Spaceplex July 1992

When I was a kid growing up here on Long Island there was a couple of places I used to play arcade games at. There of course was the local malls. Smithhaven Mall had Time Out, South Shore Mall had Dream Machine (which then became FYE Games) and the local Sunvet Mall nearest me had a locally run arcade simply called, "The Subway". I was only able to visit Chuck E. Cheese's once when I was around 4-5 years old before it shut down so for Suffolk County Long Island there wasn't that much as big arcades went...that was until the early 1990's.

Some folks out there might know of an old television show called Video Power which was produced here on Long Island. Some of you might know it as a game show like Starcade and Nick Arcade, but in the first season it was a cartoon show buffered with host segments hosted by "Johnny Arcade". The show was pretty much an advertisement for Acclaim since all of the characters where from games they had the rights too. Even when it became a game show many of the prizes where all Acclaim made. However, there was one episode of the show when they didn't air a cartoon, instead it was just the host for the full half an hour show.

From what I remember the host started off going to a place that sold arcade games where they showed off the Neo-Geo MVS. They showed how it could hold up to four games in the cabinet and then showed off the new memory card feature and how it could connect to the Neo-Geo AES. I thought this was amazing and wanted one...then I saw how the system was 500 dollars and each game was 200 a piece and that dream faded quick. Then the second part. The host went to someplace I had never seen before. It was amazing. You walked into a dark hallway that light up and spat out smoke like you where entering the Game Grid from Tron and then inside was a gigantic indoor arcade with mini golf, bowling and the infamous Spider's Web. That place was Spaceplex and above is a video from a good friend of the Long Island Arcade Club that had a birthday party there back in 1992. Sadly, the video is very short and other then the segments from Video Power I don't know of any other video of the place. If you know of any please let us know! I'd love to see it!

Spaceplex was one of the largest arcades I've ever been to. Name a game that came out in the 90's and it's a good chance they had it. Mortal Kombat was the top game. When MK2 came out they had four of them and when MK3 came out they got three the day it was released. Sadly Virtua Fighter didn't grab an audience and got pulled. Sadly this is also the place where many people thought Katie Beers was abducted in September of 1992. After that more people found out about the place and they beefed up security. Spaceplex closed down in 1996 after the owners where involved in a stock trading scam and organized crime. After it closed down the next place to go was Sports Plus which then closed back in 2007.

Hopefully you enjoyed the video even though it's a bit short, but it's great to see some footage of this classic arcade.