Vortex Arcade — Local services in Sherwood

Mixed feelings about Vortex. My 10 yr old is super into vintage gaming and this place has tons of games including all the old ones he likes. Myself being a 51 yr old mom and a gamer my whole life, I love the nostaligia as well. The owner was super kind and helpful to us at all times. The other employees could use some chill and tact.

We drove 2 hours from Memphis today to visit here. For an hour, my son played arcade games while I played pinball with no issue then the electricity went out 3 or 4 times. They blamed the city and said it would be a couple hours before the power would come back on. We went to the comic store in the same strip and their electricity was fine. We came back later and everything was on again. I was going to give that a pass, but then shtuff got weird(er)...

I picked back up playing Paragon, a fun yet very difficult vintage pinball game from 1979. After about 15 minutes playing this, (almost an hour total if you count before the power outage), a female employee came over to tell me to please not do rapid flipping that it would catch the electronics on fire. I was taken aback a little. I mean I know its common to have people just bang hard on the buttons simultaneously for no good reason, but I was NOT doing that. I noticed this game in particular has about a 50% chance to toss the ball and put it back in play if you can alternate left and right flips right before the the drain point- most games its pointless. It may have sounded like rapid simumtaneous flips but it was not. I kept just normal playing it and an older male employee came over (who had weirdly approached me while playing another pinball machine earlier which I now know why he was trying so hard to sell me on it). Then this dude passive-aggressively tried to school me on the flipper strategy for Paragon and I told him I had already figured it out because I had been playing it like an hour total by then. Then a few min later he comes back over and awkwardly interupts my game to convince me to go over to some tiny little kiddie pinball machine way over in the mini arcade section?!?! I was like uhhh I prefer the vintage pinball games. I have recently in the last year picked up playing pinball at our local arcade called Game Over that has quite a few 70s/80s pinball machines (and competitions too!) and I have been learning about pinball strategy. I exclusively play vintage 70s/80s machines there and have NEVER had a problem there. Anyways, I keep playing, a few minutes later he comes over in a tizzy and basically in a super weird way, accuses me of beating up their vintage machine?! I legit was NOT doing any nudging, I was NOT slapping the buttons, I was NOT playing rapidly or aggressively. I tried my best to catch the ball and hold it to pause and I tried my best to only flip when necessary. Honestly I'm still not sure exactly what the hell they thought I was doing wrong.

I saw other complaints about this same thing as well. Like yo.... if yall dont want these older restored games to be played the way they were meant to be played, especially this difficult ones like Paragon, then dont put them out there! If anything put a sign on them or something like "Vintage 1979 machine, 5 game limit, super light play only" or something. I was very embarassed and disappointed today. My son seemed happy though at least. We had planned on making this a monthly exodus but now I'm like...

Overall this place is okay. A little cramped and quite loud. Was bumped into a few times while playing, especially along the far right back corner. Not much room. Five of the pinball machines were not working. They had all of the classic arcade games though. If the owner would remove his memorabilia collection he could probably make some room in the place so it's not so cramped. Price is great. $10 for free play as long as you want. My main complaint is the guy that kept interrupting people as they were playing asking if they wanted a real pinball from a machine. This guy stopped me mid-game to ask me this. I told him no thanks. He then asked for all of my attention off the game and onto the ball. Said would you like an actual pinball ball. Again I said no and asked him to give it to one of the kids. He then asked if I wanted to give it to one of the kids. WTH? I said no, and began ignoring him at this point. This man bothered everyone playing pinball while they were mid-game. He even asked my son to let him know if the game he was playing stopped working. That's not our job. I didn't come here to be hassled mid-game and to report broken pinball machines. This was our first time and that one guy really drained the mood that was actually quite good when we first got there and started playing. We had been waiting all week to go. Will not...

Outstanding Atmosphere!!! Retro Time Castle brought to life here. It's like jumping in the DeLorean, typing in your destination, and flooring it to 88 MPH. Then you open the door to find yourself here at THE VORTEX ARCADE. $10.00 per person gives you (ALL) day playtime.

Nice place to come to to enjoy all types of game play. Always clean, cool and comfortable inside. Friendly staff that does an outstanding job day after day.

NO QUARTERS REQUIRED!!!NO CARD REQUIRED!!! ONE FEE , PLAY ALL GAMES!

Worst thing about this place is we had to leave. Amazing! Arcade games from the 70s 80s and 90s. You can become a pinball wizard.

An entire section is set up offering The Original Atari, Nintendo, Super, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Exedra just like at home . Comfortable Couch's are located in this area for you setting comfort.

This place is freaking awesome! And yes they have snacks available. Sodas, candy, ice cream, chips. Bring the whole Family!

If you have interested they can even offer you the opportunity to open up a machine and see how it works. Why not learn to repair these treasures?

You must stop here. The owners are good people and take pride in their business. And it definitely shows.

Stop in and tell...