Do you know what it's like to shut down a pinball arcade?

I do: It's sad.

Especially if you've only recently discovered the pinball arcade — excuse me, museum — also has Centipede and you're finally getting back into your 1986 groove (yes, the game was six years old by then; it took me a really long time to get good, OK?) when all of a sudden your friends start tugging at you and explain the staff would very much like to go home.

That's the fun thing about Replay: It reminds me what it was like to be a teenager in the eighties and yes, I lived a John Hughes movie, but mostly the Ally Sheedy character in The Breakfast Club, which I never really minded. And in the eighties, I could stay up late. I did stay up late. I mean, mostly reading, but there was a fair amount of arcade games. For north Clearwater people, I'm going to throw some names at you here:

Skyfeathers. Shabang. Moonbeams. Fundome.

If any of those three things sound familiar, you're a Clearwater child of the eighties. Fundome was my favorite: less dancing and more games. I miss video arcades, especially now that I wouldn't have to depend on my mom and dad to feed me an allowance. I miss sucking down Cokes and burgers and fries and not discussing cholesterol or bone density. I miss staying up all night and sleeping late enough to irritate my mom on Saturday and then doing it all again because I was at Moonbeams dancing to Midnight Oil or REM.

Do you feel me? Then walk, don't run (because we're older now and might break a hip and also, who runs in this heat?) to Replay Amusement Museum in Tarpon Springs. I had heard of it but never made the trip until I wrote about the pinball exhibit at Leepa-Rattner in Tarpon (on exhibit through September 18 and totally worth your time) and kind of grew… obsessed… with the Addams Family pinball game, which you can play pretty much for free (it's included with the paltry $7 admission to the museum, which translates into 14 or 28 games, depending on the price, and trust me, they lost money on me). Still high on the magic of the game, I wasted no time getting to Replay, who loaned the exhibit several games.

When I arrived there, though, I realized I didn't have to confine myself to pinball, because in addition to something like 100 pinball machines, they have actual video games in their original cabinets. All the pinball and all the video games, and you can play all night. And, unlike when we were teens or tweens or toddlers, you don't need quarters to play: For $13, you can play until you get bored, or until they kick you out. And we did. It's kind of a bummer to rediscover your inner night owl and realize that grownups run the arcade.

The verdict? If this place had a snack bar, it would be perfect. The only downside was that we needed to eat, so we lost valuable play time. I spent a not-insignificant amount of time in front of Family Guy, but Creature from the Black Lagoon alternately enchanted and thwarted me. I am not enough of a pinball wizard to best this game, but I intend to keep trying.

For several hours, we played hard. Very, very hard. So hard that one of us (not me) had sore thumbs the next day. Although I clearly got into the game, too. Parents, a warning: if you see me at a pinball machine and your child has never heard foul language, you may want to move out of earshot.

I take my pinball seriously.