Ground Kontrol

Ground Kontrol is a chain of arcades in Portland, Oregon. They have only 80's video games and pinball machines in their arcades, as well as a selection of 80's candy, Atari 2600 machines and cartridges, and other various items.

The games are in pretty good shape, and all of them cost a quarter to play, just like in the 80's. I miss the days of 25 cent video games, unlike the $.50 to $1 games now. They don't charge you admission to the arcade either, so you definitely get your money's worth.

Some of the games they have:

• Dig Dug
• Centipede
• Tempest
• all the Pac-Man variants
• Missile Command
• Tetris
• Space Invaders
• Donkey Kong
• Joust
• Galaga
• Tron

And so many more!

They have two locations in Portland at this time. One is downtown at 612 SW 12th (near Alder) and the other is in Southeast at 3409 SE Hawthorne. If you remember playing the old games and want to play them again, Ground Kontrol is the place to visit!

Not just an (awesome) arcade, Ground Kontrol also sells and displays classic video games, video game systems, video game memorabilia (Pac-Man lunchboxes!), and a surprisingly large selection of 80's-and-older CDs, records, cassettes, and 8-tracks. This is called knowing your target audience.

On top of that, they also host occasional live music events. You can be pretty sure that any band who chooses to play here has cool points to spare. They were even a venue for NXNW 2000.

On top of that, they will sell you an Atari 2600 for $70, with four great, classic games, and even a 30 day warranty. And Defender costs three bucks!

And as if that weren't enough to put these guys over the top on the cool-o-meter, the downtown location is about a five minute walk from Pioneer Courthouse Square. Yes, I think that seals it.

This is where I go when I'm with non-gamers and I have a couple extra quarters burning a hole in my pocket. Everyone likes this place; everyone likes these games. Classic, indeed.