when i was a teen visiting some friends staying at their place in a somewhat big italian city i always played outrun 2 with them at a local arcade there, but visiting again recently i noticed it disappeared

turns out italy BANNED ALL VINTAGE ARCADE CABINETS

THEY UNIRONICALLY MADE PAC-MAN ILLEGAL

April 02, 2026 - 12:04 UTC

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WHAT???? This breaks my heart because we used to go to an Arcade in Italy were they had so many killer games from Sega, Namco, Capom ect. I wanted to Return to this place for years but hearing this is absolutely deviating.
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*devastating FUCK
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holy shit is that why i couldnt play ddr when i was visiting italy?? i remember this one luna park in spotorno would have it every summer :(
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Mussolini would be proud.
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... oh my god, is THAT why I never see arcades in Italy anymore? I loved those as a kid whenever I went there on holiday, Italy seems to have had a fairly vibrant arcade scene back in the day
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the reasoning seems to be that some arcade place owners were hiding devices with double boards/hacked firmware so that with a magnet you could turn any arcade into an illegal gambling machine... so they NUKED THE WHOLE THING

ONLY APPROVED BY THE STATE NEW MACHINES ARE LEGAL

this is fucking insane
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an exception seems to be made for freeplay machines in museums or private collections or conventions but they cannot be advertised in any way shape or form apparently idk i hate this shit and i hate that i cannot play outrun 2 on vacation now so this shit sucks and i will call it out for that lol
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lmfao what the fuck italy
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Yeah, it's so hard to find a place where to play cool old arcades here in Italy. I was so sad when they closed my favourite arcade place
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when my buddy had a video game store years ago, he had to get the store, AND THE WHOLE STREET zoned in for arcade machines because no one had done that since the 1980s, AND he had to prove they weren't gambling machines. It was a Ms. Pacman and a Neo Geo. Insane old people ruin everything lol
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america's one and only W
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