In the dim wonderland of Abilene’s Retro World Arcade on a recent Friday night, David DeFoore accompanied Nintendo’s plucky plumber named Mario on a quest to rid the city’s pipes of vermin.
After an onslaught of flipping turtles, crabs and other critters, DeFoore stepped away from the 1983 “Mario Bros.” machine, one of dozens of classic arcade cabinets along the Pine Street business owned and operated by Emmanuel and Candy Huerta.
“I love it,” he said of the classic ’80s-style arcade, reflecting a sentiment that seemed to resonate with just about everyone, young and old, who walked through the company’s doors.
DeFoore, 45, who first visited the company, said it was a treat to revisit classic arcade titles such as the iconic space shooter “Galaga” while reminiscing about how much he enjoyed visiting the Magic Door arcade covering the Mall of Abilene in recent years.
“I loved that place, and this reminds me of it,” he said.
Cynthia DeFoore, 36, and Paige Perez, 42, also had fun and enjoyed the stand-up arcade version of Nintendo’s “Super Mario Bros,” which took players home by storm on the wildly popular Nintendo Entertainment System, better known as the NS, in 1985.
“It brings back old memories,” Cynthia DeFoore said, her face lit by the faint glow of the rows of cathode-ray tubes. “I think it’s really cool that we can share these games with another generation, including our kids.”
New blood
Among the younger group, Ashley Henry, 14, was having fun with her North Park Baptist Church youth group.
The group enjoyed a night out as a reward for memorizing the books of the New Testament, Reverend Joe Grizzle said.
“I wanted them to see what I saw when I was young,” Grizzle said. “I remember all those games in the arcade.”
Henry said the appeal of the place was that everything available to play was decades older than them.
“They’re old and you don’t see them anymore,” she said of the collection, and her favorite floor game was the iconic 1980s quarter-muncher Pac-Man, though she found that the small arcade had “lots of good games.”
That’s exactly what Emmanuel Huerta likes to hear.
“I now want to share my collection with others,” he said. “It’s not about just letting them restore and redecorate. It’s about seeing other people enjoy what I grew up with.”
Arcade Wonderland
All games are set to be unlockable, meaning new players like Henry will never have the shame of begging mom and dad for a round of “Dig Dug” or “Karate Champ”.
Players pay a one-time fee at the door, depending on age.
If you look around, you’ll find most, though not all, of the big names of the classic arcade era, from the power couple “Pac-Man” and “Ms. Pac-Man” to “Donkey Kong” (with Mario’s first appearance as a mere “Jump Man”).
You’ll find a slew of creatures, including the 1981 Atari trackball-equipped shooter ‘Centipede’, Sega/Gremlin’s 1981 ‘Frogger’, which later inspired an episode of ‘Seinfeld’, and the somewhat obscure ‘Kangaroo ‘ from 1982, a boxing glove-wielding mother kangaroo whose joey was abducted by monkeys.
Fighting fans have plenty of options, including multiple versions of the bloody “Mortal Kombat” game series and the iconic 1991 “Street Fighter II”, both of which launched their own multimedia juggernauts, along with titles such as 1994’s “Primal Rage”, which dinosaurs and giant apes battle for supremacy.
Pinball fans have a number of choices, while those looking to buy classic home games and systems also have an in-house option. Snacks and drinks flow freely as iconic 80s tunes ring through the speakers, mixed with often familiar blips and bloops.
Younger players are often baffled by all of this, Candy Huerta said.
“They just come and say, ‘What are you doing anyway? How are you playing this?” she said with a laugh.
But they learn quickly, and for those more familiar with the scene, like Erricka Parker, 33, and Chad Parker, 46, it’s second nature.
“We’ve been here a few times, and it’s just so much fun for me,” said Erricka Parker, after celebrating an ’80s-themed day at work. “It brings nostalgia back to when I was a kid. … In the crazy, hectic, everyday life we now live with cell phones and the internet, it’s nice to reset and get back to the good days.”
childhood memories
Born in 1986 and raised in Abilene, Emmanuel Huerta said video games have stayed with him since childhood — and that he’s always wanted an arcade machine.
Video games for home consoles were a big part of his development, but Huerta said his own forays into the hobby were a bit behind the times.
“All my other friends and family had the new game systems,” he recalls. “I’ve always had the Atari. I grew up, I guess, on hand-me-downs. The older stuff.”
As he got older, he hung out with neighborhood friends who had newer game systems.
But a miniature version of the original Donkey Kong arcade game was a great part of its life.
“That represented my childhood to me,” he said.
Like many formative stories, it ended in tragedy.
“Long story short, my brother broke it,” he said. “It’s been thrown away.”
But while his interest faded somewhat in later years, the game bug never completely went away.
A dream comes true
Emmanuel Huerta recalled waking up in the middle of the night years later and telling his then-fiancée that he would love to have an arcade.
She told him he had to go back to bed.
But Huerta used contacts he made with a friend in San Angelo, who had a small arcade, to buy his first game.
He bought another one next weekend. And then more. And more.
Eventually his collection in the living room started to grow. Over time, machines began to sprout in the kitchen.
“It just started piling up in our living room, our kitchen, our bedroom,” says Candy Huerta of the emerging collection. “…I almost thought he was going crazy.”
After a few months, those game cabinets came out in a storage room. That got full.
A few months later, the Huertas had to purchase a second unit.
That unit was full within a year.
“So then we had to buy a building, which is here,” said Emmanuel Huerta.
Now he estimates his collection weighs about 115 machines, with about 50 in the Pine Street location itself.
A new challenger
The company, which opened on October 31, has grown primarily through social media, be it Facebook, Instagram or TikTok posts.
Huerta uses social media to give people an insight into what it’s like to be an arcade game collector/business owner, including what it’s like to find new games and take them home.
“These games come from all over Texas,” he said. “I’m giving (people) a bit of a peek into what it’s like.”
Word of mouth is also important, he said, and the company also does a lot of work with schools, churches and more.
He has learned to repair the insides of classic machines and calls such knowledge a ‘must’.
While there are alternatives, he likes to keep everything as original as possible, he said.
“Keeping the CRT monitors alive is a task in itself,” he said, as all of his machines include the original arcade boards.
“If you emulated it, it just wouldn’t play correctly,” Huerta said. “It’s just not the same.”
Level up
Besides listening to customers and finding games they want, Huerta tries to keep things interesting.
For the competitive spirit, and most gamers are, every month there is a high score contest for a particular game where the winners receive prizes.
“We do things like T-shirts, gift cards, things of that nature,” he said.
Every collector has a ‘Holy Grail’ and for Huerta it would be a copy of Williams’ infamous space shoot-em-up ‘Sinistar’ from 1983.
A rarer title these days, it features a giant space station with teeth built by alien workers that roars and taunts the player as soon as it awakens with a rumbling, still terrifying, “WARNING, I’M ALIVE.”
Huerta said he enjoys introducing families and others to the world of the classic arcade — and that the current Retro World location is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
A second location in another part of Abilene is planned for next year, if all goes well.
“We certainly have the inventory to do that,” he said. “I would like to share my entire collection. … We really want to keep bringing the classic arcade experience back to the big country.”
“This is for all ages, all families to come together,” he said. “We just wanted to bring the retro arcade experience back to the big country.”
Retro World Arcade
Where: 1109 Pine Street
Cost: Adult admission $12 plus tax; children 6-13 $10, plus tax; 5 and under free.
Hours: 7:30pm – 11pm Tuesday; 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM, 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM Thursday and Friday; 7:30pm to midnight on Saturdays. Closed on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday.
Opening dates:
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