The Main Street USA Penny Arcade

A lot of things have changed over the years in the Magic Kingdom. Some were good changes, some were bad, and some fell in the middle.

A lot of people don’t realize that The Magic Kingdom had an arcade on Main Street USA. Back in the 80’s the Magic Kingdom had a few arcades but the one on Main Street USA stood out. It was called the penny arcade. One of its biggest features was the cartoon machines. I call them that because I have no idea what you would actually call them. They were machines with goggles that you looked through while you turned a crank. By turning the crack you got to watch an old Disney cartoon. The best part was they only cost a penny.

In the back of the arcade you had your usual arcade games that you can find in any normal arcade. They kind of stuck out like a sore thumb. In fact the arcade at exit of Space Mountain and the arcade on Main Street USA just didn’t fit. I’m glad they were closed.

The only drawback of closing the arcades was the loss of those penny cartoons. They were an awesome piece of Disney history. Try and explain to kids that original arcades only had cartoons and oddball, non electronic games and see what happens. Honestly I never knew anything like that existed.

It makes me wonder where the old cartoon machine and antique games are now. There is no way Disney threw them out. If they did that would be a crime. Maybe we’ll see them pop up sometime in the future so everyone can gawk over them. They really were something else.