Welcome to the latest edition of Location Watch, a regular series here on Arcade Heroes that covers the news of brand new arcade locations which have opened anywhere on the planet. That has the caveat of only being locations that we hear about, but thanks to various readers, and other arcade news sites like RePlay Magazine and InterGame Online, we do our best at keeping this comprehensive.
If you missed the news on our previous Location Watch posts from this year:
Special Shoutout
Before we get started, I wanted to do something new here, giving a shout-out to ORONO ARCADE in Orono, ME. The owner Matt has been a strong supporter of Arcade Heroes, both on the blog and the YouTube channel, and oddly enough, our arcades see very similar trends, despite being on near opposite sides of the US. He also has some elements which are more on the FEC side like mini-golf, but overall operates an arcade that doesn’t use any ticket redemption (like myself), instead focusing on merchandisers to fill that niche and even offering prizes for beating high scores. One other unique niche need that he fulfills is in offering the largest collection in the country of “indie” arcade games, currently offering 14 cabinets, 20 if you want to count exA-Arcadia in that realm. If you are in the area, hit them up!
North America
Rift Arcade (Biddeford, ME)
While we’ll never truly see 1980s nostalgia totally disappear when it comes to arcades, there are more locations which are giving the 90s some love these days too. Such is the case with the Rift Arcade over in Biddleford (also in Maine). They have about 50 games to enjoy, one of which is Bishi Bashi. They also have food options with seating, although that menu is also “90s inspired” in featuring snacks like pizza bagels and more. Their local news site, Saco Bay News, has some coverage of them here.
Marquee Pinball Lounge (Napa, CA)
Over on the other side of the country is this new pinball lounge, which offers up some of the latest pins for play, along with adult beverages. From the story, it sounds like they’re very focused on the latter, but going off of the selection, it seems they aren’t skimping on the games either. You can even find some uncommon titles in the mix, such as The Big Lebowski and Pulp Fiction. Read more about them, here.
Draftcade #4 (Omaha, NE)
This expanding chain of arcade bars now has a location in Omaha, and aside from the “48 beers on tap”, they also have a selection of “more than 70 arcade games”. One of those is quite the notable and rare example, seen on the right side front of the photo below – an Atari Liberator (only 250 were made, probably less than that still exist today). Their official website can be found here.
Continues Arcade (Alexandria, VA)
For some arcade bar goodness over in Alexandria, there is the new Continues Arcade, which “continues” the heavy trend we’re seeing in this post of venues that offer food, drinks, and classic arcade & pinball games – with a strong focus on those coming from the 1990s in particular. They have several pins from the decade as well, but that doesn’t limit them to just games from that era, given that they also have new releases like Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons. Here’s a news story from their “beta test” opening.
Game On Arcade (Barberton, OH)
For one arcade that bucks today’s trend, there’s Game On Arcade in Barberton. This one combines both retro and new together, from old electromechanical games to some of the bigger late 2010s titles, such as Injustice Arcade and Daytona Championship USA. They also have a big selection of pinball machines, which appear to mostly be new titles instead of old school ones. Visit them on Facebook.
Silver Ball Social Club (Vancouver, WA)
Back on the pinball tip, this stylish example out of Washington brings together 42 classic releases, predominantly from the 70s and 80s, together in a new club-themed bar and restaurant (replete with Pac-Man adorned drinks). Any younger readers out there may be disappointed to hear that this is a 21+ only joint, but with the largely retro-focused lineup it will surely resonate more with the older pinball player set anyway. Find their official website here and a pre-opening report by The Colombian here.
