Retro City Rockade — Local services in Janesville

Been living in close proximity for about a year now but only recently learned it existed, so we stopped in. I have to admit, one negative review almost stopped me from going but I've concluded that the person who left that bad review does not have a full appreciation for what this place is. Honestly, if you didn't grow up in the era then you might not appreciate it either. This is a bonafide throwback of an 80s, rock and roll arcade. When I stepped through the doors, my inner arcade kid did a quick inventory of the place and found that not only were all of the popular classics from the 70s and 80s here, but there were some classics from later years too. Mix in some shooting and driving games and a wall of pinball machines and you have plenty of things to see and do. They paid great attention to decor and lighting in here. There's even a little snack bar! There is an admission fee, but all of the games, except pinball, are in free play mode. All of the games we played were in perfect working order, although I might have been hitting one of the pinball flippers a little too hard because I actually got it stuck. I informed the nice lady at the snack bar that I was responsible for jamming up the button and instead of throwing me out and dousing my eyeballs with pepper spray, she assured me that it was fine and shut the machine down until it could be repaired. That pinball was back up and operational in less than 10 minutes! There may have been a machine or two that were out of order but I dont think any of the arcades were 100% operational back in the day. Even back then, the machines still required service and repair. I think we spent nearly 4 hours in here. As far as I'm concerned, what we paid to get in wouldn't have lasted 4 hours, back when we were slotting quarters to have this kind of fun. These people created a freaking portal that takes you back to when the arcade...

Went here today with my kids and was very disappointed. For starters we had gift certificates we bought from a local radio station promotion right before covid. Well, they expired during covid before my family was unable to get vaccinated and feel safe to go to an arcade again. They would not let us use them and staff said they didn't let others use them 2 weeks after they expired. They said they received no money from them because it was just for advertising them. So we basicly had to pay twice to go here.

So many broken games. I tried every game there and here is what I found. Tron's spinner controller was defective. Making it unplayable because you could not fire in certain directions. Centipede trackball up and down is reversed. Making that very hard to play. Baby pacman is out of order. They say it's the only place in Wisconsin to play baby pacman a, well that does no good if it is broken. Timesoldier player one stick defective. Afterburner gun button broken making it unplayable. Road burners handlebars steering function doesn't work making it unplayable.

The good things are that they have some fun racing games and gun games. They have many pinball games that work,

Overall the selection is limited. Take a short drive to Madison to geeks mania where the selection is bigger and they daily fix their broken games. Daily. I should still be there playing baby pacman and tron, but the way it is we left way early and I won't be going back unless they give me a free admission to use once they fix tron and baby pacman

I spent $24 on my gift certificates that I could not use and another $36 today for me and my kids. Thanks for taking my money so I could play...

I was supper not impressed. we have been there multiple times and my boyfriend was asking for a price on a game and I was paying to get in We were told 12.00 a person I was paying for me and I gave them 25.00 a 20.bill and 5.0 bill and when the owner came out my boyfriend asked about a price and started yellingnat us that we needed to leave and his worker had my 25.00 and the owner said no money back and I was not understanding what was happening and the owner said he was keeping my money and I asked for a refund and then yhe kid at the register could not figure out when it came to giving me my momey back and only gave me a 20.00 and 4 ones. We were there to.have a fun family nght and this happened I do not recommend going there with any family unless you want to...