By Don Owen
NKyTribune reporter
Arcade Legacy will be officially welcomed to the city of Newport this week, and area gaming enthusiasts will enjoy a wide range of products and services at the 1765 Monmouth Street location in the Newport Shopping Center.
Arcade Legacy has been Cincinnati’s premier classic-gaming destination since 2009, with locations in Northside and the Cincinnati Mall. It’s now expanding across the Ohio River into Kentucky.
“The reason we chose to go into the Newport Shopping Center is because it fit all of the criteria that we were looking for in a new space for our arcade,” said Ryan Otto, the general manager of Arcade Legacy in Newport. “It is hard to find a space large enough and that’s affordable to put 50 or so arcade games in along with the consoles.”
The city of Newport will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Arcade Legacy this Friday (Feb. 2) at 4 p.m. Newport Mayor Jerry Peluso will extend the city’s official welcome as a part of the ceremony. Otto, a native of Fairfield, Ohio, will also extend a welcome to Arcade Legacy guests at the ceremony.
“Customers can expect a small retro-gaming paradise for a reasonable price,” Otto said. “Our entry fees cover the cost of all the games you can play since everything is on free-play in the arcade.”
Arcade Legacy will feature more than 50 arcade and pinball cabinets, plus a console area with 20 stations where customers can play Atari 2600, NES or Sega Genesis to PS4, WiiU and more. The Newport location will also have a pair of huge high-definition projection screens for any favorite console titles in the store.
“We offer 13 console gaming stations where you can play any system we have available from the Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis all the way to the PS4, Xbox One, and WiiU,” Otto said. “We also buy, sell, or trade all kinds of things ranging from games, consoles, movies, comics, manga, toys and more.”
Otto, a 2010 graduate of Fairfield High School, said he discovered Arcade Legacy his senior year. That’s when he met the owner, Jesse Baker.
“Jesse asked if I could lend him a hand with something in the arcade, then later asked if I would like to work for him so that he could have some time off to spend with his family, as he was running the arcade by himself at the time,” Otto said, recalling his start with the business.
“Of course being a huge gamer I was overjoyed at the opportunity,” he added. “I have been working for Jesse ever since, and I am happy to have been a helping hand in building Arcade Legacy into what it has become today.”
Arcade Legacy store hours, pricing and events
Monday — Closed
Tuesday — 2 p.m. – midnight (Tuesdays are also Smash Brothers fight nights)
Wednesday — 2 p.m. – 10 p.m. (Wednesdays are also Street fighter, Tekken, and other game-fight nights)
Thursday — 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday — noon – midnight (Friday nights are Family nights. $20 gets Mom/Dad, Grandma/Grandpa and 4 kids in the door for the night. Any extra person outside of the family or over the 8-person limit is an additional $5.
Saturday — noon – midnight
Sunday — noon – 8 p.m.
Pricing options
$5 for an hour pass
$8 for a two-hour pass
$6 for children 11 and younger for a whole-day pass
$10 for anyone 12 and older for a whole-day pass (With the whole day you will receive a wristband so that you can leave to go get food or whatever you need to do and still come back later in the same day)
For more information, please visit the website.
