Pro tip: the dead mall arcade in Tulsa still runs on tokens, and I found out why that saved my whole trip

Fiona Carr · 2026-09-30T12:10:06.302162+00:00

I drove out to Tulsa last month to check out the old Promenade Mall before they finally tear it down, and the only thing left inside was a tiny arcade with a hand written sign taped to the gate. The owner, a guy named Ray, keeps the machines on tokens he still has from 1998 because he says the card readers never worked right and nobody wants to fix them. I asked where I could get tokens and he just pointed at the customer service desk, which has been empty for like 6 years. Turns out you have to go to the sneaker store two doors down and ask for Ray's nephew, who keeps a coffee can of tokens behind the register. I paid 5 bucks and got 40 tokens, then spent almost two hours playing a Galaga machine that had a high score from 2004 nobody has touched. Has anyone else run into a dead mall store that still uses its own weird money system to keep the lights on?

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Pro tip: the dead mall arcade in Tulsa still runs on tokens, and I found out why that saved my whole trip | Dead Mall Finds - Vivisector