ST. PAUL, Minn. — There’s something about the lights and sounds of an arcade.
“Playing ‘Space Invaders’ in an original 1978 cabinet, it has a hologram effect, it has black light,” said Peter Riemenschneider, owner of Two Bit Game Room .
Riemenschneider was born in the mid-70s and grew up during the golden age of arcades.
“We had a Circus Pizza in Maplewood. They had tons of games,” he said.
He gamed at home, too, but “didn’t ever think that you could own an actual arcade game.”
A childhood dream was realized 20 years ago when he bought his first machine: a Nintendo PlayChoice-10.
“There are 10 classic Nintendo games and I remember playing it at the gas station. I could preview games before I bought them because they were pretty expensive at the time,” he said.
His favorite: “Super Mario Brothers 3.”
“I think everyone loved that game. That’s my OG Mario game,” he said.
His collection quickly leveled up to include dozens of arcade classics he had fond memories of, from “Pong” to “Pac-Man” to “Punch-Out.”