Hi folks.
I'm a long time reader but only recently joined the board as a poster. I have a bit of a photo gallery to share here and I hope it puts a smile on a few of your faces. I got the idea (to post this) after reading this amazingly awesome thread about the Idaho arcade, which I think is about the coolest thing I've ever heard of due north of where I'm sitting.
So, I was born in 1974 so you can pretty much figure whence came my devotion to the arcade hobby. Back in the 1990s, I spent time working at arcades and usually my main concern was keeping Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Neo Geo machines working properly. I loved the vintage stuff but didn't really get a chance to do lots of hands-on with it. So, I do NOT consider myself an expert at the arcade hobby, and I am learning more and more from you guys every day here and I appreciate very much all the great advice and instruction so freely given.
I work in health care law by day, but have the entrepreneurial itch in my free time, and I've been an eBay hound for my other hobby, trading card games (Magic: the Gathering, etc) for years now, and some friends and I used to do a terrible job running a hobby shop from 1998-2001. So our motley group decided to capitalize a little better this time and use what we actually know about business from experience, my law degree, and the expertise of the rest involved, and open a new game store. But this time... this time I was determined not to let a chance slip by to bring the arcade experience to life here in my stomping grounds.
I live in Chandler, but the area we found in our demographic research that would better support a store was nearby Gilbert. It's a heavily LDS (Mormon) area, and some of our LLC ownership group are LDS, so we had inside voices helping us tailor our store to the community's sensibilities. (Game store owners in other states raise an eyebrow when I explain that we're closed Sundays, for example, but if you were here you'd understand. The locals really do like it better that way. They arrange their social calendars with it already in mind. And yes, they spend more the other six days. It's like Apple: somehow it Just Works.) Anyway, it took us all year so far to plan, months to capitalize and prepare, then a frustratingly long buildout, and finally we soft-opened earlier this month, followed by a grand open last week.
It's a humble beginning, and we have a long way to go and many many more games yet to procure and polish, but I am happy to present the fulfillment of some gamer nerds' dreams:
Desert Sky Games, the Vintage Arcade and Hobby Game Store.
1. Front view:
2. By night:
3. The part of the store you guys won't be too interested in, TCG/boardgame/hobby product, plus part of our A/V system that provides an ambient nerd atmosphere.
Our games:
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Continued...
I'm a long time reader but only recently joined the board as a poster. I have a bit of a photo gallery to share here and I hope it puts a smile on a few of your faces. I got the idea (to post this) after reading this amazingly awesome thread about the Idaho arcade, which I think is about the coolest thing I've ever heard of due north of where I'm sitting.
So, I was born in 1974 so you can pretty much figure whence came my devotion to the arcade hobby. Back in the 1990s, I spent time working at arcades and usually my main concern was keeping Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Neo Geo machines working properly. I loved the vintage stuff but didn't really get a chance to do lots of hands-on with it. So, I do NOT consider myself an expert at the arcade hobby, and I am learning more and more from you guys every day here and I appreciate very much all the great advice and instruction so freely given.
I work in health care law by day, but have the entrepreneurial itch in my free time, and I've been an eBay hound for my other hobby, trading card games (Magic: the Gathering, etc) for years now, and some friends and I used to do a terrible job running a hobby shop from 1998-2001. So our motley group decided to capitalize a little better this time and use what we actually know about business from experience, my law degree, and the expertise of the rest involved, and open a new game store. But this time... this time I was determined not to let a chance slip by to bring the arcade experience to life here in my stomping grounds.
I live in Chandler, but the area we found in our demographic research that would better support a store was nearby Gilbert. It's a heavily LDS (Mormon) area, and some of our LLC ownership group are LDS, so we had inside voices helping us tailor our store to the community's sensibilities. (Game store owners in other states raise an eyebrow when I explain that we're closed Sundays, for example, but if you were here you'd understand. The locals really do like it better that way. They arrange their social calendars with it already in mind. And yes, they spend more the other six days. It's like Apple: somehow it Just Works.) Anyway, it took us all year so far to plan, months to capitalize and prepare, then a frustratingly long buildout, and finally we soft-opened earlier this month, followed by a grand open last week.
It's a humble beginning, and we have a long way to go and many many more games yet to procure and polish, but I am happy to present the fulfillment of some gamer nerds' dreams:
Desert Sky Games, the Vintage Arcade and Hobby Game Store.
1. Front view:
2. By night:
3. The part of the store you guys won't be too interested in, TCG/boardgame/hobby product, plus part of our A/V system that provides an ambient nerd atmosphere.
Our games:
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Continued...
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