"We still have so many people come in who are like 21 years old playing black-and-white Atari basketball. "I think smartphones have introduced a lot of these games that are now available on phones," says Kermizian. In terms of how the fact that anyone can now easily carry around a device packed with zombie-fighting plants and pig-hating birds impacts his business as a whole - a business that surprised him just by surviving for more than a few years - the man who inadvertently started a franchise with a few friends because they all liked beer and '80s arcade games has some optimism worth more than any 10,000 ticket item at Dave and Buster's. "I think if you come to Barcade and you really think about the amount of people that are playing the games and how well we take care of them, that you can walk in and play most of them without issue," says Kermizian, "I think you should be able to look past the bar aspect and say these guys are doing a good job of preserving arcade history." Pac-Man or NBA Jam or ultra-obscure titles such as Mappy (in which you are a police officer mouse) or Anteater (in which you manipulate an anteater's tongue through a series of underground tunnels). While anyone who can't legally buy a beer must unfortunately be excluded, there's also no drink minimum in place for anyone who simply wants to enjoy a game of Ms. Ironic then that Barcade bears the biggest brunt of the "not a real arcade" criticism for how it affords to keep the Q*berts a-hopping when it's offering the biggest selection of coin-operated cabinets. Zen Studios on Pinball FXs Steam launch, licensing, & subscription service. The arcade opened its doors in November 2014, only to close them a year later, its white Dance Dance Revolution machine going off to the modern-day version of Chinatown Fair like an electronic organ transplant. Girard Pinball Arcade, Museum Sets Opening Date. "The business model that I took was not pay per play, rather pay based upon your time that you stay," says Henry Cen, one of the owners of Next Level.Ĭen, who shares Kermizian's austere outlook for a comeback of conventional coin-operated arcades in the city largely because of the cost of rent, explained that his reason for starting his business was to fill that video void created when Chinatown Fair first shuttered its doors.Īnteater, “one of our real oddball games that was really barely even around in the classic period of arcades,” says Kermizian. Next Level, meanwhile, is a refuge for competitive gaming of all kinds, featuring tournaments for Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and Cardfight Vanguard in addition to fighting game arcade staples such as the recent iterations of Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and King of Fighters. Luna Arcade, with an emphasis on games that spit out tickets in return for feats of ski ball strength, as well as El Dorado Bumper Cars & Arcade and Deno's Wonder Wheel Park under the Wonder Wheel, prosper in part because they're surrounded by the funnel cake-enriched playground that is Coney Island. As Q*bert would say about arcades in New York City, (courtesy of Barcade)
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