As the final shot rang out and the zombies claimed their fleshy prize, Josh Carpenter barely noticed and kept eating his egg drop soup. This kind of stuff is pretty normal when you're the manager at Gunther's Games. West and her friend were just killing their lunch hour at the 1106 E.
Broadway arcade while Carpenter enjoyed his. From 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Carpenter rules the arcade from behind the counter that holds gamer prizes.
I saw a chance to work in an arcade, the 27-year-old said. I found out my first day I was the technician, too, with no one to train me, which I thought was funny. Making sure every bulb, speaker and monitor in the more than 3,000 square-foot gaming haven now falls on Carpenter's shoulders, but no one knows how much longer Carpenter and his staff of four will be required.
Greg Wolff and three other partners bought the locale from Skip Simmons around 2000. The majority of the quartet saw Gunther's as prime real estate, but Simmons, who passed away earlier this year, made the games part of the deal. That's the only way Skip was going to sell, Wolff said.
We were a little skeptical about that at first. Although Wolff described the foray into gaming as a worthwhile venture, his group is looking to rent the space with or without the games. We've made it known we could shut Gunther's down within about 90 days, Wolff said.
These things just aren't as good as they used to be for the business. We have a prime piece of realty there. The year 1980 was a good time for gaming.
Pinball was popular, Pong was a powerhouse, a particularly potent game called Pac-Man popped on the scene, and Pin Pan Alley debuted at 1106 E. Broadway that August. Taking over a space previously occupied by the Shoe Emporium, Pin Pan Alley featured more than 60 video games and pinball machines and was described as a whole new concept in the entertainment industry by the chain's district manager.
Fast-forward 26 years, and -- other than the name -- not much has changed. You'll still find pinball machines and Pac-Man. The business has even retained the original alley motif -- the walls around the counter are painted to make it look like the exterior of a movie theater, there's a faux fire escape, and the main walkway is made to look like a brick road.
Simmons bought the store around 1988, and Rodney Butler, a customer and friend, said the man was ahead of his time. He was a bit of a visionary, when you look at it, he said. He knew you could make a whole lot of money a quarter at a time way before everybody else did.
Before Simmons took control of Gunther's, he had a route; his machines populated arcades and businesses throughout Missouri with Simmons splitting the proceeds with whomever he was partnered with. When Simmons bought Gunther's, he kept the route and had a game inventory that kept changing. The thing about Gunther's was it always had new games, it was clean, there weren't little kids walking around begging, Carpenter said.
It was really professionally run. Although a haven for gaming, the Gunther's spot was far from the only arcade area in Columbia. ShowBiz Pizza Place in the Broadway Center, Aladdin's Castle and Pocket Change helped keep arcade gaming alive until the combination of home consoles and more things to do weakend the arcades' hold on the city's attention.
After a surge of customers clamoring to play the latest incarnation of Street Fighter in the early '90s subsided, arcades around the country started to close shop, and it looked as if Gunther's would be no different in 2000. The network administrator gathered Wolff and two other friends and purchased the shop from Simmons, but Butler sold his share after a year. My vision and the vision of the other partners were not the same, Butler said.
I wanted to keep the games updated. Wolff makes no bones about the deal being a real estate transaction to him, but he said he's learned a lot from his time in the video game industry. First, those games are incredibly expensive, he said.
Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA, a game where players stand on a pad and pound their feet on the correct buttons in time with music, costs around $16,000 before shipping at BMI Gaming, an online retailer. The store sells a cabinet with Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in it for about $3,300.
Carpenter said that a new copy of Derby Owners Club, a game that lets players create a horse and race it, costs approximately $50,000. We could never buy something like that, he said. Even if we could afford it, where would we put it?
The cost of new machines just isn't worth the limited income they'd bring in, Wolff said. Although he wouldn't give exact figures, Wolff said that Gunther's makes about half of what it did a decade ago. Gunther's will be in business until an appropriate tenant comes along to rent that space, he said.
Sorry to say, the days of Gunther's might be limited. It's just not a very profitable business anymore. With no new machines coming in, Carpenter started bringing his personal collection into Gunther's.
