Decades Arcade — Local services in Charlottesville

Went in on a slow Monday afternoon with my kids. Was about to spend $50 for the four of us (me, my wife, my 15 y.o., and my 12 y.o.) to enter when the guy working the front desk asked for my phone number. I politely told him no-thank-you; he insisted. He wouldn’t let me play video games (!) without giving up an email or phone number, and was completely disrespectful to me in front of my kids.

I asked if he had a privacy policy so I could understand how they intended to use my information. He said it was on their website, but “that it wouldn’t pull up.”

I’ve tried to make it easy for him by giving him a fake number, so he could just put something in his system and we could move on. He told me that my doing so “shattered the illusion of trust between us.” 😮🤣

Ultimately he refused us $50 worth of revenue on a slow Monday afternoon because he’d rather collect our personal information than take our business. Such a shame — we have been looking forward to visiting this place for a long time, and I’d really like to see businesses like these succeed. I wonder how the arcades of my childhood ever managed to stay in business without forcing people to give an email address and phone number?

Certainly won’t be back. You can sell someone...

This place is just awesome. They have a great variety of games, and the staff was very friendly. It looks like it's in an old grocery warehouse or something -- definitely a unique environment!

At $12/person, it's a great value. My kids will run through that much money in 20 minutes at Dave & Buster's. We spent three hours at Decades! Cans of soda or water from the vending machine were only a buck.

Before you go, make sure you visit their website. It has all the rules about their occupancy limits, groups, etc. They actually follow their own rules! (The people ahead wanted to enter, but their whole group hadn't arrived yet... The staff was firm, they had to wait.)

Please note there's only one bathroom (single occupancy), so plan accordingly, i.e. don't wait until it's urgent, there may be a line.

Overall, this was a 100% win for a good few hours of family fun....

I came here for the pinball. There are lots of great titles from multiple decades you don't usually get to see.

Most of the ones I wanted to play were "operational" but had some issues going on (balls stuck, flipper not working, shots not registering). They also had multiple out of service. I did go at the end of the day. Maybe it's better closer to open.

Felt like they've taken on more pins than they can manage. Or just weren't aware how much more maintenance a pin needs compared to an arcade cab. I might recommend they downsize pins and focus on a handful from across the decades.

The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable. If you're looking for arcade machines and not pins, their lineup and operational status...