Stride Gum, the Cadbury Adams-owned brand whose ads encourage users to chew more gum, wants to get consumers playing more video games too. And they’re putting up $25,000 as a prize.

Interestingly, that prize won’t go to the fastest killer of pixellated aliens, but to an actual privately-owned arcade. Specifically, Stride has chosen four video arcades around the country, all of them reportedly on hard economic times, and will turn the grand prize over to one of them.

The company has mounted an ‘80s-style scrolling shooter arcade game called “Zapataur” at a microsite, SavetheArcades.stridegum.com/. Registered users can play the game using their computer keyboards and then donate the points they’ve acquired to one of the four embattled video palaces: Arcade UFO in Austin TX; Starbase Arcade in San Rafael CA; Star Worlds Arcade in DeKalb IL; or Game Galaxy, Nashville. The game site can also be shared with friends.

The arcade to which players have donated the most points by October 6 will win the $25,000 award. In case of a tie, the arcade whose point total comprises the largest number of individual game plays will win.

A leaderboard at the Web site, which went live when the Save the Arcades promotion launched in early August, shows the current point totals. At press time Texas-based Arcade UFO is leading the quartet with almost 180 million donated points, more than four times as many as cellar-dwelling Game Galaxy.

While it’s undoubtedly true that the rise of home consoles, handheld game devices and even smartphones has put video arcade operations at risk, there’s not much information available at either the microsite or at the company’s main Web site, http://www.stridegum.com, about why arcades deserve the snail-darter treatment, or how these specific businesses were chosen. “Sadly, arcades are heading toward extinction,” the Web site says. “But what we couldn’t do for the dinosaurs, we can do for our robotic quarter-eating friends… After all the hours of finger-numbing good times they’ve provided, you owe them no less.”

A certain amount of snooping around the classic game sites reveals that Stride prefaced the campaign in August by donating $10,000 to a fifth business, Challenge Arcade of Philadelphia, to keep the lights on and the joysticks blasting. And Web site DasGamer.com points out that the four arcades at risk all have some claim to fame, from Arcade UFO’s blend of classic games and rare Japanese titles to Starbase’s status as the first video arcade to open in Marin County more than 25 years ago.

The Save the Arcades promotion is similar to several other campaigns that have cropped up in the economic downturn aimed at giving financial help not to individuals or charities but to businesses. A recent UGC contest from American Express asks visitors to nominate and then vote for worthy small businesses, with the highest vote-getting enterprise receiving a $50,000 award and another $50,000 in marketing help from American Express.

Still, running a contest to help out a single business involves some special administrative risks. For one thing, there’s always a chance that some participant won’t get the point. The Stride promotion’s rules make explicit that the four participating arcades are ‘not charitable organizations’’ but “for-profit businesses that are participating in a promotional activity sponsored by Cadbury Adams USA.”

Those rules also add that if it turns out that the winning business owner made “fraudulent representations” for the purpose of becoming a participating arcade—in other words, cooked the books to look worse off than they actually are—they’ll be disqualified. Game over.

Stride Gum, the Cadbury Adams-owned brand whose ads encourage users to chew more gum, wants to get consumers playing more video games too. And they’re putting up $25,000 as a prize.

Interestingly, that prize won’t go to the fastest killer of pixellated aliens, but to an actual privately-owned arcade. Specifically, Stride has chosen four video arcades around the country, all of them reportedly on hard economic times, and will turn the grand prize over to one of them.

The company has mounted an ‘80s-style scrolling shooter arcade game called “Zapataur” at a microsite, SavetheArcades.stridegum.com/. Registered users can play the game using their computer keyboards and then donate the points they’ve acquired to one of the four embattled video palaces: Arcade UFO in Austin TX; Starbase Arcade in San Rafael CA; Star Worlds Arcade in DeKalb IL; or Game Galaxy, Nashville. The game site can also be shared with friends.

The arcade to which players have donated the most points by October 6 will win the $25,000 award. In case of a tie, the arcade whose point total comprises the largest number of individual game plays will win.

A leaderboard at the Web site, which went live when the Save the Arcades promotion launched in early August, shows the current point totals. At press time Texas-based Arcade UFO is leading the quartet with almost 180 million donated points, more than four times as many as cellar-dwelling Game Galaxy.

While it’s undoubtedly true that the rise of home consoles, handheld game devices and even smartphones has put video arcade operations at risk, there’s not much information available at either the microsite or at the company’s main Web site, http://www.stridegum.com, about why arcades deserve the snail-darter treatment, or how these specific businesses were chosen. “Sadly, arcades are heading toward extinction,” the Web site says. “But what we couldn’t do for the dinosaurs, we can do for our robotic quarter-eating friends… After all the hours of finger-numbing good times they’ve provided, you owe them no less.”

A certain amount of snooping around the classic game sites reveals that Stride prefaced the campaign in August by donating $10,000 to a fifth business, Challenge Arcade of Philadelphia, to keep the lights on and the joysticks blasting. And Web site DasGamer.com points out that the four arcades at risk all have some claim to fame, from Arcade UFO’s blend of classic games and rare Japanese titles to Starbase’s status as the first video arcade to open in Marin County more than 25 years ago.

The Save the Arcades promotion is similar to several other campaigns that have cropped up in the economic downturn aimed at giving financial help not to individuals or charities but to businesses. A recent UGC contest from American Express asks visitors to nominate and then vote for worthy small businesses, with the highest vote-getting enterprise receiving a $50,000 award and another $50,000 in marketing help from American Express.

Still, running a contest to help out a single business involves some special administrative risks. For one thing, there’s always a chance that some participant won’t get the point. The Stride promotion’s rules make explicit that the four participating arcades are ‘not charitable organizations’’ but “for-profit businesses that are participating in a promotional activity sponsored by Cadbury Adams USA.”

Those rules also add that if it turns out that the winning business owner made “fraudulent representations” for the purpose of becoming a participating arcade—in other words, cooked the books to look worse off than they actually are—they’ll be disqualified. Game over.