Put Another Token in the Jukebox, Baby

“D.P.O.” is a pretty amazing X-Files episode, featuring not only an arcade, which is central to the episode, but also a Lenscrafters cameo, glimpses of a Jerry-Springer-like show and a music video, a reference to the land art piece Lightning Field, a rural boy pranking cows, Jack Black, and a Playboy centerfold with at least a passing resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I particularly like how Mulder picks out the suspect by locating his initials on the high score screen of a Virtua Fighter machine. One thing I’m wondering about the arcade in this episode, though: It has a jukebox, which is rather instrumental (no pun intended) to the way the episode … plays out.

Was it really common for arcades to have jukeboxes? In my recollection, which may be rusty, arcades were noisy enough thanks to the games themselves. I suppose one could have turned the games’ volumes down to let other music be heard, but there weren’t jukeboxes in the arcades I remember, from, say, The Gold Mine up through Le Fun. Did your arcades have other soundtracks, beyond those coming from the cabinets?

3 Replies to “Put Another Token in the Jukebox, Baby”

  1. I think the arcades I went to did play music, but they were also combination pool halls and bars. I do know for sure, though, that FunSpot plays 80s music. And so does the dusty arcade in Tron Legacy.

  2. My memory at this point is fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure the arcades I went to did not have jukeboxes. Some of them had music playing over a PA system.

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