Why not just use quarters?

Probably a cash handling concern. Quarters are heavy, dirty, cumbersome in large quantities. You do NOT want to have to lug them to and from the bank daily. Also, if the cash transaction happens only at the token machine, the company's theft exposure is greatly reduced. Pretty much any employee can be trusted to empty a full bin of game tokens, but if it were quarters instead of tokens your list of trusted employees shrinks quickly. Or should, anyway.

Also, you can easily change the price of all the games by merely making a change to the cost of tokens in one place.

Or, give them out as complimentary and knowing they can only be used for the games, rather than just pocketed as cash.

You also capture all revenue when someone changes a bill. If it were quarters, someone could change a five or ten dollar bill, play one or two games and go home with the quarters. With tokens, the customer is incentivized to play it all or to return. As long as the tokens cost the establishment less than a quarter each (or whatever denomination is being sold), it's a better deal for the operator.

You also capture all revenue when someone changes a bill. If it were quarters, someone could change a five or ten dollar bill, play one or two games and go home with the quarters. With tokens, the customer is incentivized to play it all or to return. As long as the tokens cost the establishment less than a quarter each (or whatever denomination is being sold), it's a better deal for the operator.

Ya I had figured that but with the trouble of people taking all your tokens, I figure it might be easier to go with quarters. But if tokens are a bit cheaper than a quarter, I guess you can make a few cents for each one that gets taken home and never used.

I guess what I should be asking at this time, is free game play still going on? ;)

Ya I had figured that but with the trouble of people taking all your tokens, I figure it might be easier to go with quarters. But if tokens are a bit cheaper than a quarter, I guess you can make a few cents for each one that gets taken home and never used.

I guess what I should be asking at this time, is free game play still going on? ;)

Exactly!.. Free game play!>. bonus!!..more drinks !

I went yesterday for a few beers and noticed about half the games I played had issues. I realize some of these games are older than I am but it would be frustrating if I was dropping quarter/tokens just to find out which ones have dead buttons, 8 direction joysticks that only register 5 directions, or fried screens.

Ya I had figured that but with the trouble of people taking all your tokens, I figure it might be easier to go with quarters. But if tokens are a bit cheaper than a quarter, I guess you can make a few cents for each one that gets taken home and never used..

I did a cursory Google search earlier, and at the first and only place I landed on (non-custom) tokens ranged in price from around 8 cents to 11 cents each. If a dollar buys five tokens, Flashback's owners could only HOPE to have to buy a few thousand new tokens every week. That would be a great problem to have.

Let me tell you about the time I got drunk at the max and walked back to my hotel with $50 worth of their tokens. The abridged version is jägermeister and ski ball.

Happy birthday BTW!

I'm taking all feedback, good and bad. It's only our second night and we have several wrinkles to iron out, but we will get there. Obviously the main thing is the tokens, we ordered several thousand tokens and they basically disappeared between last night and tonight. So we are ordering more tokens than we are going to know what to do with, but until we get more tokens in we will be switching the games over to free play. Our bartenders are still getting used to the signature drinks and educating our clients on a lot of our local and regional brew selection. Lastly, we are looking to start the process of getting a sign for the front, but we had to wait until after opening in order to close all permits and open up in time. Thank you ahead of time for taking the time to give us your feedback.

It was great to meet you Jose!

I think you all should get koozies made and sell them at the bar. With all the canned offerings you have, people would buy them left and right.

Really enjoyed Flashback last weekend. It looked like everything was running pretty smoothly on Saturday, especially considering they just opened. I will definitely go back.

My only suggestion...add Skee Ball!!!!!!!

Really enjoyed Flashback last weekend. It looked like everything was running pretty smoothly on Saturday, especially considering they just opened. I will definitely go back.

