Gaming That’s Out of This World

Owner credits “contagious nostalgia” for growth at this Petoskey arcade

Anyone with an appreciation for the late 1970s and 1980s might enjoy the sound of vintage video games and their incredible light displays. When you walk through the front door of Out of This World Arcade and Game in Petoskey, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Entering feels like you’ve passed through some kind of time portal and into another era, when the hair was big, the colors bright, and the entertainment was taking new forms.

From the vintage Atari home game consoles in the front, to the classic Pac-Man cabinet machine in back, everything about Out of This World Arcade and Game reverberates with the sights and sounds of the late 20th century. Even the arcade’s owner, Grant Munson, fits the part in his pleated slacks, wedgie shoes, knitted crew neck sweater, and hairstyle that calls to mind (and ear) ’80s New Wavers A Flock of Seagulls or Thomas Dolby.

Munson clearly feels right at home among his mountains of colorful, chirping ’70s and ’80s game systems, which he’s collected since he was a teenager.

At 30, he’s still not far from those years, but his collection of vintage arcade cabinets and classic home gaming systems grew to the point where there wasn’t much left to do but launch his arcade and game shop. The business has about 50 arcade games, dozens of vintage home gaming systems, tens of thousands of related game cartridges, comic books, and a smattering of other game-related accessories and merchandise, as well as vintage computers.

“I experienced the tail end of the arcade era,” Munson says, explaining the origins of his nine-year-old business. “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 square feet, most of Out of This World is crammed with lots of neat stuff on which gaming enthusiasts can totally geek-out.

The front of the store is dedicated to old home gaming systems like Atari and Nintendo, with a few really far throwbacks, like a classic Pong system—one of the very first TV interface games, which is fascinating in its sheer simplicity and narrow scope, especially by modern standards. You get to play Pong (rudimentary TV tennis) in black and white. That’s it!

A red velvet rope separates the retail area from the arcade in back, and for $10, Munson will let you play any or all of the 50 games. He owns about 80 different arcade games, switching them out periodically. But that $10 pass is good for the entire day, and he’ll even let you leave and come back.

From the arcade’s vivid galactic carpeting to the roar of the Sega Pole Position race car, one encounters a rogue’s gallery of other action-filled worlds chirping with interesting sounds and flashing loads of early computer gaming graphics.

There’s the obligatory Pac-Man wakka-wakka-wakka-ing as he pursues and devours ghosts through a strange, fruit-filled maze.

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

In another corner, a Centipede winds its segmented body through a field of mushrooms, quickly descending toward the player—represented by a roller-ball controlled cannon that fires weird-sounding darts. Destroy the Centipede or die!

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

The History

When multiple customers are playing the games, Out of This World Arcade and Game comes to life with a wave of sound and light that hearkens back to a decade when shopping malls were as popular as the arcades that called them home.

These games were lots of fun when they were new (and still are to some), but their graphics and story lines seem laughably basic by today’s standards. Today’s video games are light years ahead of their 1980s predecessors, especially when virtual reality video games are thrown into the mix.

By the end of the ’80s, home video game systems like Atari and Nintendo were already laser-blasting their way through the arcade industry, vaporizing the shopping mall staple like invaders from space.

One by one, arcades, like drive-in movie theaters, closed across the land. Both home gaming and home video systems laid waste to these once omnipresent popular culture entities, relegating them to the nostalgia bin. Game over.

But nostalgia bins are popular, too, and people are always interested, to some degree, in the pastimes of yesteryear. Like the resurgence of Hula Hoops, vinyl records, and film cameras, vintage video games also have a following, giving them a “bonus play,” if you will.

“It’s like a contagious nostalgia,” says Munson, referring to his shop’s continued popularity. “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 younger customers often don’t care about this version or that. To them, it all represents the interesting origins of something they hold near and dear: 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 business in 2016, using space in a downtown Petoskey coin shop, where he also worked. That proprietor let him display some of his vintage home game systems there. Later he expanded into the building’s basement, where he opened the first arcade and retail space.

Munson moved to his Emmet Street location in January 2025 and has noticed an uptick in business. In fact, he said this summer was his best 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 buying, selling, and trading video games in all their forms, particularly older ones. Munson does offer limited service on some of the older games, but it’s strictly on a case-by-case basis.

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

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