There's an article up by the enigmatically-named Spanner entitled The Back O' The Arcade. The author takes a nostalgic and evocative look back at the arcade scene in England in the late 80s and 90s, recalling a time when dingy hole in the wall arcade establishments were populated by young school kids congregating out of a shared love for games.

There were kids in these arcades whose socks were a substantial part of their shoe leather and had their hair cut by their sister with a knife and fork, but give them the price of a single credit and they became rich men and kings alike. They were revered among their people for their prowess at making that single coin last longer than their melancholy trek home in the rain.

When I see a video game show on the TV, populated by affluent, sharply dressed 20-somethings talking their insipid talk while walking a 30 second walk on some photo-realistic 3-D football simulator, I remember those down and out 10-year-olds who stood on a milk crate to see the screen as they thwarted the final boss on R-Type with cramping knuckles and aching fingers.

It's a good read for longtime arcade gamers (or longtime gamers of any type, really), offering a brief but fully-realized picture of a certain subset of gaming culture that for the most part has passed with the dominance of PC and home console gaming.