As we get ready to sign off on 2011, what better way to compliment the ending of the old year and the beginning of a new one with yet another story on a new arcade location opening it’s doors. I can’t recall a time where we’ve had this many stories on new locations opening up in such a short period of time, although I am sure that there are many out there that we don’t hear about until well after the fact.
This newest one is called Arcade Odyssey and is now open in Miami, FL. The owner, Rick Medina is quite the video game collector in fact, Arcade Odyssey was originally going to start off as dual purpose museum for both arcades and consoles but due to economic restraints just the arcade is opening for now. Check out this post on the AtariAge forums showing his substantial game collection that spans not only arcades but consoles as well, and how that transformed from personal gameroom collection to public arcade. The thread is quite good and I would recommend it to anyone doing research in the field of opening their own arcade as he covers the trails faced in such an endeavor, many of which I know first hand.
The collection of games available to play is quite impressive and features several rarities. It should fit the tastes of many a hardcore gamer including: Spawn, X-Men (6 player), The Act: An Interactive Comedy, Planet Harriers, Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, Ikaruga, Trouble Witches, Metal Slug 6, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition (Japanese ver), House of the Dead 2, 3 & 4, Artic Thunder, Crazy Taxi, Mushihimesama Futari Black Label, Dance Maniax 2nd Mix Jap Append, Melty Blood Actress Again, Terminator pinball (both 2 & 3), Virtua On, Pump It Up NX, Hydro Thunder, King of Fighters XIII and more. There is also a console room that features modern console gaming to play.
Interesting to note that he has The Act – that is a very rare game and until now I was the only public access arcade I knew of that had one. So now if you’re in Miami you can experience a very unique game, among the many others he has. Here’s an old review I made of it for those of you who missed this gem from 2007.
Like everyone else getting their start, we wish them the best of luck in business and if you are in the vicinity of any of these new arcades we’ve been bringing up this past week, give them your support by making a visit!
[Arcade Odyssey Facebook page / Yelp Page]
I’ve never been to Miami, but I lived in Orlando. If I ever get the chance to visit Florida again, I really gotta make some time to check this place out!
I played the Act before, but at the time I didn’t know how rare it was. It showed up in a local pool hall in my old neighborhood, in Astoria, Queens, during the time I was living in Florida, somewhere in the mid-2000’s. Historically, I’ve always known the place to cycle in new and interesting arcade and pinball games (by the beginning of the 2000’s and up, not so much). It took me about $6 to play it through at $1/credit. It was funny, ambitious, and the unique dial control kinda made a lot of sense when interacting with the lady.
Whoever’s got the rights to the game should try to get it converted to a smartphone game or something. They can’t just let this super rare game fade into obscurity!
Omg……..this has to be the best mix of old and new arcade games I’ve ever seen! I will be making a trip to Miami very soon! Pure nostalgia here folks!(besides the SSF4 cabs)
THANK YOU! i live in miami, and its weird that we dont have a good arcade other then gameworks or dave and busters. Wil hceck out the location and give you pics soon! dance maniax 2nd mix appened is a VERY hard machine to track down.
well I’d certainly would make a visit to this arcade if I could, I love the combination of classics and new games in one setting but providing non of the games are faulty which can put people off if they’re not maintained properly or having arogent staff but other wise I wish them the best of luck 🙂
I could not agree with you more arcades4ever, which is why we do maintainence on the games 2-3 times a day, 1 in the morning before opening, if it is slow we might do some minor tweaking or testing, and finally when we close we go over any games we got any complaints on, even something as small as “it did not take my token the first time. ” No arrogant staff here, i can assure you of that. I recommend you read our reviews or my blog at these links
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/170532-ccatalyst-gameroom-collection/
you have to go to the final 4 pages to see the building of the arcade section
http://www.yelp.com/biz/arcade-odyssey-miami
and if you ever do get a chance to get down to miami, i would love to have you come over and check out the place yourself, i promise you , you wont be disappointed.
