(film projector clicking)
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Downloaded from YTS.MX
(upbeat introductory music)
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
(arcade games chiming)
- The bar arcade has always kind of been a thing.
(upbeat music) (arcade game chiming)
- At the very beginning when video games began
to first hit the beaches they would go into bars.
(upbeat music)
- And now, 30 to 40 years later,
these machines are right back where they started
in an arcade bar.
- Oh, they got all your old favorite games.
(arcade game chiming) Come on in,
play the games and have a beer, a whiskey,
my preference whiskey. (chuckling)
(arcade game chiming)
- We've grown up with multiple generations
of console video game players who are used
to playing either online or they're playing by themselves,
but people are sort of thirsty for this interaction
in person where you can see the cabinet,
you can feel it,
you can hear all these sounds.
(arcade game chiming)
- There are a huge number
of arcade bars popping up all over the country.
- They're doing gangbuster business.
(coins jingling)
- We're building memories and we're building nostalgia.
- But what happens now,
because of the arcade bar,
because of the experience we had back in the '80s,
it is now revived with this.
It's brought a resurgence.
(arcade game chiming)
- It's the big kids' man cave and you go,
hey, you wanna play some "NFL Blitz",
some "NBA Jam"?
Dude, this place is off the hook.
(arcade game chiming)
Craft beer and games, come on,
it just goes together.
(upbeat music) (arcade game blitzing)
- [Narrator] "Token Taverns", boom shakalaka.
(arcade games chiming) (coin jingling)
(relaxing instrumental music) (coin clicking)
(arcade games chiming)
- My name's Michael Burke.
I own Vector Bar & Arcade in Clearwater, Florida.
(relaxing instrumental music)
Going into this,
my wife and I,
we wanted a nice,
cool place that people could hang out with
and feel like you're in my basement or my garage arcade.
Making this whole endeavor possible
was really my wife more or less forced me into it.
We just had games on the side.
I was fixing them and reselling them and just as a hobby.
So when we moved to Clearwater, we thought,
what an opportunity for us to do it on our own.
- So the game selection's pretty amazing.
It's not always the games
that are sought after by high-end collectors,
but games that people that like to play.
- There are some must-have classics
that everyone says you should have.
Like, you gotta have the "Pac-Man",
the "Donkey Kong".
And I want to represent games
that you don't see in every place.
We got games like "Double Dragon" and "Street Fighter III",
not "Street Fighter II".
They want people to see there was a huge amount
of other great games.
This is another one of those like weird,
obscure Japanese games.
It's called "Muchi Muchi Pork!".
It's super weird, man.
For us, the most popular games are "Last Action Hero".
"'Jurassic Park' Pinball",
people love just based on the theme.
And then, "Area 51",
people just love blasting the aliens.
It's like the favorite around here.
- Just get that power-up. (man exclaiming)
- So, the vibe here at Vector is really cool.
There is definitely like "Pinball" nerds,
there's also a lot of beer nerds,
and then you have a lot of people in between.
- Our core audience,
we have two.
We have the younger 20,
30-year-olds who like the retro games.
And then we have the people who grew up like the older guys
who like coming in here and playing "Pinball".
- Vector is both very unusual
and very comfortable at the same time.
It's unusual 'cause it's dark.
There's not a whole lot of decoration or atmosphere.
You kind of have the machines
and you have the people that are there.
If you're the kind of person that's looking
for "Pinball" machines or arcade games,
you're gonna be right at home.
If you're the kind of person looking for a football game
and the regular kind of bar atmosphere,
you're gonna be way put off.
- We're not a sports bar.
You don't have TVs on the walls.
It's lined with games.
The games lend to their own aesthetic.
They're the energy of the space.
And the lights are dim.
You got the glow of the screens.
Now you have a beer in your hand
and just the fact that you're standing there
in the glow of the game,
it really has a nostalgia factor, for sure.
- It felt, genuinely like an arcade.
What's really odd that it's so uncommon now.
Just every place I go to,
it's a bar.
It really just feels like they threw money at it.
There's no soul to it and this place has soul.
- You can't have a business like this
and not be passionate about it.
You can have a bar and expect people to come
'cause you're slinging beers.
But there's a difference when you care
about all the different beers you order
and you care about the customer experience
and giving them something new and something that they enjoy.
- I really like this one though.
- What? - It's a really good beer.
- It's a small operation here.
It's like one person's manning the place.
They're handling the arcade.
They're handling the bar.
- You've been (indistinct).
(tin hissing open)
- Yeah. - Good, I'm glad to see you.
- Jesse's our bartender here.
He's been with us for over a year and a half.
He's amazing, he's one of our best hires,
so wanted to make sure we hired the right people
who had our same vision.
- Mike and Lauren,
they threw like a base or a birthday party for me.
They wanna throw a going-away party for me.
They're super cool.
(upbeat rock music)
(arcade games chiming)
(Jenga blocks crashing) (patrons exclaiming)
- So other than just having the bar
and the arcade experience,
we also wanted to bring some of our personal life into it.
So we did Monday Night Fight Nights
that was where me and all my friends would meet up
and we'd play fighting games.
- When I play the game with the owner of this place
and he fucking destroyed me.
(arcade game rumbling)
That's very disrespectful.
I might leave that in a Yelp review.
- There's always the person who comes in
and they wanna challenge the owner.
So it's like they own the place
if they could beat the owner in a game,
but I don't get beaten too often.
(Michael exclaiming) (patron laughing)
I'll take that.
Finest (indistinct) (patron exclaiming)
Cheers.
(glasses clinking)
And then we would do semi-quarterly wrestling events.
It's was called Bar Wars. - I was like,
oh my god,
this guy's got wrestling too in this place.
(wrestlers thudding in ring) (patrons cheering)
And he had "Bar Wars I",
"Bar Wars II",
"Bar Wars III" all right here.
I've seen 250,
300 people total.
All this epicness is just happening right
on the other side of this building.
(wrestlers thudding in ring) The main event,
someone jumped off the roof of the back
of the building into the ring for their finishing move,
which was epic. (patrons cheering)
We're sitting on the picnic table and next thing you know,
the wrestling guys are like,
"Get off the table,"
and they're like DDTing and power bombing each other
on the picnic table we were just sitting on.
And ridiculous, epic each time,
and it just grew and grew and got bigger and bigger.
- Put a wrestling ring out behind your business
and throwing a huge wrestling event
with a hundred-plus people is a pretty big endeavor.
Luckily for us,
the back of our building butts up to government buildings
that are closed on the weekends.
We were able to keep the ring in our space,
but we could have the spillover people all in the back
and be as loud and obnoxious as we wanna be.
- Fuck off, (indistinct).
(patrons cheering)
(wrestlers thudding in ring)
(patrons cheering)
- Thanks everyone for coming out.
This is excellent.
I couldn't ask for a better turnout.
We gotta get a trilogy in before the landlord shut us down
from having too many people out back.
(upbeat guitar music)
- Thank you guys for coming out to Vector's open mic.
My name is P Funk.
We're over here every Wednesday.
I'm gonna do all these funky jams for you.
(upbeat guitar music)
If you'd like to hear anything in particular,
let me know.
I'll try to do my best to accommodate you guys.
Just no Jimmy fucking Buffet.
(upbeat guitar music) (patrons chuckling)
- Wednesday night was open mics,
so everyone from the local area would come
and do music and poetry and a spoken word.
- Crack a beer,
sip that drink,
pour another glass of wine.
There is a war going on for your mind.
The revolution will now be televised.
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
(indistinct)
- The fact that I could find like-minded people
and be at like a Cheers-like environment
where everybody knows your name,
everybody is easy to talk to.
They're weird sometimes, right.
I'm weird sometimes.
We're all a little bit crazy,
but it's like we're all the right kind
of weird for each other.
I never had to work to get along with people here.
- I come here and I'm not judged
and I could just walk around and play the games,
and I've met just some of the coolest people.
It's just really welcoming.
There's not a lot of places where you feel welcome
as soon as you walk in the door.
- Really, they offered me something
that I could not find anywhere else.
It's like everyone that I've met here
has been an amazing person.
They've helped me learn games,
things I didn't know about,
which is mainly "Pinball".
Every person that came
in just was immediately almost like a new friend,
but then it became something more like family almost.
We all have these very different backgrounds,
but we all connect on this one, singular thing.
You know, we're all into some kind of game,
whether it be "Pinball",
whether it be arcade,
whether it be console,
there's a connection that goes beyond the physical game.
I personally like to think that it has to be
with the culture that Mike and Lauren
have actually developed.
Here we are experiencing this environment they have created,
you know, craftily created.
(patrons groaning) - Is this whiskey?
- Cheers 2020, fuck you. - 2020.
- [Patron] Yeah, happy 2020.
- There you go. (patrons cheering)
- Fuck yeah, Mike. - Mike.
- Fuck yeah, Mike. (patrons cheering)
- So before you can really understand
what is arcades and arcade bars,
you really have to start at the beginning.
(upbeat music) (video rewinding)
♪ What we gonna do right here is go back ♪
(coin jingling)
- Video games are the latest craze to sweep the country.
- [Reporter] They seem to
have captured America's imagination
and its pocket change as well.
- You put a quarter in,
you play the game that was designed
to take your money within a minute and you're done.
- They're taking their lunch money
and some of them are skipping school because of arcades.
- When I was 12 years old,
I used to walk two and a half miles to go
to my closest arcade.
And I used to walk in there and it was like,
wow, look at this.
I would still walk around and just admire the machines
and just walk through these gleaming towers
of light and sound.
- I remember going into classic '80s arcades
and they were all carpeted
and it was very kind of dark and dingy
and the carpet always smelled kind of wet and musty.
Always some classic Journey,
some '80s playing.
- [Reporter] What makes video games so popular?
- Well, they come as if from outer space
in a variety of weird geysers,
"Defender", "Pac-Man", Asteroids".
- Some of these games
were just revolutionary at the time.
There was nothing like them and everybody was playing them.
- Suddenly, arcades began to grow all over the place
and they were making a huge amount of money.
(upbeat music) - When I was a kid,
we'd go, your parents would drop you off,
they'd give you a couple dollars
and that would last you for a few hours.
- I think it was literally a place
where parents felt like they could drop their kids off
and it was really a way for parents
to kind of get away from their kids.
You know, it also gave kids a place to meet
and interact and hang out over the games.
- It was a place to go.
It was a destination.
