Chinatown Fair, Video arcade in Chinatown, Manhattan, US
Chinatown Fair is a video arcade on the first floor of 7-9 Mott Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, in the building that once housed the Port Arthur Chinese Restaurant. Its floor holds rows of coin-operated cabinets, with fighting games such as Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom alongside Dance Dance Revolution and racing machines.
The venue opened in 1944 as a penny arcade and small museum before transforming into a video game center during the 1970s gaming boom. This shift reflected the broader move from mechanical novelties to electronic gaming entertainment.
The arcade evolved into a gathering place where fighting game enthusiasts test their skills against each other and build a tight community. Players from different parts of the city come here to practice and compete in their favorite games.
Chinatown Fair is on the first floor of 7-9 Mott Street, the former Port Arthur Chinese Restaurant building. The arcade closed in February 2011 and reopened in May 2012 as Chinatown Fair Family Fun Center under manager Lonnie Sobel. Competitive fighting game players moved to Next Level, a Brooklyn arcade opened in 2011 by Chinatown Fair's former manager.
The arcade's first attraction was a dancing chicken, later replaced by a tic-tac-toe playing chicken that was retired in the early 2000s. In 2011 filmmaker Mark Hayes released a short documentary, Chinatown Fair, covering the period between the arcade's closing and reopening.
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