Tour of Nashville's last arcade

Where in Nashville is that? I'm coming there for a wedding in 2 weeks. I know we're downtown by the Hermitage Hotel though. Probably not anywhere close I'd imagine.
 
Where in Nashville is that? I'm coming there for a wedding in 2 weeks. I know we're downtown by the Hermitage Hotel though. Probably not anywhere close I'd imagine.

I'm assuming you mean the Hermitage on 6th Ave.? If so, then you're actually not that far away. Granted, not really walking distance... but only about 20mins away. http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=231+6th+Ave+N,+Nashville,+TN+37219+(Hermitage+Hotel)&geocode=CWydRgjuq2KJFavPJwId1s_T-iFr7e_oJKDmlA&dirflg=&daddr=5252+Hickory+Hollow+Pkwy,+Antioch,+TN&f=d&hl=en&dq=hermitage+hotel+loc:+tennessee&sll=35.859307,-86.681221&sspn=0.820357,0.241856&ie=UTF8&ll=36.092945,-86.715775&spn=0.251347,0.441513&z=11
 
WOW. Thats exactly what kind of arcade I want to go to. Almost perfect selection of 80's, 90's, and the 2000's!
 
Wow, now that's a proper arcade! I don't know how much time I'll have at this wedding to visit out there. I am down on 6th avenue then like you said. Maybe I'll do a weekend in Nashville sometime. 2 of my favorite pinballs are in there, Bad Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Tons of other stuff I'd definitely play. Are they pretty successful?
 
Wow, now that's a proper arcade! I don't know how much time I'll have at this wedding to visit out there. I am down on 6th avenue then like you said. Maybe I'll do a weekend in Nashville sometime. 2 of my favorite pinballs are in there, Bad Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Tons of other stuff I'd definitely play. Are they pretty successful?

Yeah, they're doing pretty good. Actually looking to open up a second location because it's getting really hard to fit anything else in there... they're pretty much at max capacity right now... if I game comes in, a game has to go out.

Luckily there are a few pretty loyal customers you can find in there most of the week. One of the guys on the SFIV cab (same cab Justin Wong won in the SFIV tourney, they bought it from him) is in there usually every other day or so.

While I don't care much for the fighting games (minus Guilty Gear), keeping up with the new games is what keeps the arcades going. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of people that come in just for the classics, and some that come in every weekend and play pinball from open till close... but the newer games are the lifeblood of the place. The arcade is the only place in the southeast with Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion... so people come in from GA, MS, KY, VA, AL etc etc just to play that.

The arcade does pretty well actually... for an arcade. But it's a constant struggle to keep up with home console games. Luckily they got a full year of Tekken 6 before it gets released on consoles next month... so that helped A LOT. But it is an arcade... and since it's the last true arcade in Nashville (not attached to a bar or resturant)... I think it speaks pretty heavily as far as what the arcade scene nationwide is like. It's all about survival of the fittest... if you can't keep your games up and going and can't keep getting the games in that people actually WANT to play, then you're not going to last long.

The arcade is actually co-owned by one of the members here on KLOV (DreamTR).

If you don't mind ridding around in a pickup truck, I can actually give you a lift to the arcade sometime (depending on the day). I take the interstate to the arcade, so I swing right by downtown... not more than a few minutes out of my way. If you're interested.
 
I'll have to see. We are driving in on Thursday night after work, then I'm not sure when or where the rehearsal dinner is on Friday. Saturday the wedding is at like 3, then reception at 6:30. So it would seem all of my time is going to be tied up for the most part.

I didn't know dreamtr was part owner of that. That place is awesome to me. Definitely a lot of what I had dreamt up as must haves if I were to open an arcade. A little light on the pinball choices. I mean nice number of pinballs, just not some of must haves in my book. Then again some of the must haves are big dollars so very understandable they have what they have in there. I might have to ask dreamtr how feasible something like this is. If I get a promotion at work that might push me over the edge to opening an arcade.
 
BADASS! im in murfreesboro so im just a stones throw away. Scucci, maybe we can get together some day soon and spend a few quarters. I havent been to a real arcade since i was i little kid in the mid 90s
 
Caldwert, there's 14-15 pins in there, but I have another 7 at home and 3 more in our storage area...

The best ones we have are Fun House and Road Show and Theatre of Magic and Scared Stiff but I won't bring my "good" stuff there...Theatre of Magic I bought for the arcade, the pins I have at home are:

Black KNight 2000
Elvira and The Party Monsters
The Shadow
Star Trek The NExt Generation
Demolition Man
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Twilight Zone

storage has Police Force, Lucky Se7en (I need to sell or trade), and Checkpoint (I want to get working so we have another "beater" pin.

