Electric Theater Vintage Arcade coming to Kansas City, MO this year

Another classic arcade is in the works, and this time it will be found in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Too be known as the Electric Theater Vintage Arcade, the operator Mike Freeland is converting an old photography shop theater into a bona-fide classic arcade experience that will seek to be a major draw of the Independence Square area in the city. On top of that a documentary is being produced that is focusing on the effort of opening the arcade called Electric Theater: A Vintage Documentary, a trailers to which I’ll embed below, along with a second preview of the place found on Vimeo. The first video has some tunes from the new TRON Legacy soundtrack, which are always worth listening to as well. In both videos, you can get a preview of some of the classic games they will have on hand, and get a taste of what it’s like to put together an arcade of your own, something I have written about quite often either here on the blog or in e-mails to individuals seeking that sort of advice.

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I know I shouldn’t sidetrack the discussion here but there are more than 3 classic arcades in the country, a few of which you can see on this large (albeit not 100% yet complete) list of arcades in the US @ Aurcade.com(UPDATE: Mike’s full quote is about locations with more than 50 classics open to the public, which does whittle the list down a bit). Either way, it’s exciting to once again report about an upcoming arcade business, we’ll keep you posted when we hear more.

UPDATE: Here are some extra links about the Electric Theater Arcade for those interested: Electric Theater Arcade website; Facebook fan page

[Via GameSetWatch & KLOV Forums]

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13 comments

Jordan/Jbean January 23, 2011 at 3:07 pm

Thanks for getting this posted. Always interested in learning how these places come to life. I happen to live in KC as well so I’ll probably end up checking the place out too.

Brad Johnson January 23, 2011 at 7:21 pm

Thanks for posting the pilot! If you would like to follow the project there is a fan page on facebook, just search for the Electric Theatre Arcade this arcade will be epic!

arcadehero January 24, 2011 at 8:01 am

No problem, we are happy to spread the word about every arcade that opens up anywhere in the world. I’ll update the post with the extra links!

Mike Freeland January 23, 2011 at 9:11 pm

Hey Everyone. I’m excited to see so much buzz over the arcade I am working so hard to make happen. The editing on the Brad Johnson pilot was terrific, but did clip my full quote. My full quote was edited. I don’t remember my exact working, but basically I only know of 3 arcades in the country that solely have classics, are open to the public, and have more than 50 titles. The arcade database link you posted in the reply is a much more up to date site than I previously had book marked. Thank so much for pointing this out and I cannot ad my arcade to this list!

arcadehero January 24, 2011 at 7:54 am

Ah I see. No worries about the arcade thing, I’m happy to see your arcade in the works and I look forward to hearing more. How many games do you plan on having upon opening?

Here is the link for adding your arcade to Aurcade.com: http://aurcade.com/submit.aspx

You can also add your place to ArcadeFly.com, which also tracks arcade sites. They have more locations listed than Aurcade.com but they often lack up-to-date listings of what games are on location. Fortunately you can register your own arcade and then claim it and can update it to your liking, which you can’t do with Aurcade, where updates have to be done through admins.

igo January 24, 2011 at 6:28 pm

Best of luck with the arcade. I love that you are putting it in a resorted building too. Keep us posted!

Mike January 29, 2011 at 4:54 pm

Last week we had 63 classic video games. Today we have 70. I have another 30 on my want list. 100 would be fantastic to open with. It all comes down to time and money. For the first time in 15 years space is NOT an issue!

arcadehero January 30, 2011 at 9:21 am

Hehe, the space issue, the bane of my existence. I’m glad to hear that it’s not a problem now, that has to be so nice. Good luck in finding those other 30 games!

Mike Freeland April 9, 2011 at 6:52 pm

Mr. Plowman has left the building. As soon as we can get the building cleared and gutted we will be starting construction.
I’m trying to put in a few hours every few days. I’m lining up a dozen people to come help finish removing the contents in 2 weeks (the former building owner was a hoarder).
We have picked up more games in the past month including Food Fight, Journey, and Rootbeer Tapper to name a few.
We are trying to keep our website and facebook updated weekly!

Mike Freeland April 29, 2011 at 4:52 am

The building is cleared and we have hired an architect. Some of the details for sprinklers, emergency exits, and bringing the space up to code are going to be challenging. We are updating our facebook page very frequently if anyone wants to keep up with the weekly progress.
thanks for the interest. Mike Freeland

arcadehero April 29, 2011 at 7:10 am

I can imagine that the building code stuff will be a real headache since it’s an older building. But at least once it’s all up-to-code it will be worth it.

Mike Freeland August 17, 2011 at 11:16 pm

We are going to be open for Labor Day weekend starting Thursday September 1st (Santa Cali Gon festival weekend on the Historic Independence Square)! Come have a blast and be blown away with the rare titles and superb condition of the classic machines. You can get more info, hours, pricing, and location by visiting our website (we are going to be setup in the building joined with Square Pizza). Thanks for everyone’s interest and support! We also greatly appreciate sites like this one that can help spread the word.

Mike Freeland August 6, 2012 at 7:43 pm

We are going to be open again this Labor Day 2012 (Santa CaliGon festival). Four days only inside of Square Pizza (64050). We hope people will come out and support us. thanks! Mike Freeland
owner Electric Theatre Arcade

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