Once again, we find ourselves here. As another arcade year ends, I get to write my final Denver report. It’s hard to believe I started writing these in 2019. Despite a crazy year, I’ve finally reached the end. Let’s look at the arcades one last time and see which ones survived the year.
I am a huge fan of Gameworks. You’ll always find high-end games from 1997 to 2004 in their vaults. They haven’t changed much in 15 years, making them interesting. They provide a beautiful record of an arcade’s final glory. It hasn’t reopened, so its future doesn’t look bright.
UPDATE: The entire Gameworks franchise closed down a few months later.
UPDATE2: Gameworks reopened! But only the Seattle location.
A small, community-grown rhythm game arcade that grew into what it is today. Even if I didn’t want to talk about it too much, it was a memorable experience. When writing this, one of the owners fell very sick. Boss Stage is temporarily closed with an uncertain future. Before the pandemic hit, they had expanded to a bigger location. Not long after, the new location closed, and they returned to their old address. I hope things work out well for them.
UPDATE: Boss Stage officially announced they were closing due to the owner’s health a few months later.
To think this would be the arcade to make me re-evaluate what I believe a perfect arcade looks like. I’m not saying it was perfect by any stretch, but it’s as close as I’ve ever seen. Such a small arcade, too…
They managed to survive through 2020 without issue. That’s a good sign.
Looking back, I’m more impressed with this one in retrospect than when I was there. Unfortunately, it shut down a couple of months after I visited. RIP
What can I say? It’s a Round 1. It’s always a good time, even if I’ve already talked about these places to death. Every single time I visit a new one, I find new games that I’ve never played before. The one in Denver is still kicking.
By the way, Tom and I… Well, I’ll save that for whenever I decide to forgive him for ignoring me for two months.
A small hangout for the local kids. I loved this arcade to death for its atmosphere, even if the game selection didn’t quite live up to my standards. Either way, the kids who were here seemed happy. Unfortunately, this one closed its doors in 2020. The owner hasn’t given up hope of reviving it yet, so let’s hope things will go alright for them.
UPDATE: It actually reopened!
These are always the most painful losses. An arcade that’s been around for three decades, gone in the blink of an eye. At least I got to archive it before it shut down. It was like being one of the last people who got to explore ancient ruins.
This was the arcade I worried about the most. Thank god it seemed to pull through. Seeing an arcade like this in modern times is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you’re ever in the area, make sure you at least check this one out. Hell, check out every arcade that’s still around, too.
What an adequate arcade. It hasn’t gone anywhere.
One of the best barcades I’ve ever been to (discounting Akihabara, that is). They went through a lot of trouble to stay open, but they seem to be stable for the moment. It would be a huge loss if this one died.
So only three dead arcades and two with uncertain futures (EDIT: Four dead arcades). That’s… still pretty bad. I’m so glad I visited Denver when I did. If I had waited a few months longer, I’d have missed so many of these.
Here’s what I came home with this year. It’s not much. FTW, Round 1, and Gameworks were the only three arcades I saw that still used swipe cards. I had to leave out the Round 1 and Gameworks cards. I can’t tell the Round1 cards apart at all, and I don’t want to figure out which of my Gameworks cards is which right now. I need to label those…
The fan in the middle is what I got with my tickets at Nickel-a-Play. As a kid, I got a similar one at Circus Circus in Las Vegasand kept it with me until a few years ago. This one isn’t quite the same, but I had tickets to burn, and it seemed like a nice addition to my trophy shelf. Granted, I also already have a wooden fan on it that I got from my ex-girlfriend many years ago. People are going to start thinking folding fans is a thing with me. The magnet from Las Vegas probably doesn’t help…
The third item is a magnet from Big Daddy’s Pizza. I was possessed by the devil when I asked for this.
But I’m finally done archiving my journey. It took so long that I built up quite a backlog of arcade photos that I need to clear out soon. In fact, I spent the last week reorganizing my site. I’ll talk about that a bit more in the next post. And, against all odds, I DID manage to travel out of state last year. So I have one more arcade ‘journey’ to write about. Even if it was less of a ‘journey’ and more of a ‘weekend day trip’. I’ll be able to go on a real trip again this year. I’ve got two places in mind. Which I go to depends on whether I can flag down my old buddy Tom (the one I went to Chicago with). He promised we could go, but getting him to keep his word is like pulling teeth. If not, I do have a backup location. Let’s see what happens.