My only suggestion...add Skee Ball!!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, I will be honest in the fact that not all ran smoothly as we ran out of tokens because we had 3300 of them walk out the door. But we are switching it up for this weekend and doing a $5 cover starting at 8pm with free game play the rest of the night. Every customer we've spoken with this week has said they would gladly pay $5 for free play on a Friday/Saturday night. This saves us the hassle of dealing with tokens and the bartenders can solely focus on making drinks. We will also have a DJ on both Friday and Saturday nights, our Saturday night DJ will be the same one as he's our house DJ, but we might switch the Friday one in and out to get different takes on 80's music.

We will also continue adding games as well as get the 4 not working up and running quickly. We are already adding a new game to our collection next week and I've already started designing the back space into the USER VIP Room that will house our premium collection of games such as Tron, SpyHunter, Paperboy… once we find those.

Thanks for stopping by, I will be honest in the fact that not all ran smoothly as we ran out of tokens because we had 3300 of them walk out the door. But we are switching it up for this weekend and doing a $5 cover starting at 8pm with free game play the rest of the night. Every customer we've spoken with this week has said they would gladly pay $5 for free play on a Friday/Saturday night. This saves us the hassle of dealing with tokens and the bartenders can solely focus on making drinks. We will also have a DJ on both Friday and Saturday nights, our Saturday night DJ will be the same one as he's our house DJ, but we might switch the Friday one in and out to get different takes on 80's music.

We will also continue adding games as well as get the 4 not working up and running quickly. We are already adding a new game to our collection next week and I've already started designing the back space into the USER VIP Room that will house our premium collection of games such as Tron, SpyHunter, Paperboy… once we find those.

My older brother loves SpyHunter. I on the other hand loved playing paperboy. it's a game that can't really be replicated on a console. I'll look forward to that. I haven't had a chance to make it out yet, but I will. gotta find a babysitter first and figure out when.

One thing I thought would be cool that you might be able to do is have 80's candy,which I know can be found online and sell it from a vending machine maybe? idk just a thought. (like candy cigarettes, atomic fireballs, blow pops, candy necklace, big league chew, fun dip, pixy stix, pop rocks, bottlecaps, nerds, ring pops, runts, jolly ranchers just to name a few that I remember as a kid)

Seems like there's money to be made building 80s style arcade cabinets with an LCD screen and a Raspberry Pi under the hood running an emulator with a game or three or four on it...

Seems like there's money to be made building 80s style arcade cabinets with an LCD screen and a Raspberry Pi under the hood running an emulator with a game or three or four on it...

Some coworkers at my old company did this exact thing and had it setup in the development building. It was pretty cool.

And they haven't started a company yet to sell their wares? Get on them!

Are you still doing the cover for free play tonight? What time does that start?

We went last Friday night.. a group of 6 of us. I really like the space.
we left the plaza and decided to come check this place out so we ubered over. The cover charge was a bit hectic and I am sure that had to do with this being a work around. I was expecting to pay the cover charge but when we walked in nobody was at the door and the place was pretty busy. so we just walked in. SOme of our party was already there so two went to meet them towards the back and me and a friend were headed to the bar. half way to the bar a man shined a flashlight on us and yelled to us about a cover charge and to come back to the door. He had been somewhere else in the building I guess. So he rounded us up and 3 other people and told us there is a cover charge. Me and my friend told him we don't have any cash can we put it on our bar tab. he seemed confused and said yah lets go over here. we walked with him towards the bar he snagged a busy bartended who was on a different mission and tried to explain to him what we were doing.. he said yah yah sure and went on his way. by this time others had walked in and the door guy had to try to round them up. When we finally got to the bar we had them add all of our cover charges but bartender didn't really understand what we were saying. It wasn't my tab so not sure if they ended up on the bill or not.
we had one cocktail and played some games. Most of the top names were really busy but we got to play enough to make us happy. Loved the music but then a DJ started trying to sort of scratch all over it and made it a bit annoying but no biggie. We tried to get another cocktail and it was impossible. The lines were long and service was slow they definitely needed another bartender or two. We opted to go after that and get a drink at another bar and chill a bit before heading home.

