Went to Gameworks last night in the new Block E development in downtown Minneapolis. While it was similar to the one I went to in Vegas, I will say this one was a lot better.

The amount of new gimicks arcade games have these days to get people to play them is fairly amazing. From 360 degree turning platforms, to virtual horse racing, a lot of the setups for some games were just huge. I wouldn't doubt if some of the setups cost over $100k. Although for myself, I think I had more fun playing the old school games they had there, namely Cetipede and Pac-Man. Funny how they stuffed those two games off in a remote corner.

I also find it interesting how places like this use cards with "points" on them that you buy. You plop down, say, $20, and you get something like 1000 points to use. Each game then costs a certain number of points to play. This is fairly tricky in the sense that it's hard for the average person to figure out how much things cost to play this way. For example, one of the better games I played that night was a game called Hyper Bowl, which basically used a bowling ball as a glorified trackball to play a weird game of bowling. Anyway, this game cost 140 points. No problem, I've got plenty of points! Only I realized later when refilling my card, that $1 = 40 points. Thus Hyper Bowl cost me $3.50 to play. I doubt many people would be willing to jump at the chance to play a game like that if the price was clearly marked on it as such.

So basically, if you get the chance, go check i t out, it's great fun, just bring lots of cash. ;)