Hometown Arcade

I’ve always been a big fan of arcades, and have enjoyed visiting them when traveling to different cities. There has been a resurgence of them in the last 10 to 15 years—a throwback to the ‘90s—but this revival hadn’t really caught on yet in Massachusetts.

I spoke to many successful arcade owners across the country and in Toronto to get as much information and input as possible. It was a big risk starting a new business, so I wanted to feel as confident as I could going into it. Our two other locations are in Norwood, MA and New Jersey (my brother-in-law runs that arcade), and we honestly weren’t thinking about opening one in Northampton. While we are frequently approached by landlords and real estate agents, we tend to pass on offers.

When we received a great packet of information from Thornes, however, it stood out to us and our interest was piqued. I was already familiar with the city due to the music scene from when I was in college, and I really enjoyed it. We came out here to look at the space and have an initial conversation with Thornes. After that, one thing led to another and we made the leap. It’s honestly a great fit for us, with the energy of downtown, the area colleges, eclectic businesses, and so much more. We’re really happy to be here.

We’ve gotten many from auctions and various sources like that. Auctions take place all across the country and can be great—we’ll go anywhere to find what we consider to be good, classic games at reasonable prices. A lot of the old school games really hold up, and it’s great to see kids playing them, along with the newer ones.

I also have a friend who is the largest collector of vintage arcade games in New England, and one of the top collectors in the country. He has upwards of 3,000 cabinets in different states of repair. He is very well-connected in the collector space, and we’ve been on road trips together to check out/pick up games. He is definitely another great resource when it comes to sourcing rare games, and it helps that he is also a great friend.

Fortunately, Corey, our manager at the Northampton spot was referred to us from a friend of a friend in the community. He has a background in game repair and is definitely our go-to person. I will help when I’m in town, and my friend with the big warehouse is also helpful when it comes to sourcing parts for the more obscure/classic games. Corey is awesome at solving problems both large and small, from a sticky button or malfunctioning joystick to electronic board failures. It’s definitely a team effort, but Corey is there more often. There’s a decent surplus of many games in this area, so if we have a bunch of them fail, we can swap them out with backups.

My personal favorite is probably Stranger Things from the recent TV series; I can’t wait for the final season to air. Stern Pinball made a great game with a drive-in movie theater theme—it actually features a projector and a movie screen—and incorporates clips from the show. The color scheme is mostly purple with purple lighting and you get to battle a Demogorgon with a pinball. Other than that, I love vintage arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

All of our pinball games are very popular. We recently moved our Elton John pinball machine from Norwood to Northampton, as it seemed like a great fit for the community. It’s a very high-end (it probably costs more than a first car!), fun game with music from his entire catalog included. People also really enjoy bubble hockey, ski-ball, and air hockey, as well as fighting games like Mortal Kombat and the Ninja Turtles, which obviously appeals to a Northampton crowd.

We have rhythm games that are very popular, including Beatmania and Guitar Hero. We will also have a Dance Dance Revolution game on the floor very soon—it was shipped out here from California, but was damaged in transit, so that’s being worked on. It’s almost ready to go, and we expect it to be very popular since so many people have been asking about it and we have it at our other locations. We plan to have some LGTBQ+ theme nights around dance and rhythm games coming up.

Our first big event was a few weeks ago, which was a “welcome back to school” night for college students. We had a couple of Smith students who work for us organize, promote, and run it, and it went really well. We’re really looking forward to more of those events as time goes on.

We also welcome feedback, and we’re adapting based on some great suggestions. For example, the pricing model in Thornes is different, based on the foot traffic in the building. People might be shopping, come upon the arcade, and not want to stay all day, but would love to pay for an hour of gaming. We adjusted our pricing to take that into consideration and it’s been going really well so far.

Thornes is such an integral part of the downtown here, and it’s great to be a part of it. It’s a historic hub in the center of town, and there’s a great sense of community throughout the building. There are so many eclectic people and businesses with interesting backgrounds, and it’s really exciting to be in the building, occupying a space that lends itself to an arcade. I grew up in Bangor, Maine, and Thornes actually reminds me of a department store that used to be in town called Freese’s. It had fun and quirky shops as well, with that incredible historic vibe. I can’t wait to see what’s to come for Hometown, and I’m really looking forward to adding more games and welcoming more people.