All they ask is don't break the machine or mess up the pool table. And they'd appreciate it if you don't spit in the ashtrays or get ashes on the felt, but even if you do they won't arrest you at the Campus Casino, 320 E. College Ave.

It provides a hangout for high school students and relaxation for the college crowd. It's cheaper than the movies, open from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m., and they don't card at the door.

And when playing pool gets old, the cigarette smoke thick or the games tiresome, just take a stroll to Playland, 350 E. College Ave., where the rules depend on who's working and the 175 games range beyond Pound for Pound, a boxing game, and Syberball, futuristic football.

"The regulars walk back and forth a lot between the two arcades," said Mike, a large, red-bearded man who works full-time at Playland and asked that his last name not be used. "While their friends are playing pool (at Campus Casino) they come over here to play video games."

The parents drop them off in droves on the weekends. The kids scramble out of the car and quickly nod as the driver tells them the pickup time.

Such is the weekend night life of State College's teen residents.

"We have our regulars," said Mike Leister (senior-education), who works part-time at Campus Casino. "They're usually high school kids. There's more regulars from the town than from the college."

Seeing himself as somewhere between a baby-sitter, a bouncer and a change machine, Playland's Mike said the parents trust him and other employees to keep a watchful eye on their children.

Most arcade crime is petty theft --stolen coats, bags and bikes -- and patrons learn not to leave anything on the floor, Leister said.

Though a June 1988 scuffle, which broke out at Campus Casino and moved to nearby Playland, disturbed the scene, the arcades here enjoy a safer image than others in the United States, said Gene Steele, Playland's manager.

In other parts of the country, arcades are seen as havens for drug-dealing and truant high schoolers. But here the arcade is seen as different kind of hang-out, said the gray-haired, slender Steele.

"You always have your bullies everywhere you go," Mike said. "We try to weed them out. And real late you have to deal with the drunks. When I see a disagreement start, I tell them to go outside."

With the last major scuffle more than two years ago, the only other factor that stirs this otherwise cozy teen-age hangout comes from the other side of College Avenue.

"The college kids are so cocky and so drunk," said Tom Hashagen, a young adult who works part-time in Campus Casino and lives in State College. "They're all typical -- drunk college students."

Hashagen hangs out in the arcade so much, people joke about it being his real home. And even if Liester, who attends the University, defies his student stereotype, Hashagen refuses to back down.

"The college kids think they rule this place, but the townies know they do," he said.

"That's not true," Liester retorted to his bearded co-worker. "There's a difference between college students and townies. That's all."

College students and townies tend to stay with their own kind, and there are few problems between the groups, Steele said.

"They've always blended in, which is probably the best," Steele said. "We don't have any problem with the college students. The only trouble is if they're drunk."

Mike said he sees one difference between the groups -- townies travel in packs and college students in pairs.

While the high school students get dropped off, the college students opt for the shoe leather express. Instead of socializing as high school students do, college students go to the arcade to relax, shoot pool and escape.

"A friend from work asked me to come here and shoot some pool a few weeks ago," said Adam Gensler, a State College resident who plans to resume his studies at the University next fall. "I just got off work now and came here to relax."