Realms Arcade — Attraction in Boise

Pure nostalgia! Having grown up in the 90s, I became very familiar with many of the arcade games hosted here. All of them are in fantastic condition and work great! No missing buttons or sticky controllers ha ha Really warms my heart to see working a working copy of Mortal Kombat 2, but nothing scratches that nostalgia itch like playing house of the dead 2 with a second player and unlimited lives. It was one of my favorite games growing up, and I was so happy to see a working copy again! I counted several pinball machines along the wall, covering different eras of the 80s, 90s, and today. All of them in great working condition and fit for a good challenge. When I lived in Santa Cruz, I used to play revenge from Mars a lot at their arcade, so playing it again brought back really good memories. I can definitely tell this place is going to host some wonderful events seeing how there's a good stage area for a live band, or DJ, a private room, and a pretty accommodating area for drinks and food. There's definitely a lot of games that say coming soon on them, which is great since nowadays, you see a lot of the same games at major arcades. Ever since Grinkers closed just a few years ago, our choices in the Boise area are pretty much space bar and Dave & Buster's. I'm glad to see some more variety in the mix and look forward to seeing what Realms does next for the growing entertainment scene. Entry fee was very reasonable, the staff was also extremely friendly and approachable. I can tell they're definitely passionate about the classic arcade scene. We'll definitely be...

Brought the wife and kids here for a game night out. They have a selection of older consoles (NES, SNES, N64, etc.), but they are locked in boxes. It's a pain to switch games and try something else. as you have to go find staff to unlock the box and switch the game for you. Their selection of cabinet games is pretty good. They have a wall of pinball games and then 3-4 rows of about 6-8 cabinets. They also have some obscure rhythm games and a dance dance revolution floor set off to the side.

My biggest gripe is the food. I know it's not a food joint, but if you are going to offer it you should at least try. Their "nachos" are chips with a small dipping cup of nacho cheese and another of salsa. No additional toppings and they cost about as much as a plate of actual nachos would. Hot dog is a cheap ball park hot dog thrown in a bun. Soft pretzel is good, or so I was told by my wife. Wasn't really looking for amazing, but was looking for more than just an after thought.

If you are going for the games, it's worth the $10 for an hour or two of old school gaming entertainment. Not really a place we will probably frequent often,...

I really want to like Realms, but after the second time there I found that most of the retro arcade games were partially or completely out of order. It's hard to enjoy a video game when the buttons or joystick don't work or work only intermittently. This could be an awesome arcade, but they really need to maintain the games better.

Update (replying to owner question): It's hard to remember all of the games that were faulty - most were - but here are the ones I remember. Joust: Player 1 joystick failing, difficult to move to right Galaga (multiple game console): Fire button always on Nintendo multi-game console (near pinball games): 2nd button does not work at all Berzerk: Joystick very stiff and moving/shooting diagonally usually doesn't work (especially up/right) Space Invaders: Machine off (out of order) Ghosts and Goblins: I forget exactly, but there was an intermittent failure on the joystick I think Defender: Game Start button doesn't work Smash TV: Joystick does not always respond (left one)

Most of these were pretty easy to reproduce, but let me know if you want me to help test/repro any of...