A new arcade in the Dallas area

[Steve W]

I went to Grapevine Mills Mall in Grapevine, TX this afternoon (the Hilton hotel next to the mall is where the Texas Pinball Expo used to be held, for those of you familiar with that event) and discovered that they have closed the big ice skating rink that used to be at the southern end of the mall. They have filled that space with a place called Round 1 Entertainment. It has bowling alleys and pool tables, but the rest of the massive space is one gigantic Japanese-style arcade. It's big. Really big. There's a lot of redemption machines by the entrance, but the farther in you go the cooler the arcade cabs get. Several of the games are Japanese language only, which I thought was weird. They've got fighting games closer to the back near the pool tables, loads of crane games, and a large amount of those Japanese photograph booth type things.

If you're in the area visiting the Video Game Museum over in Frisco, you owe it to yourself to stop by this place and give it a go. It was pretty damn impressive. It was pretty busy too (although I waited until people were out of the shot before I took the pictures). Here's a few pictures I took just to show the scale of it.

[Gamevet]

I used to go to Sega's Gameworks in that mall. I still have a long sleeve shirt that I'd bought from that Arcade.

[Steve W]

I never cared too much for that Gameworks, it seemed to be mostly kiddie redemption games. It's gone now, anyway. So much of that mall has changed - the indoor skatepark across from Gameworks is now a LegoLand, the J.C. Penney outlet is a day-glo mini golf course, the old Virgin Megastore space has changed hands a few times, Books-A-Million, Hot Topic and GameStop have all moved to different locations... At least, for the moment, there's a new reason for me to drive all the way up to Grapevine just to go to a mall. If they would only add some pinball machines...

[otaku]

nice new arcades are always nice to have. not sure i've been to a gameworks maybe in seattle? i recall they had a big sonic air hockey table. anyway love that transformers game!

[Gamevet]

I never cared too much for that Gameworks, it seemed to be mostly kiddie redemption games. It's gone now, anyway. So much of that mall has changed - the indoor skatepark across from Gameworks is now a LegoLand, the J.C. Penney outlet is a day-glo mini golf course, the old Virgin Megastore space has changed hands a few times, Books-A-Million, Hot Topic and GameStop have all moved to different locations... At least, for the moment, there's a new reason for me to drive all the way up to Grapevine just to go to a mall. If they would only add some pinball machines...

Yeah, I do a lot of work for stores in that mall. The Game Works location is now an aquarium tour and Lego Land has taken over the space that was once the skate park. Game works had plenty of arcade machines like the 6 player Indy 500, Sega Rally, 4 player Daytona, Jumbo Safari, Jurrasic Park, Desert Tank, some light gun game that raised you up as you shot at the multi-level screen, some old arcade classics, 6-8 pinball machines and a few games by other companies, not named Sega. Game Works was pretty cool, but the real problem was that the games never changed over the many years that it was open.


I was setting up the network for a new Helzberg Diamonds in the mall today. So, I decided to drop by the arcade on the way out the door. There's way too many ticket redemption games in there. I liked the large exotic cab games like Aliens/Predator game and the Sonic and Mario at the Olympics game looked interesting. I didn't have time to check out the lower level with the bowling lanes, but I didn't see anything that stuck out.

It looks like a pretty nice arcade. I might stop to play some games when I'm there and have a little more time.

[Rendclaw]

That place reminds me of a game room in a bowling alley in town that I went to recently. The last time I went to this bowling alley it was old and a little run down, but this time everything was open and airy. It had a bar and restaurant that was pretty contemporary, but to the right there was an open and airy arcade. Encouraged, I walked on it, hoping to see a good mix of new and classic games, but it was not to be. Like Gameworks used to do, all games have cards instead of tokens or quarters, and about 85% of the games with ticket-based. I understand the need for ticket games and their place in an arcade even if I disagree with it), but hell, save a space for the old school. 5 machines, 10 would be better. But no, it looked like that pcture, minues the Japanese arcade cabinets... needless to say, I was disappointed.

[Gamevet]

They've built one of these arcades in the Parks Mall in Arlington, as well.

[Steve W]

It turns out that there's another arcade open in the Metroplex, I randomly came across it on Google Maps. It's called the Quarter Lounge in Bedford, this one's a retro place. $3 entrance fee and arcade games are a quarter, pinball games are 50¢. I drove there today, found it swarming with people and some shitty DJ "making beats" which is secret code for "moron with little musical ability who can push buttons on a laptop and thinks nobody will notice how crap his music is if he cranks it to the volume of a supersonic jet engine". I decided not to go in. I want to hear the sound of the arcade noise, not shit music blared at me at deafening volume. So I went to Round 1 Entertainment instead.

