San Fransisco has showed up on our radar for arcade locations before, particularly with the now closed Southtowne Arcade. One business decided to bring some arcade goodness back to the city although by their name you would have no idea that arcade and pinball gaming is now a part of their business recipe. The location is called Free Gold Watch and they primarily bill themselves as a “custom screen printing, photography & design corporate firm” that starting this year, also happens to have an arcade setup in their store.
Judging by the reviews on their Yelp page, they started back in 2006 and added the arcade/pinball angle in March/April of this year. The pinball machines take most of the glory here: WhiteWater, Terminator 2, Dr. Dude, Whirlwind, Space Shuttle, Jurassic Park, Demolition Man, Lethal Weapon 3, Revenge From Mars, Star Trek The Next Generation, Playboy, Baywatch, The Wizard of Oz and several more. The selection of video games is smaller, there is no list I can find but from a few pictures I was able to pick out Willow, Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, Street Fighter II, San Fransisco Rush 2049, and NBA Showtime . The pinball games have already attracted tournament play to the location and the large selection of games does seem to be a perfect fit given that pinball is like a playable art portrait and they are an art shop as well.
Thanks to a comment on another post we have also learned that the location will be among the first arcades to get some hands on time with an indie arcade title which is on track for a wide release in 2014, Killer Queen. FGW will serve as a testing ground for the game as they prepare it for the big leagues. We’ll have more information on that soon but suffice it to say, KQ will be made available in coin-op form which is also good news.
Either way we wish FGW continued fortune in the business and if you live in or near the area, go check them out!
FGW is fantastic. They have a bi-weekly pinball league playing there that I’m in. Finally a decent arcade in SF!