I’d already been to Las Vegas, a place once known for its many arcades attached to family-friendly casinos. I’d already traveled up the east coast to hit as many old boardwalk arcades as I could. I’ve already seen Chicago, home of the world’s biggest arcade (a trip that got cut short, so I’ll have to go back someday). So, where could I go that would possibly match the many exciting arcades I’ve found in my travels up until now?

Denver, Colorado.

Whenever I tell people about this trip, they ask, “why Denver?” Because, for god only knows what reason, it was one of the most interesting arcade lineups in the country. I’d been itching to take a nice simple trip like this again since Vegas, and there’s no better place in the country. So now, submitted for your approval, I present to you the following:

One Week In Denver

Yes, Denver. A mysterious town situated in the middle of nowhere, Colorado. This is a place I once visited many years ago for an anime convention called “Nan Desu Con.” My big takeaway from that experience was that Denver girls are extremely thirsty. This time, there wasn’t going to be a convention. Just an entire week of visiting arcade after arcade after arcade, searching for meaning in what I do.

You see, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately regarding arcades. With every new trip, it feels harder and harder to find things that impress me. Just look at my original blog post about Up-Down, where I was in awe of several machines that I’ve since seen so many times that I ignore them. There aren’t an unlimited number of arcades for me to visit, especially places with enough in such a small area that I can justify the trip. There are still a couple more I plan to hit in the future, but the diminishing returns are starting to get to me. Hopefully, this trip would remind me what I love about this hobby to begin with.

But enough about that. As I got into town, I found myself at a bus stop in northeast Denver. I wasn’t planning to visit an arcade on the first day, but this one is so close to the airport that there wasn’t going to be a better opportunity. The bus stop was right across the street from the arcade, but the issue was that you had to go all the way around to get there. Normally I’d just cut through the field standing between me and the arcade, but this window decoration made me reconsider that.

Oh, it’s in one of those fancy-ass shopping centers again. Just like the last two times we came to one of these, come to think of it…

Here we are at the first arcade in my new journey: Gameworks of Denver. For those who don’t read my past blog posts, the rundown on Gameworks is that Sega owns it. In the early 00s, there were 30 or more of these locations, but mismanagement caused their numbers to dwindle to seven (although that number is a bit dubious for a few reasons, that’s not important right now). Gameworks are fascinating because they were heavily supported until 2006-ish, then ended up fending for themselves. Most of the remaining locations are time capsules from that era.

Before we get into this, let’s look back at the last two I’ve written about.

First up was one of my very first blog posts about Gameworks of Las Vegas. And unfortunately, I was still starting out back then, so I didn’t take as many photos as I do now. In fact, I completely failed to take an establishing shot of it at all. Once upon a time, it was a gigantic arcade between M&M and Coca-Cola Worlds. Nowadays, it’s way on the very edge of the strip and is dumpy as hell.

The second was just last year, at Gameworks of Chicago with my friend Tom. That location was in much better shape, full of classic Sega games from the 00s. It’s one of the two Gameworks known not to be a total dump.

There’s also another “Gameworks” I’ll write about someday, but it’s largely Gameworks in name only, so it isn’t relevant to this place. So, let’s take a look and see how Denver’s iteration of this franchise held up.

Well, for starters, they’ve got a window full of Pac-man. I’d expect this from a Namco arcade, not a Gameworks. At least put a Sonic in there or something.

Anyway, this is it. The shape of the building reminds me a bit of the Philadelphia Round1, where it’s divided in a way that it’s impossible to get a photo that really portrays how big it is. It’s not as big as Chicago Gameworks, mind you, but it’s still got a respectable amount of floor space.

One thing that stood out to me is how decorated this place is. Not big, fancy decorations, but little touches all over the place make it feel like the employees are doing their best to keep the placefun.

For example, I visited in October, so they had small dollar-store Halloween decorations set up. Everything from cobwebs in the prize area to these small tombstones tucked away above the doors. It simultaneously gives the arcade a lot of charm while also making it feel very ghetto.

Here’s the prize area, again with a huge emphasis on Pac-man. Sega doesn’t seem to care about this franchise anymore, so they probably make do with whatever video game-related prize decorations they can get. I should also mention there were probably more employees on duty than customers.

The juxtaposition here is very real. When this Gameworks first opened, you could tell that it wanted to give off the impression of a pretty high-scale entertainment center. However…

It’s completely offset by how run-down it is. It’s very difficult to put into words how bizarre the atmosphere is. It’s like walking into an old part of town, with grass growing through the sidewalks and buildings covered in graffiti, then you come upon a building that you’re sure looked fancy once upon a time. It’s a sobering feeling.

This is the sports bar area. Let it be known I regret not getting a photo of the one in Vegas so I can compare the two. Oh well.

