Personal Arcade

A responsible parent and role model.

[A pinball machine has appeared in the living room]
Marsha: Do you guys know anything about this?
Mr. Belvedere: I was certain it was one of the children.
George: [entering] Oh boy! There it is! It's my Firebomb!
Mr. Belvedere: I was right.

— Mr. Belvedere

Just as a chessboard indicates a smart character and golf clubs indicate an upper-crust executive, a quick way to establish a character's frivolous personality is to show him having a pinball machine or arcade video game in a home, work, or personal environment. Such a character will typically be almost Always Male, and is either The Slacker, a Manchild, One of the Kids, a Cloudcuckoolander, or something comparable.

Since a good-condition machine typically costs more than a personal computer, such a prop establishes some level of wealth for the owner; having multiple machines serves to further emphasize the character's extravagance or misguided priorities, especially if he's already financially challenged. Actually playing with the game is not required; simply having it in the background flashing its Attract Mode is enough to make the point.

Sometimes, in order to establish a character as The Smart Guy as well as one of the above traits, it'll turn out that he built or restored the machine himself. Lots of Hacker Caves have one of these in the background somewhere. (Truth in Television; MAME-based replica cabinets are a popular project for electronics hobbyists.)

If the game is actually based on the character, that could be a further sign of extraordinary wealth or an overinflated ego.

Note that this trope does not apply when the game in question is in a location that reasonably should have such things, such as a video arcade, bar, laundromat, or boardwalk. Similarly, having a home video game system doesn't qualify for this trope, as those are affordable for most people.

Truth in Television, as demonstrated below - these sorts tend to be die-hard arcade enthusiasts or collectors rescuing a few cabinets or buying "HUO" (home use only) machines. The cost of running and maintaining one does wear out a wallet, of course.

Also see Pastimes Prove Personality and Fictional Video Game.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In YuYu Hakusho, Genkai has a massive collection of arcade games designed to test potential students, though she does note that some of them are indeed for her own personal use.
• In one chapter of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life reveals that Fafnir has converted an abandoned building into his own personal arcade, filled with game cabinets from the 80's and 90's. In a rare Pet the Dog moment, he ends up letting all the neighborhood kids use them for free for a day at the end of the chapter.

Comic Books

• In Sunnyville Stories, the second story "Multiball Madness" reveals that Mr. Von Straussen collects these. He has arcade machines, pinball machines and even an air hockey table. This is more of a testament though to his wealth; unlike other examples of this trope, Mr. Von Straussen is neither lazy or a Manchild.

Film — Animated

• Fred from Big Hero 6 has several arcade video game cabinets among the action figures and comic books in his mansion.