So it wasn't just like,
oh, we're gonna walk by an arcade and go in.
No, you plan to go to the arcade.
It was like a nightclub
for geeks or younger people.
- Growing up in the golden age of video games,
it was awesome.
Video games really began to explode.
Everybody loved video games.
Some of us might've loved it too much, that's true.
- I played 47 hours
and I guess that's why you picked me to be here.
- It did introduce a lot of people into a new world.
- As the popularity of arcade and video games grew,
it was hard for it not to hit pop culture in general.
(upbeat music)
- "Pac-Man" is all over and it's on the lips
of kids and arcade players.
- "Pac-Man" is without a doubt the most recognized icon
in the world,
more than the ears of Mickey Mouse,
more than a bottle of Coca-Cola, "Pac-Man".
- When I got involved with "NBA Jam" and "NFL Blitz",
that was the huge moment because those games,
they took over.
So things were really heating up in the early '90s.
(patrons cheering)
- During that time of that resurgence,
when "Mortal Kombat" came out,
it seemed like the arcade game were fighting the home game,
but in reality it was transforming.
- The arcades began to collapse.
The home market was eroding on them.
- And unfortunately, you could experience them at home
and people drove in that direction,
and that's when you saw arcades just sort of fizzle out.
- The industry really went towards ticket redemption games,
and that was really the be-all,
end-all of arcades.
- Here we are creating these games
that were so super popular,
and then overnight we went from being heroes to zeros.
(upbeat music) (coin jingling)
- The games you see behind us here,
like a car, now they were 20 years old,
now they were nostalgic,
now they were collectibles.
Suddenly there was a new interest.
- So what a perfect time to capture the nostalgia
that everybody was feeling for these things,
and then add an adult element to it with beer.
- So as these arcade bars started popping up,
it was a great way to get those people back
in front of arcade machines.
- That community-based experience of the arcade
of the early '80s is now reborn in the arcade bar.
(upbeat music) (coin jingling)
(upbeat music continues)
- My name is Dwight Slamp.
This is Glitch Bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
We're a very much a nightlife spot.
We're strictly 21 and up.
- Fridays and Saturdays,
it's like a club in here.
It gets crazy.
(flames hissing)
- Our concept here is our games are free.
All our games are on free play except for our "Pinballs"
and we make our money on alcohol.
- What they have set up here,
it's such a good environment,
such a dope place inside.
I love it.
- So one of the cool things we do here that you don't see
in a lot of the other arcade bars is the Indie Arcade Games.
(patron groaning) - What a block.
- Indie arcade games are games that are developed
by individuals or small companies,
but they're writing software and coming up with these games
and that's where the Indie stuff comes out of.
So the number one Indie Arcade Game is "Killer Queen".
"killer Queen's" a 10-player game.
It's five versus five.
It's a real-time strategy-style game and it's really,
really, really addictive and it's created a subculture.
- This is really like grassroots,
almost like social phenomenon.
Like, every major city has a "Killer Queen".
- "Killer Queen" people are so passionate
in playing that game
but the game has brought so many people together.
- You can talk shit online all you want to someone,
but when you talk shit in person to someone,
it's a completely different experience.
(patrons cheering) - Yeah.
- Sweet.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Billy Mitchell's a very well-known video game player.
He locally plays here.
- Yeah, but the first thing is,
I gotta do a perfect score here.
- Again? - Look at this.
(upbeat instrumental music)
What are you doing?
What kind of place are you running here?
- He just did a perfect "Pac-Man"
to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Pac-Man".
- We're having some fun this year with "Pac-Man"
because it's the 40th anniversary.
The other times that I did a perfect "Pac-Man",
they put a new joystick on,
and both times I hit it on the first shot.
To be playing the "Pac-Man" and to play a perfect score
and to have that energy and those people around you
and that excitement,
it was absolutely like being at a sporting event.
- You just did it. - Yeah.
- You just did it. - Congratulations.
You just beat the last one.
That's awesome. - I've seen kill screen
a million times and not a perfect score, awesome.
(upbeat music)
- The arcade bars,
you're here and it's just like the old arcades.
It brings back the fever and passion from the 1980s.
It's a great place.
It really brings back history
and it introduces that golden age
to a whole nother generation of people.
- [Photographer] And going, going. There you go.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(coin jingling)
(motorbike engine humming)
- Hi, my name is George Courtney.
My wife and I are the owners of Reboot Arcade & Bar.
(upbeat instrumental music)
I always wanted to own a bar,
but I knew if we were gonna open a bar,
we wanted to incorporate something
that I was really passionate about.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Because I know when I've walked into my first arcade bar,
I was just like almost in tears.
I'm like, oh my God,
someone gets me.
I could drink a beer and play arcade games.
- He's just like,
"We need something and like this in Dunedin,"
so he just kind of ran with it.
- If we were to do something,
I gotta do this and share with people where I'm from too
and Reboot was kind of created with that.
For the first time in my life,
I actually found something that I really,
really enjoy as a business.
(upbeat instrumental music)
For us, we would deem ourselves more
of a nostalgic old school meets news school arcade
with console games that typically you wouldn't see
in like a Dave & Buster's or Chuck E. Cheese.
- "GoldenEye" is always
a good go-to. - Yeah, I remember
playing that. - "Super Smash", pretty fun.
- [George] Reboot was sort of created as like a place
for people to just kind of get away from everything,
sort of like a museum with a bunch of nerdom in it.
(relaxing instrumental music)
- George and his amazing video game knowledge
helped create this dream.
We've talked about the "Donkey Kong" tree house theme.
- We're thinking like what,
just like a bunch of barrels kind
of set up around the building?
- [Helen] Well, I think barrels would be good.
- Would they have to be filled with monkeys,
like barrels and monkeys? (Helen chuckling)
So Helen, she has an incredible eye for design.
She's like a big part of the brains of this place.
Part of that is artwork, lighting,
the ability to have scene changes.
So at seven o'clock or sunset,
all of our lights turn blue.
One of my favorite movies is "Blade Runner"
and everything in that was retro futuristic.
So it was sort of like old school with new school,
almost like if you were in the 1980s
and you imagine what the future would look like.
And I think this place is sort of an over exaggeration
if someone had the time in the '80s to create something
with the stuff from today.
- I love this place.
It's very retro.
It's kind of nostalgic and will bring you back
in time to like the '80s.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- I wanted people to feel transported
in this different place, you know,
make them feel like they're in a different spot
and feel like we did our best to make sure that happened.
Hey, what's up man?
- George, what's brother? - How you been?
Good to see, Buddy. - Nice to see you.
How you doing? - How's (indistinct) been?
- Things are good. - Yeah, you guys busy?
- Getting back into it, man. - Nice, man.
Have you seen all the additions and stuff we made?
- Honestly, I haven't been able to get back in.
- But yeah, dude,
look at all the
"Pinball" machines, man. - Yeah, I love it.
I love it. - Put them all in a row.
Have you seen in there? - No, not yet.
- Oh, man. - Let's check it.
- So, Bill did like this honeycomb thing.
So, he had an idea like you would just put all this stuff
up here and I was helping him paint and stuff,
and we used this UV paint. - Neat, I like it.
- So we used this paint that literally, like,
look at all the UV lights and everything.
- Yeah, I love it. (upbeat instrumental music)
- So we have Xbox's, PlayStations,
Nintendo Switches, and they're all up here
on these screens around the bar.
- So we kind of designed Reboot to almost be sort
of like a sports bar feel when you're at the bar itself.
We have nine TVs.
We have the ability for people to watch games,
watch other people compete,
sort of almost get like that sports bar-type mentality.
Instead of, you know,
Sports Center or Fox Sports or something like that,
it's people playing games.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- On the weekends this place gets pretty packed.
A big party.
Everyone loves to come here.
It's definitely more adult-oriented.
- It's just more of a big kid atmosphere.
Definitely, that's what it's about.
And there you are.
- It's gotten really busy.
Sometimes it's hard to say that out loud,
but when we see it really crazy and busy on the weekends,
we just kinda laugh.
I mean, it's surprising but it's awesome too.
- The quarter machine holds like $750.
What ends up happening is if we have a busy weekend,
it drains all of the quarters from our change machine.
So Bill has to go in and literally take all the quarters out
and then count them to make sure all the counts are right
and then dump them back into the quarter machine.
(coins jingling)
- It turned down a little bit this past week but,
I mean, still doing really good.
- I've noticed that the better our drinking sales are,
the less we make in games.
- I think it has to do with just, room.
When we opened up space,
arcade sales jumped pretty high.
- Yeah. So as far as arcade,
two player always trumps one player.
Gun games, so far the better two-player game.
The gun games keep up with the "Pinballs".
- "Pinball" is probably the most played genre
of games here because "Pinball" is huge.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(arcade games chiming)
- "Pinball" never really died.
They kept making "Pinball" machines.
- [Patron] Oh my God.
You look fabulous. (patron chuckling)
- Thank you. - You look great too.
- "Pinball" sort of carried the torch
for this whole hobby for quite some time.
- Stern "Pinball", for instance,
was almost out of business.
They were at this old kind of junky warehouse out
in the west side.
They have a big,
beautiful new complex out here
and they said they are selling like never before.
- We're growing about 25,
30% a year for the last half dozen, dozen years.
- "Pinball's" on steroids right now.
It seems like there's a new machine coming out all the time
and everybody wants one.
- "Pinball" machines are definitely part of culture.
They span from bands, to movies.
You just couldn't see some
of this amazing art anywhere else.
And you can actually stand there and interact with it.
You can hear the music.
You can see the lights flashing.
It's a whole different experience
where you're actually a part of it instead
of just looking at it.
Currently at Vector,
we have 10 "Pinball" machines.
I think I can't fit anymore in here.
I was trying to find room and I just, I can't.
I can't get another one in here.
Well, we've got a lot of people
that had never played a "Pinball" machine before.
I've turned so many people into "Pinball" people now.
They ask them where they can buy a game,
how they can get one in their house?
That never had seen it and now just from drinking beer,
they got introduced into a whole new hobby.
It is an expensive business.
These are physical old objects and they break continuously.
So the "Pinball" machine is daily maintenance.
Yeah, so you can see the drop target snapped off.
And that's one thing that we really take
to heart here is we don't want to have
that poor experience when you come in
and something's not working right.
So we are very vigilant
in making sure that everything is working 100%
as much as possible.
- Mike was the first person I went to with one
of my machines to work on it,
to get it up and running.
