The arcade scene in my city of Wichita Kansas has been, well, dead for quite sometime. The last great arcade was Aladdin’s Castle at Towne East. I was there the day it was shut down. I’ll spare you the long drawn out childhood gaming story short of saying it was a tragic day. Since then, there has not been a place for an old arcade dog like me to play. Sure there’s the local pool hall or bowling alley, but they are either inundated with DDR and racing games, or if they do have anything good, it’s in disrepair, broken, or missing buttons.

But there may be hope.

Thanks to Jangofatt of Pine Cone Attack, I have been informed about a new bar opening up right here in Wichita. Though not just any old bar, an arcade bar! Here’s the owner in his own words about the bar:

A while back, my fiance and I thought of opening up a speakeasy/venue type of establishment in Wichita, our hometown. Wichita is actually somewhat large for a mid-western city, with a population of around 500,000 people. That’s half a million for those of you who are counting . Anyways…

We had thrown the idea around but could really never come up with a concept that tied the business plan together. We loved the idea of having a good sized/well run live music venue here in the city. We also wanted the place to have a classy sort of atmosphere, something reminiscent of the ‘classics’ era (30’s, 40’s, 50’s era). The only problem was, nobody would ever come to a place like that… so the idea sort of sat on the back burner for a while. It was still a dream nonetheless.

I am the morning manager of a beer bar/restaurant here in Wichita called “the anchor”. One morning, very early mind you, I was staring at the bar top, and the idea popped into my head of building a bar at my house with lcd screens built into the bar top so I could play classic console games while I relaxed and made drinks for myself/company. I got out a pad and paper an realized how easy/inexpensive it would be to build such a thing. The idea was sort of like one of those pac man sit downs, but a bar. The idea inspired me so much that I brought the idea up to my fiance, who thought it would be a great idea for our bar/venue that we had always dreamed of opening together. This idea slowly grew and snowballed into what is now ‘Belmonts’.

For those of you that skipped over the big block o’ text, The bar’s name is ‘Belmonts’. Yes indeedy. Not only a name gamers can relate to, but the general public will be none the wiser. You can say “Oh, I just went to that new bar in town named ‘Belmonts’ and it was great”, instead of “Hey you guys, I just went to ‘Gamer Zone l33t bar haxxx’ and it was so rad!”.

But the an arcade is only as good as the games it has. Thankfully this man has carefully selected a fine group of games. Each one great in its’ own respect. I also appreciate the fact that the games are varied from fighters, to shooters, to beat ‘em ups, old classics, and even a Neo Geo 4 slot cab! Here’s the list:

- Double Dragon
- X-Men (4 player beat-um up)
- Simpsons (4 player beat-um up)
- Galaga
- Ms. Pacman
- Raiden
- Donkey Kong
- Street Fighter II (championship edition)
- Mortal Kombat II
- 1942
- Capcom vs. SNK
- Golden Axe

A four slot, two player NEO GEO
- Magician Lord
- Samurai Showdown II
- Metal Slug II
- King of Fighters

Needless to say, I’m more then a little excited about this. There are still details to come, but from the looks of it right now, I’ve found myself a new Cheers. Sans Kirsty Alley. Yea, never really liked her.

P.S. Yes, it’s already been mentioned, but this place has got to have a drink called “Holy Water” to complete the trifecta.

P.S.S. Here’s the link to the forum post about the bar: Destructoid link!