Film — Live-Action

• In the first night of the Ghostbusters franchise, the guys' upper-level loft includes two arcade video games, Missile Command and Star Castle, and a Star Gazer pinball machine next to the fireman's pole. Notable in that Ray Stantz had mentioned less than a minute ago that they were out of money...
• In Big, one of the things Josh (who's a 13-year-old in an adult's body) gets in his rapid rise up the corporate world is a Pin*Bot pinball machine.
• In Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj, Taj Badalandabad adorns the Cock and Bulls living room with several creature comforts, including a widescreen TV and a "Miss Nude America" pinball machine.
• There is a Harlem Globetrotters pinball table in the guys' apartment in Three Men and a Baby.
• The Social Network has a Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams game cabinet next to a conference room.
• In What Happens in Vegas, slacker Jack Fuller has a Free Fall pinball machine in his apartment.
• In a dramatic example, The Thing (1982) has an Asteroids arcade and a Heat Wave pinball machine at the ice station. It's less a commentary on the characters' frivolity and more a reflection on how the characters need recreational activities to pass time at the remote Arctic outpost where they live and work for months on end (as well as the themes of the two games providing some very subtle foreshadowing).
• The schlocky America 3000 has several classic arcade video games and a pinball machine in the living quarters of the Presidential fallout shelter.
• Running Scared (1986) shows a Battlezone machine in Gene Wilder's character's apartment.
• A pinball machine and several arcade games (including a large-screen Pong) are visible in the mansion party scene of North Dallas Forty.
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou features a customized "Zissou" pinball machine.
• The original 1981 Arthur (1981) had a pinball machine in the title character's bathroom.
• Appropriately enough, in Ghost Rider (2007), there's an Evel Knievel pinball in former Circus Brat Johnny Blaze's apartment.
• Eric Bates in The Toy has a fully-loaded arcade in his bedroom, including Centipede and Space Duel video game cabinets and Haunted House, Volcano, and Mars God of War pinballs.
• High School High has "Homeroom Homicide" and "Classroom Carnage" arcade games in the teacher's lounge.
• The main character of The Game Plan, football start Joe Kingman, has a "Kingman" pinball game in his apartment.
• In I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Chuck owns a "Balica"^note actually a modified Galaga arcade game.
• A Hydro Thunder sit-down game appears in the Baxter Building in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but no indication which of the team actually plays it.
• In Boogie Nights, porn star Dirk Digger has a Hot Line pinball game at his house.
• Big Daddy: Bunny-Ears Lawyer and full-time slacker Sonny has a pinball machine in his apartment.
• In Major League 2, one of Rick Vaughn's new possessions is a Judge Dredd pinball machine for his apartment.
• Dont Tell Her Its Me: Emily's womanizing boss, Trout, has a Narc arcade game in his office.
• Ron Burgundy has four pinball machines^note Eight Ball, The Six Million Dollar Man, Playboy (Bally), and Harlem Globetrotters in his singles pad in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.
• In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Quicksilver has a highly overclocked Pong machine in his basement. It makes sense that it's overclocked, because his Super-Speed would make a normal Pong cabinet (or any other game, for that matter) really dull and easy; and it makes sense that he's got such a machine to begin with because he's a kleptomaniac.
• Possibly the Ur-Example of this was in Soylent Green, where the executive whose murder triggers the film's events has a Computer Space cabinet (released in 1971 as the first commercial Video Game) in his apartment.
• Zig-Zagged in TRON. While Flynn's Arcade was a business (and the character's means of support after being run out the door at Encom), he spent as much time playing the games as running the business and lived in an apartment overlooking the arcade floor. And after he returned to Encom, the arcade lived on as a combination of side venture, personal collection (especially of the games he created in-universe), and a place to conceal his Grid experiment.

Live-Action TV

• In Silver Spoons, the Manchild father has several pinball and arcade video machines amid his collection of giant expensive toys. In the opening credits, he starts up a game of pinball and dances along to the music it makes.
• The Charlie's Angels episode "Homes, $weet, Homes" had a pinball machine in the house of a wealthy real estate agent.
• The Columbo episode "The Conspirators" has Columbo and a suspect talking over games of pinball in the suspect's home.
• One episode of In Plain Sight showed a vintage electro-mechanical pinball table in the apartment of Mary's boyfriend, Raphael.
• In one episode of Mr. Belvedere, George gets a "Firebomb" pinball table^note actually a repainted Fireball to relive his youth. The family has to get rid of it once Belvedere becomes addicted to the game and neglects his chores.
• Friends: In "The One Where Joey Dates Rachel," Chandler and Monica are given a Ms. Pac-Man machine as a late wedding present from Phoebe.
  • Earlier in the series, when Chandler and Monica start living together, they have an argument about what to do with Rachel's room after she moved out. Chandler wants this trope in the form of a game room, filled with old arcade machines which could be bought cheaply online. Monica wanted a guest room. Chandler thought a guest room was stupid because all their friends live within walking distance, Monica didn't want a game room because she thought it was stupid and immature... and kaboom. They eventually agree to use the room for something they both enjoy, and later on it becomes a guest room when they do have a friend who needs to stay there and presumably the pac man gets put in there as well.
• A variation occurs in the Seinfeld episode "The Frogger", where George tries to get a Frogger cabinet from Mario's Pizza Parlor to preserve his high score.
• In iCarly, Spencer owns several to emphasize his Manchild personality. He also purchases a Pac-Man Expy called "Pac Rat" in one episode.
• There's an episode of The Big Bang Theory where a slightly deranged admirer of Penny's befriends the guys and locks them in the basement of his mother's home, so as to have a free run at her. As the basement is chocca with comic-book paraphernalia and reconditioned arcade games, none of the four guys even notices they've been locked in and are effectively prisoners.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: At the Flores residence, there's an arcade of Tong nearby the kitchen.
• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony: Upper-Class Twit Yusuf Amir has arcade cabinets in his penthouse.
• Nearly all the hideouts you can get in Bully will have at least one arcade cabinet in them.
• In Alpha Protocol, Konstantin Brayko doesn't just have a single cabinet, he has a whole arcade in his mansion.

