1980's Arcade board games

Columbus, Ohio has a couple of those, one of which is called 16-Bit Bar. Drinks are priced as expected, and there are a few good machines.

A place more to my liking is a micro-brew called Sideswipe that has a whole arcade inside, but you pay to play. Still, the beer is great and it's just a more fun place to be.

Yeah, there was a "barcade" where I used to live. Great concept and fun for me, though the ladies in the group were mostly just waiting for the dancing to begin. Playing those old games with essentially infinite quarters is a bit lacking though, and for the first hour or so I was just bouncing from game to game like a puppy in a sausage factory rather than enjoying my old favs and rediscovering whatever latent skill in them was left buried in the back of my cerebellum.

Durham, NC has a nice BarCade like that as well. With the best version of Pac-Man out there...the PVP Pac-Man.

Also, I haven't thought about the Night Driver game in years. It was amazing at the time that they could give that driving illusion with just road markers. It probably sucks to play now. LOL

I want to get a Cyberball 4p tournament edition for the house.

The Can-o-Corn! Man, I could have fed needy children with my CYBERBALL money. That game made high school tolerable.

I used to have that kickoff return perfected against the CPU. Titanium RB here I come!

hotseatgames wrote: Columbus, Ohio has a couple of those, one of which is called 16-Bit Bar. Drinks are priced as expected, and there are a few good machines.

A place more to my liking is a micro-brew called Sideswipe that has a whole arcade inside, but you pay to play. Still, the beer is great and it's just a more fun place to be.

There are a couple of different ones here in Columbus - 16-bit Bar+Cade and another one on the far northside of town. Or rather there was before Covid hit - I wouldn't be surprised if the one on the north side is dead.

Spending some time in one of those places will definitely show you what age does to your reflexes. I used to be okay (not great) at Robotron and Defender, but now it's just "Exactly how fast can I die?"

Side note: Columbus also has/had a couple of board game cafes, one with its very own "Board Game Sommelier". Which is a nice concept, but the term is about as pretentious as it could possibly get.

Defender always flummoxed me. All the buttons. Smash TV was my favorite of the Robotron descendants.

I was a Centipede whiz in my very young days.

RobertB wrote: Side note: Columbus also has/had a couple of board game cafes, one with its very own "Board Game Sommelier". Which is a nice concept, but the term is about as pretentious as it could possibly get.

Kingmaker, right? I have been there. I believe I even named a card in an upcoming game I am making after them. I should probably call it Guard Tower, I'm much more likely to go there.

hotseatgames wrote: Kingmaker, right? I have been there. I believe I even named a card in an upcoming game I am making after them. I should probably call it Guard Tower, I'm much more likely to go there.

I dragged my wife and daughter there one time, just to show them what it looked like. They were terrified that I was going to actually make them play a game.

The Guardtower is nice. I live about 10 minutes from the one on the west side. Great selection, and the prices are reasonable. Covid has chased me off lately, but I try to swing some business their way. When I played Magic, we played there in that big back room they have on Friday nights.