Economic Impact Awards Innovator Finalist: 1984 Arcade

Opened two years ago at 400 E. Walnut St., Ste. 108, the arcade features nearly 60 coin-operated relics from video-gaming’s glory days.

“This is kind of a museum per se,” said Jason Durham, a 32-year-old who owns Information Architects, a Web-hosting services company, and acts as 1984’s CEO.

Space Invaders, Galaga and Frogger are just a few of the choices that beckon 1984’s nostalgic patrons with beeps and blinks.

But the games at 1984 – pinball machines excluded – don’t gobble quarters anymore; $5 at the door buys customers access to the entire arcade for as long as they want to play.

Durham and brother Devin, and their wives, Amy and Tammy Durham, partnered with friends Chris Stuart, Lincoln Whistler and John Macdonnell to raise the seed money for 1984. Within a month, the arcade had turned a profit.

“We’re way past where we thought we’d be,” Jason Durham said, declining to disclose annual revenues.

1984 has locked in a steady revenue stream by renting out the arcade for private parties before opening the arcade to walk-in customers at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The rental rate is a minimum two hours for $150, plus $75 for each additional hour. On a typical weekend, arcade owners work two or three private parties.

“It’s probably become more cake than icing,” Durham said. “Everybody always asks us what our demographic is. It’s everybody. We have parties for 9-year-olds, and we have parties for 45-year-olds.”

Partygoers also receive discounts on soft drinks, chips and candy at 1984’s snack bar. The owners passed on prepared food, deciding instead to let customers who have already paid slip out and grab a bite downtown before returning for more gaming.

The arcade’s owners have targeted people headed to and from downtown’s myriad attractions. The hope is that 1984’s green glow will lure in people who have time to spare – and an affinity for the decade that spawned arcade games.

“It’s an 80s hangout,” Stuart said, noting the period music piped through 1984’s speakers.

Stuart, a freelance Web and print designer at Imaginaut.net, is 1984’s chief designer. The 41-year-old makes and sells buttons with quirky 1980s references. He also designed the arcade’s illuminated display board for high score hall-of-famers.

1984’s owners have added new games through a variety of creative means, including eBay and traveling auctions. Some were bought for as little as $20; the most expensive game – Sega Star Trek – had a $2,000 price tag, plus another $2,000 in repairs.

Upkeep for the games cuts into 1984’s earnings, Durham said. Luckily for the arcade, Eldorado Games, a game repair company previously based in California, recently moved its operations to Mount Vernon, about a half-hour west of Springfield.

Durham, who has experience repairing computer monitors and laser printers, performs about 90 percent of the maintenance on 1984’s games.

Franchising is the next logical step for 1984, which also has plans to beef up its local advertising this year. Smaller cities with a university presence and pedestrian-friendly downtown areas, such as Columbia and Rolla, might be good candidates for future franchises, Stuart said.

For now, though, 1984 will remain unique to Springfield. “We want to make sure we know why this works first,” Durham said.

1984 Arcade

Address: 400 E. Walnut St., Ste. 108, Springfield, MO 65806

Phone: (417) 831-3665

Web site: www.1984arcade.com

Employees: 7 co-owners

2006 Revenues: Would not disclose[[In-content Ad]]