All in all we had fun it was just busy and still early in the concept to get the machine well oiled but we will be back.

PS I actually like the covercharge idea for weekend evenings and free play.

Seems like there's money to be made building 80s style arcade cabinets with an LCD screen and a Raspberry Pi under the hood running an emulator with a game or three or four on it...

I know this is an old post but these are really fun to build. I am working on my second one. It will be table top with 2 player controls. You can either cut the wood yourself or order a precut one on Ebay. Really fun winter project when I'm inside all day.

Very nice!

Went by tonight for the first time and was really impressed.

Good crowd and the games were all set to free play!

Just want to say I spent a good deal of Sunday afternoon here and really enjoyed it. The bartender was very friendly and it was awesome playing games I remember from my childhood that I haven't seen in ages. I think this is one of my new favorite bars in OKC and I will definitely be a regular.

Went last night and our crew enjoyed it. Large selection of craft beers in cans. The ladies danced most of the time while the guys played games. Pretty cool and unique place.

Cool new sign on the way:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/flashback021116.jpg

it's a great sign and a great logo... but with companies being super protective of their ip, i have to wonder if somebody is going to eventually take issue with the use of pacman in the logo. -M

I'd suggest they're too small to be noticed, like Batman auto in Tulsa.

Went to their 80's trivia night last night and had a great time.

Was just my buddy and me and we let through the first 3 rounds but then ended up slightly behind a couple of 6-person teams.

Good crowd for a Thursday and they are still killing it on Friday and Saturday nights when a DJ spins.

I'd suggest they're too small to be noticed, like Batman auto in Tulsa.

well... for whatever reason it seems that "batman's auto sales" in tulsa is now called "las americas auto sales." i know of an italian restaurant in south okc that opened under the name of "spago" and within a year of opening had to change their name to "spazio." maybe flashback will slip by (and i hope it does) but it wouldn't surprise me if the pacman element had to be removed at some point in the future. -M

Went to their 80's trivia night last night and had a great time.

Was just my buddy and me and we let through the first 3 rounds but then ended up slightly behind a couple of 6-person teams.

Good crowd for a Thursday and they are still killing it on Friday and Saturday nights when a DJ spins.

I was there with my brother and his friend. We came in second. That six person team came from behind and cleaned up. Wish I had recognized you and I would have said hello.

Their trivia night just got started (last night's was their second week of it) and it's really fun if you know your 80's stuff. Good atmosphere too.

^

I'll be there next Thursday and will be sure to introduce myself if you are there as well.

This time, we are bringing more people for our team!

We added two people to our team and completely dominated trivia last night, winning by 12 clear points.

Crowd was bigger this time with 8 teams; pretty lively for a Thursday night.

I know they pack them in on Friday and Saturday but their business has been pretty solid for weekdays as well. Looks like the move to Film Row turned out to be a good one and of course is gong to be a lot better in the very near future.

What time do they open? Was thinking about heading over this afternoon for a beer.

They open at 5 today.

Our group of friends lives in Moore/Norman and they are all very excited about going to FlashBack soon!

Last time I was there, the beer selection really stood out, and the games were a lot of fun. Maybe the highlight for me was playing some 007 on the big couches where they have N64's set up. That was the game I played growing up in good ole Pryor, Oklahoma!

Only thing I would say is that maintenance will be key here. A few of the controllers were jammed up which made it hard to play and I could see the arcade games needing some frequent touch ups. Also enjoyed the cup holders they have for each game!

They seem to have found their following.

Lots of young women on Friday and Saturday nights and the dance floor is usually packed.

They seem to have found their following.

Lots of young women on Friday and Saturday nights and the dance floor is usually packed.

Is the music poppy/kitschy 80s stuff or do they do anything harder (industrial, techno-ish, EDM, IDM, ...)?

