Funspot Family Entertainment Center (or simply Funspot) is an
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
which features one of the largest collections of late-1970s to mid-1980s games in the world. It is located in the village of
Weirs Beach in
Laconia, New Hampshire
Laconia is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. Laconia, situated between Lake Winnipesaukee and Lak ...
, United States. Founded in 1952 by Bob Lawton, Funspot includes over 500 video games, pinball machines, and ticket redemption machines; an indoor
miniature golf course; 20-lane
ten-pin
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...
and
candlepin bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...
; cash
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** Bi ...
; a restaurant; a tavern; and several other attractions on its grounds.
Funspot was officially named the "Largest Arcade in the World" by ''
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' at the 10th Annual International Classic Video Game and Pinball Tournament, held from May 29 through June 1, 2008.
[Alt URL]
/ref>
Originally called the Weirs Sports Center, and located across the street from the Weirs Beach boardwalk
A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ...
, Funspot moved in 1964 to its current home on Route 3. There are 250 games from the 1970s and 1980s on the floor at any one time in the American Classic Arcade Museum section of Funspot, with another 100 housed in a warehouse.
Funspot is home to The American Classic Arcade Museum, a separate 501(c)3 non-profit organization located on the arcade's third floor, which seeks to preserve the history of coin-operated arcade games.
History
Funspot first opened as the Weirs Sports Center on June 27, 1952, in the top floor of Tarlson's Arcade building across from the Weirs Beach boardwalk. It was opened by then 21-year-old Bob Lawton as an indoor miniature golf course and penny arcade with $750 USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
borrowed from his grandmother. On the first day the center was open it made $36.60 from miniature golf admission and $5.60 from selling soft drinks.[Haas, Harrison]
Fun Spot Healthy at 58
'' The Citizen'' of Laconia. June 27, 2010. Accessed July 11, 2010. A round of 9-hole mini-golf cost 35 cents.
In 1964, Funspot was created when Lawton bought of land, the same land where Funspot now sits, and moved his entertainment venture there. The first attraction built was a miniature golf course and an adjacent building. This course came to be known as the "Landmarks of New Hampshire" miniature golf course. A small clubhouse was also built next to the course, and in 1965 it was expanded into a billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions ...
room. This was the first of several additions to Funspot.
In 1971, Funspot opened the first of two theme parks on its Route 3 campus. Named "Indian Village", it was described by the president of the American Indian Lore Association, Chief Red Dawn, in 1973 as, "A village of life-size habitats - reconstructed from historical blueprints, representing major Indian cultural areas of North America." Buildings ranged from a " Nookta Whaling Shrine," to a "Mandan
The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...
Earth lodge
An earth lodge is a semi-subterranean building covered partially or completely with earth, best known from the Native American cultures of the Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands. Most earth lodges are circular in construction with a dome-like ...
," to " Plains Indians Teepees
A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...
." Indian Village closed in 1983.
A second theme park, Storybook Forest, was opened in 1976. This park was themed after children's nursery rhymes and fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s. One of the main attractions in Storybook Forest was "Gingerbread Man Pond", a pond created in the shape of a running gingerbread man
A gingerbread man or a Gingerbread man cookie is a biscuit or cookie made from gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized form / caricature of a human being, although other shapes, especially seasonal themes (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, et ...
, with two large buttons. The buttons housed Robinson Crusoe
''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...
's hut and cave. There were also multiple fiberglass sculptures of story characters that are still seen throughout the children's areas of Funspot. When Storybook Forest closed, all of the attractions were removed with the exception of the red school house.
In 1980, Funspot switched from quarters to tokens. Funspot expanded over the years, opening satellite locations in Wolfeboro, Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, Dover, and Amherst in New Hampshire, as well as South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state, incorporated in 1898. At the 2020 census, the city population was 26,498. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is sit ...
, and Port Richey, Florida
Port Richey is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
In 1883, Aaron M. Richey arrived from St. Joseph, Missouri, and ...
. By the mid-1990s these satellite locations had closed one at a time, with the location in Florida being the last to close. It was transformed into another arcade
Stop N' Play
which is still open. The bowling center, featuring both ten-pin
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...
and candlepin, was added to Funspot in 1988, and the bingo hall was added in 1996.
Funspot was named "World's Largest Arcade" by ''Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' in 2008. One attraction in the building, the American Classic Arcade Museum, has approximately 180 pre-1988 video games and pinball machines. In 2009, the outdoor minigolf course was moved indoors to the third floor and is now open year-round. Bob Lawton said, "When we opened it in 1964, we were the only ones in the Lakes Region that had minigolf, but then several opened up. Last year, we decided we wouldn't close it and we were going to keep it. It's historic; the buildings are fantastic."
American Classic Arcade Museum
The third floor of Funspot houses the American Classic Arcade Museum.
Gary Vincent, an employee of Funspot and president and curator of the American Classic Arcade Museum, founded the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
with the purpose of collecting classic games through donation to preserve the history of classic coin-op games. Opened in the late 1990s, the American Classic Arcade Museum currently accepts donations of games built no later than 1989. Previously the museum's date range extended only to 1987; when asked in a 2008 article why 1987 was picked as the cut off date, Vincent replied, "We set the cut off date as 1987 because that is pretty much about the time when we noticed that the videogame industry was starting to change. Instead of having fantasy-based games, puzzle-based, space shoot 'em up games or whatever, it seemed to switch over to more of what I call 'kick-punch-shoot' games."
