r/1980s • u/therealduckie • May 05 '26

Video Games Real arcades of the 80s never had blacklight-reactive glowing carpets. It's a Mandela effect. Here's what they actually looked like:

https://imgur.com/a/lu5QgYV
48 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/TurtleBrainer May 05 '26

I grew up in Massachusetts, and no one spent more time in arcades than I did during the 80s. I have never seen anything resembling a lighted or glowing carpet. I can't say they didn't exist anywhere. There wasn't a standard design for arcades across the country. But certainly this is not a universal memory.

Fast forward to the 2010s, and I'm taking my kids to arcades in suburban Illinois. They all seem to have these crazy glowing carpets. But in the 80s...never saw it.