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At GameWorks, bring cash and your imagination
Instead of coins, you use play cards, and, instead of guiding PacMan, you play drums in a rock band or save the mayor from a burning building.
By BABITA PERSAUD
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 28, 2000
[Times photos: Kristen Schmid]
Mike Geddes and Martha Callaghan share the mike in a karaoke contest at GameWorks.
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The only thing missing is some guy in a rat costume.
Other than that, GameWorks, which officially opens its doors to the public today, is just like a Chuck E Cheese for adults.
It's got games galore: a fishing game, an Indy racing game, a shooting game where you can put a bloody hole in a zombie's head.
It's got food, pizzas and gourmet burgers.
And it costs. The credit card-size play cards that allow you to play are available at stations and are as "easy to use as regular bank ATM cards," states a press release.
A minitheme park in many ways, GameWorks is for the kids who used to pump coins into the PacMan machine to run from the "meanies."
Developed in part by that big kid Steven Spielberg, GameWorks is now owned by Sega, Dreamworks and Universal Studios and has grown from a single location in Seattle in 1997 to 15 worldwide, including locations in Guam and Rio de Janeiro. Soon to open: Istanbul.
Outside the new Centro Ybor location hangs a neon sign: "Eat Drink Party Play."
Inside is 28,000 square feet that houses not only 120 buzzing and beeping video games, but also a restaurant called Jax's Grill with a funky California look, serving steaks and homemade pastas. Across the restaurant is the Hopscotch Lounge.
The Arena bar, above, is sure to help draw crowds to the center of GameWorks, which officially opens today in Centro Ybor. The entertainment center has two bars, a restaurant and numerous interactive games.
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At GameWorks, everything's a game. So, in the restaurant, a waiter, after scribbling his name on the table's butcher paper, will stamp a tic-tac-toe grid and invite you to play. Or he will bring out jacks and ball. Near the Hopscotch bar are billiard tables.
The idea is if you can play games here, you can venture to the main floor and play games there.
This is the part of GameWorks that looks like a real arcade. The lighting is dimmed. The screens glow with icons.
It also looks like a sports bar. There are large TV monitors hung from the walls and ceilings. The arcade floor is organized into zones.
In the Racing Zone, you can sit in Crazy Taxi, honking your way down a hilly San Francisco street, or you can hop on a shiny Spider Harley, hold on to the handle bars and attempt not to knock down the poor pedestrians.
Many of these games are linked for competitive racing: Daytona USA, Crusin' Exotica, Star Wars Racer (where you glide through the sand dunes) and the Indy 500, where up to six cars can race on a track -- at least the track on the screen.
Another section, this one underneath the balcony, where the ceiling is low and lighting even dimmer, is the shooting gallery.
The Sport Zone will no doubt attract the showoffs. The games are the most interactive.
You can kick a soccer ball in Kick It or hold a fishing rod in Marine Fishing (The trout makes a splash in the water. Cut to the underwater shot, and the fish swims away from your line.)
In this zone, you can also hop on a Wave Runner (smaller than a real one). Or grab a surfboard in Alpine Surfer and swoosh down the snowy mountain on the screen in front of you.
GameWorks in Centro Ybor is owned by Sega, Dreamworks and Universal Studios. The arcade chain has grown from a single location in Seattle in 1997 to 15 worldwide.
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For the water ski game, you hold a handle bar. For the Final Furlong, you ride a mechanical horse, which will give your arms a workout.
Another role-playing section is Real Life Games, where you can fight a fire in Sega's Real Life Heroes. A brick building is burning. You grab the hose from the red hydrant and point it at the screen. Flames fill the screen. Subtitles flash: We've got to save the mayor. You rush in, grab the mayor. Saved!
In MTV's Drumscape, you're behind a drum simulator and pretend you're Tommy Lee (sorry, no Pamela).
And in Dance-Dance Revolution, you can be John Travolta. The squares on the floor glow. Can you follow the bell-bottomed man glowing from the screen? This game has become a cult hit, with devoted fans and Web sites. The final area of the arcade floor has a carnival atmosphere, a midway feel. There's Skeet ball, a South Park pinball machine. Here also is the Big Win Zone, where you can spin a wheel, just like in Wheel of Fortune. Collect points toward a stuffed zebra.
And then there's the Shocker, an electric chair simulator. Sit on the hard wooden chair and hold on to the chrome armrest, which vibrates rapidly, feeling like pins and needles. How much can you take? A meter above your head goes from 0 to Smoke. Games range in cost from $1.25 to $3. The play cards replace quarters or tokens used at traditional arcades.
GameWorks employees, who are required to go through an audition and attend meeting called "rallies," roam the floor. The game hosts' job is to make sure you understand how to play. And the Game Jockey can walk up to you while you're playing and mock interview you.
Before you know it, your face is on the monitors throughout the place.
What GameWorks lacks, so far, are virtual reality and classic games like Centipede, Ms. PacMan and Asteroids, which other locations have.
A place for kids?
During the day, yes.
But after 10 p.m. customers must be 18 or older. And only 21 and older are allowed in the Hopscotch bar.
In many ways GameWorks is like a bar. It has signature drinks, including a 40-ounce margarita, the Mega-rita, which comes in a stemmed glass sharable by up to four people.
It has a ladies' night and happy hour, which, depending on how you look at it, can also be a game with its share of guys in rat costumes.
At a glance:
WHAT: GameWorks grand opening
WHERE: 1600 E Eighth Ave., Centro Ybor
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
PLAYCARDS: $10 for $10 worth of games; $20 for $27 worth of games; $25 for $40 worth of games.
SPECIALS: Three hours unlimited game play for $25 Sunday through Thursday; sunrise special, $15 for first two hours of operation daily; moonlight madness, $15 for last two hours of operation daily; happy hour, 2-for-1 drinks and games 4 to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday; ladies night Thursday, two-hour game cards free for ladies from 8 to 10 p.m.
CALL: (813) 241-9675
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