Is the music poppy/kitschy 80s stuff or do they do anything harder (industrial, techno-ish, EDM, IDM, ...)?

It's pretty much video-driven 80's dance pop.

But, I know they have some other things planned, such as getting into the 90's.

Jose (owner) reads and posts here and I saw him last night, so I will continue to offer my DJ services as I'd like to go at least a level deeper in the 80's (and ultimately the 90's) catalog and play things that are great and relatively well known, but beyond common 80's offerings. (Nothing wrong with the more common stuff, just that there is a lot of great music from that decade.)

I like Flashback and have no complaints about the music. It's a nice break from the terrible (and excessively loud) rap/top 40 they play at many OKC bars.

I like Flashback and have no complaints about the music. It's a nice break from the terrible (and excessively loud) rap/top 40 they play at most OKC bars.

Which bars are those?

Which bars are those?

Pretty much any Bricktown bar other than Skinny Slims. Shouldn't have said "most" OKC bars, but a lot of them.

That's somewhat fair.

I have an increased sensitivity towards negativity because now that I live here, people I meet bring it up constantly and it's embarrassing to me, the site and even OKC.

Changes are coming. We are going to start clamping down.

I may be here tonight. Excited to check it out when it is open!

It's pretty much video-driven 80's dance pop.
...

Ugh, thanks for the info, might have to just set up my own dancefloor at home since I don't think anybody in OKC plays what I like to dance to (but somebody *please* correct me if I'm wrong :) )...

^

It's probably not what you are looking for but Powerhouse does a pretty legit motown dance party on Saturdays.

It's at least interesting and dynamic.

Is the music poppy/kitschy 80s stuff or do they do anything harder (industrial, techno-ish, EDM, IDM, ...)?

If they were to have an Industrial / EDM night say on a Tue or Wed night once a month I would drive all the way from Lex and be there every month.

My vote would be for an occasional '80's metal night \''/ \''/

Talked to a guy at the David J show at the Performance Lab Friday wearing a Skinny Puppy t-shirt, so I asked him if he knew any place that did that kind of music, and wow, jackpot. Said he used to run a monthly night called Assimilation (a "monthly dark dance", said he did WaxTrax, Skinny Puppy, their ilk, used to hang around the old church on Classen, so it's that kind of stuff) here and in Tulsa, been inactive for a while, but he's thinking about starting it up again, so I need to get in touch with him (the Facebook pages are down, so I'll have to poke around to find him). It was his first time at the Perf. Lab, he thought it would be great for some of the bands he's been bringing here (TKK, Lords of Acid, etc.), so I introduced him to Scott, who happened to be at that show, so maybe he'll get things started back up in OKC soon!

Talked to a guy at the David J show at the Performance Lab Friday wearing a Skinny Puppy t-shirt, so I asked him if he knew any place that did that kind of music, and wow, jackpot. Said he used to run a monthly night called Assimilation (a "monthly dark dance", said he did WaxTrax, Skinny Puppy, their ilk, used to hang around the old church on Classen, so it's that kind of stuff) here and in Tulsa, been inactive for a while, but he's thinking about starting it up again, so I need to get in touch with him (the Facebook pages are down, so I'll have to poke around to find him). It was his first time at the Perf. Lab, he thought it would be great for some of the bands he's been bringing here (TKK, Lords of Acid, etc.), so I introduced him to Scott, who happened to be at that show, so maybe he'll get things started back up in OKC soon!

That would be so awesome! If you hear more, update please.

My team, We Lived This Sh!t, dominated in the 80's Trivia Tournament of Champions last night taking home the grand prize.

Looking forward to my VIP tour of Coop Ale Works!

Next up: 90's trivia.


In other news, they final should be getting their permanent sign in about 2 weeks.

This place is taking a little heat on Facebook about the machines not working properly. They seemed to work fine when was there, but that was back in December.

