Neon Nostalji

Neon Nostalji is an arcade management game set in Istanbul. Your Uncle Hüsnü leaves you his tiny corner arcade: cracked linoleum, faded yellow walls and a single broken cabinet. You name the place, fix that first machine, sell the first tokens and slowly turn the room into a neon salon full of regulars.

You order everything from the old CRT computer on the counter. Machines arrive by cargo van as crates you unbox and place yourself: tube cabinets and pinball tables, beige-box PCs and RGB rigs, racing seats, flight cockpits, VR pods, streaming rooms, claw and dance machines, a café and vending machines, with licenses opening new categories as your reputation rises. Every machine is also a playable mini-game, fifteen in all, from snake, breakout, pinball and a dot-gobbling maze to a platformer, a fighter, a racer, a flight shooter, foosball, air hockey, basketball, a claw and two rhythm games. Playing yourself is free, and a high score puts your three letters on the board.

The arcade runs day by day. Customers have budgets, favourite machines and needs: they get hungry and dislike dirt, narrow aisles, long queues, noise and heat. Expensive tokens bring fewer, grumpier customers; cheap ones bring a crowd with thin profits. Staff share the work: a janitor for trash, a mechanic for breakdowns and the fuse box, a cashier for tokens and stock, and security for angry customers. Overload the power and the fuse blows. Floors, wallpaper, neon signs, lamps, plants, a jukebox and matching colours raise the atmosphere, which brings more visitors and reputation. At night the arcade closes and time stops, so you can build, expand onto the lots next door and rearrange in peace.

A rival arcade opens across the street and cuts its prices, evening tournaments pull in hardcore players, families book birthday parties, streamers and tour buses drop in, city inspectors check the place, a stray kitten may move in, and a flea market and auction offer broken collector's pieces worth restoring. A few tips: empty the till often, because a thief can swipe cash from a full one; check the power load before adding big machines; invest in atmosphere early, since it drives visitors and reputation; and keep the space in front of and behind the counter free for the queue and the cashier.

Seasons, holidays, a second branch in a mall and 130 career milestones make it a long game for many sessions. It is designed for desktop in landscape with a mouse and keyboard, and it can be played in twelve languages. The salon itself stays in Istanbul, with its lira, simit and çay, and every image and sound is generated in code.

Use the computer on the counter (B) to order machines, furniture and supplies. Open the boxes that arrive, switch to build mode with Tab to place machines, and rotate them with R, Q and E. Decorate with walls, floors and neon signs, and don't forget the basics: snack and drink machines, prize shelves and restrooms.

Click customers, staff and machines to see how they are doing. Double-click a machine to zoom in and play its mini-game yourself. Speed time up with 1, 2 and 3, and pause with Space.