Rupert Murdoch in collaboration with the network spent almost $1 million to pour a new concrete floor in Studio A at the Sydney Channel 10 studios; install a complete new lighting grid and lighting system; new editing software; upgraded control rooms and cameras and, of course, the construction of the massive Arcade set itself.

The shows set was one of the most elaborate and realistic ever built for an Australian Studio at the time Not long before the show was axed, there was talk the series might be moved to a later time slot allowing it to become a bit "raunchier" (similar to the hit series Number 96) and a large new set had been built featuring a "western-style" saloon bar, so that more of the action could take place in a venue that supplied alcohol.

The disco-style, metaphoric theme song "(Walking Through an) Arcade" was composed by New Zealand-born Mike Perjanik and performed by Australian singer Doug Parkinson.

The opening title sequence feature aerial shots of a real building and shopping arcade, which was actually the exterior of the Strata Motor Hotel located on Military Road, in Cremorne.

Maggie Stuart appeared as grasping vixen Iris Pendleton, (the villain of the piece) who co-owned the Pendletons Health Studio with her nerdy brother-in-law Norman (Garth Meade), whom she is conniving to get rid of, with the aid of the dim-witted gym instructor Len Crosby (Bill Charlton), with whom she became pregnant.

Lucy Taylor and Raymond Nock as Si Wan and Philip Soo, the mother and son operators of Toby's (the sit-down restaurant), and Sinan Leong played the spoiled and pampered Mee Ling, Si Wan's daughter, and Philip's sister who balked at working at the family restaurant.

Fortunately, that attraction fizzled, and Mee Ling was arranged to marry a much older man named Chang Li.

Patrick Ward played conceited – and rather dimwitted – Craig Carmichael, who owned the Surf-n-Ski Sports shop, but spent most of his time trying to get work as a male model.

In 2020, Fiona Byrne of the Herald Sun included Arcade in her feature about "long forgotten Australian TV dramas that made viewers switch off.

"[2] Of its demise, Byrne wrote: "The show was supposed to pull viewers away from its cross channel rivals: The Sullivans on 9 and Willesee at Seven.