I noticed several of the machines with mechanical problems last time I was there... but what deuche bag is gonna complain... they're free to play! Shrug and move on to another machine. Older arcade equipment will have problems. There are plenty of machines to choose from and the service has always been great when I've been there.

I noticed several of the machines with mechanical problems last time I was there... but what deuche bag is gonna complain... they're free to play! Shrug and move on to another machine. Older arcade equipment will have problems. There are plenty of machines to choose from and the service has always been great when I've been there.

That is a problem with these types of venues. I have never been to the Max in Tulsa but I've heard they have the same issues. These machines in these retro-arcades take a beating.

I do take issue with the snarky Facebook comments by Flashback RetroPub every time anybody posts a negative review. Some of them are way over the line. Surprising given how friendly the staff is every time I've been.

Regardless, they are unique in OKC and despite the issues they still may be working out, I am glad they are here. I haven't been there in a couple of months so its probably about time for me to pay them another visit.

It read more like a community reaction to the owner writing some very facetious responses to Facebook reviews with negative feedback. It all got out of hand. I can sympathize with both parties. I myself stopped goin because the games I came to play, and would happily pump quarters into, haven't worked properly from the start. The burnt pink screen street fighter cabinet nearly came part when I got into Ryu's special moves. And I guess it shouldn't bother me because it's free to play, yet unplayable. A catch 22 from the start. And the boulevard ale I'm drinking that costs $4 in any other abc-3 bar sells for $7. And I guess you have have to charge more for alcohol to afford the maintenance of the equipment, but if the machines worked customers would pump quarters then the games would be a profit center and the drinks could be competitively priced. Another catch 22.

If cactus jacks has something like 100 pinball machines, a handful of 60's 70's and 80's pinball machines. And they all work. surely there's someone around town that can fix them.

I'm not saying one place is better than the other or criticizing any of flashbacks business practices. I'm just saying they're fixable. I have a ms. Pacman/ galaga standup that I came free if I could haul it out of this lady's basement. New CRT, buttons, a new speaker, a 4 way and the kit to fit new wires to the jumpers on the board cost me about $200 in parts.

So there's no rumors or speculations as to what happened, I'll own up to the event because I'm not trying to hide anything... We had a review posted saying that none of our games worked and that this specific person though we were overpriced because our beers were $8. I typically don't respond to review made public because there no winning with someone that wanted to give you a negative review for something a majority of the time. But I took exception to the fact that they stated that none of our games worked and I stated as much in my response. Of course the minute that any owner doesn't see eye to eye with a client it's always "Bad Customer Service" on the business part, which I find a joke not and I'm not saying that just because I'm an owner. I've busted my ass my entire life to get to where I am and I sure as heck didn't have anyone drop a pill of money on my lap and say hey, go open up a business and make it your playground.

My entire staff can attest to the fact that we run a responsible and honest operation at FlashBack. If we have issues we address them and try to constantly improve on what we have and what we are doing right. When it comes to the games, I've come to the realization that we are never going to make everyone happy. A majority of these games are 30(+) years old and have issues on a week to week basis, but at the same time they are FREE to play. I can understand if you are having to pay to play the games and they mess up, but when they are FREE every single night of the week, does that truly give you a reason to bash us or give us a negative review? I've visited about ten different arcade bars across the country as I worked to get this place opened up and not one of them ever offered FREE game play (nor did all of their games work 100%), some of the places charged up to $1 for one single game. So again, we try to keep every single game in good working condition, are they all 100% perfect? No and they are never going to be. Between drinks constantly getting spilled on the controls and their age there will likely always be something to fix.

As for our craft beers, they are priced anywhere from $4 to $9, in accordance with alcohol volume of the specific beer. We constantly get burned on the fact that we don't carry bud light or any other domestic and I'm fine with that, it was never my intention to open a bar where every single person is there to get wasted on cheap beer. We wanted to offer a great selection of local and regional brews that would allow craft beer fans to expand their horizons per say, while offering a unique experience and it's greatly appreciated by the majority of the clients that are frequently visitors. There are plenty of bars in town where you can go get drunk pretty cheap, and that was never what FlashBack was intended to be. In the 6 months that we've been open we have yet to have one single incident because of a patron getting too wasted and causing problems. Our staff is trained to be attentive and use their best judgement to serve responsibly.

