Time Out Arcade found in dead mall in Va

FlapJ4cks

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"Last week, workmen ripping into a wall discovered the "buried remains" of Crossroads Mall's historic Time Out arcade, opened in 1978 and closed since approximately 1992, preserved in time. Unfortunately someone took the "TIME OUT" logo-sign before photos could be obtained."

Neat to see it survived as well as it did with all that retro architecture and styling.

https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/20...-out-arcade-found-in-a-dead-mall-in-virginia/

Worth reading for the great pics alone.


edit: DOh looks like the same pics as this thread
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=418211&highlight=time+out
 
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I'm confused..
Why did they not find it until they busted through a wall?

Was the front of the store bricked over? The back entrance door bricked over? If so, why? Wouldn't the guys have done the cementing/brincking gone, 'Hey, wait..!'?

And wouldn't the mall go, 'Hey, wait. We had 152 store-fronts. We only have 151 now. Where is our extra 1500 sq ft?
 
I understand that over the last years of that malls life, most of the interior stores had closed and what was left was a few of the larger anchor stores on the corners. I think the larger interior of the mall was eventually shut off to shoppers altogether and therefore was somewhat preserved over the years.

Crossroads Mall was the first mall I ever went to as a child. Never played in that arcade though as there was a second TimeOut location across town at the newer mall.
 
whoa ...

this thread now has aesthetic 悪スしヹヱ扱 dead mall
尉憶印

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I understand that over the last years of that malls life, most of the interior stores had closed and what was left was a few of the larger anchor stores on the corners. I think the larger interior of the mall was eventually shut off to shoppers altogether and therefore was somewhat preserved over the years.

Crossroads Mall was the first mall I ever went to as a child. Never played in that arcade though as there was a second TimeOut location across town at the newer mall.
Ah, okay - I could see that.
They actually did that up here at the Martinsbug mall - but the difference was that as soon as the inside entrances to the big-name corner stores were walled up, they started tearing down the mall part.

So, okay, that makes sense, if they did that then..
 
I guess this is a good enough time as any to post my video of the Time Out Arcade.

 
I know it's been a few months for this thread, but I just had a buddy tell me about this today. I am a local Roanoker and remember this mall well. What I can say to those who asked how they could just wall up an entire area is the mall was no longer a mall. There used to be a K-Mart with an inside mall entrance right next to the Time Out arcade, and when Time Out closed in 1992, they dry-walled over the storefront to close it up, presumably to wait for a new tenant. Of course, since the mall was already practically dead, they never got a new tenant. I have some memories of sitting on the steps right outside of the old Time Out (you can see those steps in one of the pics) wondering what was behind the wall where Time Out used to be. Now I guess I know.

Eventually, K-Mart bricked up their inside-mall entrance, leaving that part the mall closed off. I think a main mall entrance still may have existed for a while, but looking at Google Street View, even that was sealed off and replaced with exterior facing store fronts at some point, sealing off that entire area except to the escalators that went to the lower level at the other end of the mall.

Over time, the other end of the mall had the DMV move in (never a good sign for a mall when a government agency moves in), and I remember during that time, they sealed off the old escalators from below that went up into that part of the old mall. Eventually, the DMV moved out, and that entire half of the mall was taken over as corporate offices for Advance Auto parts. This led to what must have been a pretty cool sealed up time capsule - a small piece of a mall from years past nestled inside a big building between corporate offices, and a dying K-Mart store. As I recall, there would have been a couple of dead restaurants in that area too, including one I remember that went into a really cool looking, yet dungeon-like downstairs restaurant somewhere in there (or maybe that was in the lower level?)

Fast forward to the present: K-Mart closed down last year, and now that entire half of the mall was razed, which I'm sure is what led to this discovery. The original cause of death of Crossroads Mall was that a much larger mall (Valley View Mall) opened in 1985, just a mile or so away. For the record, Valley View Mall also had an arcade named Mindboggle, which probably helped speed the demise of Time Out in Crossroads. Mindboggle arcade closed down maybe in the late 1990's, or early 2000's.

So what of the old location of K-Mart and the Time Out? Now demolished and being replaced with a BJ's Wholesale Club. It's progress, I guess, but a bit sad at the same time. Still it was really cool to see the old Time Out, just the way it was, way back in 1992 when it closed.

Feeling a little nostalgic here...
 
Thanks to everyone who posted this.

That would have been awesome to be able to be the first in there after all those years. Growing up I spent a good portion of my summers in Roanoke visiting relatives in the 80's.

I remember a group of us walking up to Tanglewood Mall and spending hours at Timeout many times. The design was definitely unique and much different than the arcades at the time around me in NE Ohio.

I still have some Timeout arcade tokens lying around. I miss playing all the great arcade games of the time. :(
 
I realize this is an old thread now, but I just wanted to drop a link to a video I happened upon today where you can see the old Crossroads Mall walk through from right about this time. You can see the familiar arched entry to the Time Out arcade with that funky floor at 0:53 in the video. Seems they didn't completely drywall over it after all, I now seem to remember they had some semi-permanent doors installed in that archway. You can just see those doors leaning against the edges of the archway.. Also, you can see that crazy brick lined stairway to hell I mentioned in my prior post above. I just wanted to connect these breadcrumbs together for my fellow Roanoke arcade nostalgia folks, as it is not mentioned in this video WHICH Crossroads mall it is. Enjoy!

 
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