The Columbia College sophomore has about 20 boards -- motherboards that contain the nuts and bolts of an arcade game -- that he cycles in and out of the arcade. They include titles such as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Ghost and Goblins. Even with the industry failing and his store on the market, Carpenter keeps a sharp eye on the store, which is open from 11 a.
m. to 11 p.m.
Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday and from noon to 11 p.
m. on Sunday. Carpenter cleans, watches the games for needed repairs and is quick to talk shop with a willing customer.
I want it to be a good gaming experience, Carpenter said. How would you want it to be? Put yourself in their shoes.
Terry Tatum's shoes are in Gunther's Games about three times a week. You can find him at the Atomic Punk 2 machine. That's what I play, the 41-year-old Country Kitchen kitchen prep and dishwasher said.
What I know I can play. The game of choice has players lay bombs in various maze-type levels. The bombs go off and wipe out opponents, which are crabs and other assorted beasts.
Clear the map of creepy crawlies, and advance to the next stage. Tatum's high score is 2,200,000. Terry is hands down the best Atomic Punk player I've ever seen, Carpenter said.
And I'm pretty good. Tatum can talk while he plays, but his eyes never leave the screen while a level is in progress. His hand expertly maneuvers the joystick as his character races around the screen leaving multiple bombs that feed off of one another and create an even bigger blast radius.
A Columbia resident his entire life, Tatum said he's been coming in since the Pin Pan Alley days. It's a way to relieve stress. It's easy to play, Tatum said.
Other than the games, I come in just to get away from the house, from work. Tokens are the currency of Gunther's. Players can get four tokens for a dollar, 100 tokens for $20 every day and 320 tokens for $60.
Across from Tatum on the Gunther's Games customer spectrum is Kurt Saxton. The 37-year-old health and wellness consultant makes it in for a game a month. That brings back memories of many a wasted hour, Saxton said after racking up 33,500 points on Heavy Barrel, a shoot 'em up army game from Data East.
Not as good as I used to be. Got a little rusty, I guess. Saxton said the games help him clear his mind and improve his coordination.
Gunther's is the only place he plays. If I had this at home, I'd never accomplish anything, he said. Gunther's isn't the only place to play arcade games in town, but for Carpenter's tokens, the storefront is the last arcade in Columbia.
T.K. Brothers, Chuck E.
Cheese's and T.A. Brady's all make Carpenter's short list for competing game arenas in town, but he's quick to set Gunther's apart from each.
T.K. Brothers, which opened in 2005 at 1412 Forum Blvd.
, offers food, games and sporting events on TV. They have the restaurant, Carpenter said. They don't have to focus on making money off their games.
To me, they're a sports bar with games, he added. Not a huge emphasis on the games. Chuck E.
Cheese's, a pizza parlor and game stop at 2003 W. Worley St., was simply a kiddie casino, Carpenter said, with expensive tokens, poor ticket payout and few decent games.
T.A. Brady's, an arcade, pool hall, bowling alley and Subway in the basement of the University of Missouri-Columbia's student union, was the closest competition in terms of true arcade status, Carpenter said.
The video games don't pull in as much as the pool tables, the Gunther's manager said. Everybody plays pool. Even if you suck at it, people try to do it.
I'm sad the arcade industry has turned into what it's turned into, Carpenter said. The business model changed. It's not just the arcade, it's everything.
Although Gunther's never turned the corner to becoming a restaurant, the arcade did add machines that give away tickets that can be exchanged for prizes when Wolff and company took over. Now winners at games such as Skee-Ball can trade in 50 tickets and get a squirt gun or 1,500 tickets and get CD player. With her last life eaten by a zombie and her lunch break about to expire, it was time for Elfrida West to leave the undead and Gunther's behind for another day.
Thanks for coming in, Carpenter said between spoonfuls of soup. That's always good: middle of the day, kill zombies, Carpenter said. As long as Gunther's doors are open, Carpenter will probably be behind the counter doling out prizes and sage-like Street Fighter advice.
When he started the job, he thought it would be good experience for his own venture, but with the industry in peril, video games ruling at home and the impending loss of Gunther's, nothing is for certain. I've wanted to start an arcade, Carpenter said. I don't know if I still want to.
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