Litwak's Family Fun Center and Arcade on Route 83, shortened to Litwak's Arcade, is a location in Disney's 2012 animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph. A majority of the film takes place in the digital worlds inhabiting various game consoles of the arcade. The establishment itself is owned and operated by Stan Litwak.
By the time of the 2018 sequel, the arcade has a Wi-Fi router installed, which allows the video game characters to enter the digital world of the Internet.
Background
Human world
On the outside, the arcade functions as any other of its kind. Litwak appears to be the sole proprietor and employee of the establishment, and typically monitors the area during operating hours to ensure that the machines are functional and that customers are satisfied with their visit. Should a game malfunction, Litwak would repay the player and place an "out of order" sign on the screen. The arcade also holds events for special occasions such as birthdays.
Game world
As mentioned above, the arcade consoles house a unique and often vibrant world of its own, and is inhabited by anthropomorphic avatars that make up the characters of their games. These worlds, and the characters that inhabit them, are made up of codes. Although such an act is forbidden, codes can be altered and manipulated by the video game characters themselves.
The video game characters function much like humans, having their own unique personalities and social lives outside of their games; their roles in said games are treated as mere jobs. They typically gather in the arcade's central hub, Game Central Station, which acts as the bridge between each world. The video game characters are free to leave their respective cabinets/worlds whenever they please, though they are strongly advised to only do so when the arcade is closed, as a missing character during a gameplay session could lead players into believing the game is broken, which could then lead to a console's unplugging. While the programs can seemingly live forever and never age, they are not immortal. When a character dies within their game, they re-spawn immediately. Should they die outside of their game, however, they would be killed permanently and never return. Public Service Announcements regarding the matter are repeatedly played within Game Central Station as a reminder.
Another manner of permanent death for game characters is the unplugging of their respective cabinets. When a cabinet is unplugged, the world inside is destroyed. Should a character be inside the cabinet during this destruction, they will die as well. To avoid termination in the event of a console's unplugging, characters typically seek refuge in Game Central Station, where they will continue their lives homeless and out-of-work. They can, however, be invited to live in another console. It's however possible that if the arcade console gets plugged back in with characters inside it, that they would regenerate.
Although each character is programmed with a specific role, they are not beholden to these factory settings, and can act outside of their assigned functions. For example, Wreck-It Ralph is the "bad-guy" of Fix-It Felix Jr.. Outside of game sessions, however, he is a humble and selfless figure. Another example is the character Turbo. Despite being programmed as the hero — or "good-guy" — of his game, Turbo is villainous and corrupt, going as far as to sabotage other games to preserve his position as the most popular racer in the arcade. Programs who act in the destructive manner as Turbo are known as "viruses", rogue characters who violate the arcade's laws for their own selfish agendas. Some viruses are corrupt due to programming/code errors, such as the Cy-Bugs that plague Hero's Duty, while others, such as Turbo, are malevolent on their own accord.
Other examples of a damaged code are "glitches". A glitch is a program with a fractured code, which causes their model to spasm randomly. They are unique in that they lack the ability to leave their game and, due to their fragile states, can also die permanently within their own game.
Internet
- Main article: Internet
Games
In service
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Unplugged/Defunct Games
The following are a few of the games that are either shown or mentioned to have formerly been in:
- Q*bert
- TurboTime
- RoadBlasters
- Star Wars
- Asteroids
- Centipede
- Space Invaders (It is implied that the game is still in service)
Gallery
Trivia
- "Quarter alert" is a term used when a player starts a game.
- "Going Turbo" is a recurring term in the film, referencing the disastrous actions of Turbo during his attempt to take over RoadBlasters. Claiming that a character has "gone Turbo" implies that either he or she has abandoned their game to sabotage and/or take over another.
- "Stick to the program" is a term used when a character (be it unintentional or otherwise) risks exposing their sentience to a player. It reinforces the law that video game characters are not to reveal themselves to the human world.
- It's highly likely that if arcade consoles get plugged back in with characters inside them would regenerate. Speaking of that, its also implied that they could lose their original memory forever as if Fix it Felix Jr's console got unplugged with the characters inside it including Ralph, that he would lose his personality of being a hero etc. and he would be restored into a villain if plugged back in. However that might not be completely the case, as game characters have their own codes with their memories inside it and some can assume that the unplugging of the game with characters inside it go into a deep sleep, and if replugged in would wake up and still have their original memory.
- Around half of the minor games that are known to exist in Litwak's Arcade, their consoles are nowhere to be seen in the film.
- Also, the real life games like Space Invaders and Pac Man, the artworks of their consoles are different in the film than their real life counterparts, they also lack their real life companies logos possibly for some copyright reasons, despite being licensed.
- While it does not appear in physical form in Once Upon a Studio, a mural depicting the exterior of Litwak's Arcade is displayed with the signage for Litwak's Arcade being displayed during the part where Elsa and Anna walk past by, curious to know if all the villains from Walt Disney Animation Studios would show up.