There are 180 games on the floor at any one time. Billy Baker of ''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called the museum "the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
of the '8-bit
In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...
' world."[Baker, Billy]
Bizarro World
''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''. August 19, 2007. Accessed July 11, 2010.
From 1999 to 2012, the American Classic Arcade Museum hosted the Annual Classic Videogame and Pinball Tournament, where people came from all over the world to try to beat records on the arcade games housed in the museum. Referees from ''Guinness World Records'' were on hand to verify the record attempts. At the 10th tournament alone, well over 20 records were set. Records have been set at the American Classic Arcade Museum by well-known gamers such as Billy Mitchell
William Lendrum Mitchell (December 29, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a United States Army officer who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force.
Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflict's end, command ...
, Steve Wiebe, and Brian Kuh
''The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters'' is a 2007 American documentary film about Esports, competitive arcade gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game ''Donk ...
.
During the end of the 1980s, with the decline in interest in arcade games, Funspot started deaccessioning
Deaccessioning is the process by which a work of art or other object is permanently removed from a museum's collection to sell it or otherwise dispose of it.Report from the AAMD Task Force on Deaccessioning. 2010. ''AAMD Policy on Deaccessioning' ...
its games. Once the museum was founded, Funspot began looking to regain those games they lost. One such lost game was the first video game to appear in Funspot, ''Tank II''. It was installed around 1977 and sold off in the late 1980s. Another copy was acquired by the museum, but it is not the original game that used to be housed at Funspot. To reaccession games, the museum purchases some on eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
and has many donated. Often, nonworking or partial games are donated, and restoration work, sometimes years' worth, must be done to get them in working order.
In 2007, portions of the documentary ''The King of Kong
''The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters'' is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive arcade gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game ''Donkey Kong ...
'' were filmed in the museum and other areas of Funspot.
Symbols
Funspot took its name from a magazine titled the same that founder, Bob Lawton, read. Bob has stated, "I got the name from a magazine... When we asked them if we could use the name for our business, they said go right ahead." In 1965, the creator of the Archie comic series, Bob Montana
Robert William Montana (October 23, 1920 – January 4, 1975) was an American comic strip artist who created the original likenesses for characters published by Archie Comics and in the newspaper strip '' Archie''.
Early life
He was born in Sto ...
, drew the jester that appears on every Funspot token. Montana, who resided in Meredith, New Hampshire
Meredith is a New England town, town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,662 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Meredith is situated in the state's Lakes Region (New Hamp ...
, created the jester in the likeness of his character Jughead. Funspot's mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...
is "Topsnuf" the dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
. "Topsnuf" is "Funspot" backwards.
Additional ventures
Funspot's founder and owner, Robert Lawton has launched other community ventures that are not associated with his family entertainment center. Records of Funspot's web site show that at least from 2006 to 2012, several of its charity bingo games each week—staffed in part by volunteers—have had one of the associated nonprofits as their beneficiary.
The Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society and Lake Winnipesaukee Museum are an organization and museum building located on a separate property adjacent to Funspot. The historical society was founded by Funspot owner Bob Lawton and his son Tim Lawton in 1985. The museum houses information and exhibits on the history of Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee () is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, located in the Lakes Region at the foothills of the White Mountains. It is approximately long (northwest-southeast) and from wide (northeast-southwest), covering & ...
and the towns surrounding it. Many of the artifacts were found by Bob and Tim from scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
expeditions the two regularly made into the lake. The museum building was opened in 2004, and has been expanded to include a state of the art presentation area for guest lectures. [LWHS Archives](_blank)
Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society. Accessed July 12, 2010
''The Weirs Times'' is the second venture outside the realm of entertainment that Bob Lawton embarked upon. The original "Weirs Times and Tourist's Gazette" was published from 1883 until 1902. Bob Lawton started publishing a new weekly paper with the same masthead and map of Lake Winnipesaukee as the original paper in June 1992. Originally focused on the towns around Lake Winnipesaukee, the weekly publication has expanded to a weekly circulation of 30,000.[Weirs Times: About]
The Weirs Times. Accessed July 12, 2010 ''The Weirs Times'' is known for devoting a large percent of its copy
Copy may refer to:
*Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact
**Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing
**File copying
**Photocopying, a pr ...
to Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
and Tea Party
A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...
columnists and letters to the editor
A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...
.
Funspot began hosting the Miss Winnipesaukee Scholarship Program in 1969 and did so for several years but is no longer a sponsor of program.History:1968
. Miss Winnipesaukee Scholarship Program. Accessed July 12, 2010
See also
References
External links
Funspot official websiteAmerican Classic Arcade MuseumNewbie Goes to Funspot – Arcade Blogger*{{Vimeo, id=713931118, title=''Funspot: A Small Documentary On The World's Largest Video Game Arcade'', a 2016 documentary by Plaster of Paris Productions
Atlas ObscuraLake Winnipesaukee Historical Society''The Weirs Times''
Video arcades
Buildings and structures in Laconia, New Hampshire
Amusement museums in the United States
Tourist attractions in Belknap County, New Hampshire
Museums in Belknap County, New Hampshire
1952 establishments in New Hampshire