Creative Arcades Is Keeping The Arcade Experience Alive

Gregory (00:21.762)
What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another week of the GZ Chop Shop Gaming podcast. I am your host, Greg. And today, I am joined by the founder and owner of Creative Arcades, the leading source for arcade machines in the United States. And for over 13 years, this gentleman has kept the retro arcade dream alive. Let's welcome...

Brian Horowitz. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.

Brian (00:54.242)
You're welcome, Greg. I'm excited to be on your show and I look forward to chatting with you.

Gregory (00:58.796)
Yes, so right out of the gate, the idea of creative arcades. How did you come up with this?

Brian (01:09.288)
It's a funny story. So my company, we originally were making more promotional market products like outdoor wagons and camping chairs. And I was doing stuff for Coca-Cola and Budweiser. And Anaheiser Bush came to me and says, hey, can you source arcades for us? We want to offer arcades to our bars and restaurants as a promotional. So I sourced arcades. And then the next thing I knew, I was in the arcade business.

And then we started doing state fairs. We were selling in Minnesota, Minnesota fair, Iowa, know, Caucasus in New York. So we, you know, we did all the major fairs and then COVID happened. And then the company we pivoted more towards, you know, end users and more corporate business. So we do a lot of corporate business. We do like we did Puma flagship. So if you go to Philadelphia airport and you go into the Sapphire Lounge by Chase.

you'll see our arcades in the Sapphire Lounge, same thing in Boston. So we've been able to create a different vibe of bringing back the 80s, but we're more known for creating experience and bringing back stuff you had when you were younger. We've been fortunate, we've had a lot of celebrities like Post Malone, Steven Spielberg, Vince Vaughn. So we've had a lot of cool celebrities that kind of helped put us on the map.

you know, promoted us, know, with, you know, their instant grab and TikTok. And it's been fun. We're very lucky. you know, where else can you get paid to play arcades?

Gregory (02:46.894)
Yeah, because you know, when I was looking looking up you, you know, your site and everything, and I'm like, I am pretty sure I have seen your arcades, you know, throughout some certain places that I've been to. And I'm like, OK, you know, I've been wondering where these machines come from, like how, you know, how how do people keep it going? And it's amazing that you guys are. Pretty much keeping the arcade.

alive and especially in like a modern digital only era, you know, how do you,

Brian (03:23.752)
So we're lucky because a lot of families are wanting arcades to get their children off the phones. So like we're talking about the Redding Market before. At the Redding Market, there's a little arcade center in there. He has our arcades. And you know what? It brings families back. Cruise ships, hotels, they like the experience. And a lot of people, have rental homes, put arcades in their homes. And when they rent it, it helps drive.

Gregory (03:37.059)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (03:52.914)
families to come there. But what's really cool is that family that rents a house for the weekend knows they love it and they contact us and they buy arcades. So it kind of drives sales to us and gives us a good opportunity.

Gregory (04:07.852)
Wow. know, with, and you guys have like a ton of different types of machines. You guys don't do just like the stand up arcade. You've got the claw machines. You kind of got like the tabletop arcades.

Brian (04:21.576)
Our racer, our Link racer is probably our most popular one. And what's cool about that is we also do Link racers with Xbox or PlayStation, and you actually can play your friends in other locations. So it's cool. You're playing an Xbox system in our machine with force feedback and butt kicker and all the whole shebang. And you can be playing your friend in New York and you're in Philly. So it's fun or you can play a lot of people. So it's a cool experience.

Gregory (04:25.848)
Yeah.

Gregory (04:51.958)
Now your machines, can they house more than like one game at a time? Like what you used to have the classic arcade, like you had a machine that was directly for Mortal Kombat, directly for like time crisis or something, but your machines can house multiple games, right?

Brian (04:53.864)
you

Brian (05:06.076)
Dashcrete, multi-cades and you could go from one game all the up to 13,000 games. In a lifetime, you'll never play 13,000 games, but you have different age gaps in families or you have these different experiences. You have a lot of restaurants becoming pinball experience restaurants, but they want multi-cades there too, so they can cover the whole family. So it just depends on what you're looking for and...