Web Original

• Homestar Runner: Strong Bad (who is a fan of outdated computer technology in general) has a Trogdor! arcade game in his basement.

Western Animation

• In the Family Guy Direct to Video episode "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story", Peter gets Lois a Galaga arcade machine for Christmas. But Peter immediately proceeds to push Lois out the way while smashing the widow with a Christmas tree so that he will have the gift all to himself.
• In The Simpsons episode where Bart becomes Mr. Burns' heir, he is shown to have a personal arcade in his bedroom.
• Bruce Wayne in The Batman has one secret access to the Batcave hidden behind a coin-op video game cabinet.
• Adrien of Miraculous Ladybug, probably to show the audience how rich his family is, has a few arcade game machines in his bedroom. Sadly, he gets toys like that from his father instead of time and attention.
• Raimundo in Xiaolin Showdown was given a private arcade by Wuya after he betrays his friends and helps her get a physical body, restoring her powers. However, he becomes bored of playing by himself after a while and starts to miss his friends, who refuse to join the Heylin side. Wuya's golems are too stupid to play the games.

Real Life

• Steven Spielberg was known to have had a varying set of arcade video games in his home and offices, including Space Invaders, Missile Command, and Donkey Kong.
• On one segment of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Norm Macdonald was doing a series of jokes about selling his home in Los Angeles. One photo he showed was an exercise room with a Family Guy pinball machine, and Norm comments that the buyer can have the exercise equipment, but not the pinball table.
• For their participation in developing the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball, the stars of the source material each received a machine at the end of the project. Patrick Stewart says he still plays his, while Marina Sirtis placed hers in the basement where her kids can enjoy it.
• In 1991, Hollywood producer Joel Silver had a vanity pinball machine based on himself. "Joel Silver: The Pinball" was a rethemed version of Data East's Star Trek pin, and it sat in his Warner Bros. reception area for several years.
• Similarly, famed television and film producer Aaron Spelling once received an "Aaron Spelling" pinball as a gift from his wife and family. It was based on the Lethal Weapon 3 pinball from Data East, and included a Tori Spelling target that said "I love you, Daddy" when hit.
• Michael Jackson had a giant arcade in his home, which was recreated for an exhibit in Beverly Hills. You can take a virtual panoramic tour of it here.
• Playboy founder Hugh Hefner had a separate building on the north side of his estate, with vintage and modern arcade games, pinball machines, a player piano, jukebox, billards table, foosball, poker table, television, and stereo spread out over two wings. Games include Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Missile Command, Hydro Thunder, and every Playboy pinball game ever.
• Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver is an avid collector of pinball machines (owning over 20 at one point), and even designed two games based on the former band (Guns N' Roses (Data East) and Guns N' Roses (Jersey Jack)).
• Karl Urban is an avid pinball fan with a sizeable collection of his own machines. He provided the voice recordings for the Star Trek (Stern) game.
• Near the set for Good Morning America is a unique pinball machine themed on the show. It's actually a Family Guy with a Palette Swap and audio changes, but nevertheless, it's meant for use by the show's hosts and staff (and presumably the guests if they're interested).
• As noted in the trope description, it's not uncommon for hobbyists to build an entire machine from scratch as a project. As long as you already have some skill in computers, electronics, woodworking, and art, creating a custom arcade machine can be done for a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand. Pinball machines are another matter, as their construction requires levels of precision very difficult to achieve at home. This is taken up a notch after the middle of The New '10s as prefabricated home arcade machines are starting to become extremely popular and many companies start producing them, and at the same time auction sites like eBay makes it possible to score used machines for cheap from rental joints looking to get rid of their old machines or arcades that are getting rid of their old/broken machines.

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