Mechanically inclined, he knows a lot when it comes
to "Pinball" machines and fixing them up.
- I have a long history of fixing these games
when they're broken.
So here, anything that breaks,
I'm the repair guy and it gets done that day
or as soon as the park gets in.
The competitive nature of it really leads
to the bar environment.
So, everyone's always trying to beat your score
or play against you.
- Mike is extremely good at "Pinball".
He's tall, he's handsome,
and he has enough weight to move the machine around.
So Mike can make the ball do what he wants it to do,
and that's not something everyone can do.
He plays way more than he lets on.
- When it's a serious game,
he's one of the best players I've played against.
He's gonna play the game to the fullest.
- I've seen him in competition after competition
and every time he's like, top,
every single time. (Chris chuckling)
(upbeat instrumental music)
Usually what ends up happening is,
I will lose to him,
but the really cool thing about him
and the community in general is that they teach me.
Even during the game,
they want me to beat them.
They always are teaching and instructing,
helping in any way they can.
It's easier to get it from the right flipper,
like back into it. - Okay.
He gives a great expertise from all fronts.
Like, "This machine is not hitting quite as hard,
so compensate this way.
Or hey, this is where the big points are,
try and hit up there."
He wants the best for everyone else around him.
It's not about Mike.
It's not about his bar or his image,
it's always about you having the best time
that you could have. (arcade games chiming)
(relaxing instrumental music)
(relaxing instrumental music continues)
- My name is Robert Leonard and this is Lowry Parcade.
It's a craft beer and arcade bar in Tampa, Florida.
We specialize in both our incredible beer selection,
as well as a variety of classic '80s,
'90s arcade machines, and "Pinball" machines.
Wanting to do some kind of business on my own
and I had both fallen into craft beer as part
of a love and passion.
Really enjoyed it and then with game collecting,
that started way early on,
and realized that there's this concept of an arcade bar.
I started spending most of my time trying
to make that concept work.
- He said, "I need to learn more about beer.
I need to learn more about the arcade scene."
So he did the time while still working his normal job,
started filling up his house,
had people come over to his house,
test the games,
test the beer.
So he had a vision. (relaxing instrumental music)
- So I own about 60 to 70 machines.
It's a very slippery slope
once you start getting the machines.
(arcade machines chiming) It develops into a passion.
It can be a little bit of an obsession.
I've spent countless hours trying to evolve this into
what it became today.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- The vibe at Parcade's really cool, super chill,
very reminiscent of like the '80s and '90s
and you are reminded of all the games you used
to play back when you were a kid.
- During the day,
just like the weekends,
we have families and the kids and it's really cool.
Like when I was growing up,
my dad on Saturdays would take me to the arcade
and that's where my nostalgia was born for it.
And we see the same experience here with kids coming in,
sons, daughters with their mom and dads.
So they get that same experience which is awesome to see,
but at nine o'clock we're adults only
and we have more of the adult atmosphere.
♪ I wake up in the morning and I ask myself ♪
♪ Is life worth living, should I blast myself ♪
- So one of the things that he's done is made sure
that music was part of it,
from the beginning.
So I DJ here regularly.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- I probably have more
of a passion for beer than I do for the games.
It's as integral as the arcade machines.
It's as important as the games themselves,
if not more important.
I'd say more important.
My first craft beers were back in the '90s.
I'll quit a job to bartend full-time
and start product managing so I could then learn
how to do this business.
In Tampa, we're very fortunate
to have the beer scene we have because we are spoiled.
There's so many good local breweries.
We have so much good beer here
that we can get almost any style
and have an excellent example of it here.
(upbeat instrumental music)
All my staff are really good at knowing beer.
That's something that we really pride ourselves on
and they all know how to recommend
and they have all developed pallets to be able
to know what a customer would like.
They want to be able to get you a good beer.
They take pride in that.
They want to get you what you wanna drink
and it takes a lot of skill to develop your palate
and develop what your experience is
to recommend to other people.
It has been a dream come true to see craft beer
and classic arcades,
"Pinball" come under one roof,
and I'm very fortunate to have seen that happen.
(indistinct) (Stan laughing)
(Stan applauding)
- The craft beer industry started booming
probably 10 years ago and it's just been on a roll.
It seems like every day there's a new local craft brewery.
There's a beerfest you can go to and taste all these beers
from places you never knew existed.
(upbeat rock music) (coin jingling)
- [Presenter] Oh, it is a celebration of beer and breweries.
That's right, Tampa Bay Beer Week is back.
This is a big, popular week.
- [Presenter] All kinds of stuff all week long.
- Tampa Bay Beer Week is a big deal at Parcade.
It's something that we'd plan months in advance
to bring in some of the best beer locally
and put that out for people for Tampa Bay Beer Week.
Our biggest event,
our main event was the third annual Battle Royale.
Thanks for coming out for an incredible Battle Royale
for its third year.
The Breweries themselves are gonna fight the Battle Royale
to decide at the very end of it,
who will go home with the Lowry Parcade champion belt.
We have a champion belt that the brewery takes back
and displays it for a year.
It's heads. (competitor cheering)
(upbeat rock music) (arcade machines chiming)
- You're going down.
- The Battle Royale was a really fun,
quirky, weird event.
We'd get five local breweries
and they competed against each other in a round-robin series
of arcade and "Pinball" play to try and win.
(participant groaning) - I lost.
"Ice Cold Beer". (participant cheering)
(upbeat rock music)
(participant laughing) - Bam.
- So close.
(hands clapping) - Good game. Good game.
(puck clanging into goal) - Holy.
- I can't say enough about all of the happiness
that comes from air hockey
because I can't play another fucking game in this place.
- There you have it,
air hockey bringing him happiness and joy,
as it does for all of us here at Parcade.
(upbeat rock music)
- That was intense, man. - That was a good battle
between each of us.
- [Robert] There was a lot of rivalry involved in it.
- Fuck, well he got me man.
- What do you mean? - Fuck him, he got me
but it's good.
- Yeah, they all smack talk each other
but it's all love.
People loved it.
It became a real popular event.
- Sweep his legs, Johnny.
- Yes.
- [Robert] Escape was super hungry for it.
- Good job, buddy. Good job, man.
- But Coppertail kind of snatched it away from him.
- The winner of the 2020 Battle Royale three is going
to Coppertail Brewing.
(participants cheering) It was super close.
- Hold on, dude. (participant blowing prize)
- Yeah, I couldn't be happier with
how the Battle Royale went.
It was about the best one we've ever done
and we have a lot more events lined up
for the next rest of the week,
so I'm very excited to see how it all turns out.
(somber instrumental music)
(arcade game chiming)
- [President Trump] I'm officially declaring
a national emergency.
Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus
and to help all Americans who have been impacted by this.
- [Reporter] I'm told, non-essential businesses will
have to close up shop.
- [Reporter] Announcing last call
for bars and nightclubs,
requiring their shutdown.
- [Reporter] Bars and nightclubs are officially closed.
- It's hard to put into words the whole experience
for myself and the people around me,
for all of us.
It is something that it's unprecedented
for at least our lifetime.
I was on the phone with my staff basically in tears.
It was overwhelming. It was scary.
- When COVID hit,
it was a shock for all of us.
We didn't know what we're gonna do
and how we're going to react to this.
- Obviously, being a bar,
we rely on the close inner contact with people,
and the COVID-19 is definitely a curve ball.
There's gonna be a lot of places that don't reopen.
We won't be one of them because, you know,
we have a lot invested into this and we're gonna continue,
no matter what happens.
- You know, when we first closed,
we didn't close with the ideology
that we were gonna be closed for a long time.
We were only supposed to be closed for two weeks.
It was tough. It was scary.
- Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.
I wanted to talk to you about a concerning trend
that's going on right now.
I'm seeing lots of arcades and arcade bar locations having
to close their doors due to COVID-19.
I just really hope they can ride out this storm.
- We had to come up some ways to get some profit
'cause we still have rent due,
we still have bills,
everything's still gotta be paid, insurance.
So we decided to do to-go beers.
So we have a unique variety of beer,
so we'd let people come here and build their own six packs
or fill their growlers,
take them home and then enjoy your beer
from the safety of your home.
- We all reduced the prices dramatically just
to encourage things.
The first few weeks,
the community was incredibly supportive through all of it,
but of course eventually those sales started dwindling.
We did have one huge boost from Tampa Bay Beer Week
where they matched $1,000 for bar sales in one day
to donate to the staff.
So that was incredibly generous,
so I'm very thankful for that.
I'm facing weeks where we're making maybe $200
and I had to adapt.
- "We're open and game on,"
that's what a local arcade owner is saying.
He's discovered a new way
to keep his "Pinball" machines lit up.
- [Reporter] The Lowry Parcade is now bringing
the fun right to you.
- We did 14 deliveries in the last week.
- [Reporter] Because they can't have customers inside,
Lowry Parcade is renting out its games,
safely delivering these old school beauties to your home.
- I went from having a business
where I don't ever wanna move these things,
to now I'm having to move them every day.
It worked, we had a huge response
from both the community and the press,
and suddenly overwhelmed.
Thankfully, the staff stepped up and was incredibly helpful.
Like James, he's one of my guys who's normally a bartender,
but he had to figure out how do I deliver arcade machines?
- [James] Does that look good?
- [Customer] Yeah, thank you.
- [James] There's good space on either side?
- [Customer] That looks great.
- All of us had to adapt
to completely new roles just to survive.
- [Robert] I mean, our bar sales have dropped off so much,
so this is helping out a ton.
- With all the struggles and bad things that we've seen come
from the Coronavirus,
one huge positive I've seen is so many businesses,
so many people have been able to adapt
and become incredibly inventive
and completely change their whole models
in order to survive.
And it's an amazing thing to be able to do that
and it's inspiring.
- [Customer] Are you guys planning to open for phase two?
- [Robert] Yeah, we're still putting together
all the logistics for everything
'cause we need to also have all the supplies
for sanitizing and prep to make it as safe as possible
for people, for staff.
(relaxing instrumental music) (coin jingling)
- [Reporter] Well, it's the day
that non-essential business owners have been waiting
for after being closed for two months now.
Their doors have reopened.
- [Reporter] Bars and restaurants will now be able
to open at 50% capacity.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- We decided on Memorial Day that we'd open back up
and just have a safe environment where people can
have a beer and still play some games and relax
and kind of forget about it and have a good time.
It's definitely a lot slower.