You know, one thing we're really known for is we do custom wraps. You know, so you give us your theme and matter of fact, the Philadelphia Eagles in their locker room has some of our machines in there that we custom wrap for the Philadelphia Eagles. And it's cool because, you know, we're giving that experience to the players and you'd be surprised how many players have contacted us that wanted, you know, our chains for their homes. Yeah, they're all personal. You know, they they realize they play it and plus.

Gregory (06:00.802)
Just their own personal arcade.

Brian (06:05.33)
They get to talk smack when they're playing their buddies, so it's cool.

Gregory (06:07.63)
Might have to get a GZ chop shop customer after arcade in the future. So just to pick your brain on your thought on this, there's such a demand for custom arcades and people wanting to relive the nostalgia. What do you think in your personal opinion was the downfall?

Brian (06:12.806)
yeah, big time. Big time.

Gregory (06:35.616)
of arcades where you know now they're more niche as before they were everywhere.

Brian (06:41.192)
So the couple of different downfalls, one, technology. You have online gaming, so you have a different group of online gamers. But when they go online gamers, they lose the social skills. They're not playing with their friends. They're home in their bedroom at 10 o'clock at night playing different people in different areas. They're not playing as a group and putting in a quarter to stand in line. They lose that social part. And then arcades, technology-wise,

Gregory (06:50.893)
Mm-hmm.

Gregory (06:54.89)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (07:09.98)
you know, be fell behind times is a big problem. And then also, also to price wise, you could go online and basically pay nothing and play, you know, online your buddies and it's nothing or pay, you know, three to $10,000 and have a home system at your house. So it just depends on what your budget is. The reason why COVID was so strong for the arcade world is because people were stuck at home.

And parents were looking for alternatives to keep their kids entertained. They didn't want them in front of the computer. They got them from Arcade cabinet system. So, you for us, we've heard and seen a lot of really neat experiences, you know, and it makes it nice. And, you know, I had one lady, she was a grandma and she bought Arcade for her house because she wanted to be the favorite grandma. know, stories like that is what's bringing Arcade back.

And then also too, lot of restaurants and bars have arcades there. know, Chuck E. Cheese just came out with real arcade center. Instead of being arcades for kids, they came out with arcades for adults, similar to a David Buster spinoff. Chuck E. Cheese is coming out with their own arcade centers to go more towards the adult and the family world, not just the Chuck E. Cheese world.

Gregory (08:09.944)
Mm-hmm.

Gregory (08:30.614)
Yeah, and you know, when you were talking about all the places that you guys are putting arcades, one of the things that stuck out to me was the fact that you guys even have partnerships with companies that are in the modern era, like Eva, and for those who don't know, eSports virtual arenas, they're like pushing forward with eSports in virtual environments, and then they still have your stand-up arcades, which, by the way, look

Brian (08:47.186)
Yes.

Gregory (09:00.01)
amazing. If you guys haven't seen Creative Arcades set up with Eva, they look clean. They look really good. So even in the modern ecosystem, they're still wanting that arcade feel. And it's just something about arcades that I personally I don't think can be replaced. It's just there's something about the feel and like you said, the social interaction.

Brian (09:07.432)
Thank you.

Brian (09:27.194)
It's a social interaction. It's the story. You know, you'd be surprised how many times I get a client that's, older, grew up in the 80s. He puts a quarter on the machine and his kids go, what is that for? Why did you put a quarter? And they didn't realize in our days, you know, or my days, you know, that's how you stood in line for the quarter. You know, my 26 year old, she goes, dad, are you afraid somebody's going to steal your quarter?

Well, in my days, it's still the quarter. the new world, it's a, know, who knows? But it's just a different story. And, you know, it's fun and high scores. You'd be surprised. I have laundry mats that put arcades in there. And, you know, people do the high score. They go back a couple of days later not to do laundry to see if there's still the high score or not. You know, so that's cool.

Gregory (09:55.566)
You don't have to worry about that.

Gregory (10:18.094)
Yeah, you know, and it's making me think back to to like when I was a kid and I used to go to the bowling alley with my grandparents and while they were bowling, I was at the arcade and all the kids that would come to the bowling with their grandparents. That's where we were. We were at the arcade and it's just that's a core memory and it's something that I agree is just missing from modern gaming like the home console is amazing.

Brian (10:29.739)
yeah, big time.

