Milwaukee bars add classic arcade games
Many venues feature old-school tech so guests can drink, play
Arcade games such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders fed off the obsession with technology in the 1980s. Now, those games are so lowtech they’re cool again.
The number of Milwaukee bars that feature old-school arcade games is growing.
Last year, Hamburger Mary’s opened its Beercade.
An arcade bar, 1983, is scheduled to open on Old World Third St. downtown in time for the beginning of the Bucks season.
Another tavern with a similar idea, Up-Down, is proposed for a spot off Brady St.
There are more places around town that have games and drinks, including Landmark Lanes, Finks and Black Bird, though they are not billed as arcade bars.
“People were in love with technology for technology’s sake. That was when home computers caught on. People didn’t really know what to do with a home computer but had to have one.” STEVEN KENT AUTHOR OF “THE ULTIMATE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES”
Steven Kent, author of “The Ultimate History of Video Games,” said the allure of the arcade comes from the disposable nature of the games. Players throw a quarter into the machine, play for, at the most, a couple minutes and then move on to the next one.
Popularity for arcades and the games within them peaked from 1979 to 1981. Estimates at the time said close to $7 billion worth of quarters were spent playing video games at arcades in 1981.
“People were in love with technology for technology’s sake,” Kent said. “That was when home computers caught on. People didn’t really know what to do with a home computer but had to have one.”
After an initial surge, big arcades started to close down in 1982 and in a nonlinear fashion, the industry faded. Now, the games are being introduced to a younger generation while adults revel in the nostalgia of throwing quarters into a machine.
Kent called classic arcade games “one-note symphonies” with simple goals and storylines, though that doesn’t make the games easier to win.
“It’s easier to go 20 minutes or 30 minutes the first time you play Call of Duty than to go for a minute on Pac-Man,” he said. The skills needed to play Pac-Man are completely different than the ones used to play modern home console games.
The Beercade at Hamburger Mary’s opened last November when the restaurant moved into its new spot on S. 5th St. The business moved from Bay View to the former site of the La Perla restaurant in Walker’s Point.
One of the owners, Brandon Wright, said the idea came to add the arcade after realizing the new space was too big just for the restaurant. Wright saw an opportunity after seeing arcade bars in Chicago, where there’s another Hamburger Mary’s.
He said the response has been “fantastic.”
After the Beercade opens at 5 p.m., friends and couples gather around the machines, drinking beer and snacking on popcorn. The Beercade has about a dozen games patrons can play for free, including Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man, Burger Time and Buck Hunter. The boutique arcade bar mostly attracts people in their 20s and 30s, he said.
“It’s so low-tech, it’s fun,” he said.
Another arcade bar, 1983, plans to be open in time for the Milwaukee Bucks basketball season, said one of the owners, Michael Sampson. The name 1983 comes from the year Nintendo launched in Japan. It’s also the year Sampson was born.
Sampson also is an owner of the restaurant Brunch on N. Plankinton Ave. He and his wife, Morgan, who also owns Brunch and 1983, enjoy stopping at the Barcade
chain while traveling in the northeast United States and wanted to see that concept in Milwaukee.
The new spot on Old World Third St. will take over the former game room of the now defunct Lucille’s Piano Bar. It will have about 30 amusement machines from classics such as Galaga and pinball to driving games like Crazy Taxi.
Up-Down, the tavern proposed for the former site of Comedy Sports, is part of a chain based in Des Moines.
The Garcade opened in Menomonee Falls in July, boasting a selection of 50 arcade games that visitors pay $15 to play with an all-day wristband.
Harold Goldberg, author of “All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture,” said he’s noticed how low-technology is cool across entertainment
media.
“There’s a simplicity that people occasionally want to get back to,” he said.
Goldberg said he isn’t surprised arcade bars that are making a comeback. He said it’s kind of like another campfire. Arcade games are just another form of social lubricant.
“Socializing with a beer in your hand, with a friend by your side and a little bit of an alcohol haze makes it all flow a little more and more compelling,” Goldberg said.
He still remembers the first arcade game he played — Popeye.
“The smell of the bar, the woman I was with,” he said. “It was a brighter moment.”