The people are still nervous.
People don't know.
It's gonna take time for people to get used
to being able to go back out and go think
that I can go play a game and have a beer.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- When we were given the go ahead for phase two,
and that it was three months that we were closed,
we looked at CDC guidelines.
We spaced all the machines out about six feet apart.
We have masks and gloves provided.
We have sanitizing stations.
We go around every 30 minutes
and wipe down the machines with sanitizer.
(sanitizer lid clicking) - And I ain't even mad
about how much of this I'm using.
I'm not even mad. (bartender chuckling)
(upbeat instrumental music)
I'm so glad to be back open.
I'm so ready to make real human money.
- First, kind of reopen weekend,
and it was really great to just see people again,
to see faces in here again,
to have people play the games again
'cause you take it for granted.
Now it's nice to really appreciate just having faces
in your place that are having a good time
and drinking good beer.
- 300 years ago,
I would've already been burned to the stake
for being a witch.
Not only do I have the mark of the witch on my neck,
but who I am as a person.
- 'Cause you're witch. - Yeah.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- How'd last weekend go?
I didn't come. - It was good.
It rained a ton.
Fortunately, the space allowed us to spread out a lot more.
But the community was awesome.
You could tell that people kind of missed going out
and kind of hanging out with their buddies
and friends and stuff.
It's cool to see people sort of
in their natural habitat, you know,
'cause being closed for three months was kind of rough.
(indistinct)
- We're here.
Sam, hello. (Helen laughing)
- Today's our second day opening.
We have a really strong community,
so we were anticipating the locals showing some love,
which they absolutely did.
- This was like one of the coolest days we've had together.
(Helen cooing)
- I was really happy with the turnout,
it was great.
- So right now it is happy hour all day.
You get $1 off all our draft beers up there,
and then a $1 off game controller rentals
if you're interested in playing around the bar.
- How's the brewery coming along, buddy?
- It's still on the standstill.
Nice shirt, you hippie.
(patron laughing)
- Thank you. - I like it.
- We have a pretty strong community here and I feel like,
'cause we're so fortunate to have a lot
of people that really love this place,
I see us bouncing back pretty quickly.
I'm just happy that people like to come in here
and enjoy what we have to offer
and it's really giving us an opportunity to give people,
hopefully, an experience they've never had before.
(relaxing guitar music) (arcade machines chiming)
- Like original "Turtles in Time",
what do we got?
- I'm gonna do the original one, yeah.
Yeah. - Okay. Awesome.
- Now that the bars were reopened,
we were really excited and we wanted to celebrate
and bring some more excitement in.
So Pierce ordered the new "Ninja Turtles Pinball" machine
and we were super excited to get that.
So while we were waiting for that to get delivered,
I was working
on a four-player "Ninja Turtles" arcade machine.
So we're gonna have a double unveiling party
where we have a pizza party and both games open.
We're in Wesley Chapel at Little Shop of Games.
They get all the new Stern games right off the bat
and you can always get whatever you need here.
(Marker clicking on board)
- I was quite surprised this title,
how well its sold 'cause "Turtles" isn't my thing.
- I'd got the arcade machine done the night before,
like, the paint was literally drying.
So we're gonna go pick up the "Pinball" machine.
(trolley rumbling on road)
- We started getting text messages off the hook,
both me and Mike.
We both get texts left and right,
left and right.
They've shut it down again.
- We just sent this to your phone, effective immediately.
You cannot drink alcohol at bars.
- Closing bars, wineries and breweries once again.
It hasn't even been three weeks since those bars reopened.
- So if they don't serve food,
they will have to close once again.
- It sucks to be you but I understand why they're doing it.
- Yeah, well I was surprised that they'd shut us down again.
I was planning on having a pizza party,
but there goes that. - Yeah.
- We were excited.
We just were reopened and we thought there was no chance
that they're gonna close us down a second time.
And when that news dropped and it happens
to be the same day we're playing the surprise party,
it was a lot to take in.
I was telling Pierce,
I think it's like this is the year
"The Predator" comes out. - Yes.
- It's only on the hottest years.
- We had a brand new game for everyone
to come and experience,
but they couldn't legally get in the door to experience it.
So we'd spent a lot of money,
a lot of time and a lot of effort for nothing, essentially.
- [Pierce] You gonna have a private pizza party tonight?
- Yeah. Big one. (Michael chuckling)
(upbeat instrumental music) While we were shut down,
we still wanted to keep up with our friends.
We're used to seeing these people every day,
so we made a Super Secret Club group on Facebook.
- Mike would send out an invite on Facebook
that the bars in Florida weren't open,
but if you got this invite from Mike,
you could get in.
- A lot of people, you know,
they're stuck at home.
Everything's closed down and it's a really strange place
to be in and a little bit of normalcy goes a long way.
So if you can just come for one night
and play some "Pinball" and still maintain safety
and social distancing,
it's still good to be able to feel that you can go out
and still blow all that steam off.
And so I've been neglecting my arms and shoulders
and chest so I need to focus on that, yeah.
- It was a privilege to get into the cool kids club.
It can only be done in 2020,
for something to be shut down and be open just for you.
- Unfortunately, bars,
and there's hundreds across the state,
now have no income whatsoever,
and we don't know if there's an end in sight.
- [Reporter] Courtney owns Reboot,
an arcade and bar in downtown Dunedin.
He's now contemplating rebooting the business model
and serving coffee.
- We're just trying to pivot.
I don't even know if it's gonna work.
Yeah, so right now because we can't open as a bar,
we're currently serving coffee
because we can't sell beer right now.
But we can open as an arcade.
- Do you wanna do the punch? - Oh, the punch.
You gotta drink when your bar is forced to be closed.
Do you think we'll have the same hours next week?
- Oh man, I mean,
so this week was like a good test run.
- Well, we did three days and it's still been super slow.
I mean, I'd like to keep it open
for the bartenders if they're gonna make money,
but you know, I mean,
I don't know how much business
to switch the coffee is really gonna do.
- Yeah. - You know.
I dunno, maybe we just do it for another week,
just to see what happens,
gauge everyone's interest,
and then get an extra mop
to clean up all my tears off the floor.
(Helen chuckling) - Now there's a whole pandemic
and what do we do?
(George sighing) - We drink. Cheers.
(glasses clinking) - It's pretty, thank you.
(ice clicking) - You're welcome.
(herbs crunching)
- Have you followed anything from Lowry Parcade?
Are they staying open as an amusement?
- No, they're back to doing to-go.
- Oh, they're just doing to-go.
I thought that they
were just letting people
in to go play. - They did but they said,
just like us,
they said that it was so slow
that it just wasn't even worth it.
So they're renting arcades again.
You know, you try the best that you can.
This is something new that people weren't really used to.
You hope there's enough public information out there
for people to make the right decisions and to be safe.
- [Leif] What's up buddy?
How you doing man?
- How you doing? - Good seeing you.
- Business owners are not health officials and we were kind
of the ones on the forefront
of making people do the right thing, you know.
And you had a large contingency of people
that didn't wanna do it and it made it difficult
for a lot of people.
You take away like 85% of your income, you know,
for the bar at least.
'Cause, I mean,
people like to go to arcade bars,
but they go there because they like to drink beer too.
- Yeah. - You know.
- 'Cause you could still get a beer
and sit at a bar in a restaurant,
the same exact thing,
but you can't do it at a bar.
You know, the only difference is they have food.
If there's a problem,
let's think of a solution.
So just racking my brain trying to figure out things to do
to keep our doors open,
because if we don't do something we're in trouble.
- [Reporter] So Reboot bar owner, George Courtney,
did a bit of rebooting of his business model,
applying for a Department of Business
and Professional Regulation food license.
- I mean, we probably aren't gonna be able
to be open for another month or two unless we do this.
So, we're excited.
(relaxing piano music)
(door clicking)
- Hello. - I'm Helen.
- Hi, Helen. - I don't know
if you wanna?
No one knows.
- You guys are open late.
I was like, I gotta go now.
- Yeah, we're cooking food.
We got a restaurant there.
(George chuckling)
- Well, it's so ridiculous? - Type of food?
Yeah, so we have Hot Pockets,
whatever the little pizzas are,
White Castle burgers.
- We have the opportunity now to serve our customers,
which is great.
It's just awesome being able to see our customers come back
in and be able to get a beer.
- Where'd you get those? - At the bar.
It's like a restaurant now.
- So it's a restaurant? - Yes.
- Because this has been so successful,
a lot of other people have been doing this.
They've been opening up as restaurants
and being able to still serve beer to their customers
and be able to play games and survive.
- What up, friends. Welcome back.
Now we're open and we added something new
to our menu today.
We added pretzels so if you're hungry,
let your server know or come up to the bar or something.
I don't know.
We'll probably be walking around.
Just tell us you want food before it's too late.
- It's a loophole, it's crazy.
That's awesome. I'm glad.
But it's like,
having food doesn't make this any safer.
- I'm very grateful we're able to do something
to get the doors open because it's been really difficult.
I'll take the loophole, you know,
that everyone else is doing and we've added a small kitchen
in the back and we're ready to get back there
and sling hotdogs and nachos just to keep things going.
- It's strange that they just single out the one community.
Restaurants, you can go and go get a Long Island iced tea,
get wasted, and then you're shoving food in your face.
But a bar that's serving beer and wine
and has arcade games, that's dangerous.
So I just said screw it and let's,
we're gonna open up without our food license
and they can just come shut us down.
(relaxing guitar music)
I have kombucha for you.
Chris will be happy. - Yeah.
(arcade machines chiming)
- Is this your first time in?
- I've been here before but it was a while ago.
- Right on, dude.
- It's my first time, though.
- Hey, well welcome dude. - Yeah.
- People were yearning to get out and do something.
It was really great and we were really excited
because we continued the momentum that we had built.
- Considering that this is our first night back,
open, the game plan's essentially just to,
you know, kind of sprinkle into everyone's minds,
like hey, we're still a thing.
Don't forget about us.
And just to see our regulars and all our friends
and family at Vector.
What's up, man? - How are you?
- Good, bro. How are you?
- Good. Good.
- Good to see you, dude.
- See half of me. - Yeah, I know.
That's the perk of the job is making sure drinks are filled
and making sure people are happy and having a good time.
Though, it's great to be back at Vector.
(relaxing guitar music)
- Could you guard my beer for me?
- Yes. - Thank you.
- What's up, dude? - How are you, man?
- Doing well. - Good to see you.