Gregory (10:44.918)
Yeah, it's it's convenient. But you that I don't know something about that camaraderie or being able to, you know, when you beat your friend in a fighting game, he's right there. So it's like, yeah.

Brian (10:57.81)
yeah, but to have that high score and be in an open environment and have people challenge your score that you don't even know who they are and you come back and see you're still high score and you're like pounding your chest or you see you got your butt kicked and you your back's spending the money.

Gregory (11:15.438)
Yep, that $10 roll of quarters was always for the arcade machine. So.

Brian (11:21.19)
yeah, yeah, no, it's funny you said that. We have some customers, know, lot of people put their machines on free play, but we have some people that have, you know, their homes that they're renting out, they'll leave a roll quarter and say enjoy. So when they run out of the quarters, the people are using their own money and the guy's making money on the machine, but the people don't mind because he gave the first roll quarter. So it's pretty cool.

Gregory (11:45.848)
That's actually really, really smart. That's a smart business move. Yeah, that is a smart business move. Guys take notes. Look at that. So you got to an idea. business is great, but I'm pretty sure there's some struggles that have come along with it, especially in the modern era or even during COVID. So what are some of the struggles you faced with putting out arcade machines across?

Brian (11:47.684)
It's really smart. I wish I would have thought of it.

Brian (11:53.32)
Exactly, there you go.

Gregory (12:14.912)
across America.

Brian (12:16.264)
Supply chain is an issue. Freight, you know, getting damaged for freight. Some people are older, need white gloves, so getting the product brought into their home. There's not much insulation. It's pretty much plug and play. But it's just that the last part of getting it delivered is tough, you know.

Gregory (12:37.89)
Now with a lot of the games you have, know with companies, especially like Nintendo, so I'm pretty sure you could probably might not have that many Nintendo games and licenses and stuff. How do you guys, how are you guys able to get the games that you have onto your systems? Is there like a whole process you got to go through?

Brian (12:55.92)
Yeah, so there's a bunch of different process. So Family Tie is our main license. There's a bunch of different group licenses and then there's open, basically technology that are expired games that are also available. You know, we have a pinball machine that is a Wi-Fi compatible pinball that you're able to download more games, you know, but it just depends on the system and what's available out there. You know, we respect trademarks and

licenses, so it's important to us not to infringe. But it's also important to have the customer have a good experience. And we don't want to use something that's junk. We have guys here. We have our own guys developing our own games. We have a big line of our own games, especially on the racers. The racers, the 205 system is all our games that were developed in-house. And we've also had guys like Mike Mika.

Gregory (13:49.581)
Okay.

Brian (13:54.278)
Mike Mika is a famous coder and game writer. He's written tons of games. We worked with him and Steven Spielberg on a project. We created a pinball machine that had all Spielberg's games on like Jaws and you know, it was was awesome. But you know, we we got to meet him and have lunch with them and have the experience. But you know, me, Mike Mika and our team put this together. So he's playing pinball with one of the games that he directed. And it's funny, he's actually we were with Zach Penn.

Gregory (14:08.204)
Nice.

Brian (14:24.36)
who came out with One Up, movie. know, Steven Spielberg's videotaping Zach playing pinball and directing him what to do. was just awesome. It just sucked out. It during COVID time. We all had to wear masks, but, you know, you get the experience.

Gregory (14:36.067)
You

Gregory (14:41.484)
Yeah, just the experience in itself is amazing. you know, that pretty much proves your point of like bringing people together and just having this this grand old time with it. So, you know, working with games, what are some of your personal favorites? Do you have any personal favorites from the?

Brian (15:00.486)
Galaga, Galactica, I love those. I love those. I'm pinball is definitely Indiana Jones or Jaws. I like those.

Gregory (15:10.796)
Yeah, I am a fan of Galaga and Galaxia. I remember actually my first time playing it was on a Gameboy and it was amazing. It was amazing. And then one of my other favorites was Defender.

Brian (15:20.488)
big time.

Brian (15:29.0)
Oh yeah, Defender is awesome. know, but you know what, you know, for me, I don't know if you ever played it, but Pong, the most stupidest, un-technical game was the game I grew up with. And it was, it was an awesome game. You know, it was just fun, but it would actually leave marks on your TV screen. That's how old it was, you know.

Gregory (15:31.082)
I love Defender.

Gregory (15:48.209)
wow, I didn't even know that it did that.

Brian (15:51.496)
Yeah, it did, you know.

Gregory (15:54.274)
You just have pong residue on your TV trying to explain to parents why the TV looks all messed up.

Brian (16:02.404)
Exactly. you know, those are the old days. mean, you know, mostly black and white. I'm 60. So, and I'm showing my age. But you know, that's a whole different experience. But you know, for me, you see arcades, ice cream parlors, know, dentist offices. We have a lot of dental offices putting arcades in for the kids to get the kids want to come. That's their toy box to go play arcades.

Gregory (16:09.882)
Ha ha ha.

Gregory (16:29.378)
That's a that is that's actually really, amazing. You know, bringing it bringing it back, especially with like the niche arcades, you know, my and in the bigger, bigger cities across America, your friends will be like, yeah, we got this local arcade here and this, you know, small arcade here. And I'm like, can we just bring arcades back in general? Can they be like in every mall again? Because, you know, after school, that's where the kids were going like.

You know, it kept everyone out of trouble.

Brian (17:01.444)
Exactly. Kept them out of trouble. You know, we've been very fortunate. We work with a couple big companies. We work with Hot Wheels and Microsoft and we created for Hot Wheels launch, you know, with Xbox. They created racing arcade cabinets that they put the software in and we built the cabinets. And that was an awesome experience. And then any of your listeners ever go to Las Vegas, go to the Puma flagship off of the strip.

And you'll see on the third level home arcade center that we developed and built for Puma. And it's Microsoft's special games that they developed for Puma. So it has Puma shoes in there and things like that. But it's an awesome room. It's very retro and into the future type of look. It's bitchin'.

Gregory (17:50.936)
Wow, okay, that's amazing. you know, with the arcade machines and since, you know, a lot of people, if they won one, they could order one from you guys and have it delivered. How hard is the upkeep for an arcade machine?

Brian (17:53.106)
Yeah.

Brian (18:06.344)
So there's no software updates or anything like that. it's pretty easy. You gotta realize arcades that we're selling are the same ones you see in a bar or restaurant. They're on 24 seven, seven days a week. life-wise, your arcade's gonna last you 10, 15 years, not an issue. You might have a joystick go bad, but it's four screws and a plug and you're back in business. it's easy, it's a low-means type of product.

Gregory (18:31.712)
Okay.

Brian (18:36.146)
You I tell my customers when they buy it, it's made for drunks. It's going to take a beating because you you get people that get a little carried away or they spill beer on it or you know, whatever. It's going to, you know, not fall apart. And that's important. You know, these arcades are they're not toys. These are real arcades.

Gregory (18:41.208)
You

Gregory (18:57.806)
So they're built heavy duty like, you know, back in the day and yeah, especially for the racers because I'm guilty. I used to really get into the race and I mean, shifting those gears and it was rough. And the chairs were always broken too. See now I'm thinking back to the arcades, the chair for the slide forward, but the kids always broke it. So it didn't actually move. So I had to scooch forward because I'm short.

Brian (19:01.176)
Exactly. Back in the day.

Brian (19:11.877)
yeah.

Brian (19:24.904)
Yep, yeah, you know, so I use Logitech steering wheels that we partnered with and then our race seats are actually a race seat. They're real one and yeah, it's a company called APC. Happens to be an old automotive company I used to own and they're actually, you know, sport tuner seats and they're awesome. They fit you great and they're gonna, you know, they're there to take a beating but they're not gonna fall apart.

Gregory (19:34.158)
okay.

Brian (19:49.672)
And like me, I'm short too. So they'll go up for you and I and the guy is six foot four, they're going to go back.

Gregory (19:55.948)
Nice, nice. So, off the top of your head, what are some of the games and some of the other games you guys know? Because you've mentioned Microsoft and I know some people probably perked up at Microsoft. What are some of the games that Microsoft has developed specifically for you guys and your machines?

Brian (20:13.522)
So basically the Xbox, I'm not allowed to say what they're developing or co-developing and stuff and working with, but come out and look at us in October. You'll see some launches of some new stuff coming out. For us, we've been able to work with a bunch of guys that are really love with the arcades and come out with their own development. We've had some people, there's a bunch of groups, like if you go on Reddit.

Gregory (20:19.839)
Brian (20:42.696)
especially on our pinballs, they've come out with all kind of add-on features that we don't recommend, but they do it and we just have to say that because of the warranty purpose. But people have come out with some really cool deals. There's a company, Australia, that's come out with the 4D goggles that you can play pinball in a virtual work room. So you're playing our pinball and JAWS is coming right at you. It's crazy, but it's a very, very slow process.

Gregory (20:51.714)
Yeah.

Gregory (21:07.694)
You

Brian (21:12.616)
You know, and we are working on a tabletop arcade with holograph. So you'll be playing the table cocktail arcade and your characters are floating in the air. And it's something that we've been working with a couple of engineers out of Japan and Vietnam. And we're about 80 % there. It's a slow process. It won't be a lot of games, but just imagine playing pong in the air. You know, it's pretty, it's pretty legit.

Gregory (21:37.41)
That yeah. Yeah, when you were, you know, talking about the games, the first thing that came to mind, then you said it, I was like, man, I've always imagined a tabletop hologram or, you know, arcade game and knowing that that is literally around the corner is extremely exciting.

Brian (21:57.478)
Yeah, and you know, it's crazy. You go to Las Vegas, you play a slot machine. They have holograph slot machines already that when you win, it comes out and like goes in front of your face and you're not wearing goggles or any special glasses. It's just out there. I just wish I would win more often.

Gregory (22:14.03)
So you can actually have that experience. That is amazing. Do you see yourselves in the future adding that feature to your other machines, like your regular, your tabletops and...

Brian (22:15.697)
Exactly.

Brian (22:27.464)
to what, yes, we want to be able to add and be able to modify. You know, one thing that I hate, I hate when I buy a TV and three months later it becomes obsolete. So we try to really try focusing on our machines will always be upgraded compatible. It's not gonna happen on every machine, but a lot of our machines, you're gonna be able to upgrade it and add guns to it or whatever. You're gonna be able to keep

Gregory (22:40.727)
Yes.

Brian (22:56.88)
upgrading it so you're not going to be pissed off and go, ma'am, why didn't I wait three months? Because we're already making sure that you're able to have that. So it's important. We're very fortunate. have very loyal customers. And we have a good group of people that are out there talking about our products and giving us suggestions. And we listen. We're not corporate America. And we're a company that listens to the end users. And you know what? We'll pick up the phone and say thank you.

And we also answer the phone if you have a problem. We're here, tech support seven days a week. You know, we had a guy in Michigan. He had a problem with one of our machines and was more user error, but he was older gentleman. One of my employees said, you know what? I'll fly out there. I bought him a ticket. He flew up to the guy's house, fix the guy's machine. The guy fed him dinner and he flew back the next day. And no, we will not do that ever again because it's too expensive.

Gregory (23:37.898)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Gregory (23:52.288)
Yeah.

Brian (23:52.358)
But you know what? It was really important because he was 73 years old, his wife passed away, and the machine was what he had to enjoy.

Gregory (23:56.238)
Hmm.

Gregory (24:00.59)
to enjoy, yeah, I can understand that. And that's top tier customer service right there, guys. That's top tier. But no, they won't be doing that again.

Brian (24:08.806)
Yeah, and you know, no, we won't do it again. But you know, I'm a vet, he was a vet. So for us, it's important. We also do a decent amount of business with the VA hospitals, the user machines for eye to hand, eye to hand therapy. So it makes a lot of sense. And then we also have special sit down machines that have casters on them that lift up. So when somebody comes in there with a wheelchair, they can play our machine and get underneath the deck.

Gregory (24:32.75)
Mm-hmm.

Gregory (24:36.244)
Now see, I just learned something. I didn't even know that arcade machines could have that kind of purpose. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, it does. So what are some, you guys have any other designs that you are working on that you will be bringing out soon?

Brian (24:44.07)
Yeah. But think about it, it makes sense. You know?

Brian (25:01.926)
Yeah, so we're working on, always trying, know, the racer is kind of one of our babies. So we're always working on new type of racer systems coming out with more, you know, eventually a three screen system instead of a one screen system, more of a, you know, like getting into a tunnel. We're working with our, you know, our pinball company to come out with some type of more unique system. Maybe it has a little bit more features. You know, one thing cool about our TR2 pinball,

Gregory (25:14.265)
that's yeah.

Brian (25:30.586)
you actually can take an HDMI cable and connect it to the back screen. And if you have a big screen in your game room, you could actually have it on that screen so that people are in your game room to watch you play without hovering over you. So that's kind of fun.

Gregory (25:44.77)
That reminds me, was when I was in the Navy, I was in Japan for three years and that kind of reminds me of like their arcade pod that they had. And there was like a tournament going on and all the players were in the pods, but everyone else could watch from the screen outside in real time.

Brian (25:58.573)
yeah!

Exactly exactly yeah, and I go to Japan a lot and so you ever played pachinko. My god, so I won't bore your customers, but later. I'll tell you about the pachinko story

Gregory (26:07.405)
Yes.

Gregory (26:13.294)
But speaking of because I'm a mech game nerd and one of my friends is a huge mech game nerd as well. So is there a chance, I don't know, somewhere in the future that you guys might make a mech designed arcade?

Brian (26:36.104)
It would be awesome. I can't tell you because, know, my guy, it's not me, it's my team. I have an amazing team. They're already always coming up with ideas and these guys are real gamers. They're real geeks, you know, so they're in it 24 seven for me, you know, I'm, you know, I'm taking care of my younger kids. have older kids running the business. So, you know, I, I always, you know, designing on my outdoor products on the arcades.

Gregory (26:43.501)
Mmm

Brian (27:05.384)
I'm giving my input, sometimes they all sit down with us.

Gregory (27:08.654)
But that, you know, it's so you've also got the family in the business and just that just once again, like arcades bringing everyone together. It's just.

Brian (27:16.743)
Yes.

Brian (27:22.354)
Well, that's what it's about is bringing everybody together. Yeah, and that should be our pitch line, bringing the family together.

Gregory (27:26.082)
That is.

bringing the family, bringing the family together, you know, on tabletop, a barbecue. Yeah, man, that's it. That just sounds amazing. Like having a barbecue and then like having one of those outdoor setups where you guys are doing like tabletop while, the grill is fired up guys come. And, I love that you, you set it up where everything is upgradable because we live in an era where as soon as the product hits the shelf, it's obsolete. It's obsolete.

Brian (27:39.752)
yeah!

Brian (27:56.23)
It's obsolete. Yeah, it's horrible. And you're upset about it. You feel upset about it. Yeah, me too.

Gregory (28:00.654)
I hate it. hate it. And it's and you know, because even with the because I have a PS five and I like to collect systems. But I know like as soon as they like they released it, they're already talking about the the PS six like not even five, six years in. They're like, Hey guys, we're we're about to drop the PS six. I'm like, I barely got to enjoy the PS five. What do mean?

Brian (28:14.344)
you

Brian (28:22.888)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a shame because if they would realize that they could also grow their business by selling an affordable upgrade, could be just an SSD drive that they would keep get a bigger broad of their customers and maybe instead of growing it as a one time experience and upsetting that customer, you're going to keep growing it and growing it. And then that person is going to hand it down to his kids and, you know, move on type of deal.

Gregory (28:51.174)
That's that's one of the other things, too. I, you know, with collecting of consoles, that's one of my goals. like, I want to leave those behind so that, you know, my kids have that experience from and, you know, the SNES all the way up to wherever I left off. And then they can have that same journey that I had for themselves, you know, all the games and everything.

Brian (29:03.816)
Exactly.

Brian (29:13.286)
Yeah, exactly.

Gregory (29:17.912)
but everything, yeah, as soon as it launches, it's obsolete. And I've never understood that mentality of like push the product, make it obsolete, push the new product, make it obsolete. And then, yeah, I don't get it.

Brian (29:30.728)
And then the problem is like, if you play the old school pinball machines, you can't get parts. I have a Williams 1994 Flintstones pinball machine. It's awesome, but I can't get parts. We're able to fabricate some things, but I'm just lucky that I'm able to do those things, but you can't find parts. It's tough. I mean, there is these pinballs in arcades, swap meets, and flea markets, but it's...

I'm in California, so they're not around here anymore. It's more Midwest.

Gregory (30:04.416)
Mm-hmm. You know, and I know a lot of people when they visit your site, they probably first get scared of the pricing, but you're basically paying for the long time. You're paying to have a lifetime memory that you can pass on.

Brian (30:17.32)
exactly.

Brian (30:24.488)
Yeah, and you know what? You're paying also to have a good experience. know, there's other brands that have come out. You know, there's one brand that makes a very low cost machine that has been awesome for my business because people go to Walmart and buy a $400 arcade. It's great for the kids, but not for the adults. And they realize, you know what? If we had a real arcade, our whole family would play. And they return it, and they end up buying my arcade.

Gregory (30:44.546)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (30:51.942)
because they had a good experience with the other guys, but it's not designed for adults. Hell, it's barely four feet tall and it's made out of MDF type of material. just like that, it's showing and making people realize, you know what, I like the experience. You're a vet like I am, I had a guy a month ago order a bunch of arcades because he got his VA settlement.

And he goes, you know what, I always wanted my own arcades. And then, you know, we hooked him up, but it was just super cool. you know, we did, we did his arcade wraps. He was in the Navy. did a ship and we did a American flag. And we did some really, it's on the website, some really cool, you know, American artwork type of deal. It was nice to see.

Gregory (31:41.952)
that sounds amazing. A little tidbit, before we had the interview and I was checking out everything, checking out the website, I'll admit, I started looking at a corner of my little room. And I was like, you know, if I just get this removed, I can condense that and we could just put an arcade machine right there.

Brian (32:03.816)
You know, if a lot of you have breaks, let me know. We'll give you the family deal.

Gregory (32:09.358)
Yeah, I just like just like your friend I've always wanted even when I was a kid, I've always wanted my own arcade machine because one Believe it or not. It's actually healthier because you're standing it's actually healthier for you and it's just something about The machine is dedicated to gaming and yes

Brian (32:28.104)
Yes.

Gregory (32:38.22)
You know, everyone's like, well, yes, so the Xbox, so is the PlayStation, but they're multipurpose as well. You could turn that into your DVD player. You could stream Netflix on it. It gets very distracting. And even on the PC, it's distracting. But when you're in front of your arcade machine. That's you're in the zone. It's for your game. It's for you, your buddy, you, your, you know, your family, and that's game time.

Brian (33:03.793)
Exactly.

Gregory (33:05.014)
It's game time and there's there's nothing nothing like that. I love it. It's amazing. But Brian, I know you are an extremely busy person and you've got.

Brian (33:17.64)
Thank you. But this has been awesome. This has been, you know, I appreciate these opportunities. One, to get creative dash arcades out there. But two, one, talk about the story. you know, people could call our company anytime. They could ask for me, ask for any of my staff. We'll talk to you. We'll give you ideas. And, you know, we're here to build a relationship. It's not one sale, one and done type of deal. We're here to build a relationship with our customers because

Gregory (33:27.65)
Yes.

Brian (33:47.334)
The biggest compliment we have as a company is referrals. And we get a lot of referrals. And that's important to us.

Gregory (33:54.508)
Yes, absolutely. So if you would love to share with the listeners where they can go, where they can go check out the arcades, guys, I highly recommend it. It's awesome. The website's beautiful, easy to navigate.

Brian (34:07.462)
Yes, so you gotta go to www.creative-arcades.com and check us out. Our phone numbers are there and our emails are there. Feel free to call and ask questions. No questions or dumb questions. My guys love talking about arcades and we're always looking for ideas. Come and collaborate with us and work with us.

Gregory (34:30.936)
So thank you so much, Brian. It was a blast having you on the podcast. I would love to chat with you again in the future. Yes, definitely. And everybody, thank you so much for tuning in. And if you have not already, please subscribe. GZ Chop Shop Gaming Podcast. Visit our website, gzchopshoppodcast.com, for all of our amazing episodes, future episodes. And yeah, let us know what you thought.

Brian (34:38.284)
definitely, anytime, just let me know.

Gregory (34:59.8)
Are you gonna get yourself an arcade machine? I'm really thinking about it guys. I'm just saying. I'm not really thinking about it. But anyway, take care of yourself and each other and we will catch all of you wonderful people on the next podcast. Later.

Brian (35:03.356)
Yeah