The golden age of arcades dominated the scene in the early 1980s. Â Although we’ve grown accustomed to our at-home gaming environments, there’s nothing quite like the social experience of plugging quarters into those old-school cabinets.
Bar Arcades, or “Barcades,” have popped up in major cities across the country. Â Among some of the more famous are the original Barcade in Brookyn, Ground Kontrol in Portland, and Insert Coin(s) in Las Vegas. Â Finally, Los Angeles has its own nostalgic destination with the brand new EightyTwo.
With its grand opening last weekend, Scott Davids and Noah Sutcliffe opened the doors to their classic arcade in L.A.’s Downtown Arts District.  Co-Founder Scott Davids has assembled and personally restored EightyTwo’s impressive arcade collection, which includes the old wireframe Star Wars (Cockpit), Gauntlet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Street Fighter II.  Separated by a large open air patio is yet another room lined solely with vintage pinball machines, owned by Pins and Needles‘ Molly Atkinson.  “Pinball Molly” will also serve as EightyTwo’s manager and resident technician.
In a very cool coincidence, it turns out that Davids produced a sci-fi short which was featured on Nerdist’s YouTube Channel in 2013 called The Final Moments of Karl Brant, starring Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens.
Several of us at Nerdist attended EightyTwo’s opening weekend and we cannot recommend it enough:
I have been to paradise. It is @EightyTwoLA, a MASSIVE classic arcade bar downtown. Go. You will not be sorry. http://t.co/nEbZJTACt4
— Chris Hardwick (@nerdist) March 24, 2014
EightyTwo is located at 707 East 4th Place, just steps from Würstkuche, Angel City Brewery and Umami Burger, in the heart of Downtown L.A.’s Arts District. It’s open Tuesday thriugh Friday 5 PM till 2 AM, Saturday and Sunday 12 PM through 2 AM, and closed Mondays. For more information, check their website at www.eightytwo.la.  Be looking out for announcements on their upcoming Pinball League!
Horrible place the owners are the worst of LA. bartenders lack professionalism. When the manager is the worse.
No offense to Blipsy’s, but 1/2 the time their machines don’t work or they steal my quarters… And I haven’t personally experienced any major improvement by their establishment. I had my birthday there last year, and while I love, it I wish it were more reliable.
I appreciate the level of commitment 82 is showing for restoring and maintaining their collection.
Not to mention the worse service ever. They should go Take lessons on how to be courteous to their clients. Never been so disrespected. Planning in pursuing a lawsuit for conduct and harassing
Man, I’m old. Where I grew up in SE Michigan, my town was home to the first Little Caesar’s Pizza store. Later, in the 80’s, they built their first “Family Inn”…a restaurant complete with beer and several sit-down style video games, including Battlezone, Atari Football and a version of Zaxxon where they projected the graphics onto a giant wall screen. This was the early 80’s! The restaurant never took off, but for a while at least, it was awesome! (…and WAY ahead of its time)
Blipsy is crap dude, don’t count
“Finally” LA has a barcade? Um… NO. Blipsy has already existed as LA’s barcade for many, many years: http://www.yelp.com/biz/blipsy-bar-los-angeles
We have a place like this in Salem, OR too. Some friends I are planning on checking out tonight.
http://clients.salemwebguys.com/thecoinjam/