Bally Le Mans Arcade -- Closed

Entry posted by Flack September 22, 2008

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Last week I discovered that Bally's Le Mans, one of the oldest arcades in the Oklahoma City area, has closed its doors. (Technically it didn't have doors since it was located at Crossoads Mall, but you get the idea. They're gone.)

Bally's Le Mans was originally Le Mans Speedway, an indoor go-cart race track that was installed sometime during the late 70s. Eventually the race track was removed to make room for arcade games and the word "Speedway" was dropped from the name, leaving us with simply Le Mans. At some point during its lifetime Le Mans was purchased by Bally's. I believe Namco has a stake in the arcade too, as all the tokens say Namco and have Pac-Man on them.

As I waxed about in Invading Spaces, Le Mans was the first place I ever saw Dragon's Lair, the big dual-monitor version with a second monitor bolted to the top of the cabinet that allowed the gathering masses to see the action. There was definitely a crowd gathered around the machine, I remember. In seventh grade (1985/1986) one of my friends had his birthday party at Le Mans. It was at that party that we discovered Gauntlet. Due to low party attendance we ended up with around twenty bucks worth of tokens each, most of which were pumped into Gauntlet that day. Le Mans was the first place I ever saw the sit down version of S.T.U.N. Runner, too. Lots of good memories there.

The southside of Oklahoma City, specifically the area around Crossroads Mall, "ain't what it used to be." According to several websites, the mall has been taken over by gangs. Car break-ins are a daily occurance and in 2006, one gang member shot another one directly in front of the arcade in May of 2006 (the shooter was shot and killed in the mall by an off-duty sherrif's deputy. Many businesses and mall patrons have not forgot about the incident. Last year JCPenneys left and this year Macy's pulled out of the mall. Also in 2008, the Extreme indoor putt-putt course (where Mason had his birthday in 2006), Subway, and Sbarro's have all left, too. Most of the web entries I found regarding Crossroads Mall describe it as a "dangerous ghost town".

I didn't take the following picture. I found it on Photobucket posted by a fellow named Rifter and used it simply because with Le Mans closed I have no reason to ever visit Crossroads Mall ever again, but here it is. Rest in peace, Le Mans.

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Nathan Strum 11,963

Posted September 22, 2008

I hated seeing all of the arcades I used to frequent in Seattle shut down. But none of them really lasted beyond the mid-80's. Space Port (Aurora Village and U-District), Starcade, Electric Palace, Fun 'n' Games, Arnold's... all gone. After I moved to California, I found a cool retro-arcade in Fullerton called The Reagan Years, but it too fell by the wayside.