No matter how much power and graphics modern video game consoles have, the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and the like can’t compete with the experience of playing on an arcade machine.

The sound of fingers hitting the buttons, coins lining up on the glass, the rivalry in Street Fighter II, the tension of searching for a coin in your pockets as the Continue countdown mercilessly ticked away, the thrill of entering your initials when you scored a High Score… It didn’t matter if you went to an arcade or just down to the local bar, playing arcade games had something magical.

For many, Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Ghost N Goblins, Metal Slug, and the like may have remained a memory of the past, but in Ibi, a small town in Alicante, they are as current as Fortnite.

All thanks to the Vintage Arcade Museum. A time machine where you can not only see arcade machines, pinballs, computers, and consoles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s but also play until your fingers tire.

A Trip to the Past

It doesn’t matter if you go in the morning or afternoon shift, as the opening hour approaches, people start to line up in front of the old Rico toy factory. The older ones do it with the nostalgia of remembering old times and the little ones with the fascination of discovering what the old machines were like.

Unlike the arcades of the 90s, in the Vintage Arcade Museum, you don’t need to insert coins to play. There are also no gangs nor is the atmosphere filled with smoke, although some of the oldest machines still bear cigarette burn marks on their edges. You might lose the tension of not dying and seeing the dreaded Continue countdown, but thanks to this, you can reach levels that you never saw as a kid.

Leaving coins aside, the collection of titles available to play is very varied and includes the biggest hits. From Pinball machines to true classics like Tetris, Space Invaders, or Donkey Kong to more modern games like Metal Slug or Windjammers.

Playing with the buttons and levers of the arcade is much better than any emulator, but my advice is to enjoy as much as you can the machines with special controls. I’m talking about steering wheels, gear shifts, seats, DJ decks, guns, and a long etcetera used to play games like Out Run, Crazy Taxi, Ridge Racer, After Burner Up, Silent Hill…

Although not everything is about arcades, throughout the Vintage Arcade Museum, there are several display cases with classic consoles from Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, Sega, or Sony. From desktops to handhelds. They even have one of the first Macs! Moreover, many are connected to a monitor and can be played freely.

The museum isn’t particularly large, but between the number of machines (over 80) and the number of people coming to play, it quickly feels small. I don’t know what it’s like the rest of the year, but at least when we went in mid-August it was packed. I won’t deny that for the most requested machines there was a bit of a wait, but nothing excessive.

If you ever pass through Ibi or Alicante, it’s definitely worth stopping by to play a few games.