We're running close to 120 games right now, but pins are just a pain to maintain. 3 of our pins are down right now in the past 2 days...
 
Cool video thanks for posting! Arnt a bunch of those games owned by Jay gallagher also? How come he doesn't get any credit? No lasers? Not even a dragons lair? I heard you bought the intersteller cockpit for the arcade, what happened to it? Hope u guys survive and have great sucess.

Joe(acejedi)
 
Yeah, I totally understand about pins. Plus the cost of buying them only to risk them getting beat up. Sounds like you have some ace pins at your house for sure. BK2000, Elvira, and TOTAN are all favs of mine. I totally understand about beater pins because as the video was going around I was laughing because those were beater pins I had in mind to run in an arcade as well. I guess I shouldn't scoff at 14-15 pins, I'd be pumped to see 3-4 anywhere here. That place looks awesome though. How long has it been open?
 
Cool video thanks for posting! Arnt a bunch of those games owned by Jay gallagher also? How come he doesn't get any credit? No lasers? Not even a dragons lair? I heard you bought the intersteller cockpit for the arcade, what happened to it? Hope u guys survive and have great sucess.

Joe(acejedi)

Yeah, quite a few of those are Jay's machines (most of the classics actually)... I'll list a few off of the top of my head, but Robotron, DK, Beast Busters 2, Rush, F-14, High Speed (I think?), Jr Pac, Super Pac, Off-Road, CongoBongo... ummm... crap, I haven't been paying attention to what he's moved in and out. I wouldn't mind getting some of his William's machines back in there... I miss Joust and (to a lesser extent) MakeTrax.

I think technically... that Crime Patrol is laser... so that counts! lol I'd love to see a DragonsLair... but, it's more or less up to Jay as to what he puts in... I believe. I know he has more machines he wants to get in there, but space is limited now. Oh, about forgot... that Come on Baby machine is his too.

I'll be heading back up there in a day or so to work on some more stuff in storage. I'll go through and make a list of his games and write down credits on the video. I honestly didn't think it was a big deal, but I know Jay doesn't mind seeing his name in credits. ;p

I know I wouldn't mind seeing his EDOT get put in there... but its all about space.

_jmfr said:
BADASS! im in murfreesboro so im just a stones throw away. Scucci, maybe we can get together some day soon and spend a few quarters. I havent been to a real arcade since i was i little kid in the mid 90s

I think you're actually closer than I am, I have to drive in from the otherside of Bellevue. Granted, I was little kid in the mid 80's, so I'll probably be playing more of the older games... never got into the new stuff too much. And I suck at most of the games in the arcade... I can't get a decent score on that Robotron there to save my life... that machine hates me. I think Jay put a voodoo curse on it that makes all the humans line up in the paths of the hulks... every wave past 6 or so just starts off with the sounds of all the humans die'ng. ANYWHO, yeah, wouldn't mind meeting up and playing a few games for scores against someone else.
 
I think you're actually closer than I am, I have to drive in from the otherside of Bellevue. Granted, I was little kid in the mid 80's, so I'll probably be playing more of the older games... never got into the new stuff too much. And I suck at most of the games in the arcade... I can't get a decent score on that Robotron there to save my life... that machine hates me. I think Jay put a voodoo curse on it that makes all the humans line up in the paths of the hulks... every wave past 6 or so just starts off with the sounds of all the humans die'ng. ANYWHO, yeah, wouldn't mind meeting up and playing a few games for scores against someone else.

Id rather play the older stuff as well. The newest cabs I like playing are the mk's. They were new when i was a youngin and thats what got me into arcades. I havent got the chance to play the REAL classics so i'd suck to. cant wait to feed em some quarters though!
 
Out here in Cali, distributors were charging $12.5k for a Tekken 6 in that style cab.
We passed. However, we did just spend $19k on a Raizing Storm. :-(
 
looks like im going tommorow after class. Prolly get there round 2pm. If im not there tommorow ill be there saturday. Im sooo excited! Unlike 98% of you folks, I havent had the chance to play classic cabs since about '95(and I was only 9)

need to get me a klov shirt so i can bump into some of you folks
 
looks like im going tommorow after class. Prolly get there round 2pm. If im not there tommorow ill be there saturday. Im sooo excited! Unlike 98% of you folks, I havent had the chance to play classic cabs since about '95(and I was only 9)

need to get me a klov shirt so i can bump into some of you folks

KK, tomorrow at 1400. Roger.

I'll be there. I need to do some work there anyways. Just ask the guy behind the counter where Scucci is.
 
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