LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky man has transformed his simple garage into a full-on retro arcade. For five years, Brandon Clark says he’s been living like a kid.
“This is Rosie the Robot. She came out of an arcade in the early 90s in Florida. I think the place was called Fantasyland,” Clark said.
Clark brought a piece of Fantasyland back to Louisville — well sort of. When we met him, he was fixing a machine he just acquired.
“New machine. When we picked it up last week, well try to test out it, make sure the board works in it, and we’ll do some troubleshooting,” Clark said.
Professionally, he owns a security company
“It’s a constant job that keeps me busy. After I get done with work, I’m back in here doing work,” Clark said.
In his off time, he fixes, refurbishes and trades arcade games.
“Well, as a kid, I liked taking things apart and seeing how they worked so well when I grew up playing in the arcades and all that and didn’t know as an adult that you could actually own arcade machines,” Clark said.
Right now, in his garage, he owns anywhere from 40 to 50 games.
“I think, like I said, that first machine I got, it was actually really close to here. The lady had posted on (Facebook) Marketplace that free to the first first person that gets it. And I got there quick and brought it home and fixed it. And then got addicted to buying them and fixing them and and collecting them,” Clark said.
People come to his Louisville home just to play with his games.
“This is a really fun one that pretty much everybody that comes or likes to play. It’s super trivia, but it’s more not just trivia. It’s like there will be a rose on the screen, and the hat will go on top of it. It will say, follow that and everybody tries to answer as quick as possible. So it’s pretty interactive, and it gets a lot of play. People enjoy that one a lot,” Clark said.
Tucked back in his garage, there’s more.
“Oh, no, there’s definitely more. If you all want to check out the Coke machine here, um, look behind her. Eventually, it’s going to be where you put a sequence in on the Coke buttons and it will open automatically. But this is the back section. This is the actual arcade,” Clark said.
It’s the holy grail. It’s got Pac-man, Area 51, Aero Fighters and more.
“This is where mainly a lot of the kids will come out here and hang out. And, you know, the adults kind of, you know, the parents itself, they’ll sit in the front. But yeah, with the dance machine, I think it never came on. But the kids love the dance machine, which also doubles as a TV,” Clark said.
Neighbors, friends, family and even strangers will pop in.
“Uber drivers come, you know, they drop us off and open the garage and they want to stick around. They quit Uber for the night. The Papa John’s delivery guy, we order pizza here every Friday night and he’d stay and hang out for a little bit. So if your pizza was late, I’m sorry. That was probably him hanging out here. But, yeah, it’s, you know, I’ve met a lot of people and I’m just like, invite everybody over. As long as, you know, they’re good-hearted and positive. I like everybody. Come over and check it out,” Clark said.
Aside from collecting games, Clark often trades machines he’s fixed. So far he’s done close to 100 trades.