Shannan Park, operator of the Fun Zone Arcade & Game Room on Balboa Peninsula, said she always made sure the prizes for winning tickets from its old-school classics like Skeeball, pinball, Pac-Man and the famous Big Mouth toss were exactly the ones kids would covet.
“I’d talk to the kids about the prizes they wanted to win,” she said, adding that she and others were blown away when a giant, plushy black stuffed dog was recently claimed by someone who had saved 40,000 tickets. “This is an old-school place where people save tickets and use quarters and win a lot of prizes.”
But the rush and excited screams of a win won’t be reverberating through the arcade much longer. The arcade that has been part of the Fun Zone since the mid-1980s is closing at the end of the month.
Park, who purchased the arcade in 2007 with her husband, Max Moore, has been paying month-to-month for her lease since 2021 and learned recently it would be terminated after December.
She’s planning a big farewell party to celebrate the arcade’s last day on Dec. 28 and then the games and memorabilia will go to an auction house in Anaheim.
The Pyle family of Newport Beach purchased the block-long Fun Zone in 2021 from the Discovery Cube. Henry Pyle said the family, which has been in Newport Beach since the 1960s and has its own nostalgic ties to the Fun Zone, bought the aging property with plans to refresh it. He said they plan more restaurants, but the fun will remain in the Fun Zone with its Ferris wheel and a new concept arcade.
For Park, shutting the doors on her arcade strikes a deeply personal note. She grieves for the nostalgia that it represented and the simple, pure fun locals and tourists have enjoyed there for decades. But, it’s also what her husband, who spent much of his life working at the Fun Zone, was devoted to.
When the arcade was going up for sale, Moore and Park stepped in to buy it to ensure its tradition would continue. Moore died in 2018. Park has kept the arcade going in his memory since then, she said.
“He loved this place so much,” she said, through tears. “He loved the people and he was always here. He was kind, he was good with the kids. He’d go down to it at 7 a.m., and he could fix anything. He was a wise, wise man.”
After Moore died, Park, who before the arcade made her livelihood singing at local restaurants, relied on help from fellow musicians to keep the arcade going.
Among them is Matt Boyd, a keyboardist who works the counter during the week. Retired from his day job in the pest control business, he saw the arcade as the spot to rekindle his memories of growing up in Long Beach and spending his teenage years in a similar place on Shoreline Drive.
“It’s the stuff as a kid you remember,” he said. “People come in here from all over the world. They come from places like Germany and Korea and come back year after year. It’s definitely an international spot. They like that we keep the nostalgia.”
The amusement arcade is located along a walkway that borders Balboa Bay. It’s right near the dock for the popular, and equally iconic, Balboa Island Ferry and across from the peninsula’s landmark Ferris wheel, which this year will be represented in the Tournament of Roses Parade as part of the Visit Newport Beach entry. The Ferris wheel was owned by Moore’s son, Patrick, who Boyd said recently sold it to the Pyle Family.
Entering the arcade, visitors are greeted by the Zoltan Fortune Teller machine. Once through the doors, the sounds, melodies and bright, blinking lights remind of days gone by. Many of the games play age-old jingles. There are sounds of zaps and buzzes, luring gamers to take a chance.
Most games use quarters and then spit out tickets for the points earned. Boyd said the tickets are hard to come by and are ordered in big blocks from a vendor on the East Coast.
“Real quarters and real tickets, that’s what makes it so nostalgic,” he said. “There’s nothing like this anymore in Orange County.”
Boyd routinely gets tickets dumped on his counter and then helps kids do the math for prizes.
“You really need a lot of patience,” he said, laughing, while recounting the mounds of tickets he’s spent time counting.
Most games spit out wins pretty easily, but some require more skill. And, over the years, Boyd said he’s watched some super-skilled kids win really big. He said the plushy giant dog toy isn’t a one-time thing, adding, “It happens over and over.”
Some people come in big groups or play with their families, where everyone ultimately chips in for the bigger prize. While the big stuffed animals are super coveted, you can also win a spider ring or a mint with just two tickets.
“I’ve really enjoyed working there,” Boyd said. “I’ve enjoyed helping the kids. I enjoy seeing the look on their face when they first see the toys and games. It’s just such a joy.”
Both Boyd and Park are melancholy over their arcade closing. Park said that even if the Pyle family had offered her the option of upgrading the arcade, she wouldn’t have done that because what makes it so special, she feels, is its retro look and feel.
“I thought it would be my retirement,” she said. “But it’s not like I can just pick it up and move it.”
Even though this arcade will close, Henry Pyle said the concept will return refreshed after a significant investment.
“Skeeball and the basketball game will still be there,” he said. “The games that are there now are very rundown, and they’re not all old-school, just old. We’re upgrading the arcade. We’ll have all new games and some of the old favorites.”
He said that if all goes as planned, the new arcade will be up and running by spring.
The family has plans to revamp the entire Fun Zone area, he said, but details are still being worked out.
“Anything major,” he said, “is multiple years off.”
