Arcade visit / review - Flashback Arcade in Murfreesboro, TN

[dougdoberman]

I've been in town for work for the last four weekends, but unfortunately only just found out about this arcade on my last weekend there, so could only go once.

It's the typical modern entry fee / free play joint.  Entry was $12.  Game selection was a solid mix of classics, pins, 90's & newer.  All of the A-List classics were there, along with a random scattering of others.  (They've got a Journey currently on the floor, if you've never played this tribute to a power ballad band!  Spoiler:  The game is not very good.)   Unfortunately, several of my go-to choices had issues.  Tempest had what seemed to be a short in the fire button, causing the game to freak out.  Dragon's Lair was suffering from a badly skipping disc.  (They did have a laser disc game I've never played before tucked into the back room.  Interstellar Laser Fantasy.  It's ... not good.)   Crystal Castles had a bad optical sensor in the trackball.  The Star Wars yoke wasn't centered (at least this issue didn't render the game unplayable.)  Mappy continues to remain a terribly unfun game.  Joust was a multi-board that wouldn't allow you to actually choose a game.  These kinda issues are not uncommon at arcades like this, but I was disappointed that the attendant didn't at least stick "Out of Order" signs on the offending machines after I pointed some of them out.  Other than the typical function issues that crop up, the machines were all in pretty good shape.  Not grungy and disgusting like a lotta machines on location get to be.   

I'm not a pinball guy.  Do pinball guys not have a nostalgic desire to play older games?  The row of pins was surprisingly modern.  Nothing in it even close to vintage.

The crowd on a Friday night was young.   Mostly a mix between families with youngish kids and late teens / early 20-somethings.   I was by far the oldest person there, and probably the only person there over 35 who wasn't there with children.   I pretty much had the 80's stuff to myself.   I managed to put my initials atop the leaderboard of like two thirds of the pre-1990 games, which tells me they're not seeing all that much gameplay, as my meager skills certainly don't warrant that.  They're like, just a mile away from the hotel district where there's about a dozen hotels within two blocks.   I'd bet that with some better local advertising, a billboard or something, they'd get a much bigger draw of folks like myself who were otherwise just going to stay in their hotel room.

Overall, despite not getting to play Tempest on original hardware, I enjoyed my visit.  It's dim, loud, and a little cramped.  Exactly how I want my arcades to be.     I would have liked to have seen more deep cuts in the classic machines, but I understand why joints like this stick mostly to the big names.  Plus, the less well-known stuff they did have was pretty cool.  Irritating Maze, y'all!  And their modern selection was pretty stellar.  I've never even SEEN a Star Wars Battle Pod  in person before, let alone played one.  (FWIW, they have the slightly smaller flat screen version.  Still huge and still cool.)   

Link to a short video walkthrough I did:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/SExasZZ6McywmRQGA

Doug

[Mike A]

Mappy continues to remain a terribly unfun game