Chuck’s Arcade (Nashua NH + Buford, GA)
To close off the North American locations, one name that has been in the press a ton of late has been Chuck E. Cheese. Not all of it has been for positive reasons (:P), and you can’t say they haven’t tried to remedy that, but they did enjoy a bit of good PR for once when their new Chuck’s Arcade concept got a lot of coverage from mainstream media. We’ve technically covered this before in Location Watch in its earliest days as “Fun Spot Arcade” last year, but CEC have been rolling it out fast since then, with revamps of existing locations to new ones like these. Although the weird thing about some of the press this has got is it being made out to be “Chuck E. Cheeses for adults!”, which outside of not having the very heavy kids focus isn’t fully accurate… and is partly why a certain chain has been quick to take swings at them recently too.
Also, they have opened a new Chuck E. Cheese Fun Zone at the Westgate Vacation Villas & Town Center Resort’s Mystery Fun House, with a similar lineup to their Chuck’s Arcade locations.
FEC Openings & Updates
Dave & Busters Comes To Reno, NV
D&B Also Names New CEO: Tarun Lal
Round1USA Aim To Open 100~200 Locations
New Funshares For Henderson, NE + Redondo Beach, CA
Malibu Jacks In North Richland Hills, TX Is Now Open
PINZ Fiesta Opens With New Arcade Room In Tucson, AZ
Wasau, Wisconsin Bowling Alley Reopens After Fire
Claw Crazy Arcade #3 Opens In Cincinnati, OH
VR Arcade Ctrl V Opens In North Carolina + Hamilton, Canada
Play Scape FEC For Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
Larry H. Miller Megaplex Opens New FEC Concept In Daybreak, UT – As this is near me I do have something to say about it. The Megaplex Theaters are a local chain of movie theaters who have locations all over Utah – including down the hall from my own place. The operators of this also run a number of car dealerships and used to be the owners of the Utah Jazz basketball team. I’ve been told by my local Betson rep for years that they were wanting to do large game rooms instead of the typical theater lobby stuff, but it went on so long without movement that I thought it might have been abandoned. That changed recently.
Daybreak isn’t super far away from me, but as it is, I haven’t had a chance to stop by and check this new 65 game facility out yet. Once I do, I’ll have to see about filming it, or at least sharing some photos in the next Location Watch along. That aside, I can’t help but wonder how many of these big FEC concepts that the Salt Lake valley area can sustain. Sure, the valley at this point has over a million inhabitants, but this makes for at least ten companies (eight of which operate FECs) who now operate a large (or multiple) FEC type facility in an area where you can reach any one of them in under 30 minutes. We’ll see…
Europe
Oh, Flip! (York, England)
After including the announcement of this one in the ‘Coming Soon’ of a previous Location Watch, we missed its opening for the May edition, so our bad on that. Better late than never though, especially for this independent pinball-focused location in Britain with a playful name. Opened as part of the gaming café bar Up A Level, their selection is so wide-reaching that the website claims it goes from examples made in 1967 (Gottleib’s Melody) right up to the present day. Pre-booking and a flat fee is required, but slots are available up to the end of August. Find them on Facebook (albeit with a largely bare profile) here.
Next Level Arcade Bar #3 (Barcelona, Spain)
This small-time Spain-based bar arcade business has just opened their third location in Barcelona, following their existing ones in a couple of Madrid’s districts. As well as numerous dedicated 90s classics by Sega and Namco like Daytona, they have some distinctive upright cabinets, generally running multigame boards. Judging from the marquees on some of them they look like old Spanish-made local designs, so it’s nice that they have the regional identity running through them still. Video report here.
Gamestate Circus Zandvoort (Zandvoort, Netherlands)
The Netherlands’ Gamestate chain keeps on growing, as we have reported on numerous times in the past, and this latest opening of theirs is their very biggest yet. Teased for several months now, they have refurbished and reopened the historic Circus Zandvoort entertainment location, which has had roots as an arcade going back to the mid 1980s. Besides all the ticket redemption that has been added to bolster its bottom line, the new video games include Tomb Raider Arcade, Pump It Up Phoenix 2024, Hot Wheels: King of the Road, Halo Fireteam Raven, Daytona Championship USA, VR Agent, and most prominently of all, Mission: Impossible Arcade SDLX. RetroReady have a report here.
S’pace (Mons, Belgium)
As always, Arcade Belgium have got the information on this latest opening in their homeland, adding another location to the S’pace chain. This one comes to the center of Mons with DDR A20 Plus, Fast & Furious Arcade, Halo Fireteam Raven, Jurassic Park Arcade, Storm Racer G, Parkour Motor 2, Rush and Catch, Cruis’n Blast and three pinball machines: Jurassic Park, Stranger Things and Star Wars. Check out a video tour of the location here.
FEC Openings & Updates
Sega Amusements Furnish Bowl Central #3 For Reading, UK
Tenpin Opens In Redditch, UK With Arcade Game Room
Bandai Namco Amusement Europe’s Arcade Allies Part 2: Disco Bowl
Chris Hemsworth Visits Electrocoin’s Funland Arcade In London
Asia/Middle East/Oceania
GiGO (Chofu, Tokyo + Ichinoseki, Iwate)
All too predictably, a lot of recent focus with GiGO has been on one of the famous Akihabara arcades opened under Sega closing at the end of August. But not only is that location set to reopen under the Silk Hat chain by the end of the year, GiGO themselves have been opening plenty of new locations in the meantime. As well as a couple of smaller shopping center-based spots, they have a large new urban location elsewhere in Tokyo, whilst over in the city of Ichinoseki, they have moved into a two-story suburban building with the full gamut of cranes, experience games and video games, as can be seen below.
Feedy Diner & Arcade (Ayagawa, Kagawa)
At the start of the year we had a special Location Watch report featuring one of the first Feedy Diner & Arcade openings to appear at one of Japan’s Aeon Fantasy malls, and now there is a new one joining it. Though slightly smaller than that one, it still brings this new format’s distinctive brand of Americana food and arcades to another Japanese shopping center (although according to this press release, the one here has only opened its arcade at the moment, with the restaurant coming later).
Taiko No Tatsujin Donder Station (Bukit Bintang, Malaysia)
Over in Asia, Bandai Namco have been opening some very nice Taiko No Tatsujin-themed locations for a little while now (dubbed “Donder Stations”, Donder being the apparent official name for fans of the game). These started off in Japan, and are now rolling out to other territories in the region, with this first one coming to Malaysia. With the new Taiko mini air hockey and kiddie rides that we first saw last year, these places can now be well and truly decked out with Don Chan… would be nice if they saw a proper release elsewhere though. Taiko Time blog have some more photos here.
Warp Arcade and Bar (Mudgee, Australia)
This new independent cafe/bar arcade in Australia has opened with a whole heap of games, including Time Crisis 4, Star Wars Battle Pod, Cruis’n Blast, Guitar Hero Arcade and OutRun 2. Check out this local news report on it here; it sounds like they had some great inspiration behind opening it, having been to Japan in 2023 and enjoying a certain retro arcade over there (wonder which it was…).
FEC Openings & Updates
Grandvrio Hotel Onsen Holds A Limited Time Retro Game Corner
Game Safari In Ikebukuro Revamps Its Odd Zebra Entrance
Timezone Opens In New Zealand + Australia + India
Are any of these new arcades near you? Then be sure to go out and visit them! Doors can’t stay open on the basis of likes and hashtags.
Coming Soon
Round1USA’s Escondido Location Will Have Their First Japanese Food Bar
IronBlast Game Zone Store And Arcade Opening Next Month
Timeline Arcade #3 For Franklin Street Social In York County, PA
Rogersville Rack & Roll Will Offer Pool, Bowling, And Arcade
High Score Arcades Newport Opening Delayed To Aug 9th/10th
Hollywood Bowl Planning “Largest Ever” FEC Location For Cardiff
Bay Arcade 2536 Opening In Batemans Bay, Australia, Aug 2nd
Dave & Busters Opening First Philippines Location In October
