Remembering the Insert Coins Arcade Bar at Las Vegas

 By Mark Rodriguez

Back in 2012, Johnny and I used to live in Vegas and got our own place in downtown Fremont. Not only were we a near The Fremont Experience, we just so happened to move in a few days around the grand opening of the Insert Coins Arcade Bar. While I have run into several arcade bars by now, the concept was new to me at the time. When I first saw the place with the Atari controllers I thought it was just going to be a bar with an arcade motif, like artwork on the walls or something, but not actually having arcades you can play. Sure enough, it was a fun combination of a bar, an arcade and a dance floor.

We went there on the grand opening, and one thing I will kinda regret is walking right past Stuttering Craig from ScrewAttack.com and not getting it on film or something. To be fair, I only heard his voice on all the Top Tens so I had no idea what the guy actually looked like. I'm not sure how popular he is nowadays, but I used to watch his videos back then. The place had some great drinks and some fun arcades like the classic X-Men 6-player Konami arcade and classic Street Fighter. There were, at first anyway, 2 big cabinets near the entrance that were free and had games like Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and Marvel VS Capcom 3. Those two games, alongside Mortal Kombat 2011 were the hottest fighting games at the time.

Aside from the drinks, they also had huge screens with the latest games like Mortal Kombat 2011, and as long as you drank it up between games, you could play to your heart's content. There were also booths where you could rent out game systems like the XBox 360 and even the SNES  so you and your friends can play in private, as well as enjoy the awesome drinks. And there was a dance floor playing anything from regular dance music to rocked up remixes of classic tunes like the NES Zelda theme and the NES Castlevania theme. There were also huge tv screens showing random games and scenes like the epic final battle Ryu and Ken had against Bison in the Street Fighter II animated movie as well as gaming inspired painting to decorate the walls.

We had fun and would go there often, mostly to celebrate Pikachika and Wickadarko's birthdays, and  even Lan Moore would join us too. We would also go there for Halloween since everyone went in costume and there were costume contests too. New arcades were brought in every now and then, so it was always cool. And yes, several VGM episodes were filmed there, especially one that was all about the place. And we just gotta love those Adios drinks.... even though we all had to walk Wickadarko back to her car.

So yes...it was sad and surprising for us to find out that this place was shut down.... Yes, apparently the quality has gone down at the place and almost all of the arcades had something wrong with them (busted joysticks and the like) or were just plain out of order and were never fixed. Also it seems the competition of the surrounding night life was too much to handle and they soon fell behind on rent.... and the arcade bar is closed for good.

There were small changes here and there that might have affected things. First off, they removed the free arcades near the entrance. I guess it made sense to avoid any freeloaders. Next they eventually added a five dollar cover price to enter, when you could just get in for free before. Five dollars isn't much but it is kinda surprising when you're used to just walking in for free. 

Overall, Insert Coins was fun, mostly for the overall atmosphere and hanging out with friends. Other than a few games that we either didn't own or weren't available at the time like the Konami Ninja Turtles, X-Men and Simpsons arcades, we pretty much owned all the games we cared about. Living so close to the area, it was a good way to end the evening whenever we would hang out. 

The last time I was there, a regular sports bar replaced Insert Coins. I'm sure it's a cool bar, but I mean... sports bars are a dime a dozen. Arcade Bars are must rarer. We thank you for the great memories and making that part of our lives a lot more enjoyable.