EP. #75: OLD-SCHOOL ARCADE GAMES with Billy Smith

EP. #75: OLD-SCHOOL ARCADE GAMES with Billy Smith

From Let's Talk Ten by DAN FISHER

April 13, 2026 · 1h 1m

About this episode

Dan Fisher talks with Billy Smith about their favorite old-school arcade games and their cultural significance.

BILLY SMITH – owner and operator of Billy’s Midway Arcade in Hawthorne, NJ – joins Dan to talk about their favorite all-time old-school arcade games: Pinball, Skee-ball, Pong, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Pole Position, Tetris, House of the Dead, even claw machines. It’s a fun and fast-paced conversation about the histories of these games and the tech wizards who created them; the enormous impact on they had on our culture, popular and otherwise; and why pinball is the most poetic of all the arcad...

People in this episode

Host: Dan Fisher

Guest: Billy Smith

Topics covered

  • old-school arcade games
  • gaming history
  • cultural impact of games
  • pinball
  • arcade technology

Keywords

  • arcade games
  • Pinball
  • Skee-ball
  • Donkey Kong
  • Pac Man
  • gaming history
  • cultural impact

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Pinball, Skee-ball, Pong, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Pole Position, Tetris, House of the Dead, claw machines

Places: Hawthorne, NJ

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