
While looking through record books from the 1950s, Bob Lawton, founder and general manager of Funspot, stumbled upon the one from his first year, which was exactly 58 years ago today.
Twenty-five years before video games ever existed, Lawton took the initiative of creating a business that would bring families together and send them away with a smile. Only 21 and still in college, Lawton borrowed $750 from his grandmother in 1952 and started his own miniature golf course and arcade.
With help from his brother, John, they built the course and opened the doors for business, which was named the Weirs Sports Center. It was located above Tarlson's Arcade Building on Lakeside Avenue, across from the Weirs Beach Boardwalk.
"I was wondering if the last Friday in June [1952] was when we started and it was," said Lawton.
It was on Friday, June 27, 1952, that Lawton opened his doors with assistance from his brother. The first day they were open, Lawton pointed out in his record book, he had made a total of $36.60 from golf and $5.60 from selling soda, totaling a whooping $42.40 for that day.
Over the course of the weekend, he netted $155.85 and the total gross income for the year was $2,906.34.
"We were 25 years in business before we ever heard of video games," said Lawton. "We had a shuffle alley, the old baseball games, pinball machines and the old rifle gallery."
He said they had the mechanical games for years — up until 1964, when they bought the 21 acres of land where the building now stands, and the location where Funspot officially started.
"I got the name from a magazine," Lawton said. "When we asked them if we could use the name for our business, they said go right ahead."
At the new location, there was a small building adjacent to the miniature golf course. Through the years the building expanded, with its first major expansion being a 4,000-square-foot billiard room in 1965, currently home to the prize counter area and other games.
Funspot got its first video game around 1977, something that revolutionized the entire industry.
"Our first game was Tank," said Lawton. "It was actually Tank 2 because it was a two-player game."
Although it is not the original unit, Funspot has Tank in its Classic Arcade Museum for people to play.
Once the age of video games came in, Lawton began to develop the business further, and certain attractions were shut down because they were simply not popular.
At one time, Funspot had two child theme parks, one called Indian Village and another called Storybook Forest. The schoolhouse from Storybook Forest is still standing today and is one of the only remnants of the park.
"Everyone was playing video games; we couldn't have enough of them," said Lawton. "We had five Space Invader games right here on the first floor. They were busy all the time."
In the early 1980s, Funspot started to expand operations to other areas, including Wolfeboro, Concord, Dover, Amherst, South Portland, Maine, and Port Richey, Fla. Also in 1980, Funspot switched over from quarters to tokens.
As technology evolved, and consumers were able to play video games on their television sets with the invention of home video game consoles, the innovations marked the end of several arcades.
"They were all very successful until the 1990s when the bottom fell out of the video game business with the development of home games," said Lawton.
Lawton said he had to close Funspot's other locations, keeping only the facility at Weirs Beach, and the family focused on ways to make it bigger and better.
The Funspot in Florida was the last Funspot to close, but it was transformed into another arcade which is still up and running today.
"After the boom in the '90s, half of the arcades in the country closed within two years," said Lawton. "We had to diversify, particularly in the 1990s."
Additions to Funspot included the bowling center in 1988, the bingo hall in 1996, the Classic Game Museum in 1998 and the indoor golf center in 2000. The driving range was taken out because of the amount of maintenance involved. Lawton thought about removing the outdoor minigolf course and putting a restaurant in its place, but realized that it still had value.
"When we opened it in 1964, we were the only ones in the Lakes Region that had minigolf, but then several opened up," said Lawton. "Last year, we decided we wouldn't close it and we were going to keep it. It's historic; the buildings are fantastic."
Lawton and his employees put a significant amount of work into the golf course and refurbished some of the ornaments during the winter. On the lot adjacent to the course, he said, he would like to see a hotel franchise move in, and he already has talked with Best Western, and plans to speak with Hilton and possibly Marriott soon.
The Guinness Book of World Records named Funspot the World's Largest Arcade in 2008. It is home to the International Classic Videogame Tournament at the American Classic Arcade Museum, which has more than 250 pre-1988 games.
Funspot also has been named one of the Top 10 Great Geek destinations in the country, as featured on CNN.
Funspot's dragon mascot, Topsnuf (which is Funspot spelled backward) is now an icon in the Lakes Region.
"We've had a good year so far," said Lawton. "It's been fun in the long haul. You never know what the future will hold."
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