In hindsight, I should have just looked at the review and went about my day, but that's not what happened and I'm not trying to make excuses for it. It is frustrating as an owner to read false statements, or constantly get criticized for one thing or another that is not to someone's specific liking. But hey it's the service industry and I knew exactly what I was singing myself up for. I'm not new to this industry, I've been a part of it for almost 20 years now. We will continue going forward and trying to improve what we have established to this point and if we do our best to put forth the best product we can and someone still wants to criticize us for it then so be it.

The guy that fixes the games at Cactus Jacks, is the same guy that fixes our games and he does a great good. I've referred him to several of our clients that own games and they've all had great experiences with him. So the issue is not that we don't fix our games, it's that some of them need constant repairs, especially when drinks are being spilled or people are deliberately trying to break them. And yes, people do deliberately try to break some of the games.

We have remote controls for the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 that people have either ripped the cords off the controls or broken buttons off of them for whatever reason. We've also had multiple console games stolen like Mario Kart, Goldeneye, NBA Jam, games that cost $30-$40 each to replace and are not that easy to find these days. So it's a constant balance for us, of which clients only see the parts of when they are there. And again I clarify that I'm not making excuses, I'm stating the issues we constantly face so that everyone has a clear understanding of our daily challenges when it comes to providing games that work every single day.

I've noticed some machines not working on my two visits there as well.... But like JerryWall said.... I move on to the next one.... and set a new high score!

I did have to pay a cover charge on my second visit so it wasn't exactly free play but those machines weren't all that reliable back when I played them in the 80's. I'm not going to expect them to be so now.

So if I had to make a complaint it would have to be that they don't offer Sailor Jerry rum yet.

some people are hard to please and some aren't happy unless they are unhappy. I dig the place and love that its free play all the time. Considering having my Birthday there this month.
as far as people taking the games and breaking things that does suck.. I remember back in the day when you could play console games at walmart or wherever to try them out they had all the cartridges chained down which seems extreme but seems maybe its needed.
Keep up the good work and your probably right to just move on when someone has a bad review, but I totally understand that is hard to do when people are rude or not exactly giving an accurate representation of your hard work.

I've noticed some machines not working on my two visits there as well.... But like JerryWall said.... I move on to the next one.... and set a new high score!

I did have to pay a cover charge on my second visit so it wasn't exactly free play but those machines weren't all that reliable back when I played them in the 80's. I'm not going to expect them to be so now.

So if I had to make a complaint it would have to be that they don't offer Sailor Jerry rum yet.

OK BBQ, which games have you had issues with? I know currently NFL Blitz and Pole Position are not operable what so ever. We ordered new parts for NFL Blitz and couldn't be repaired and Pole Position has just been a pain to work on. I know there are a couple of games like Street Fighter and WWF that have joystick issues but we are looking to replace the games all together. The fighting games seem to take the biggest punishment since you always feel like you have to slam the joystick when playing, so they are the first to go when they get continuous play.

As for your Sailor Jerry, we can look into carrying it. We have clients that ask us from time to time for specific brands and we've carried it for them, even if its one bottle.

I go in often and was just saying to friends how good a job they do of keeping all those machines up and running.

There are dozens and most are well over 30 years old and no longer made.


I suspect most the people complaining are younger, have grown up playing Xbox, and have no concept of how old, complex and hard to maintain these machines are.

It's like complaining about vintage furniture being a bit worn or how an old house needs constant repairs.

^^ This. At my comic shop, we had just a couple of old machines, and they were a nightmare to keep up and running. We finally got rid of them because of that.