An independent arcade striving to be unique: Starrcade

Starrcade is located at Town Center at Cobb shopping mall Photo by Evan Bursinger On a strangely warm morning back in January the normal opening routine at Town Center at Cobb is interrupted by a note taped to the entrance doors DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES THE MALL IS CLOSED AT THIS TIME NO ENTRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Starrcade s staff is supposed to be flipping on the lights turning on encounter cabinets and pumping hardcore EDM from the speakers to attract gamers The closure of the mall only lasted one day but the writing was more than just on the door sign Town Center anchor store Belk established it would close the following month Starrcade just happens to be in the same wing as the department store Belk closed and they were our main anchor Starrcade owner and namesake Shane Starr disclosed in April And so if you look around we used to get foot traffic and people would see us for the first time ever Now there s no reason to come down here Belk s closing wasn t the start or the end of the closures in Starrcade s wing of the mall A large number of neighboring stores have permanently locked their doors and blown out lights along the concourse that haven t been replaced giving the wing a feel of gloom Express closed Starr stated motioning around the hallway Forever closed The S S Menswear is leaving And then the rug store they do all their sales online so nobody comes here except for us Despite the closures Starrcade still aims to stay afloat and keep its clientele happy Inside StarrcadeStarrcade s floorspace is illuminated by choruses of flashing lights and filled to the brim with games from yesteryear as well as those that can t be revealed anywhere else The competition floor at Starrcade Photo by Evan Bursinger The citizens arcade space is only a branch in the company s tree of business The arcade itself has only been around for a year and a half Starr declared The way we made our money before that is we repaired everybody else s stuff and that still makes up seemingly two-thirds of our business is doing other people s arcades The Starrcade website states that the company services over different locations around the Southeastern U S According to Starr multiple of those arcades are independent mom-and-pop operations Starr started Starrcade after holding a slew of other arcade jobs notably for the Japanese arcade chain Round s now-defunct Stonecrest Mall location While working for Round Starr would expedition around the country to help open other locations and repair the company s meeting cabinets Starr noted he realized his work was worth more than he was making from the arcade chain and decided to do his own thing He eventually started a small fully independent arcade repair business all run out of a garage One of those band members is Mike Chrysler the arcade s general manager I love this job Chrysler noted I love coming here every day Being surrounded by my childhood every day I could do way way worse Bringing Old Games Back to LifeStarrcade s arcade repair business often requires employees to passage across state lines to reach clients They will leave a little room in their trucks as they journey and while out of town check local marketplace listings and sellers for the odd arcade cabinet On occasion they ll strike metaphorical gold finding something unique to bring back to Starrcade s floor Our Pop n Music and our Chabudai like certain of our other weird obscure Japanese games literally came out of the dump here in the United States Starr explained describing the origin of two notably rare games on the arcade floor It would be in a landfill if we didn t have it Since the closure of Round s location at Stonecrest Mall Starrcade is the only location in Georgia where Pop n Music can be played according to a community-run map commonly used for logging the locations of arcade games Our Pinpoint Shot right there is the only one in the world in operation Starr revealed pointing at a lone blue staircase in the center of the entrance with safety fencing and toy rifles at the top That came out of certain operator from the s who had it in his garage Pinpoint Shot tasks the sportsman with picking up a toy rifle and shooting a laser at a target on the back wall Being such an old piece of hardware its targets use a unique method of sensing shots from the participant similar to how an old TV remote works Multiple of these games don t have manuals available Pinpoint Shot especially The meeting was broken when Starrcade got it so the crew had to tinker with it until they figured out just how it worked Like Pinpoint Shot a great number of of these games also require constant upkeep Cosmo Gang on the floor at Starrcade Photo by Evan Bursinger Same thing with our Cosmo Gang over there It s seemingly my favorite championship here Starr commented It s a nightmare to keep running It s kind of like an electromechanical Space Invaders but it s the same thing It s one of two in operation in the world as far as I know Cosmo Gang was further described in an Instagram Reel Starrcade posted as part of a series detailing the history of certain games on the floor as well as how those games were acquired Another post in Starrcade s Instagram series describes a s arcade encounter called Armadillo Racing The reel indicates the arcade cabinet was abandoned in Louisiana and revealed by one of Starracade s technicians behind a children s party rental business while he was on a operation call Almost everything here it really is like stuff we saved Starr disclosed It s stuff we refurbished Which because we started as a repair company that s kind of what we do for fun and the back of the shop is invariably full of projects that we re working on Now that same Armadillo Racing cabinet only one of four English cabinets brought to the U S according to Starrcade is cleaned up brightly colored functional and on the floor for the society to play The Arcade of Misfit Games I once described Starrcade as a retirement home for arcade games Kevin Turner noted But in the positive sense that we d like our retirement communities to aspire to rather than what they typically are Turner is an Atlanta resident and part of the developer crew for the arcade rhythm event StepManiaX While Turner is impressed enough by Starrcade having games as rare as Armadillo Racing connections that directly relate to him are what truly make the place special I work on StepManiaX a tournament that builds on dance and music games that have come before and tries to update things for a more modern audience Turner mentioned I m relatively new to working on this association the rest of the group are veterans who have worked on so a large number of other projects Somehow Shane has acquired various of those older projects in the form of Pump It Up Pro and ReRave StepManiaX is spearheaded by an American group with multiple industry veterans Various of their past arcade competition work includes the release Pump It Up Pro and s ReRave both of which at this moment sit on the floor of Starrcade It s one thing for older developers to tell me how cool they thought a last-minute idea in Pump It Pro was but it s another to see how it was executed myself Turner commented These are not easy games to find and neither sold particularly well so having them all so right away available in their original contexts is something I could never have dreamed of Starrcade has become the arcade of misfit games The band has saved one-of-a-kind games on the floor from rotting in landfills allowing them to do what they were made for entertaining people I think the games they have are really neat Ezra Morrison a regular at Starrcade announced Shane really has curated an awesome collection of rare games that need love It s reliably been pleasant The owner and everyone who works there really strive to make it a good milieu Morrison commented I personally go to play rhythm games I like being able to practice and watch myself improve Morrison and Turner are both part of a semi-local district based around rhythm games like the popular Dance Dance Revolution I ve made so countless friends via meeting at the arcade I m going over to one s house tonight even Morrison revealed The arcade has opened my world to people I wouldn t have had anything else in common with Staying AliveThe area outside of Starrcade at Town Center Photo by Evan Bursinger Spaces like Starrcade help these communities thrive by providing games that would be otherwise inaccessible These games are typically unique to foreign countries like Japan expensive to bring over and often exceedingly rare Come check us out if you want to see games you won t see anywhere else Starr disclosed as a Taiko no Tatsujin cabinet sang a Japanese song from behind him If you want a really unique experience even more unique than just a retro bar arcade we have such a crazy mix of stuff If somebody hasn t already been here it s worth checking out because they might find selected challenge that they never knew existed For the local public Starrcade offers something that can t be determined anywhere else The scares that come from the mall s instability serve as reminders for the need to appreciate such spaces while they are around We ve had countless arcades both big and small close over the years Vincent Kim a leader in Georgia s rhythm contest and arcade society mentioned I think a great number of of us take these places for granted without realizing until it s too late and they aren t around anymore The post An independent arcade striving to be unique Starrcade appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta