Hey yo, welcome everyone to Today in the Scene by Indie Arcade Wave. I'm Joe, your host, and here on In the Scene, we dive into what's happening in the arcade space from new arcade developers, arcade owners and operators, pinball, and just news in the space in general. Now, I'm really excited for this episode. We're going to talk to Char from Badax Retrocade in Michigan, uh, Badax, Michigan, and we have had Char on the show before. I think this is a really cool story because you don't hear a lot from these rural arcades to, you know, understand what it's like to run a business in these areas and what it's like to run an arcade, especially in these areas. Um, the last time we spoke, she had only been open for about four months. It's a a family affair. They've got a whole bunch of, you know, the kids and husband and wife and everybody's running the arcade together. I think it's such a great family story and just an arcade that needs to be supported. So, let's bring Char in and talk about everything. How you doing, Char? Good. Thanks for asking, Joe. How are you?
I'm great. I'm great. I'm I'm really excited to dive back in and kind of get an idea of how far you guys have come in. I mean, what was it? It was last September, August that we we did this. So, you're we're well over a year now. Um you jumped in with pretty much no knowledge on running an arcade to begin with. Um so, just just tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of how the whole journey started. Yeah. So, uh, my husband and I are 80s 90s babies and we've always enjoyed arcade games and gaming in general. And, uh, we got into position where we're able to acquire some arcades and our small town was kind of hurting for other things to do. And on a whim, we were just like, let's what what if we took all the things we have and were accumulating and and made an arcade. and uh without knowing anything like you said, but my husband has the tech skills, I have marketing skills, we just figured um like why not? It sounds fun. And our kids were excited. So, we went for it. And that was April of 24 and we are now a little over a year and a half into it and it has been pretty incredible. So, we're definitely learning a lot and learning as we go still. And uh everyone seems really still enthusiastic. The family still seems happy and so so far so good.
Yeah, I like that. Everybody's still enjoying it and chipping in and growing and learning. Um and you guys had a really good background of, you know, your husband was already running another business and and he had technical skills and electrical skills and could figure out a lot of this stuff. So, let's talk about how you acquired all these games, right? You're you're in Badass Axe. You're I mean what were you you said something like 45 minutes from from the nearest like big city that has a lot of arcades. How did you end up sourcing all these games because you guys have a pretty crazy collection of games?
Yeah, thank you. So it started out it always starts with one, right? So we found a Pac-Man machine um maybe six months to a year before we actually opened the arcade and we were like this is really cool. It needed a little bit of work. We got it cheap and it just, you know, it started. It was the bug that got it going and we started looking at other types of things like you can do those Pandoraas boxes and the uh arcade one-ups. And so we accumulated little things like that. And a gentleman in our town had passed away and he used to run a arcade and jukebox business where he would put those machines in local businesses. And when he passed, there was a warehouse of these arcades. Most of them were in pretty rough shape, but a family member reached out and had seen our other machine inside my husband's shop and decided to ask if we wanted them. And I was like, "Absolutely." My husband's like, "Can we?" I'm like, "You don't even have to ask." So, we acquired a bunch that way. And I think that it just sort of domino effect. you sort of put the the word out and you start seeing them everywhere and we had a pretty limited budget, but it just sort of fell into place divinely. I hate to say that because it sounds cliche or cheesy, but it was in a span of maybe six months from kind of thinking about it to where we had uh an entire collection of uh games for the arcade. So, kind of wild.
Yeah. I mean, you put that energy out into the universe, you start telling people, they start telling people, things just start showing up, right? start seeing what you're looking for and and you the opportunities just come knocking at the door and you take them, you jump on them, right?
Um, absolutely.
Let's talk a little bit about the the technical side, right? Like
you you built up this business plan. I think from the last interview, I remember you saying it was like about 10 months before you guys opened, you started working on this business plan. What was that process like? Like there are a lot of people that that follow the channel that want to start arcades or or are kind of getting stuck on the the technical side of it. How did you guys go about building out the business plan and finding a location?
Yeah, that's a great question. So, I went to school for business and my family had businesses and I thought that would give me a lot of head start about starting a business. But with an arcade, it's such a different beast compared to other businesses and being in a rural place with not a lot of people in general. We do have some summer tourism uh in the area, not necessarily our town, but I sort of started looking at what businesses in town, how they operate, their models, if they're seasonal. Uh we have bowling alley in our town and just even how they operate with customers and tourists and people in the surrounding area. And with being quarter play as well, you know, how do you make rent with just quarters? So I was like, well, let's add some like kitschy earrings and nerdy pins. We also have a console room. So that was another way of getting more people in the door, bringing in retro gaming, and then bringing in something a little more than quarters. So, my whole idea was how do we appeal to the people who are our people in our community as well as snagging some of those tourist um people during the summer months and marketing towards the lake shore and definitely really heavy on social media because that's been huge for us is really consistent from day one. I post on multiple platforms almost every single day and try to create really fun quality content to get people excited about coming in. So, I think just kind of knowing your people, asking people, what would you like to see in our in arcade? And I know sticking with just retro and being a beat niche, people were sort of like, you're not going to make it. You need redemption. You need claws. And we just really didn't want to go that route. We really wanted to go with classic arcade as much as possible, knowing there might be some risks or cons, but that's really what we wanted. I think if you really know what you want and you drive a lot of passion and creativity into that, ideas will flow and also being flexible as you go because uh some of the things I initial initially wanted to do as we got going weren't going to work. So definitely be flexible, be realistic, but don't be afraid to dream either. Yeah, I I think those are all all very good points and just it's it's such an interesting perspective that you guys have being in a small town and a rural town like to go to all the other businesses in the area and ask like how do you guys bring people in? How do you bring people in during the slow seasons? How do you get people from other towns to come in and and using that to your advantage and social media has been huge for you guys? I see you guys are growing constantly. I see you all over my feed all the time. I'm always checking in with you. So, I I I love the fact that you guys are doing so much to put this content out and and teach people about the arcade space. You do a lot of like tutorials and how to play pinball. It was a big one because we talked about that last time. Like I go to all these arcades and there's credits on it. Nobody knows what they're doing. Nobody even knows how to start it. So, that's a big learning curve on that. Um, let's talk a little bit about the games that you guys have in there. Like, what what kind of a selection do you have? You said it's mostly retros. Like, what are some games that really stand out to you? Yeah. So, always the classics, right? So, Pac-Man, Miss Pac-Man, Galaga, uh, Road Blasters is one of my favorites and it's one that does really, really well. We had Contra in for a bit. I thought that would do far better. We ended up taking it out and moving uh, Double Dragon in. We have Goref, which, you know, if you're not into arcades, that might not be as familiar, but people come in and they see it and they're just so attracted to the retro aspect of it and the themes. So, that's been a really big hit. Millipede, we found like an Irish cabinet. Again, how do we find these things? I don't know. But the appeal of that, um, the classics are so popular and our pinball is, when we talked earlier, there was a lot of, um, new people to pinball and people had never played. Now it's becoming one of the things people are going to right off the bat. So, but mostly classics. We do have some ski ball and we're always rotating through to see what people are liking. So, sometimes it's surprising what people like to play versus what we thought would be popular, but again, rolling with it as much as possible.
Yeah, I think that's a a great point about what you guys have in there. And the pinball stuff has been huge. Speaking of pinball, I want to give Compulsive Pinball a quick shout out. Hey guys, quick break. If you want to support the channel, one of the best ways to do that is purchasing your next pinball through Compulsive Pinball. They're helping bring some amazing Stern pinballs to players everywhere. And the next game that they're releasing, you're not going to want to miss. Whether you're looking to add a machine to your home collection or you're an arcade owner or operator, Compulsive Pinball has you covered. They offer special pricing for operators and can handle routing operations for businesses all over the East Coast as well as down in Orlando, Florida. Check out compulsivepinball.com for your next stern and let them know that you heard about them from Indie Arcade Wave. With the pinball stuff, that's been a big deal for you guys. You guys have some some weird stuff in there. You have a Hyperball. Uh do you still have that Street Fighter in there?
Yes.
And Space Invaders and like these are these are games you don't see on route. So, it's it's really cool that you have all this stuff in there. I think you had like a teed off or like a whole bunch of just you never see these games on route. Um and you're running tournaments now. So tell me a little bit about how you've been building with the community and and running these pinball tournaments. How has that helped the business grow?
I am so excited about the pinball tournaments. People were saying early on have pinball tournaments that will bring people in, but I would schedule them and no one would show up and it was super discouraging and we just decided what if we held off on that. uh just so I introduced the tutorials a little bit more about the gameplay because so many people hadn't had a familiarity with pinball. I don't think they were inclined to come in and really start messing around and playing. So the first step had to be getting people educated and familiar. And once I started to see the pins getting a lot more attention, I'm like, "Okay, it's turning time." So we started with three strikes, something simple. We've never run pinball tournaments nor been in any of them. So, I tried to find something really approachable and accessible. And the first one we had four people, which for us was huge because having nobody show up before was discouraging. Then the next month we had seven, almost eight. Someone had to back out because of illness. And uh people were like, "When's the next one?" I'm like, "We're going to do one every month now." And because we are getting so many more people interested and less interested in the wait time between gameplay, we're switching it up a little bit again. So, it's been amazing seeing the interest, the friendly competition, and just the excitement for, you know, something recurring. So, now people are like seeing a little more action happen versus kind of going to the arcade when it's convenient or fun or just because it's a holiday or something. So, now I feel like we're getting more rooted regulars because of the pinball tournaments, which is exciting. Yeah, I I think that's that's very important for an arcade, especially in your location of your size to to get that community built and and to bring people in for for a scheduled event or a regular event around pinball, which is awesome. The pinball scene is growing like crazy. We said it last time, it's still growing. It's still getting bigger and bigger. Um, how much has community meant to you guys? cuz I remember when we first spoke you you were doing um stuff with like little flippers and and and local community groups and tell me more about like how important community has been in this whole journey and how you guys continue to give back to the community.
Yeah. So living in such a rural place, everybody knows everybody and sometimes more than you'd like to know about everybody. But some of what I feel like we've lost over the years with some technology and removal of third spaces due to economy and whatnot, we really want to bring some of that back. And so community has been like probably one of the main driving factors behind everything we do at the arcade and little flippers and some of those. I tried bells and chimes. We really couldn't get again because pinball was unfamiliar. Uh building community from pinball early on was probably not my best choice, but live and learn. But we noticed that uh when people came in, they were looking for people they knew and so trying to create more of that familiarity. But the community aspect, we've tried to do things like our blessing box giving. So every month we pick an arcade machine and the quarters all go to our local blessing box, which is a small food pantry outside of our library. and our area has been hit pretty hard with the local administration changes uh in our government and funding issues and poverty. So, we donate food every month from the quarters, which is really nice. I grew up with food insecurity, so it's also really important for me to be able to give back in that way. But, we've had people reach out and say, "Now we're giving. We didn't know the blessing box was there." And we have a local uh sobriety and recovery program for people with substance use and other kinds of sub uh issues. And we were able to bring some games to one of their events for the people to play for free. Gave out some gift cards. We've noticed those people are coming in. They've never come in because different social struggles and other things like that can keep people even in small towns from even going to their own activities and their own businesses. So, we've really noticed kind of a creeping out of people from their homes and in their little comfort zones because the arcade is and even from what people are saying, they feel so welcome. It's warm. It's fun. It's inviting. Low cost, low pressure socially. It's just been really amazing just to see people connect and run into each other. And it's it's building community while also encouraging the community that's already around in our area to be supported and built. So, it's it's just been really awesome.
I'm a huge fan of that. Just you spoke about it last time, like kind of being a a third space, right, for people to go other than work and home. And it's great that you guys are are cultivating that and building that out and and having that low barrier to entry of like, you're right, quarters, it takes a long time to make the money that you want to make, but it it helps people come in, you know, like if they've got five bucks to burn and and a little bit of time, then they're gonna just come in and spend five bucks. They're not stuck with the, oh, you got to pay $25 to get in or I mean, I've seen some that are like $30 to get in, which is insane to me sometimes, but that's a great thing for the community in your area. And giving back like that is is great. You know, small towns need help like that. And doing everything you can to to help the people in your community is is what we should do. We should be taking care of the people in our areas as opposed to caring about everybody else around the world. So, I think you guys are doing a great thing there and the pinball stuff is cool and I hope it continues to grow. One thing that I see you talk about a lot on your socials and I'm really intrigued in is your your little console room, right? Like it's a spot where, you know, people can go hang out. It's only three bucks or something like that to play.
I mean, some of those GameCube games you have are 70 80 bucks if you want to have it in your own collection. So, tell me a little bit about the the inspiration on the console room and and why you guys are doing that. Yeah. So early on, like said it was a business model. Quarters alone, it is definitely a challenge to get your monthly rent and uh you know, various expenses from quarters alone. And the console room I just wanted to have so bad. And our space is definitely on the smaller side about,00 square ft, but when we were looking for places to rent, the costs were insane. So, and we're right next to our community bowling alley and then the local pizza joint. So, it was like, we really want to be here, but we have to maximize the space. So, the console room has six TVs, uh, almost all CRTs, but one, and three bucks a person, you can play all day. So, from the time we open till the time we close that day, kids seven and under, we let play free if there's an adult or someone else paying for a pass because their attention span is so short. They don't play for super long, but we also want to get them exposed to the games and maybe playing with mom or dad or grandpa or their sibling just to get a feel for the games. So, we have so many people inquire because they just don't think that's right. They're like, "It's only $3." I'm like, "Yes, it's only $3." Some people come in and they're happy just to play one game like Banjo Kazouie, that was my favorite. And they play $3 just to play the game. And then we've got the people who, you know, they come in saddled up and they're ready to put that $3 on the counter and play all day and play through everything. So, it's really been cool to see it utilized by all ages. And we just really wanted to have that aspect too because we don't really see that anywhere in our area or many other places where you can actually sit and play GameCube or PlayStation uh one and two and kind of relive that because the used game market is kind of outrageous at times. So even people who just want to get their own uh N64 or something again, it could be a big investment. And here with again being more lowinccome, people get to play and sample and have a good time and and doesn't break the bank.
Yeah, I I I totally agree. I mean, I started building out a GameCube collection a couple years ago and very quickly, you know, put a couple thousand dollars into it. Just getting, you know, 40 50 games and a GameCube and it it adds up very very fast. So, if you, you know, you want to play Double Dash or you want to play Mario Sunshine or anything in that realm, I mean, even like Fire Emblems, like $250 for the game now, like if you guys had that on on location, it was three bucks to play. Like, that's a pretty cool thing that that people can enjoy. Um, I just I love your location. I love the the passion that you guys have for what you're doing and and everything there. I'm curious, what advice would you give to someone that's looking to open up an arcade, right? like we're not talking a major city, we're talking a rural area. I mean, I'm sure that a lot of this advice would translate to both areas, but what kind of advice would you give someone that's just getting into it that wants to open up their own spot?
Definitely know your community and know what they're interested in as far as entertainment and kind of the things. you know, the right before we opened a redemption arcade opened up out of nowhere and it was kind of devastating to us because we kind of thought we had dominated the market and so I didn't even have that my business plan. It happened so quickly. So the strengths of my business plan prior to that for knowing what to do was we knew we wanted to stick with retro. We knew that was important. We knew the Ed Boon for it was also a big thing at the moment too, but keeping the costs down, our overhead down as much as possible, knowing we're rural, knowing it's quarter play, you really have to make sure you make every penny count. So, right off the bat, I was like, here's how many people we need through that door or we're not going to make it even just with quarters. So really being down to the last dollar as far as how you can regulate your money and having multiple streams of income. Maybe, you know, fixing the games for people in your community. Jason's been doing that with his tech skills. Now that we're there, people like, "Hey, do you fix pins? Do you fix dart boards?" Yep. So that's also helped offset some of the costs of quarters. uh being very very consistent with your social media marketing and really letting people know what it is you offer and what makes you stand out because if someone does open up or you suddenly see some competition or someone in that industry, you really want to make sure you shine still. Not to outshine them, let them have their space, but really what makes you remarkable and what makes you stand out. And you got to love it. I know that sounds maybe obvious, but if you're just in it for money with arcades, every arcade owner I've talked to said, "Don't do it for money." And it sounds silly. A business should be making money. And it does. But generally for the smaller places and rural places, you really want to be able to make, sustain, and then be able to have enough to pour back in. So without my husband's primary business, we wouldn't be able to do this alone. But again, that was part of that plan. maybe have something else or even, you know, a family member or partner, which can get messy, but if you really have the shared goal and dream working on it together. But my husband and I and my kids, thankfully, we make a really great team and you do have to be able to uh really trust in what you're doing as much as possible because if you don't believe in it, the people in your community won't either. Especially in a place where there was some skepticism and cynicism about what we were doing, we were like, "No, we'll do it. It'll be fine." Because then as things got going and we were making it, it helps your confidence, but then people will say, "Oh, and look at them doing it." So, some people have even come in saying, "I just had to check you out because I didn't think you'd make it." Which doesn't sound like a compliment, but it really was. People have seen us really work hard to make this happen. So definitely plan as much as possible, be meticulous, keep those overhead costs low, have fun, and remember why you're doing it. Have that vision, have that purpose because that will drive you, especially when things like un you know, surprise competition, difficult days, slow seasons. It will help you carry you through those times. Yeah, I think that's that's really good advice and it it shows, you know, like on your social media, if if you don't love this and you aren't passionate about this, people are going to be able to see. They're going to be able to tell that you're being inauthentic. So when you really really love it and you're really really passionate about it and you're you know showing how you fix these machines and how to play these machines and look at our league nights and you know going through those levels of being discouraged by the first nights you know not working very well for pinball or I think the thing that for me is the the biggest thing I'm I'm watching a few arcades open up right now. I'm helping them kind of go from zero to opening the doors. And those first 20, 30 posts you put on social media are going to flop. Like you just you just have to accept that it's just not going to get thousands and thousands of views. And getting through that initial point is so big. It helps so much to just be like, "Okay, I'm putting this out because I love it." And people will come with time. So,
have the patience to do that and just see that that end goal, that end vision.
Um,
talk to me a little bit about um some of the things that you guys have experienced and learned along along this road. You know, it's it's not an easy business to get into. You just mentioned like don't do it for the money. Um, what are some things that you learned very early on that could help some other arcades, you know, just get a little bit further a little bit faster? Definitely for the little moving parts and bobbles, if you can have extra things on hand, switches, uh, cap kits, other things like that, if you can have a few extra things on hand, because sometimes you'll think, well, just one or two things will break down. Sometimes it'll be four things at once and you'll need a few extra supplies. So, having a nice, you know, logically stocked um, tech room with all your little things in there is super important. I don't do that part. So, my language skills on that. But my husband's so good about having had other tech experience kind of knowing which things to have on hand that are likely to burn out or go out or blow out because sometimes you need to fix something on the floor kind of quick. Um, I would say definitely plan out a couple months ahead of time like ideas for marketing or sales because time goes by so quick once you're in there and you're working and machines are breaking. you really want to be able to have an idea of where you're like which direction you're going in the future. So, kind of being able to keep one foot in right now with your needs, but one foot a little bit ahead to kind of project what's coming up next. As far as some of the things that have been difficult being on the smaller side, sometimes people will initially walk in and look and go, "Oh, it's small." and leave. So having a thick skin sometimes because it can be hurtful when people don't give you a chance or they give a quick, you know, superficial judgment and don't see maybe a redemption or don't see enough claws and not coming in that maybe I'm too sensitive, but sometimes I've taken that personal because I think people would really have a nice time. And so that's that that's been something new to figure out and learn. and also uh not being afraid to ask your customers for feedback or reviews and really engaging with them. I think sometimes it feels odd to like self um market yourself or ask for support from people in the community or even letting them know it's been slow and you know really being honest I think is important and sometimes in business I find that socially we've been told to do so always look like you're successful and that things are going really well but even being transparent with your customers about things has been really important and things maybe I was nervous about doing early on but people really want for the most part they want you to succeed as well. So getting their feedback, trusting your customers has been really big, but you're never going to be prepared for anything. So also, I think again back to that just building your own resilience and confidence and patience regarding all of it because it's definitely been way more challenging like emotionally than I thought it would be.
I think that's a an interesting point with the whole like you guys are a smaller arcade. People walk in and they say, "Oh, this is little." Like if they knew the obscure games that you guys have in there, like they would be they would be surprised. I mean, you I I've only seen I think two hyperballs on the floor ever and one was at a convention and one was at uh our arcade Odyssey down here in Miami. You don't see that game. And to see it in a rural town like that is is pretty wild. And like you said, you have an Irish Centipede. Like you don't see those either. So, you guys have a great selection of games. Even though your footprint is very small, it's it's really cool what you guys have going on. Um, that's kind of everything I had for you, Char. So, just go ahead, shout out uh Bad Axe Retro Cade. Let people know where they can find you and where they can follow along on the journey.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. It's so great. what you're doing is helping us so much as well because I think sometimes in rural places when people see like almost celebrity status you might not feel that about yourself but what you have got going on and how you're highlighting people is so important because it elevates our little platforms for these smaller places so people see it in this the people in your small town will say oh wow look at them they're it does help bring in people and see the value of what we have because they might not understand what John Youssi as valuable because they don't have the background or familiar ity. So, I appreciate you doing this and and help helping us uh highlight what we're doing. But yeah, you can find Badax Retrocade on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok. We do have a Google listing with our most up-to-date hours and you can like and support and share. It's so appreciated. Leave reviews if you've been. That's been really helpful for helping people find us and and trust what we're doing. And I also welcome questions from people if you're looking to start an arcade or you're in the midst of it. I've had people reach out from find them finding us on here. So I'm happy to help. No expert by any means, but you know, every little bit of knowledge we can share with each other as humans in this crazy world is important. So please feel free to reach out if you have questions or want to come visit the arcade.
Awesome. I'm going to throw all that down in the description so you guys can check out Badax Retrocade. I appreciate the the compliment there that you know the celebrity status thing is cool. That that's that's crazy to hear, but I thank you on that. Um I I love what you guys are doing. Like I really really think that people need to support it and and continue showing love towards it. And you know, you're right. Like this community is very welcoming. It's it's very open. I mean the fact that pretty much anybody could message you and get a hold of you or even like I mean when you think about like the biggest arcades in the space, right? like Doc Mack, Galp and Ghost, over a thousand a thousand games. Like pretty much everybody I've ever talked to is like, "Oh yeah, I just shot him a message on Instagram and he like helped me start my business." Like that's all it takes. So this community is very welcoming. We want to see everybody succeed. We want to see everybody grow. And that's really all that it comes down to at the end of the day is we're a community of nerds that love what's going on. So um thank you again, SH, for coming on. And for anyone that's still watching, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. It helps us a ton the way we'll continue to grow. we can all ride it together. And if you're looking to bring any new Stern pinballs into your arcade or personal collection, I did partner with Compulsive Pinball. So, go ahead, shoot me an email at indiearchcadewavegmail.com and we can hook that up for you, get you what you need. We've got the indie games, we've got Ice Cold Beer, I'm working with Allen One now. So, a whole bunch of stuff is available for purchase. And until next time, peace.