What were arcades like? - Page 3 - RPGnet Forums Arcades were magical. I know of no other way to describe it. I can't think of anything modern to compare them to. They were typically in big dark rooms. They were cool and they had a unique smell. They didn't smell at all bad, it was a mixture of a bunch of different smells, like cleaner and plastic and ozone. in Public bookmarkswith arcadearcadesdiscussionnostalgiaretrogames