Welcome to the latest edition of LOCATION WATCH, a post that highlights locations that are opening their doors out there. It’s been a little rare for us to post these this year, and unfortunately there have been a lot of permanent closures lately. With lockdowns taking place in some regions again, looks like there might be more, but let’s hope not.
Note that these are for Brand New locations, and not re-opening ones. It’s been difficult to track re-openings, however, if you have such a location, please let me know anyways, and when you re-opened, as I will do a separate post about those.
Here are some new locations that have or are soon opening their doors:
UPDATE 11/15/20 – Toby sent me a tip that Round 1 has opened a location in Moscow. This is the closest they’ve got to Europe; The website for it is here.
Gate Ninety World (Nivelles, Belgium)
Opened October 2020. H/T to Arcade Belgium for this one, of a new location that has opened their doors on their home turf, but it’s one of two we’ll mention today in Belgium (which is very unusual for the country). Due to COVID restrictions, they are limiting guests to reservations only at 2 hours maximum on the visit; they also have a showroom for selling/renting out machines. They have a total of 40 games available to play, including Blazing Star, Double Dragon, Final Fight, Jambo! Safari, OutRun 2, Pop ‘N Music 2, Puzzle Bobble, Shock Troopers 1 & 2, Silent Hill – The Arcade (pretty rare here, but more common in Europe), Street Fighter II (both the video & the pinball), Time Crisis II, Windjammers, and more.
Brussels Pinball Museum/Retro Arcadium (Brussels, Belgium)
Opened September 2020. While Europe isn’t always thought of as a “go-to” place for pinball, there are plenty of fans to be found there, and this location is taking the museum route. Setup in Brussels (as the name implies), they use an entry fee system for play. Games include Attack From Mars, Back to the Future, Bride of Pinbot, Cactus Canyon, Circus Voltaire, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Diner, Funhouse, Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure, NBA Fastbreak, Revenge From Mars, Tales From The Crypt, The Addams Family, Theatre of Magic; and more. They also have some video titles like Terminator 2, although a couple of other cabs in the photos look like they are being repaired. Find them on Facebook.
Pinball Garage (Hamilton, OH)
Opened September 2020. I would have covered this one in our previous post, but I did not hear about it until after publishing it! Showing that bar/arcades can still make it in today’s crazy world, one thing different about this location is that it is run by a manufacturer known as VPCabs. As such, you can expect to find their virtual pinball machines there, in addition to standard pins. Those include The Big Lebowski, Deadpool (Pro), Ghostbusters (Prem.), Guardians of the Galaxy (Pro), Guns ‘N’ Roses LE (JJP), Heist, Medieval Madness remake, Rick & Morty, Stranger Things (Pro), TMNT (Pro, Stern), The Wizard of Oz, and more. Check them out on Facebook; Here’s one of many pics from their Halloween costume contest:
2Fast4U (Perth, Australia)
Opened October 2020. I found this one on LinkedIn, where a go-kart racing center has added in some games for waiting patrons. It’s somewhat small, but it does have some newish games including Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, Moto GP, Sega Racing Classic (haven’t seen that one in a long time), Terminator Salvation, The Walking Dead, a couple of cranes, a couple of basketball machines and an air hockey table. The main website for the location is here.
Tokens Arcade (Lyndora, PA)
Opened August 2019. This nod is way late (I did check and it wasn’t mentioned previously; I just found out about them today). They are primarily focused on pinball machines with 12 games in that regard (including Attack From Mars, Black Knight, Mushroom World, Tales From The Crypt, Terminator 2, and more), but they have a few video games like House of the Dead, Jurassic World, and Aliens. They are currently doing a reservations-only opening, in response to the state of the pandemic in the area. Check them out here
Arcade Galactic #2 (Ogden, UT)
Ok, last time on this one, I promise. Two weeks ago, I opened my second location. When I first started the project, things were still pretty mild with the pandemic, but as we opened that turned around and the election came, packing a 1-2 punch into sales. That said, we’re surviving and making things work…I just need to get more games into the space. I do plan on taking up a couple more cabs from my first location, but it’ll take some time to fully recover the expenses we had to go through just to open. Since I do this for everyone else, here’s a games list: Batman (Raw Thrills), Cosmotrons, Daytona Championship Arcade New Season Edition, Dialed In! pinball, Dragon Saber, exA-Arcadia (by the end of the month will be stocked with Gimmick! exAct Mix, Kung Fu Vs. Karate Champ, Lightning Knights, and Vritra Hexa), House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn, Luigi’s Mansion Arcade, NIRIN, Rampage, The Spectre Files: Deathstalker, and a few others. Here’s a recent vid, although I need to take a newer one.
District 850 (Tallahassee, FL)
Not open yet. A new mega-FEC is about to open their doors in Florida’s capital, a location that probably would have opened earlier this year had You-Know-What not happened. While it will have an arcade, I can’t find any mention of what will be there exactly. Given that this has 45,000 sq. ft. of total space though, I’m sure it will be a standard mix of brand new redemption & video pieces. Their main website is found here. H/T to Intergame for alerting me to this one.
Also from Interplay is news about a new Timezone location opening in Singapore next month. As the 15th TZ location in the country, it will feature a “fresh-look social bowling concept” that they haven’t done in Singapore before.
That’s all I know about for now – if you have a location that recently opened (for the first time), then please let me know; If you have re-opened recently, then you can also let me know, just make sure to specify that so I can separate it out for a different post.
Good luck to all of those who have opened, and if you find yourself anywhere near them, be sure to give them some love!
