Time for new arcade locations and updates! These have been accumulating for a few weeks as I’ve been very busy with other things, mainly in remodeling my own location. Let’s jump into the news of the locations out there:
The Grid Arcade Bar (Lansing, MI)
Let’s start off with a bar/arcade that opened their doors in Lansing this week. Bucking the typical trend that most bar/arcades follow (free play games as long as you buy drinks) by just having customers buy tokens. They have 30 games, many of which are pinball, including: Burgertime, Captain America & The Avengers, Donkey Kong, Lethal Weapon pinball, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, RoboCop pinball, Slugfest, Speak Easy pinball, and more. Read more about them at the Lansing Journal.
Big Al’s Opens 4th location (Ontario, CA)
I picked this one up via the Instant Replay newsletter on 4/17. Big Al’s is an FEC that is in the process of growing bit by bit, the latest addition is found in Ontario, CA. For their 4th location, it is actually their smallest so far, despite taking up 45,000 sq. ft. of space. They offer bowling lanes, a sports bar, billiards, party rooms and of course an arcade. I don’t see a list of games from the location anywhere but they like to blend the old (Donkey Kong, etc) with the new (the latest video games, redemption, videmption). You can check out their website here.
Little Big Thrills Coming Soon To Canterbury Park (Shakopee, MN)
Speaking of growing FECs, a chain out of Minnesota is expanding operations with their 3rd location in the state
opening on May 26th. They have a wide variety of attractions that includes bowling, mini-golf, trampolines, inflatables, a rope course, rides, go karts, laser tag, motion theaters and of course, the arcade. Like we generally see with FECs, they don’t announce a list of the games you’ll find there, you will just have to show up to discover it for yourself.
1up Arcade Opening In May (Morningside, Brisbane, Australia)
(Thanks to Toby for sending this our way)
Changing the pace up to a retro arcade in the land down under, the 1up Arcade is coming to Brisbane next month. They will become “Brisbane’s largest retro arcade”, although a final number of titles has not been announced yet. In fact, the exact location hasn’t been announced either, with that remaining “classified” for the time being. That said, the games list favors a line-up from the 1990s with titles like Aliens, Blazing Star, Cyber Sled, Fatal Fury, GTI Club, Manx TT, Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat, Rave Racer, Spider-Man, Street Fighter III, Tekken, The Simpsons and more filling out
their list.
Check out their main website here.
Rock ‘N Fun Now Open (Kapolei, HI)
We don’t hear news about locations opening up in Hawaii all that often so thanks to JJ Kam for giving us the heads-up on this one. One thing that immediately stands out to me from looking at the venue on
their Facebook page is that they already have one of the North American Maximum Tune 5 units for players to enjoy. I also noticed a Luigi’s Mansion Arcade, 2x Star Wars Battle Pods (Deluxe), The Walking Dead Arcade, and plenty of redemption titles amidst the eating spaces.
As always, we wish these businesses the best of luck in their new endeavors. However, better than luck is your support – if you find yourself near these venues, drop in and spend some coin to help them out.
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I'm a lifelong fan of video games and I have been operating my own arcade, Arcade Galactic in West Valley City, Utah since 2008. Soft spots in my heart for Atari, Sega, and Nintendo.
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Just remember that in seaside town Skegness, UK are going to be getting a new game centre opening sometime this year. I saw it in March but forgot to upload as I couldn’t get online much at the time. I have a photo.
What I wish for is to have all Maximum Tune 5 cabinets being distributed throughout the States.