16 Bit Arcade Bar in Columbus, OH
A few months ago I finally made it out to Columbus, OH to visit Stephanie, aka The Travel Chica. In 2012 she visited me in St. Louis so I was long overdue for a visit to my fellow Midwestern-based travel blogging friend.
The long weekend in Columbus did not disappoint. My favourite part of the trip was visiting the 16 Bit Arcade Bar.
Drinking + Video Games = Genius
Stephanie attempting Ms. Pac Man at the 16-Bit Arcade Bar
I mean, the idea of drinking and playing video games is not new, plenty of bars have a pinball machine or some sort of deer hunter contraption, but not too many bars make the games the main focus.
Plus, as the name suggests, the 16-Bit Bar is all about old school games such as Frogger, Pacman, Mortal Combat, Donkey Kong, and so many other incredible classics.
What could be better than drinking a beer and playing an old game from my childhood?
How about if the games are FREE!
Yep, as long as you are drinking, all the games are free, with the exception of the pinball machines, which I was not too interested in anyway.
Childhood nostalgia mixed with fun adult drinking time
Stephanie and I were so pumped. We did, however, discover that a lot of childhood games were way harder than we remembered them being. I’m going to have to admit that I never made it past level two on Donkey Kong Junior and Stephanie became incredibly frustrated at how easy it is to die in Frogger.
The good news is, I freaking killed it in Tapper, which is fitting, since the game is all about serving drinks quickly and neatly.
The Tapper Arcade game was/is my jam.
The games keep you drinking
We had originally planned to just have one drink, but as game after game got the best of us, we felt the need to conquer the challenge and thus ordered more beers. Stephanie and I became especially obsessed with a game neither of us had ever played before: Burger Time.
Don’t let those smiles fool you, Burger Time really messed with Stephanie and I’s heads.
What in the hell is this confusing madness?
For those of you who have never heard of this game, it involves several giant hamburgers which you (the chef) must make by running over pieces of the hamburger and letting them fall into a stack. While you do this, you have to avoid evil sausages and eggs. Your only defense is to toss salt into their faces, which you have a limited amount of. You can only get more salt if you eat ice cream. Are any of you following the logic here?! The strangeness of this game was maddening, but we simply could not let it go. It took us probably 30 minutes to get to the second level, which we never even came close to beating. I have since purchased a USB Nintendo controller and downloaded Burger Time. The obsession lives on.
Well played, 16 bit Arcade Bar, very well played indeed
My only regret is that we had not allotted more time for this glorious bar. I could seriously spend hours playing old school games and throwing my money at bar tenders so that I could hope to get to level three on a child’s game.