[Steve W]

Went back to the Quarter Lounge tonight, hoping it would be fairly quiet, which it was when I got there around dinner time. Really great place! The employees are super nice, they all talked to me and explained how the place came to be. Here's the interesting part - these are the owner's machines, and he's modded them in a novel way. To save space, in a lot of the machines he put in two boards and a switch on the front to toggle between games. Usually games that have the same kind of button layout or controller - I played the hell out of Heavy Barrel, finished the game, and then switched over to Time Soldiers (and didn't get very far because it's been such a long time since I played it I couldn't remember what the mechanics of it are). So Tekken and Primal Rage are in the same cab, just push the button and you can switch at will.

The entrance fee is $3, and then there's a charge for extra stuff like playing consoles or their VR headset. Arcade games are 25¢ each and pinball games are 50¢. And for some reason, paying for games rather than a lot of places that have a cover charge and all games are set to freeplay felt a little more natural to me. Popping in a quarter into the machine and paying for each play felt better than a free game. I have nothing to lose if I don't like a game I haven't paid for, but if I threw a quarter into a cab I'm going to play it through even though I might not take to the game at all.

I'm glad to know that the deafening music from Saturday was only because it was their grand opening. I talked to the employee who was the DJ that day and now I feel bad about talking shit about his music in the previous post. I'm also amazed that I randomly searched for "arcade in Fort Worth" on Google Maps, found the place, and actually showed up on their opening day. Talk about random luck!

I took a few pictures, the place is kind of small but they make good use of the space. It definitely has the feel of an '80s strip mall hole-in-the-wall arcade. It looks like it might have been a converted house or something, it's an odd structure. Anyhoo, here's the photos. Sorry for the picture quality, I never got the hang of picture taking in low-light situations.

[dgdgagdae]

Went back to the Quarter Lounge tonight, hoping it would be fairly quiet, which it was when I got there around dinner time. Really great place! The employees are super nice, they all talked to me and explained how the place came to be. Here's the interesting part - these are the owner's machines, and he's modded them in a novel way. To save space, in a lot of the machines he put in two boards and a switch on the front to toggle between games. Usually games that have the same kind of button layout or controller - I played the hell out of Heavy Barrel, finished the game, and then switched over to Time Soldiers (and didn't get very far because it's been such a long time since I played it I couldn't remember what the mechanics of it are). So Tekken and Primal Rage are in the same cab, just push the button and you can switch at will.

The entrance fee is $3, and then there's a charge for extra stuff like playing consoles or their VR headset. Arcade games are 25¢ each and pinball games are 50¢. And for some reason, paying for games rather than a lot of places that have a cover charge and all games are set to freeplay felt a little more natural to me. Popping in a quarter into the machine and paying for each play felt better than a free game. I have nothing to lose if I don't like a game I haven't paid for, but if I threw a quarter into a cab I'm going to play it through even though I might not take to the game at all.

I'm glad to know that the deafening music from Saturday was only because it was their grand opening. I talked to the employee who was the DJ that day and now I feel bad about talking shit about his music in the previous post. I'm also amazed that I randomly searched for "arcade in Fort Worth" on Google Maps, found the place, and actually showed up on their opening day. Talk about random luck!

I took a few pictures, the place is kind of small but they make good use of the space. It definitely has the feel of an '80s strip mall hole-in-the-wall arcade. It looks like it might have been a converted house or something, it's an odd structure. Anyhoo, here's the photos. Sorry for the picture quality, I never got the hang of picture taking in low-light situations.

What's the drink and food situation? Do they serve beer?

I saw on Free Play's Facebook feed that they're expanding into Arlington.

[Steve W]

What's the drink and food situation? Do they serve beer?

I saw on Free Play's Facebook feed that they're expanding into Arlington.

Nope, it's not a bar, it's just a throwback to the old early '80s corner-of-a-stripmall-hole-in-the-wall arcade. No food or drink. They really wouldn't have a place to put any tables, honestly. The place is crammed full of arcade cabs and game consoles, with a little counter where the proprietor hangs out.

I'm glad to know about Free Play in Arlington, I'll have to keep my eyes out for the place. I have yet to try their original location or any of the other arcades up in northern Dallas. I never think about it when I have a day off, only when I'm at work.

[Steve W]

Went back to Quarter Lounge. Took a few more pictures, one of the row of driving games and two around the fighting and shooting games area. It looks like they brought in a Rad Mobile since I was there last.