About 20 minutes south of Bloomington on old Route 66 [or I-55, if you prefer speed to scenery] is the town of McLean, population 743. McLean is home to Arcadia, the multi-site vintage arcade full of pinball machines and classic games from the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s.
And soon there will be another new arcade in McLean — Arcadia Unlimited will be opening this fall and will eventually feature more than 500 restored arcade games, including rare and vintage games.
With likely the highest arcades-to-people ratio in the world, McLean has become a national hub for restored pinball machines, classic games and arcade oddities because of the creativity and vision of one man: John Yates, the purveyor and singular imagination behind Arcadia.
“This is the arcade I started back in 2009 and I have devoted my life since then to expanding it, growing it, adding new attractions,” he said.
Yates is charming and high energy as we walked through his four arcade buildings. I brought musician Brett Conlin and his family to play some games and hang out while Yates showed me around. Neither of us are particularly good at pinball, or versed in modern video games, but we both have a soft spot for the classic pinball machines that were a mainstay of popular culture throughout our childhoods [and well before that].
“It was a strange path that led me to this place," said Yates, in between rounds of pinball.
Yates has had a wide and varied career. He has a degree from the University of Illinois in electrical engineering. But he settled down in McLean and now devotes his full-time energy creating an arcade paradise in a small prairie town. He runs several arcade-themed Airbnbs and three arcades in town. Over the last 15 years, he has personally restored more than 1,700 [not a typo] vintage arcade games.
Arcadia Unlimited, scheduled to open in September [probably] will be the first Arcadia arcade to operate on a pay-to-enter model, while the machines in the other three locations are coin-based — the latter is his preference.
“I think there’s something important about having an investment in a game,” he said, “even if it’s only 25 cents. I’m trying to recreate my childhood.”
Yates has mixed feelings on the pay-to-enter model, but acknowledges the demand and interest.
“However,” he said, “I accept that other people may want their own experience. If you want a whole day of gaming [Arcadia Unlimited] will be your place.”
For Yates, it’s about much more than money. His singular vision is to create a safe, fun, nostalgic environment in his adopted hometown. Arcadia was created to be a safe, entertaining place open and accessible to everyone.
“This is currently the cheapest entertainment venue in all of McLean County," he said. "There’s no place else you can take your family with a five-dollar bill and everyone has some fun.”
You won’t find any slot machines or “gaming machines” mixed in with the vintage games at Arcadia.
“I don’t personally have a problem with gambling,” Yates said, “but it’s not conducive with the environment I want to create.”
Much like the Funk family who settled a few miles north of McLean in the first half of the 19th century, Yates came to McLean in search of a place to call home, and a place to make his visions a reality. He fell in love with McLean’s affordable cost of living and the ideals of small-town community life — the same charms that have led countless urban and suburban expats to resettle in small towns around the country.
But beyond the normal small town charms McLean has to offer, it was downtown McLean’s abundance of usable old buildings that captured Yates' imagination. Arcadia Unlimited will actually live in the first building Yates bought in McLean, which has been used for game storage until he began renovating and planning the new arcade in early 2024.
As his collection of arcade games has grown and his arcade started to attract more and more visitors from Central Illinois and beyond, his small town has proved to be a big foundation on which to build.
“As long as God gives me breath, I am going to continue adding arcade attractions to this town,” Yates said.
He is a man with a big imagination. And it takes an active imagination and vision to work so hard for so long to make something that brings people joy. Yates has found a place in McLean that gives him — as Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables called the certain overlooked places that brought her so much joy in that book series — “scope for imagination.”
The newest Arcadia venture will offer rare and hard-to-find games, and cater particularly to gamers, like Yates, who have a particularly unique nostalgic taste.
Yates hopes Arcadia Unlimited will continue to draw more and more people to McLean —a lmost certain next year when nearby historic Route 66 celebrates its centennial — for a one-of-a-kind arcade pilgrimage. But his plans aren’t changing either way. Yates plans to keep restoring games and buildings in McLean for the foreseeable future —a nd continue to make his mark on this small town community.