- [Michael] You can whatever
bump you want. (patron chuckling)
We can hip shake it. - I know.
- Hip check it. - Let's full on hug.
(patrons chuckling)
Well, it seems to be a little bit busy tonight.
How long have you been open?
- We just opened back up today.
- Really? - Yeah.
- I felt it.
I sensed it in the force.
- I thought you had to see it online or something.
- It was like,
are you open.
No, I needed it
I had to be here. - That's good.
- I'm glad you're open.
Did you wait to open when you were told you could
or did you just decide? - No, I mean,
we've always served snacks and food and stuff.
We're just trying to be responsible.
Like, some of the other bars,
they started serving Hot Pockets and stuff like that.
They're like, we're a restaurant now.
Like, come on.
You're putting them in more danger
by giving them Hot Pockets, geez.
- Right, that'll go right
through you. - That's gonna weaken
your immune system right there.
(patron chuckling) Man.
So we're still here, I guess.
- Yeah, man. (upbeat instrumental music)
(upbeat instrumental music continues)
- Hey, I'm George. - Hi, Stormy.
- Hi, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- How was your ride in? - Good, actually.
- Nice. - No problem.
- Yeah, well thanks for coming to Reboot.
I mean, this is our little arcade paradise of nerdiness
and I think we'll have a lot of fun inside.
- I'm gonna make you my bitch at "Pinball".
- Hell, yeah. - I'm gonna try all 20 beers.
- Hell, yeah. - Then you'll definitely
be my bitch. (Stormy chuckling)
- Here's the deal,
Stormy Daniel's assistant is actually one
of our patrons that comes in the Reboot
and he was talking about, you know,
I'm gonna bring her in here and she would love
to see the place.
And I was like,
there's absolutely no way.
(upbeat instrumental music) But here we are.
Only in 2020,
Stormy Daniels is coming in to Reboot.
Well, welcome to our nerd cave.
- I don't know if this counts as a nerd cave
'cause every other nerd cave I've been
in had at least one naked picture of me on the wall.
(George chuckling) - Okay. Yeah.
Well, I mean,
that's a good point.
I'm just gonna take a drink. (George chuckling)
Yeah, so we want like classic games like "Pinball".
I think Donald Trump's favorite character
in "Mario Kart" was Toad, I believe.
- I'm triggered. I'm leaving.
(people laughing) - Don't do it.
- You know, considering who she was with,
I feel like I probably should've known
that Stormy Daniels would have a great sense of humor,
but I was really surprised that she really enjoys a lot
of nerd culture.
A little nerdy den for people to play.
- It's like a "Dungeons & Dragons".
- Are they playing "Magic"?
This is so cool.
Is that actually the one of the dragons
from "Magic", though?
- It is. (patron smirking)
Yeah, it's got the Red Dragon.
- Cut that, no one can know that I knew that.
(people laughing) - It is.
- No one can know that I know that.
- People will love you for it. (Stormy chuckling)
- I happen to be a very,
very good "Magic: The Gathering" player.
- That's awesome. - Awesome.
- "Magic" is super popular now.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- We've been here like two and a half years and,
you know, it was really,
we had momentum going and then just,
COVID, yeah. - Shit happened.
Yeah, I know. - Yeah.
- Damn, man.
Yeah, we just discovered this place.
When he said that you were closing we were like,
wait, we just discovered it.
- I just had somebody in here earlier.
They were like, "No.
This place is awesome. I'm gonna come back."
I'd be like well, 11 days,
yeah. - Yeah.
(Michael laughing) - So, it's middle June.
They just reopened bars but we decided now
that it's just time to close down and move on
and let this whole COVID situation play out.
Yeah, it was a tough decision
but after looking at everything and the uncertainty,
we just decided for us it's a lot easier
for us just to shut down,
pack it all up and hunker down and wait
and see what happens and wait it out.
We're gonna have a party not this Saturday, but next.
It's gonna be like our final hurrah.
- Okay. Okay. - Go out with a bang.
We got 11 days left and we're gonna
have some beer flash sales
and one last "Pinball" tournament and send this place off.
- It's not the right time
right now, you know. - Yeah.
- Pull out all you can, honestly.
We didn't know they were closing.
- We just got that news today.
- We just found out they were closing today
and that's rough.
I was actually,
we were getting sentimental,
just kind of bummed out.
I don't wanna say I was gonna cry
but I definitely was tearing up, you know.
It sucks, it's sad to see them go.
Hopefully somebody will be able to take their replacement
and not be like some corporate bullshit, you know.
There's not a lot of places like this around here
that are comparable so it's definitely a loss
for the community.
(patron cheering) Yeah.
- You got me. - Got your ass.
(upbeat instrumental music) (coin jingling)
(upbeat music continues)
- For us, we want to go out and have a party and celebrate.
We're celebrating the two and a half years
that we were open so it wasn't a funeral
that we're dying.
All the drafts and the wine, $5.
Everything's $5 except top row.
- Okay. - $7
and $3.50 for the shit row. - Cool.
- We're just gonna do a raffle at the end of the night.
You can win this painting,
the two "Bar Wars" posters and the framed one,
or the 64 with "Mario Kart".
(relaxing guitar music)
- Boost is on when I put the lead on.
- Yeah, when you put
(guitar drowning out voice)
(upbeat guitar music)
- You can kill the overheads.
I think we're ready to go here.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(upbeat instrumental music continues)
- And then, did you wanna start a tab?
(indistinct)
- Oh, that's a nice beard.
- Oh, hey dude. - What's up, man?
- What's happening? Welcome, welcome.
- Are there villagers here?
- Yeah, we got Pierce.
Patrick's here and there's a couple of other villagers.
All of our "Pinball" people showed up
and we had one final night where everyone got
to enjoy Vector like how it used to be.
- You guys put up a good fight though.
(Michael exclaiming) - Yeah.
- It's like, it's a tough market.
(Michael chuckling)
- Do you want in, man?
- Oh no, no.
I'm gonna go into the tournament cold.
- Okay. Okay. - Just straight.
(people laughing)
I don't even wanna touch a game right now.
All right, we're gonna start this up.
So, we've got 14 people.
We're gonna do a three-strikes tournament.
So the system's gonna pair us up in groups
of four randomly on a game.
Once you get three strikes,
you're out of the game.
We'll go until there's one person left standing.
(patron cheering) And the winner gets
the super cool "Pinball" Mashup Translite,
(patrons cheering) donated by Bill over here.
Signed by the artist.
- Not me, the artist. - The artist.
It would be worthless if Bill signed it.
So everybody have fun, good luck.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Michael] Nice shot.
(upbeat rock music continues)
- So it's great to be able
to play competitive tournaments again.
It's gonna be the last one here, unfortunately,
but it was nice to have one last hurrah.
I got to see a lot of familiar faces again.
- Knowing this was the last one,
I just felt tremendously sad.
I knew coming here,
this was it and that was extremely sad to me.
("Pinball" machine chiming) (upbeat rock music)
- Don't tell that,
you didn't see nothing. (patron chuckling)
- [Michael] I'm not even doing very good.
- I mean, it sucked seeing Vector close.
Mike had put a lot of work into it.
And it was good to see him, of course,
I just wish it had been under better circumstances.
- Yeah, they let us open one month and it was really good.
Everyone was so fed up of being cooped up
and everyone went out for that month
and we had a birthday party,
we had a bunch of stuff and they closed us down again.
And it was like a week before they opened bars back up,
the governor was like,
"Bars should prepare until next year."
And then a week later he is like,
"Oh psych, we're gonna open up Monday."
- I can greatly empathize with
what he must have felt at the time,
because we were very close to closing as well.
And to see that happen,
it's a sharp reminder that
we should never take this for granted.
(somber instrumental music)
- Marshall hasn't rolled in yet?
- Oh, he's gonna be late, as usual.
He was supposed to be here an hour ago.
For our last party we're gonna
have the brand new "'Avengers' Pinball" machine here.
And I was reluctant to post
that we're gonna have "Avengers",
but we know Marshall's gonna be late.
That's his MO.
I see a Marshall van.
- I just saw him pulling up. - Yeah.
- But he didn't disappoint.
Marshall still came through and we got "Avengers".
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [George ] "Avengers" is almost ready.
There's a lot of good machines here.
I love that "Jurassic Park" one.
That one's awesome
Yeah, what's up man.
How you doing, buddy? - Hey, welcome back.
- Good to see you, man. - Good to see you too.
Thanks for coming. - Hell, yeah. No problem.
- Showing support was incredibly important for me
because we need more of these places around.
Hey, what's up buddy?
Good to see you, man.
Seeing everyone here and having fun is really awesome
but also a little bit disappointed
because we know this is the last day Vector's gonna be open.
I'm gonna do,
could I put $10 in the raffle?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- Having all three arcade owners
under the same roof is pretty powerful
because we all collectively wanna keep all
of this culture alive. ("Pinball" machines chiming)
- [Michael] I'm still in the "Pinball" tournament.
- Still in the "Pinball" tournament. - Yeah.
I got one more strike left in me.
(Jason chuckling) - Yeah.
I guess that's how you rank a night like this.
(Jason chuckling) - I'm still in it.
Still in it.
(door clicking)
♪ I will make you hurt ♪
(relaxing guitar music) (patron cheering)
- The Game Over party was definitely one
of the best open mic nights we've ever had here.
The show-up was great and my good friend, Andrew,
he kicked ass on the mic.
- Our set went phenomenally
and I think Saturday was the culmination of our career here.
This place really means family to us.
- You can come for happy hour
and maybe catch the owner,
Mike's pretty face,
or even just to kick your friend's at "Mario Kart Race".
Whatever the case,
just make sure these mics are in place.
Oh man, this is silly but I'm gonna really try not
to cry right now because this place has meant so much to me.
If it wasn't for this place,
I wouldn't be who I am today.
And I know it sounds silly 'cause it's a bar arcade,
but it's so much more than that.
Or so I've come to believe
at this little barcade called Vector beside the sea.
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
- That's good. - I will always,
always cherish Vector. (Lauren sucking lips)
It's for you. (Lauren chuckling)
(relaxing guitar music)
♪ Too many days in the darkness ♪
♪ Without a glimpse of the light ♪
- Wow, everybody is here.
I mean, the place was slammed.
How's it going, dude?
Good to see you.
It made it real.
It's not just me,
everybody loves this place.
(patrons chuckling) - Vector.