Many Thanks
Rick Medina
Arcade Odyssey
Hey ccatalyst/Rick,
I was the guy in the green shirt that walked in with his dad today!
Just wanted to say that the place is great! It’s the best arcade I’ve ever been to, the selection of games is amazing. I couldn’t believe I was playing SSFIV Arcade Edition in South Florida! Your arcade has the Japanese vibe I’ve been craving.
The machines were in great condition and I could tell they were really maintained and kept up. The House of the Dead 4 guns were spot-on.
My dad liked the Mango Ramune!
Thank you Ryan, I’m very happy you enjoyed it, we are trying very hard to meet everyone’s expectations, expect to see some changes very soon as we will be rotating in new games in about 3 weeks, you can also follow us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/arcadeodyssey just to give you heads up, you can say you heard it here first, it looks like kofxiii will be switched out with blazblue continuum shift, bass fishing with cvs2, trouble witches with samurai showdown edge of destiny, and 1 of the spawns with purilula, we also may be switching out ikaruga with karous or radirgy or trizeal or chaos field, we are not sure which to put there yet. Also some new pins may be coming in feb, check on our Facebook for updates on that. I’m also glad you dad liked the ramune, and looking forward to seeing you again.
Rick
Oh, I live really close by to this arcade!
I do hope this place has a Beatmania IIDX Lincle. 🙂
Hopes don’t fail me now.
I’ve been to Arcade Odyssey a few times already, and love it. There were very few arcades back in the day, and this arcade doesn’t feel old or run down at all.
The service was great. On top of how nice everyone was, one of the machines didn’t take my tokens and they gave me back all my tokens, and some credits for the machines for the inconvenience. With a smile, I had no complaints at all. Great alone, or great with a friend or two. I’d recommend this place for anybody into this sorta deal.
And best of all: reasonable prices for the games! Nothing better at an arcade.
Danny
I paid my first visit to Arcade Odyssey last week and WOW! was I pleasantly surprised. What a cool place to check out. This is the one and only “True” Video Arcade that I know of in South Florida. When I was growing up in Miami there were video arcades all over the place in the late 70’s, 80’s and into the early 90’s from stand alone locations to places in the mall to Pizza Parlors and Laundromats. Then Dave & Busters and Game Works attempted to create a video arcade experience but they really left much to be desired. And places like Boomers… Well, they shut down one building with video games and the other one is full of games with only half of them working. So I really missed the “True” Video Arcade experience and Arcade Odyssey does not disappoint. This is a place that will appeal to everyone from video game purists to little kids to big kids to parents with kids and even those that are just a kid at heart.
Now, there’s a little bit of something for everyone. You have the classic arcade games for those that grew up playing games like Pacman, Robotron, Burgertime and Joust, and there’s the rider simulation games like the Sega Wave Runner, Nascar Car Racing and Tsumo Ball which I call the “Red Dome Battleship” artillery game. You have the first person shoot’em ups like House of the Dead killing zombies and the like. Then there’s the Terminator pinball machines which are a lot of fun to play. And let’s not forget the room dedicated to network connected PvP games with rumble seats where fans of Call of Duty can congregate to show off their skills. And of course the ubiquitous Street Fighter series video games. And there’s many, many more games to chose from. But what makes this place unique and not just another Video Arcade is the attention to detail and the fact that all of the games are in excellent working condition which is a rarity at most places with video games.
visited last night, amazing is the only way to describe it. however not to nitpick but I would have liked to see a SFA3 and UMK3 cab. otherewise great.
…forgot to mention killer instict needs to bethere as well.
Gday rick! I from indonesia and will be coming to miami tomorrow..do u have tekken 6 or ttt2 arcade? Ive been looking in NY but couldnt find any..sighh..
Thanks a lot and hoping you do have the machine
I’m not Rick but I can tell you at the moment that TTT2 isn’t out in the US quite yet, it won’t be for probably another month or so.