Video Arcade Appeals to Their Senses : Recreation: The Irvine center is a visual cornucopia for young people. And the man who keeps it overflowing enjoys the action.

Daryl Hicks works at one of Orange County’s newest summer hot spots, and he doesn’t even have a suntan.

Hicks is a technician at the Palace Park arcade, a dark and antiseptic place where the temperature is always an air-conditioned 71 degrees and the bright light comes from more than 100 flickering video game screens.

Hicks has spent the summer making sure the chaos and mayhem is limited to the game monitors and that all the yelling is screams of joy and excitement.

The 25-year-old Mission Viejo resident says it’s no surprise that technology-savvy kids raised on television happily forgo a day at the beach for the sense-pounding experience of “Street Fighter,” “Jurassic Park” and “Mortal Kombat.” “With TV, you just watch. With these new games, you are drawn in,” he said, noting that virtual-reality technology is making the newest video games more exciting and realistic-looking than ever.

“There’s so much going on. It’s different every time you play,” he said. “With an old game like Ms. Pac Man, you get the sense that you are on the outside looking in. With the new games, you have more of a sense of being part of the game.”

The arcade, which opened in July, is packed with as many as 1,500 people a day, which keeps Hicks running.

One minute, he is helping a little girl place her token into a skeet ball machine, the next he’s is repairing an aging Galaga machine.

The job places him in constant contact with his youthful customers, whose tastes he must consider when purchasing new games and deciding which attractions have passed their prime.

“It’s very important that I keep in touch and know what they like. That’s how you select the right games,” said Hicks, who studied electronics at Saddleback Valley College and worked at a Disneyland arcade before joining Palace Park. “It definitely keeps me young.”

The crowds are beginning to thin slightly as kids head back to school.

But on a warm and breezy afternoon last week, teens in the arcade formed a line to play one of the summer’s hottest games, a car-racing adventure called Daytona Deluxe.

“This is much cooler than the beach,” said Sammy Kim, a 14-year-old Irvine resident, standing next to an “antique” Ms. Pac Man machine, circa 1986. “I can spend hours here and still not play everything. You go to the beach and all there is to do is go in the water and sit in the sand. . . . That gets boring.”

Since opening, Irvine’s first arcade-amusement park has quickly become the destination of choice for thousands youths looking for things to do during summer vacation.

The park includes a miniature golf course, batting cages and bumper-boat rides. But the arcade, which resembles a disco with its tall black walls and flashing red strobe lights, is by far the biggest attraction, generating about 40% of revenues, said the general manager.

Hicks said the arcade’s customers are drawn by more than the violence and gore that some video games offer.

Palace Park’s most popular game is a relatively benign and low-tech attraction called “Dinoscore.” The object of the game is to hit targets with coins fired from a gun. Players who hit the targets receive tickets that can be redeemed for prizes.

The Daytona car-racing game is also popular, even though it is far less graphic than some of the bloody combat attractions.

“They want games that they can interact with,” Hicks said.

Teen-age boys make up a good chunk of the arcade’s clientele. They gravitate to some of the “super-attractions” like Galaxian 2, which is played in front of a movie theater-size screen in a room decorated with flashing lights and computer panels to resemble a spaceship.

The 25,000-square-foot arcade also attracts teen-age girls, younger children who come with their parents, and business people in suits who wander in from nearby office towers.

“I like the fact that this is a controlled environment. . . . It’s secure,” said Dina Hernandez of Santa Ana, who brought her 7-year-old son, David, to Palace Park. “I don’t feel comfortable having him just go to the park or hang out on the street. It’s not safe out there.”

Though summer is the arcade’s busy season, Hicks will keep the job throughout the year. He said it blends his longtime love of video games with his interest in electronics and trouble-shooting.

“It’s definitely a job with a future,” he said, looking out at the scores of kids intently guiding their joysticks and firing buttons.

Hicks said his goal is to make sure customers have an enjoyable experience--even if that means occasionally fighting the urge to sneak out of the dark arcade for a moment and soak-in the summer sun.

“But I feel lucky to be inside when it’s really hot,” he said. “And I’ll be happy to be in here when the rain starts.”