(patrons cheering) - Yeah.
- "The king of the North."
♪ Every part of you wants to surrender ♪
♪ Darling, you were meant to survive ♪
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
- It was just one of the most welcoming
but heart-wrenching experiences.
I see a bunch of friends,
some I've seen, you know,
many times over the last couple of years.
There's fighting games going on. They are having
like, their own little side tournaments.
- You sure about that?
What's the mix, baby?
- You know, I have my girlfriend,
Jackie, working and she's having a great time.
You know, you could just see she's enjoying
these interactions with everybody.
- Friends don't shake hands.
- Friends hug. - Friends hug.
- Yep, it's how happy they are to be here
but also how sad they that something
that has been a major piece
of their lives is now coming to an end.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Guys, we're gonna cut this cake
in honor of Mike and Lauren and this amazing experience,
an absolutely magical place that they have created
for all of us here today. (somber instrumental music)
It has really been a special spot.
(somber instrumental music)
- When I found out Vector was closing,
I was kind of like, honestly,
somebody was passing away or something.
It was like a mourning feeling.
(Sierra exclaiming) (Sierra giggling sadly)
I'm just sad with the memories,
you know, not being able to come back.
I just know the same people
and the same place isn't gonna be here.
You know, I just met a lot of people
and this is how we met and now,
I don't know,
it's just a good crowd and it's gonna be hard to replace it.
- [Patron] I can't tell you, buddy,
how much this place meant to me.
- It was a great two and a half years.
The whole thing was an amazing experience.
There was a lot of blood,
sweat and tears,
but in the end all the work was worth it,
all the new friends and all the new experiences.
And we have friends that we're gonna take long past this.
- You know, together we have become this integral group.
We have all made this our own home in our own way.
It's been very sad.
Like just in general the mood is,
it's upbeat as much as it can be.
We're trying to remain positive,
but it ultimately is just a sad day,
trying to find the next thing for all of us.
- I'm sad to see this place go.
- Me too. - 'Cause it's like,
this is for all of us together.
Do you know what I mean? - Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a special place.
- There is a magnitude of loss you may not see
beneath charming smiles around this eve.
The welcome home that we nerds need must soon close
the end of an era, indeed.
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
(somber instrumental music)
(relaxing instrumental music)
(arcade machines chiming)
- I'd like to see us here for another, you know,
five years, 10 years,
however long we can make it happen and keep growing,
keep rotating the games,
keep bringing in amazing beer,
keep having really cool events.
- Say burger. - How's it feel
to be kind of like a normal "Pinball" tournament again?
- It feels great just to come out here,
play a tournament,
have some friendly competition.
- It's awesome, man.
I'm so glad to be able to come out to bars
and stuff like that again.
You know, we're able to come out and meet other people
and play a brand new game, "Avengers".
I played and got my kicked in it unfortunately, but,
you know, hey,
what are you gonna do?
- Because I know people right now,
they probably need this almost more than ever
to be in an environment like this
where they can have a good time again.
We're all working every day to get there
and I'm faithful we will.
I'm faithful that we'll be able to get back to that.
It may take some time and serious effort to get there,
but I believe we will.
(relaxing instrumental music)
- I'm just happy to be open, man.
It's great, it's been a rough fucking five months.
(George chuckling)
Because we're able to be open now,
it's been crazy.
We've been busy.
We've been trying to keep beer stocked, it's nuts.
- Dude, our stacks are getting ridiculous.
- What better time to collect "Pinball" machines than COVID?
(George chuckling)
We've been able to buy some newer additions to our library
and it's been pretty great.
- George has been kind of going a little nuts
with the "Pinball" machines.
He just decided to take off the other day.
He saw that there was a "'Rick and Morty' Pinball" machine.
Someone was selling one in Boston.
- We flew there and drove back 23 hours straight today
to get this thing.
- He's convinced me with,
if we need to sell a machine,
we can sell a machine and they hold their value,
and in the meantime they're making money.
- [George] Morty, you're not even using the pins Morty.
What a waste.
- Just shut up while I play.
Just fucking shut up.
I kind of see us getting more machines,
spreading "Pinball" joy to everyone else,
maybe one day another location.
We're kind of in this phase right now
where we're just excited.
- Quarantine Pachanga shots.
- Cheers, buddy. - Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
(tins crackling)
You know, after the past six months or so knee deep in this,
we're feeling pretty good.
I'm just happy to be open and
I love my wife more than anything in the entire.
- I love my wife. - I love my wife
more than anything in the whole world.
- I love my wife. - She's the greatest.
- We all love George's wife. - And I would never
ever wanna be anywhere else aside
from next to her bosom
every night (Helen laughing)
I'm sorry. (George chuckling)
- Let's do more shots.
- At the end of the day, you know,
you only have a short amount of time on this Earth
and what better way than to celebrate with people
that love all things geeky.
- [Patron] Perfect.
- [Patron] Next time.
- [Patron] Yeah. Oh, yeah.
(shoes scraping on floor)
(door clicking)
- Hey Billy, how you doing man?
I'm George, nice to meet you.
- This is a decent place,
your alright. - Thank you so much, man.
- Having a legend like Billy Mitchell coming
to Reboot is pretty exciting.
He is one of the most prolific arcade players in the world.
We're pretty proud of some of the games that we have.
We have Nintendo Row,
"Punch Out!!", "Mario Brothers",
your favorite, "Donkey Kong".
(indistinct) - Do it.
(George chuckling)
- We wouldn't want you to have a bad name around town.
- Absolutely
Getting the seal of approval signed
by Billy Mitchell made me realize
that I'm never gonna sell this machine
ever again. (George chuckling)
And I got it in my personal collection.
- Certified, not MAME.
- [George] And it is definitely certified, not MAME.
- All right. - If you wanna play,
I'll play you. - Yeah.
- But maybe we'll wager tonight's tab on it .
- Okay. - I mean,
learn from the master, man.
- All right, how about,
let's get a little better. - Okay.
- How about if you play. - Okay.
- You clear three boards, you win.
- Oh, Jesus.
- Three, come on. - Okay.
- When I play,
I gotta clear 117. - All right.
(upbeat dance music)
Standing in front of "Donkey Kong"
with Billy Mitchell is both incredibly invigorating
and extremely terrifying.
(upbeat dance music) (George sighing)
("Donkey Kong" chiming)
- One down.
- I'm sweating. (George chuckling)
(upbeat dance music)
Oh,
focus.
("Donkey Kong" fail chime) (George exclaiming)
You can't jump over them, that's right.
- I win. - You win.
(George laughing) Thanks, man.
I did better than I thought,
I gotta be honest with you. - You did good.
- Thank you.
Having the experience of playing "Donkey Kong"
in front of Billy Mitchell,
even though I cracked under pressure and I lost,
I felt like it didn't really matter how good I did,
I was a winner at that point.
You can't jump over the flames, right?
- Oh, I can.
I don't know how you can't.
(people laughing)
- That's true, I definitely can't.
It's like, if you're gonna lose to somebody,
you're gonna lose to the king and I was happy with that.
- You see, until there was barcades or arcade bars,
I had no way to introduce my son or daughter
to what it was I did. - Sure.
- Now you're sitting there eating,
drinking and what's behind you is what dad used to do.
And before, to them arcade games were antiquated.
- Right.
- But now it's a way that it's been introduced
to a whole new generation.
- And they can't get that experience at home.
- Right, but when you're here now,
you're right with somebody.
You laugh with them.
You see their reactions.
- [Billy] It's a representation of the history of gaming.
- Yep.
- It's hard to argue with the convenience of playing online,
but it's not the same experience.
- It's not, I think so many people
who are in one part would never experience the other.
But now that there's a community, they will.
- Yeah, thanks for noticing that
and I totally agree with you.
Oh man, that is fucking awesome.
"Pardon my French."
Billy, thank you so much man.
- You deserve it. - Thanks, man.
- Keep up the good fight. - Thank you so much, man.
- Keep up the good fight. - It's an honor.
(upbeat instrumental music) (coin jingling)
- Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.
I've been touring the country just recently
and I have some awesome news to report.
A lot of these arcade bars have weathered the storm
and they're bigger and better than they were before
and there's bar locations opening up every single day.
- Everybody's going nuts going into the arcades
and arcade machines are very much in high demand.
- Business has returned very quickly.
It was an almost instantaneous return to the arcade.
- Seeing the rebirth of the arcade spirit
that's embellished in not only the arcade bars,
but tens of thousands of people have home game rooms,
both of them moving together,
bringing our ancient arcade heritage into the modern age
and bringing it back for life and giving it a bright future.
- This is the "Monster Bash".
- Yeah, and I checked "Pinside".
We're 500 above.
(Robert humming)
(paper rustling)
- And Rob, you wanted the one with the fucked up box right?
(man laughing)
- I actually specifically requested that.
That stinks. (Rob chuckling)
I'm at Little Shop of Games.
I'm here to pick up "'Godzilla' Pro Pinball" machine
from Stern and I'm stoked about it.
It's awesome to be able to bring in a new machine.
It does kind of suck
that they're a little bit more expensive.
This is the price of a pro and not a premium?
- Yeah, dude. - Premium is nine.
Please, premium is insane. - I'm just messing with you.
It's good to see the hobby increase,
that interest come and flourish
and be probably bigger than it's been in decades,
though, it's not without its own issue.
I'm excited for all the new stuff coming with "Pinball"
and like the fresh energy.
The little bit of the cost though is that it's harder
to enjoy it as a hobby, I think,
'cause it's expensive.
You can get a house down payment for that, you know.
We're seeing a whole resurgence
because these "Pinball" machines tend
to sell out now as soon as they're made.
I mean, they go real quick.
It's nice to be back to a place
where we can start bringing in new games again.
- Everyone's like, I thought there was a new game.
I'm like, yeah,
there's a new game. - Sorry.
It's like you've done this before, James.
Is it a little throwback to COVID rental days?
(belt zipping) - Yeah, that was fun.
- It was a really good feeling to actually be back
to bringing in a new game and not having
to do the rental thing.
I'll get a picture in front of the mural real quick too.
(Robert exclaiming) It's inception.
(James chuckling)
Man, it sure does feel different than a year ago.
It feels great.
It feels like we're finally getting back to where we used
to be and we're able to provide new games to people.
And I am very grateful for having survived
and to come through this.
Oh, that new game smell.
It's like Christmas.
- That's the face of a proud papa right there.
- Yeah, it feels good.
