Pinball palaces: Classic games make a comeback across CSRA
EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - This year, several arcades featuring pinball and other classic games have popped up in our area.
Radioactive Pinball Arcade in Aiken opened in August. Retro City Arcade in Evans is ing the others in our area.
It opened in September with 26 arcade games and 20 pinball machines of a mix of classic and modern.
Kathleen and Robert Owens told News 12 the reason they believe for the sudden interest in the game.
“We’re hoping to get nostalgia for people that grew up with this,” said Robert.
They said it’s a long-time dream realized.
“I wrote a business plan, and we were going to do it. We had issues finding real estate, viable space,” said Robert. “Then COVID hit.”
They moved to the CSRA from Virginia in 2021 and put the business idea in motion.
But Owens said his love for arcade games started long before.
“The first time I ever played pinball was at a bowling alley when I was a little kid butted. Back then, they only had electromechanical games, the old pinball machines that had the reels that turned in. That’s where I fell in love with it,” he said.
Retro City is hardly the first to roll its way into the CSRA.
He said he believes the surge in popularity is so people like him can bring back the nostalgia.
“A lot of the people our age or even younger that are coming in are saying, you know, this is stuff that I grew up with. For me, it brings back a happy time, a simple time when life was a lot simpler than it is today,” said Owens.
He and his wife Kathleen are bringing an old pastime to a new generation.
“A lot of young kids under 15 ... they’ve never seen a pinball machine. They don’t know what a pinball machine is,” he said.
Anyone wanting to take a step back in time can visit Wednesday and Thursday from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
