The Fayetteville community for almost a year now has taken a travel back in time at Arkadia Retrocade. The arcade is located at the Evelyn Hills shopping mall and has all sorts of gaming. The arcade has everything from Tron to the original Atari. Shea Mathis, owner of the arcade said the support of the community is everything he wanted.
“I’ts been unbelievable how quickly the Fayetteville community has taken to supporting us.”
The cost for an all day pass to play at the retrocade is 5 dollars. A Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 game cost around 65 to 70 dollars. According to Mathis, this gap in price is a big reason why the arcade has found success. “I’ve had more than one parent tell me verbatim that I can buy my kid a 60 dollar video game, and they can beat it in one day. There’s no beating Pacman.”
While the arcade may seem like a play for only a certain generation, but this has turned into a family environment. “There’s not many a family of five can do for 25 dollars. But with our admission being 5 dollars for all day, it makes it that much more worth while,” Mathis said.
The arcade may bring in many families, but for Michael Sunland he married his wife here. “We’re around so much what we love as kids and adults and was a unique experience not a lot of people have.”