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A few passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..
A few passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Thom Pratt demonstrates on the large gaming machine, modeled after the Ninja Turtles arcade game. Just like the other retro machines, this one has a large selection of other games available to play on it, and can handle up to four players.
There are six gaming PCs set up along one wall of the gaming center for groups who might come in to play a game together.
Thom Pratt demonstrates on the large gaming machine, modeled after the Ninja Turtles arcade game. Just like the other retro machines, this one has a large selection of other games available to play on it, and can handle up to four players.
There are six gaming PCs set up along one wall of the gaming center for groups who might come in to play a game together.
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Mode 7 Gaming Center is a new and unique arcade experience in Punxsutawney, combining retro arcade games with new PC gaming in an all-in-one location for maximum gaming fun.
Owner Thom Pratt said he was trying to recreate the fun and social atmosphere of an arcade, while also appealing to the newer style of video games children play today. The major thing he thinks video games today lack is the social aspect children used to get from going to an arcade and meeting like-minded people.
The gaming center offers several retro-style video game machines, but a seemingly endless list of games to choose from loaded onto the custom machines. Pratt had all of his retro machines custom built to house thousands of games all on one machine.
“Each one of these machines are actually custom built for us and they’re themed, so we have a fighting game machine…the shooter games, we have a Pac-Man machine that has all the retro games, over there is our Japanese game machine. They’re all themed and every machine has thousands of games,” Pratt said. “It doesn’t look like we have a ton of machines here, but then you realize there are actually tens of thousands of arcade games.”
He said these machines help them to maximize the space they have, and are better because actual retro machines can be hard to find and maintain. This also allows him to “have the most games with the least footprint.”
Along with the retro-style machines, he also has eight gaming PCs along the walls of the arcade for single or multiplayer gaming. He has the PCs loaded with some of the most popular games like “Fall Guys,” “Fortnite,” “League of Legends,” “Rocket League,” etc.
“We’re going to be adding PC games all the time, we’re just getting started,” Pratt said. “If you can’t find something to play here, you probably just don’t like video games.”
Pratt also made sure he has the fastest internet in town to be able to play all these games with. He was happy to see a group of IUP students come in and play “Fortnite” together already since opening last week.
“You want to have kind of a modern spin on gaming because we understand not everybody’s going to be into retro games. But PC gaming right now is huge, and originally, when we talked about it, we were doing an eSports center and then we started bringing in the 80s retro and put the two together. And we basically got everything from ‘Asteroids’ to ‘Fortnite’ at this point,” Pratt said.
Pratt did say that players have to already have an existing account with the games to play them. He is hoping that groups of friends will come to the arcade to play the PC games together, but he does have a couple off to the side for solo gamers.
The other unique aspect of the arcade is Pratt is offering all-you-can-play for one price. No more pockets full of quarters, as there is a one-time price for the day of about $12 and players can play any games in the arcade for the day.
He plans on eventually having monthly memberships for the arcade, similar to a gym membership. Pratt said he is working on figuring out how to do this, and the first couple of months will have just day prices.
There are also going to be console games available, mostly focused on multiplayer games. Right now, Pratt has a Nintendo Switch set up and said people mostly come to play “Mario Cart” and “Super Smash Bros” on it.
“I mean, ideally, what we’re thinking is people come in, they actually meet people. ‘Hey, can I pull up a chair and we can play Smash Bros or something?” Pratt said.
He is hoping to add a Playstation 5 to his consoles as well.
“I have two teenagers and they have nothing to do. That sort of led me to think about when I was a teenager. We always went to arcades and the malls, and I talked with my son a lot about ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we had an arcade or gaming center or something here?’” Pratt said.
He thought about the idea of an arcade for about two years, and in January decided to go for it.
“The reason that we did this is we want people to play as a community… When I was a kid we’d go to the arcade, we’d hang out, people would gather around the machine. The big thing –we would play ‘Street Fighter’ or ‘Mortal Kombat’ and everybody would gather around the machine, watch everybody play. It was a community event and people, I think they’ve lost that because everybody is in their house,” Pratt said.
The first thing he bought for the arcade was an air hockey table, which can be found in the back of the arcade. There is also a pinball game at the front of the building, which is virtual, allowing the player to choose a new pinball board every time they play.
The center is open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. at 109 North Findley St. The center can be found on Facebook under Mode 7 Gaming.
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