Here’s the high-tech LAN gaming area. I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t know if these areas were always a part of Gameworks or if they were added to stay somewhat relevant against Dave and Busters. Anyway, it’s time we start looking at the games. And there happen to be a few sitting right there!

Toward the end of the 00s, right about when Gameworks were getting their last few “unique” machines and had to start just ordering the same stuff as every other arcade, they dabbled in imported fighting game cabs. These two are Net City cabs, produced by Sega and running Street Fighter IV (not produced by Sega). These two are a modern update of the popular Astro City style of machine.

Also, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. These machines stand out quite a bit due to their odd location. Perhaps even the employees understand that there aren’t something you’d be able to find at any old place, like Dave and Busters. Of course, this isn’t the 00s anymore, so candy cabs aren’t as novel as they once were. Mainly due to Round 1 having loads of the things. There’s also another arcade here in Denver that… Well, we’ll get to that someday.

When you first walk into the main game area, this is the thing that jumps out at you. I’ve never seen one of these before, so I honestly thought the scary blacklit clown was part of the machine. It turns out that it’s just Gameworks of Denver adding their own personal flair to the machine.

The clown moves, by the way.

And it’s an import? What on Earth? A quick Google search tells me that a handful of them are floating around in the US, but it’s still odd to find here.

The game itself is similar to a coin pusher, except with candy. When I was done here, I used all of my leftover credits on this to fill my pockets with snacks to chew on for the rest of my trip. I did a LOT of waiting for buses in Denver.

As I mentioned earlier, they couldn’t go an entire decade without any new games, so there are a handful of more standard, modern fares. Someday I swear to god, I’ll actually play Injustice, but it felt like a waste to do it here.

Here’s one I didn’t know Gameworks carried but makes perfect sense given the timeframe. Initial D ver 4 is one of the last to have an official NA release. This entry was also unpopular enough that we didn’t see 6 or 7 in the states (I’m not 100% sure about 5 since it’s just an upgrade of this).

This is the one that surprised me the most. I honestly didn’t know Gameworks ever carried imported rhythm games like Pop’n. But they have a complete list of every game Gameworks has officially carried on their website, and it turns out they absolutely did. Strangely, they’re some of the only games on that list I haven’t run into at any of the locations I’ve visited.

I’m very much over the novelty of seeing a DDRX machine after Chicago. It really wasn’t a great game and I have nothing interesting to say about it anymore.

This, on the other hand, I have plenty to say about. It’s DDR Supernova 2, upgraded from an original Supernova machine. Which is pretty rare, given how few upgrade kits were made. But more importantly, let’s take a closer look at that screen.

The monitor broke at some point, so they shoved a random flatscreen PC monitor in there. Look, it isn’t even big enough to fit! I’d be lying if I said this was the worst monitor on a DDR machine I’ve ever seen, but it’s up there.

On top of that, the buttons are sunk WAY into the machine for some reason. It’s extremely easy to trip over the metal squares when trying to play this. It feels like the machine is being held together with duct tape.

Nicktoons Nitro Racing had a two-player mode? I’ve never seen two of them in the same place before.

Remember Alpine Racer? That weird skiing game made during the period when everyone was racing to see who could make the weirdest interactive game? This is 2013’s Super Alpine Racer, the sequel nobody asked for. If you think that’s strange, it turns out this series is still alive, with a new VR-focused entry coming soon.

I don’t even know what the hell this decoration is. It looks like a headcrab in a containment tank. I’d assume this was the staff putting up spooky decorations like that clown again but look there at the side. This is an official Gameworks item. I can only speculate that it may have been a prop for laser tag at some point.

That’s about it for the “front room.” Next, let’s venture into this dark corner in the back. A lot of the bigger, older machines are tucked away back here, out of sight of the rest of the arcade.

This thing was cool as hell. It’s a standard arcade basketball game but look at it. It’s bloody amazing. It even has a cool feature that uses a series of motion sensors that make the light directly above the ball turn on, so the light follows every ball you throw.

It looks like they were trying to make Print Club booths a thing in the states at some point. I used to hang out with some huge weeaboo girl I met at a convention when I first moved to Minnesota. She dragged me into one of these once, so I know how they work. They’re just really, really not made for guys. The color balancing they do on the photo is meant to emphasize makeup, so it just looks really weird.

By the way, she kept the stickers and left me with the non-sticker half.

There were a handful of ticket games back here, too. Check out this Gameworks-branded one.

