I was browsing for things to do in the Boise area this weekend and came across a post for the Arcade Outsiders Tournament at Grinkers Arcade this weekend. I hadn’t previously heard of Grinkers and only knew of the Spacebar retro arcade. I love retro arcades and am glad I discovered a new one in the area.
(Photo from the Grinkers webpage)
Vanessa and I headed over at around 4 this evening to check the arcade out. It’s a bit larger than the Spacebar and has more machines, but a similar feel. There’s a bar with food and drinks and a bunch of classic arcade machines and pinball machines. I had quite a bit of fun revisiting old games, some of which I’ve never played in their arcade forms. I played Off Road, one of my favorite games on the NES, which was quite fun. We also played Super Mario Bros (didn’t even know there was an arcade version of the game. Only made it to level 1-2 :/), Mario Bros. (also didn’t make it very far), Space Invaders (lasted about 2 minutes), Ms. Pac Man (didn’t clear the first stage), Mortal Kombat and a few pinball machines.
(Photo from the Grinkers webpage)
We didn’t stay long enough to really get a feel for the tournament action, but there were quite a few machines marked for tournament play and a handful of people playing those machines (much better than I could ever play).
Check out a few photos I took below. I also recorded a few videos which I’ll add to the post after they upload to YouTube.
avideogamelife 
Love this kind of event. We have a bar here in Toronto with a whole bunch of retro games at the back, just set up to be played for free. After giving some old favourites a whirl, I was surprised to discover that most of the games that I remember loving as a kid are kind of crap…unbalanced, bad controls, etc. I was pleased to re-connect with Gauntlet, however. That game took a lot of money off of me as a kid and I was glad that it has stood the test of time better than some others had.
Sounds like a fun date night. We’ll have to go check it out!
I wish you would have stayed longer for the tournament – and for our live show. It was a blast. Grinkers is definitely fantastic. We will be back again, for sure. Enjoyed the write up!
I wish you would have stayed for the tournament, and our live show! It was a blast. Grinkers is awesome. I enjoyed the write up. Please continue to go back and support Steve and Grinkers!
We definitely would’ve, but my girlfriend had to work Sunday morning. And we didn’t bring enough quarters 🙂 Will definitely head back there again, it’s a nice arcade.