Having everyone together to do that,
I love it, man.
It's really cool to see everybody gather around a new game
and I had missed that feeling very much.
Oh, it's so close.
Very glad to be back to that point
to where I can see people do that again.
- It's better in here than it was last year.
- Oh, it's so much better.
Like, today it was like one of those days
where I really felt it,
like oh, it feels so much better.
(upbeat instrumental music) It feels like
a giant weight getting off your shoulders
and you're able to take a breath
and enjoy again kind of just a moment.
'Cause after all that shit of the past year,
being able to get back to where it's just something kind
of fun and simple,
you appreciated that much more
because of what you've been through.
(patrons cheering)
That was so, so tight.
Yeah, it's a great feeling to be back.
(upbeat instrumental music)
People are coming back in the doors.
We're getting busy again.
We've just recently got a food truck.
It's called 8Bit Bytes,
and we had Mike as one of the bartenders,
he worked on the art for it and it looks fantastic.
We went to serving food just to survive
and now we have a food truck in order
to provide on our day-to-day as part of our business.
It's very nice to be able to fill the calendar once again
with events to bring back live music,
to bring back DJs.
- I'm happy to be here, man.
This is gonna be fun.
This gonna be a lot of fun.
- It's gonna be a blast. - Yeah, man.
- I mean, we've been working,
what, a long time to have both of you guys here at the same.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- I am incredibly excited to have DJ Eminent
with Von Garden both together at the same time on our stage.
It seems
we're back, we're back to being able
to do what we love to do again.
I love it. - My man.
- It's awesome, man. - Let's do this.
Let's do this, brother.
Let's do this. - All right.
♪ You feel alive, let's hit the dance floor ♪
♪ Don't work too hard, might break a backbone ♪
♪ Returning of the mack, the king is back though ♪
♪ Corvette and cash, I never lack those ♪
♪ She saw the stone, you know how that go ♪
♪ Fatality, my diamonds that cold ♪
♪ Versace trunks, I hit my backstroke ♪
♪ Knock on the door, she at the back bro ♪
- Just heard from somebody
that he's doing a better job than me.
And it's funny 'cause we're in an arcade,
so I might have to go versus him.
♪ Good times ♪
♪ Live in the moment, it feel like summer time ♪
- You know what?
Let's play more songs about weed.
(DJ Eminent laughing)
- Herd. - Herd.
(people laughing) (upbeat music)
(upbeat instrumental music)
♪ I'm done playing ♪
♪ Pour, pour in the rain ♪
♪ There's blood on my face ♪
♪ I love when I face you ♪
♪ I'm done playing ♪
♪ Pour, pour in the rain, yeah ♪
♪ There's blood in my face, yeah ♪
♪ Babe, I love when I face yeah ♪
- Things have been going really well.
The business is booming.
We've had an opportunity to bring in a lot more machines.
There've been some new games that have come out,
some pretty high-end "Pinball" machines
and some really fun stuff.
Almost every person's playing a game.
It's pretty awesome.
I'm happy to say that actually things now
are better than ever.
Seeing everybody around and playing "Pinball"
and video games and having camaraderie
with each other is just sort of like one
of the best things that honestly any human can see.
(relaxing instrumental music)
- [Reporter] The Tampa Bay Comic Convention is back
after taking a year off.
(upbeat dance music)
- [Reporter] Organizers say it should
be their biggest show ever.
(upbeat dance music)
- Comic-Con was always one of those things
where I just felt like it was bigger than us,
'cause all that fun geekiness that's there,
I never would've imagined that we'd actually be part of it.
(upbeat dance music)
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
This place is awesome.
We're doing a event for Gamers on the Edge.
We have all of these game consoles.
There's like 20 or 30 of them,
all kids playing,
and we are the arcade division side of Comic-Con.
The reception's been so good because it's got everything
in here that kids want, you know.
You got video games.
You got "Pinball".
Being able to see all these people interact with it,
it kind of solidifies why we did Reboot to begin with.
It's a good turnout today, man.
- It is. - Wow.
He was totally right about how busy it was gonna be.
- Yeah, well earlier this place was packed.
- Wall-to-wall? - It was a big crowd.
- [George] That's awesome.
- Quite a few people know the brand, man.
- Yeah. - They do.
(Bill cheering) - Reboot.
(George laughing) - That's awesome. Yeah.
Well, it's such a good crossover
between the people that like to come to our bar
and who usually come to places like this, you know.
I feel like gaming and comic books
and superheroes are sort of all synonymous with each other.
Those crowds intersect.
If you like comic books,
you probably like video games.
If you like video games,
you probably like comic books.
So coming up with an idea that kind of brings all
that together was something that we were talking about
and we have a really good idea for a new business venture.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- What are you thinking about the table setup?
- I think it looks awesome. - Yeah.
- Look how many people are fitting in that booth.
(George laughing) - Bring it in.
Bring it in.
- Yeah, we kind of did a thing.
We opened up a superhero-themed pizza place
by the name of Infinity Pizza.
Infinity Pizza, I honestly feel is a throwback
to the excitement that when you went into a pizza place
when you were a kid,
there would be arcade games.
We wanted to give like an homage to that
but also tie it into the geek culture that we enjoy.
And "Pinball" machines and arcades,
it gives that fresh take on an old idea
and I really feel like we nailed it.
(upbeat music)
So far, everything's been going awesome.
We invited a lot of friends and family
and we had about 60 people show up.
I don't know if we ordered enough food,
so it seems like it's so busy
that we're probably gonna run out.
- It's fresh.
- It's very nice seeing everybody come out
and support you, you know.
It's been such a long two years
and when you can see everyone's happy to be together,
it's an uplifting experience.
It's very humbling but also very enlightening
when you realize the power of people's spirits.
So far, it seems like everyone's having a good time.
And you know what,
we all have some weight we need to gain.
You know, we got pizza,
we've got drinks, you know. (Helen laughing)
Everyone's too thin.
It reminds me of my grandmother from Naples.
"You're too skinny, eat."
- Beautifully said. I love it.
(George laughing) - I don't have anything else
to add other than we need to take some more walks.
- Take some more walks.
Yes. Yes. - Yes. Yes.
The soft opening was way cool.
Just to see people support us
and get excited about the concept was really awesome.
- I just wanna welcome everyone here
to our inaugural Infinity Pizza opening.
If you're here,
then we care a lot about you.
If you're not here, fuck you.
(patrons laughing)
Nah, I'm just joking.
But when we envisioned this place,
we wanted it to be a fun environment for everybody,
welcoming everyone and to kind of celebrate the idea
of just being a dork and eating pizza.
My wonderful wife has been my rock.
(Helen cooing) and, you know,
she's my Dwayne Johnson as I always tell her.
(patrons laughing)
Getting through the last two years,
seeing how everything has bounced back
and how people are more excited than ever
to come into an arcade bar,
it's really given me a lot of optimism for the future.
I mean, whether it's expansion,
whether it's adding more games,
I mean, the culture is alive and as strong as ever.
It seems like the sky is the limit.
To celebrate this wonderful time of opening
and seeing everybody,
we're gonna shotgun a beer
and regret every decision we're making here.
- And please toast with us. (patrons cheering)
- Yeah. - Thank you, guys.
- Cheers. - Cheers. Cheers.
(indistinct) (patrons applauding)
- Oh, it's so good.
(George groaning)
No, I'm just joking.
I'm good. I'm just joking.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Why, thank you.
- So they're supposed to have a lot of new beers tonight
for the anniversary. - Ah yes, yes, yes.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- It's wild that we are here where we survived to six years.
- We're gonna have a bunch of events going on all weekend.
We have live music tonight.
We're gonna have beer and barbecue.
It's gonna be great.
The turnout so far has been fantastic.
We're gonna be like a really busy night,
but it's gonna be a great night.
We want everyone that's here to have a good time.
- Throughout the weekend,
we're gonna be tapping all
these incredible breweries out here.
- Well, thank you. I thank you.
- And Ross being a huge craft beer lover,
he's got some incredible,
insane rare beers.
Taplist is insane.
It's gonna be the best we've ever had,
the shit's fire.
- What do you have that's new or cool,
like something different?
- Oh, we just did a brewery collab with Magnanimous
if you wanna do one of that.
Yeah, it's one of our newest things we did
for our six-year anniversary.
I've been wanting to do a collab with Magnanimous Brewing
for a long time,
and Ghostface Keller is that kind
of special opportunity to do it.
And it's a Keller beer
and it's super crushable, incredibly delicious.
I fucking love it.
And the art is super fitting as well.
We get to brew a collab today with Magnanimous
for our anniversary coming up.
We actually were able to kind of go hang with them
for some of the brewing process.
Super grateful for that experience
to be in collab with them.
I mean, we couldn't have a better gift for our anniversary.
I am really excited to share this beer with everybody
and I think they're gonna be stoked to have it.
Do you like it? - Yeah, I do.
- Awesome. - Thank you.
- Yeah. - Cheers.
(relaxing instrumental music)
♪ Movie movie ♪
♪ With you baby, yeah, yeah ♪
- It's a great way to start off the anniversary weekend.
There was a time there where, you know,
it was a little scary I think for everyone.
But now to see everyone back and almost back to normal,
sort of give back to everybody that comes in all year round.
There's some good beers and good games.
It feels good.
(upbeat music)
- I'm very thankful for our community
to be in this position.
We wouldn't have come this far if it weren't
for all of that,
so I love them all and I'm very grateful for that.
Good to see you, man.
Thank you for coming out. - Bro, I'm glad to be here.
I mean, I love this place.
It's cool. It's chill.
'90s hip hop,
beers and video games.
You're doing good work.
This is good work. (Von laughing)
You're doing God's work.
(Von laughing) - You're doing God's work
by supporting us so thank you.
- You're doing God's work.
This is dope, man.
It's a lot of fun.
- When I hear from people
the love that they have for Parcade,
the love they have for this spot,
I mean, it's one of the reasons,
if not the main reason why we do this.
You get to do something that you love
and share it with a community that's incredibly supportive,
and I love it.
- You can't own an arcade bar and lose at "Street Fighter".
How do you do that?
- Because I'm drunk, son.
It's something that makes me very grateful
and thankful that I do it every day.
- [Stan] I think I won.
Oh, I won. - I'm really proud of you.
You're six. (Stan hands clapping)
I've seen how much this place has grown.
It's really great to see everybody fill back in here,
to celebrate Lowry Parcade and what they bring.
