Gaming That’s Out of This World | Options

Owner credit “contagious nostalgia” for development at this Petoskey arcade

By Eric Cox | Nov. 8, 2025

Anyone with an appreciation for the late Seventies and Nineteen Eighties would possibly benefit from the sound of classic video video games and their unimaginable gentle shows. When you stroll via the entrance door of Out of This World Arcade and Game in Petoskey, that’s precisely what you’ll get.

Entering feels such as you’ve handed via some type of time portal and into one other period, when the hair was large, the colours brilliant, and the leisure was taking new varieties.

From the classic Atari dwelling recreation consoles within the entrance, to the basic Pac-Man cupboard machine in again, all the things about Out of This World Arcade and Game reverberates with the sights and sounds of the late twentieth century. Even the arcade’s proprietor, Grant Munson, matches the half in his pleated slacks, wedgie sneakers, knitted crew neck sweater, and coiffure that calls to thoughts (and ear) ’80s New Wavers A Flock of Seagulls or Thomas Dolby.

Munson clearly feels proper at dwelling amongst his mountains of colourful, chirping ’70s and ’80s recreation techniques, which he’s collected since he was a young person.

At 30, he’s nonetheless not removed from these years, however his assortment of classic arcade cupboards and basic dwelling gaming techniques grew to the purpose the place there wasn’t a lot left to do however launch his arcade and recreation store. The enterprise has about 50 arcade video games, dozens of classic dwelling gaming techniques, tens of 1000’s of associated recreation cartridges, comedian books, and a smattering of different game-related equipment and merchandise, in addition to classic computer systems.

“I experienced the tail end of the arcade era,” Munson says, explaining the origins of his nine-year-old enterprise. “As it started to fade away, I had an interest in trying to get some of the games and merchandise. I mean, what kid doesn’t want a vintage ’80s arcade cabinet? So, as I kept collecting, it became apparent that I couldn’t just keep hoarding this stuff. A lot of people think this was some passion project of mine, but really I was just trying to justify my collecting.”

The Games

At about 1,200 sq. ft, most of Out of This World is filled with a lot of neat stuff on which gaming fanatics can completely geek-out.

The entrance of the shop is devoted to outdated dwelling gaming techniques like Atari and Nintendo, with just a few actually far throwbacks, like a basic Pong system—one of many very first TV interface video games, which is fascinating in its sheer simplicity and slim scope, particularly by fashionable requirements. You get to play Pong (rudimentary TV tennis) in black and white. That’s it!

A crimson velvet rope separates the retail space from the arcade in again, and for $10, Munson will allow you to play any or the entire 50 video games. He owns about 80 completely different arcade video games, switching them out periodically. But that $10 cross is sweet for the whole day, and he’ll even allow you to depart and are available again.

From the arcade’s vivid galactic carpeting to the roar of the Sega Pole Position race automobile, one encounters a rogue’s gallery of different action-filled worlds chirping with fascinating sounds and flashing a great deal of early laptop gaming graphics.

There’s the compulsory Pac-Man wakka-wakka-wakka-ing as he pursues and devours ghosts via an odd, fruit-filled maze.

Next door, a lone triangular area ship fires tiny dots at large flying Asteroids, their straight white traces fracturing and fragmenting amid muffled colorless explosions.

In one other nook, a Centipede winds its segmented physique via a discipline of mushrooms, shortly descending towards the participant—represented by a roller-ball managed cannon that fires weird-sounding darts. Destroy the Centipede or die!

Other video games embody Sega Pole Position (with cockpit), Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Street Fighter II, Aliens, Steel Gunner, Golden Axe, and dozens extra.

The History

When a number of clients are taking part in the video games, Out of This World Arcade and Game involves life with a wave of sound and light-weight that hearkens again to a decade when purchasing malls have been as in style because the arcades that referred to as them dwelling.

These video games have been a lot of enjoyable once they have been new (and nonetheless are to some), however their graphics and story traces appear laughably fundamental by immediately’s requirements. Today’s video video games are gentle years forward of their Nineteen Eighties predecessors, particularly when digital actuality video video games are thrown into the combination.

By the tip of the ’80s, dwelling online game techniques like Atari and Nintendo have been already laser-blasting their method via the arcade business, vaporizing the shopping center staple like invaders from area.

One by one, arcades, like drive-in film theaters, closed throughout the land. Both dwelling gaming and residential video techniques laid waste to those as soon as omnipresent in style tradition entities, relegating them to the nostalgia bin. Game over.

But nostalgia bins are in style, too, and individuals are at all times , to some extent, within the pastimes of yesteryear. Like the resurgence of Hula Hoops, vinyl information, and movie cameras, classic video video games even have a following, giving them a “bonus play,” if you’ll.

“It’s like a contagious nostalgia,” says Munson, referring to his store’s continued recognition. “It’s actually kind of shocking. It’s almost always 13 to 16-year-old kids coming in here, saying, ‘I’ve always heard about this!’ And they like to mess around with it. They’re just exploring things they don’t have much access to anymore. I think it’s half nostalgia and half mystique. Some of them are just intrigued by the function of some of these systems. Many of these arcade games were later made into different versions for home gaming systems. But a lot of enthusiasts want to experience the original versions that appeared in arcades.”

Munson says his youthful clients typically don’t care about this model or that. To them, all of it represents the fascinating origins of one thing they maintain close to and pricey: video video games. “The younger kids,” he says, “see it all as equally old and equally interesting.”

Growing a Following

With no background in entrepreneurship, Munson launched his enterprise in 2016, utilizing area in a downtown Petoskey coin store, the place he additionally labored. That proprietor let him show a few of his classic dwelling recreation techniques there. Later he expanded into the constructing’s basement, the place he opened the primary arcade and retail area.

Munson moved to his Emmet Street location in January 2025 and has observed an uptick in enterprise. In truth, he mentioned this summer season was his greatest ever.

“It helps that we’re on the corner of a four-way stop, and that we have windows people can see in. Accessibility is key.” he says. “People can now see that we’re an arcade and we have lots of fun and interesting stuff in here.”

Out of this World Arcade and Game is open to purchasing, promoting, and buying and selling video video games in all their varieties, significantly older ones. Munson does supply restricted service on among the older video games, however it’s strictly on a case-by-case foundation.

Find Out of This World Arcade and Game at 923 Emmet St. in Petoskey. (231) 252-0252; fb.com/outofthisworldarcadeandgame