Barring None

Last weekend, I visited a local gaming bar. Now this time, it was different to the one from last month as I was in a different city at the time. This time however, this was in a city with a larger population and no attendee restrictions (as far as I knew). 

So I head into the place. Once inside, I was greeted with neon lighting and some early eighties rock music. I see a bar and a whole line of pinball machines. What is surprising about the latter is that they are more current models with a complete screen - which was new to me as I recall pinball machines having small LCD screens. But here the screens are larger and cover more action? How times have changed. 

The bar served drinks (of course) and offered some cocktails with names lifted from various games (Ocarina of Lime? Bad Fur Day?). Obviously playing to the crowd.

But the real meat were the game available. There were some restored arcade games boasting the likes of Mortal Kombat 2, Streetfighter 2, Pac-Man, Galaxian, Space Invaders and others. There were even small booths that feature consoles with the Megadrive, SNES, P1 and the N64. Of course, all these weren't running on the original hardware: they were done up with some modern emulation tinkering. The credits on the arcades were infinite and the Megadrive games I played weren't running off an original console. 

There were a lot of people there and they provided the arcades with some use. And as the night wore on, the music changed to some 80s synth, including the TRON: Legacy soundtrack. 

So yeah, the bar was an interesting experience and I will certainly take a shot at a later date. I have no idea if all gaming bars are following the same template but it clearly works.