Well, I went to Rusty Quarters with two friends and their kids yesterday…

On the plus side:

• A great game selection.
• Fun to hear the familiar sound of an arcade.
• Patrons are friendly.
• Owners are friendly.
• Real Coke (and Fanta) in bottles. (Hecho in Mexico!)
• 99% of the games were running (Tempest was down.)
• They were very busy after a couple of hours. I assume they’ve gotten more traffic now that they’ve had an article feature them in the Strib since they’ve opened.
• No ball pit.

Things they might need to improve:

• Blinds. The store faces South and the sun was beating down into the game room. You couldn’t even play Rampage which was featured in their Strib article unless you wait for the sun to shift and/or set.
• Many of the games need small repairs. About 1/2 of the games you could only use one coin slot–the other was out of order. I don’t know if it’s because they need more coin mechs or what. Also 3-4 games have serious monitor issues (blurry colors fading). They need to be capped (new capacitors) and/or adjusted. I hope that the proprietors are making this their hobby so that they can get some of the easy repairs done themselves.

On the WTF side:  (No offense to the owners, it is after all their business.)  We all agreed to go at Noon when they opened on Sunday. When we arrived at noon they were closed.  5 minutes passed… then 10.  10 minutes late is totally forgivable.   But then 20 minutes went by and luckily one of our friends was late so we were waiting anyway.  At 25 minutes after I suggested we go back to my neck of the woods and hang out at Adam’s Arcade.  As we were discussing our friend who was late showed up at 12:30 as did the proprietors.   In total we waited 35 minutes before they opened the door.  Don’t get me wrong, I was glad they finally opened.  After a brief apology of “Sorry to keep you waiting,” they were kind enough to throw in some free credits on the games for us–which was nice.  However I would think if you’re a new business and have just been featured in a newspaper article, you’d make it your responsibility as a proprietor to make sure someone is there to open up on time.  I realize it’s just two of them–but we actually saw people come and leave because it wasn’t open.

Their space is tight so it will be interesting to see if they’re able to grow out of their space or maintain their space. It was nice that when it was fully populated they were able to open the front door. Winter air makes for great natural air-conditioning. It will be interesting to see how they fare in the summer months with the AC on to keep the heat down from people and games.

To end on a positive note, it’s really nice to say we’ve got a bona fide arcade here in the Twin Cities so I hope to go back and visit a few more times in the near future. They’re really doing the city a service.  By opening up this little gem, they’re giving many new generations (that never knew what a real arcade looked like) a chance to experience it–even if it isn’t as big as the old Showbiz and Aladdin’s Castle’s of the day.

Stern has released their Tron:Legacy pinball machine to the public. With that, there are launch parties all over America. The twin cities has not been forgotten! There will be a Tron pinball launch party at Blainbrook Entertainment Center this Sunday at 7pm. If you haven’t been to Blainbrook, you’re missing out on the 50 pinball machines  they have available. PinBot AND Bride of PinBot? It’s there. It’s my new happy place. For more info, hit http://www.blainbrookbowl.com/