New Locations: John & Jay’s Arcade (MA); Konbo Arcade Cafe (UK); Quarter Horse Arcade (NC); Free Play #2 (TX); Arcadeology (MD); R1USA (NY)

I know it hasn’t been very long since our last post about new arcade locations opening their doors out there but right after that post was finished, tips came pouring in about other locations! So let’s do another – if there are any new locations I have missed recently, please let me know! With Summer almost here, there are bound to be many more…

John & Jays Arcade inside the Hangar Pub & Grill (Westfield, MA)

Thanks to Arcade Hunters for pointing this one out for me. If you are into proper retro arcade gaming and are in the area of this pub then John & Jay’s Arcade has you covered. I believe this is associated/partnered with the popular John’s Arcade Youtube channel, which is certainly great for a marketing boost. The games they have includes Area 51, Big Buck Hunter Open Season, Blasteroids, Centipede, Frogger, Galaga, Out Run, Pacmania, R-Type, TMNT, Toobin’, Xenophobe and more. You can check them out on Facebook here.

Konbo Arcade Café (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Thanks to Toby for the tip on this one. While they are not quite open yet, they will be by May 13th so if you or anyone you know lives near there, be sure to go and check them out.  They are setting up as an arcade café, which means a focus on food & coffee and they have games from the 80s & 90s setup to enjoy. This includes Japanese candy cabs like the Astro City running games like Street Fighter II and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2; I imagine a better idea of the full game selection will be known once they open. Check them out on Facebook or on Twitter!

The Quarter Horse Arcade (Durham, NC)

Also from Toby is news about this arcade bar which is aiming to open by June 1st…which isn’t so far away now. In addition to the drinks they will have around 35 games, focusing on classics from the 80s to round out their selection. That includes a particular attention given to Golden Age era games, so I imagine they will have a few from the 1980-82 time span. Link below in the tweet.

https://twitter.com/7Ten/status/857241328962478080

Free Play Opens Second Location Thanks To Fans & Social Media (Arlington, TX)

Thanks to Ryan Cravens for the tip on this one. We’ve spoken before about the hurdles that many businesses face in getting the permits and licensing from a local city or county entity to even be able to do business. Some places are far more excessive than others when it comes to that process and when they are, it tends to cause delays. For Free Play in Arlington, they finally were able to do a soft open event thanks to the help that their fans from the first location offered in swamping the city with phone calls. Now the venue with “90+ retro arcade games on free play” is open for business. Some of those games includes: CarnEvil, Discs of TRON, Journey, Popeye Tapper, The House of The Dead, TRON and many more. Check out their official website here.

Also thanks to Ryan was this link at Cleveland.com that discusses the rise of arcade/bars in Ohio.

Arcadeology Opening In July (Westminster, MD)

Jumping ahead to the future a little bit, we’ve got two other locations to look forward to. Today, I was invited to like the Facebook page of Arcadeology. They have an interesting concept in doing something along the lines of a museum. From that page they state: “Opening July 2017, we’re a brand new arcade with an educational twist. Video games have a very interesting and influential history that goes unnoticed in today’s world. Where did your favorite cell phone game come from? What happened to SEGA after the dreamcast? How did Nintendo of America grow into what it is today?…Arcadeology will feature more than 100 video arcade machines on our opening day. From the greatest classics like PAC-MAN and Galaga to the latest music games from Japan, we’ve got hours of fun for any video game enthusiast!”

They will also have pinball available; be on the lookout for them in July

Round1USA Opening First Store In NY “Before July” (Hicksville, NY)

Last but not least is news about an upcoming Round1USA location that will be opening their doors this Summer in New York. Link below via BemaniStyle

Hicksville R1 is opening soonish:https://t.co/1IU6X9pK7J

— bemanistyle (@bemanistyle) April 22, 2017

Update on my place, the Game Grid Arcade (West Valley City, UT)

I’ve been kind of waiting to get into detail on the progress behind my own arcade but not everything is finished-finished yet. It still isn’t but we might as well take this opportunity to talk a little bit about it. About a week and a half ago, we moved the equipment from the location I’ve been at since 2012 into our “4th location” of a sorts. I only have one store but this marks the 4th that I’ve been in at the same mall. The previous locations I had to move out of mall reconstruction necessity while this one I approached the mall about last year so that we could grow. Also so that we could class it up a bit as I was never particularly thrilled with the aesthetic and design of the previous spot. The carpet was also becoming ugly and smelly, which doesn’t help business. But the primary motivation was to grow and have more space for games along with opening up a party room that we could rent out to people for parties. That isn’t finished quite yet but we are pretty close. Already business seems to be improving so I can’t complain and we don’t even have 100% of the games over and installed yet (that should change tonight as I get the help to move). Stay tuned for updates.

As always, best of luck to these new businesses out there. If you happen to be near any of them, be sure to give them your support by showing up and dropping some coin!