(I started this post four months ago and picked it up again here. Forgive me if my commentary is out of practice)

This was the most memorable thing in the whole arcade for me. It’s a karaoke booth with a feature that lets you save your song onto a CD. Sure, it’s not that interesting on its own, but let’s take a closer look:

At first, you may wonder what the hell you’re looking at. The reflection on the window screws with the perspective a bit, but this is a shot of the inside of the karaoke game. There’s a cracked window, the microphone is covered in black tape to hold it together, and the headphones look like they’ve been torn apart multiple times. This is one of the most beat-up arcade machines I’ve ever encountered. I guess this Gameworks isn’t picky about what it keeps.

I’m pretty sure that every remaining Gameworks has a Cycraft sitting around. This particular one is closed off and looks like it’s on its way out. The one at Mall of America is in a similar shape right now. These things could become extremely rare in the near future if this is any indication.

I can never run into this machine without commenting about how huge it is, can I? But this time, I’ve photographed it for two reasons.

If you didn’t believe this arcade was haphazardly held together with duct tape before, this should change your mind. This notice has probably been sitting here for years without anyone catching the typo.

The second reason is that if you look behind the machine, you can see their graveyard of broken machines. I love it when an arcade keeps them out in the open like this. I know they don’t want anyone back here, but there’s no blockade or anything. But my gut tells me if there were, it would be another piece of paper with “Do Not Etner” scribbled on.

Here you can see all of their sit-down cabs. It all looks like standard…

Wait, I just noticed there’s another Terminator Salvation machine here! Why do they need two of them?

Now we can talk about some of the games themselves. I’m sorry if this blog post tended to ramble. One of my biggest regrets is not taking more photos of the Las Vegas Gameworks. When I wanted to show an acquaintance the sorry state it was in a few months ago, I realized that I only took two photos of it. So I decided to cover this one in as much detail as humanly possible. The small quirks of this Gameworks give it a fascinating atmosphere, even if the games aren’t all that interesting. I’ve had a hard time writing this post because of it. That’s why it’s taken four months, you see…

This might have been the only machine in the entire arcade I haven’t seen before or since (aside from the Candy thing). This game is called Allied Tank Assault. It’s one of those full-motion machines that move around as you play (I think. It’s been a while). What I remember most about this game is the terrible AI. At one point, I got stuck behind the wall of a building while trying to shoot down an airship. Then I realized that the airship had no way to damage me when I was behind the wall, but the top was just low enough for me to shoot through. I spent about 2 minutes doing nothing but pushing the fire button until it went down. It didn’t leave much of an impression beyond that.

Nearly three years ago, I did a series of blog posts about the East Coast’s arcades. At one point, I ran into one of these but didn’t play it since I was in a hurry. I swore that I would play it if I ever ran into it again. I didn’t forget (even though I ignored it in Chicago).

So was this game worth keeping an eye out for all this time? Absolutely. I normally hate machine gun-based light games, but this one doesn’t fall into the trap of making you focus fire on every enemy. In true Rambo fashion, your gun is for mowing down wave upon wave of random mooks. Imagine playing Virtua Cop with a machine gun. That’s not even getting into the terrible cutscenes that are just random movie clips. I truly regret not playing this game in whatever boardwalk arcade I found it at before.

This one, on the other hand, I KNOW is a full-motion cab. It jerks all over the place when you’re playing it. But as usual, the motion functionality was broken. I’ve only it seen it working once, and it was that time I went to Check E Cheese.

I still have the photos. I swear I’ll do a blog post about it someday. I’ll talk about this game more then.

Sega Strike Fighter! In the early-mid 00s, Sega released two games with this triple-screen setup. One of which was a Ferrari game. The other is this baby right here.

It’s an air combat game similar to the After Burner games but with a much more complicated interface. You steer with the two foot pedals down there, aim and fire with the right stick, control your speed with the left stick, and use the little red stick to change the direction you’re looking. That last one is where the three-screen gimmick comes into play. You can only shoot things on the middle screen, but the left and right screens give you a much wider field of vision. If you see an enemy coming, you either need to rotate your field of view or completely turn the plane. It’s a bit difficult to get the hang of, but very fun once you figure it all out.

My apologies if I got any of those details wrong. I only got to play it once.

By the way, they stuck a party light behind the machine to give it a subtle back glow effect. God, I love this place.

And that’s about all I have to say about this Gameworks. They had a few other machines, but they weren’t anything notable. If you’re curious, you can catch a glimpse of almost all of them in my other photos. Either way, I’ve done my part to preserve Denver Gameworks for future generations to enjoy. It’s not in great shape, so I can’t say how much longer it’ll last. It’s fascinating to see such a major, upscale arcade with a hole-in-the-wall air. It was a unique experience that needs to be remembered.

And so ends my first day in Denver. After this, it was a complicated series of walking, bus rides, and trying to find food (I eventually had to settle for a block of cheese I could eat on the bus). But I eventually made it to where I’d stay for the next week. And it was… Well, we’ll get to that.