It's really awesome.
What you've done, like,
you can just look around and there's genuine smiles
on people's faces.
When was the last time you seen people playing air hockey
outside of this place?
People are playing arcade games.
You've created this and you've always had this consistency
and levelheadedness that I admire.
- Thanks, man. - I mean outside
of the fighting games, you know.
Outside of the fighting games.
That's a different story.
- We will talk shit all over.
- Well, yeah,
we'll talk shit here.
- This guy talks all the shit but I still love him.
- Do you need me to sponsor you another coin?
- Oh no, you got it. - No, no, no,
I own this machine.
You don't need to sponsor shit.
(upbeat instrumental music)
I never thought when I first started this place
that it would become a spot where people
love it as much as they do,
or that it is become this kind of community place
and people are making new friends,
they're sharing times with old friends
and it happening here is something
that I'll carry with me forever.
- Really proud of you, man. (upbeat instrumental music)
- There's not a day really that goes by where I don't think,
damn, it all happened and I'm very grateful for it.
(upbeat instrumental music)
(coin jingling)
- We are here at Free Play Florida 2021.
The Caribe Royale.
(upbeat dance music)
- Oh, what's up dude? - You know,
- Just ironing thing out.
How are you doing?
(upbeat dance music)
- It's was amazing to be back with everybody
and see everybody again.
It's been two years since we've had any kind
of events like this.
- The comradery, the communities,
see old faces, old friends,
and plus, play a lot of cool machines.
(upbeat dance music)
- It's nice to see a good turnout here
at Free Play this year.
It's a really good show
and everyone's out having a great time.
Everyone's still in the hobby,
just probably even more than they were before.
It's been a huge kickoff for the hobby and the industry.
It really looks good for the future.
(upbeat dance music)
- Get your buzz on for Florida Free Play.
Take a look at the video games.
Stop by my booth, I'm in the back,
next to the "Moral Kombat" crew.
- Mario is the size of a damn forklift today.
- Yeah, he stole the Big Head Mode from "NBA Jam".
What were we doing last night, Mario?
You closed down that bar, didn't you?
(video game chiming) Yep.
- Great to see the resurgence
of arcades really across the country.
And you can see it in the attendance to these shows
that are springing up everywhere.
It's a place where the gaming community comes together
and with so many divided factions in the country today,
you can count on coming to an arcade bar
or to do a game show and you will have your tribe.
It's really great. (upbeat dance music)
- It feels great to be back at Free Play.
I get to see all my friends in the community
and hang out with them,
drink beers with them.
I brought some games out
and we'll be challenging people to win swags.
I have no problem decimating anybody
in "Street Fighter: 3rd Strike",
so feel free to challenge me.
I'd be happy to mop the floor with you.
This year we closed down Parcade so
that the staff could experience it as well,
and we all came out just to have a great time
and enjoy the whole experience.
("Pac-Man" machine chiming)
- It would appear that there's more enthusiasm than ever,
a greater appreciation.
Now, remembering that the world of arcades,
it was certainly on the rise before.
So now it appears that it's on the rise once again,
maybe with a renewed enthusiasm or appreciation.
I certainly hope so.
So we're here to honor people who have made a footprint
in the world of gaming.
- And one of those places is Lowry Parcade,
which is Tampa's first arcade and craft beer bar.
- It was a kind of surreal experience.
Having no idea like why my name was being called,
I think they had to run me down to find me.
It's like, oh shit,
am I in trouble?
How drunk did I get last night?
- But is anybody seen Lowry Parcade there?
- Oh yes, I'm staring right at him.
Come on up here, Rob.
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
- I know that guy.
- I never expected that for sure.
I mean, we're just a friendly neighborhood arcade bar.
- Good man, great energy,
and he is a fantastic "Street Fighter" player.
(patrons cheering) (patrons applauding)
- Hey, thank you very much
for giving me this award.
Totally unexpected, but I really appreciate it
and very honored and grateful.
Thank you all very much.
It's been one of the coolest things
to see this place grow to become its own thing.
It's its own community.
Like, Parcade is its own world in a way.
A little, tiny world,
but it's its own community and it's been great
for me to step back and see it become its own place
and survive and be its own thing.
We're a legit arcade and you gotta love that
when you're kind of recognized a bit in the community,
and it's nothing but good feelings.
- And so, the future with arcade gaming,
I don't think it'll ever stop evolving.
- I think right now the hobby seems to be on a rocket ship,
so I'm hoping that continues.
Maybe we'll start to see a blend of modern and retro.
Because if you look at
what Doc Mack is doing over at Galloping Ghost,
he's had a game in development for several years now.
- He's doing a game for cabinets.
He's not doing a game to go to the home,
but he wants to grow it from the arcade,
then go to home,
and I think that that's what started the whole industry.
- And the ultimate goal is to hopefully see arcade designers
and developers come back
and designing specifically for the arcade.
And if there's enough places that open
and there's enough demand,
all the video game companies could start doing
arcade games again and we could see the resurgence go
in a completely new,
different direction with arcade games everywhere once again.
- The future for arcade bars
and arcade games is only getting stronger
because it's this new meeting ground for people.
It's something that brings people together.
And let's face it, you know,
the last 10, 20 years,
a lot of stuff has happened
and people have gone into their bedrooms,
into the phone,
into the tablets further, further,
and now they can come out into arcades and go,
oh, you're my people,
you're my tribe.
And I think the good Pandora's out of our box
and people are realizing games bring people together
and games make people happy.
It's a drug without being a drug, you know.
People get addicted to it,
but you don't hurt your body by playing too much "NBA Jam".
(upbeat instrumental music) - I think initially,
arcade bars were sort of focused on nostalgia and saying,
hey, these are the games that I grew up with.
But I walk into an arcade bar and I see people
who were not alive when those first rounds
of arcade games came out,
and I think they're looking for a communal experience.
Now it's very much like I'm there for the community,
I'm there for the camaraderie,
I'm there to have a drink or two and have fun
with my friends and it's something we go out and do.
(patrons cheering)
So I see a big future in it
because it's a very different thing.
It's not really competing with PC gaming or console gaming.
It very much is something that sits alongside it
and it's a different animal.
- So as big as this arcade renaissance has become,
it would be meaningless unless a new generation picks it up
and runs with it too.
There are kids even today
that are now growing up around this arcade scene.
- And once they grab a "Pinball" machine
or a large video cabinet,
they fall in love with it because you can't compare it
to putting your thumbs on a phone.
- I came here with my son.
He's 16 and it was nice to be able to show him
what it's all about and why we come to these things
and it's more than just the games,
it's the community too.
("Pinball" machine chiming) You got this.
You got an extra ball too, I think.
- We have the ability to bring these games
to like a new generation of kids
that really would've never had the opportunity,
where they heard about it from the parents or,
I mean, maybe grandparents, (George chuckling)
depending on how old they are.
It's probably one of the most important parts
of having an arcade bar.
- And I hope that the kids that are being brought up
into this arcade generation continue it
with the next generation so that we don't lose
that magic that comes with coming into an arcade
and escaping into a pixel world for a while.
- And I'm hoping that this remains with us
for several generations because what a sad world it would be
if you can't play games anymore.
At least while I'm alive,
I wanna make sure that this keeps going forward
and keep giving a little bit of that magic
and that nostalgia to everybody.
- Arcades, arcade bars are gonna continue to open.
If they have a new spin on it,
probably an inevitability,
but where they'll go it remains to be seen.
- I think it's a pretty exciting time to be a gamer
because pretty soon around your corner there's gonna
be an arcade bar,
and I think this is something that's here to stay.
- To me, the most unique phenomenon
of the arcade era is that the games were born
in a public setting,
and now in the arcade bar,
they're being reborn in a public setting.
So it's the rebirth of the opportunity
to play video games as a community-spirited event,
and that's the spirit coming alive again.
- I believe as long as the arcade bars evolve
to entertain people,
people are gonna enjoy coming together,
sharing a pastime that they did.
If you think about it,
you go to a football game,
there's a hundred thousand people there
and they don't know each other,
they just share the same passion.
And since the beginning of civilization,
we've always had the passion for gaming.
(Colosseum crowd cheering) From the coliseum
to the stadium,
from the arcade to the console,
(internet startup screeching) from the internet
to the phone,
we've always been playing games
(Jenga blocks crashing) and we've always
been passionate about playing.
It's a passion that's within you.
It's a passion that doesn't die.
It's just a passion that's screaming
for a place to enjoy itself,
that's what arcade bars are.
(upbeat dance music)
- To Vector.
- Keep up the good fight.
(upbeat dance music)
- So it's a very interesting phenomenon to watch
and it should probably grow for quite a while before
that too becomes a cycle that extinguishes itself.
(arcade gun shot buzzing) - Game over.
And that'll do it for "Token Taverns" tonight.
So long everybody.
See you next time.
Thanks for playing.
♪ We grew up with posters on the walls. ♪
♪ The Pepsi generation, thought we'd seen it all ♪
♪ Brightly lit future with flying cars ♪
♪ And we'd all be superstars ♪
♪ Energy is endlessly ♪
♪ Entertaining us violently ♪
♪ Commercials play on TV ♪
♪ And nothing was ever free ♪
♪ Ever free, ever free, ever free, ever free ♪
(upbeat instrumental music)
♪ Ever free, ever free, ever free, ever free ♪
♪ Time flies so fast in an instant flash ♪
♪ I could drive all night, going anywhere ♪
♪ Life moves so fast in an instant flash ♪
♪ I could fly all night, going everywhere ♪
(upbeat instrumental music)
(upbeat instrumental music continues)
♪ We were young, we were full of it ♪
♪ We had it down and stayed silent ♪
♪ We worked hard, we were self-aware ♪
♪ Made mistakes that land us anywhere ♪
♪ With corded phones and tape machines ♪
♪ You could do anything, if you just believe ♪
♪ Commercials play on TV ♪
♪ And nothing was ever free ♪
♪ Time flies so fast in an instant flash ♪
♪ I could drive all night, going anywhere ♪
♪ Life moves so fast in an instant flash ♪
♪ I could fly all night, going everywhere ♪
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Well, I think he's thinking,
is there any new "Donkey Kong" games coming out
in the pipeline.
He's actually on the phone with the president of Nintendo.
And the president of Nintendo said,
"Stop calling me.
Yeah, you've called too many times.
We're not making a new "Donkey Kong".
So pretty sure that's what's happening right now.