smile about the secret we STILL keep :)
 
all good things must come to an end.

sad to see such places gone, but what awesome experiences/memories. at least we have the opportunity to keep the spirit alive with collecting/restoring
 
all good things must come to an end.

sad to see such places gone, but what awesome experiences/memories. at least we have the opportunity to keep the spirit alive with collecting/restoring

So true, I just wish at LEAST more pics of these places were taken of them in their haydays.
 
i hate to say it, but i'd imagine that probably only a tiny percentile of any of those kinda places were ever photo-documented and of those that were, probably most of what was documented has been lost to the ages

i suppose it makes these kinda photos that much more important :)

So true, I just wish at LEAST more pics of these places were taken of them in their haydays.
 
I know this place but sadly I was never able to visit it, it sounded like a very cool arcade with unique games, sad that it is gone, thankfully there are still a couple arcades kicking in the Niagara Falls Ontario Canada area that have some older games though most of the older games are older redemption games but still you don't find those at too many places these days.
 
The last thing on my mind was bringing a camera with me to the arcade. I regret that a lot.
BITD all I was focused on was finding quarters in phones, drink machines or kid's rides so I could play games.

Another regret is that I didn't chase skirts like I chased games.
 
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