A Return to Arcade Odyssey

My recent trip to the USA allowed me some time to check out a few arcades, specifically one of my favourites in Miami, FL. The last time I reviewed Arcade Odyssey, was a good five years ago. You can check that out here. The upshot I concluded back then, was that this was probably the best medium sized arcade I’d ever visited. Owner Rick Medina had curated a superb arcade with an amazing variety of old, new and rare games.

So I was really looking forward to returning in November this year, to see what ace cards Rick had pulled out from his archive of rare arcade titles, to keep things fresh and maintain the solid footfall he had worked hard to gain. Was Arcade Odyssey still up to scratch? Read on to find out:

Well I’m pleased to report things are pretty much the same in terms of impressiveness! What is different is the variety of cabinets in the arcade. Several changes have been made with plenty of new stuff to play and experience for arcade-goers of all ages and tastes. I’ve tried to capture here some of the best of what I saw:

On the subject of actual play – one thing that has changed, is the switch to digital credits. Rather than buying tokens to play, visitors to Arcade Odyssey now purchase and load up a prepaid card – simply tap your card on the reader on each machine and you’re good to go.

The system saves time for the arcade. No longer do they have to cash out physical tokens from each machine a few times a week, but it also provides better data reporting on what games are being played, when, and how often. When the play count drops off on any particular game, the arcade can swap out the PCB and drop in something fresh for players.

Of course in addition to these cabinets that allow new games to regularly rotated, Arcade Odyssey’s real speciality is curating an amazing selection of dedicated games. There are so many highlights and I can’t share them all, but here’s a taster of some of the more interesting stuff I spotted and played:

One of the things that makes Arcade Odyssey so special is owner Rick’s passion for dedicated and unusual arcade cabinets – many of them he’s personally imported direct from Japan.

I also want to point out that Arcade Odyssey has table top cocktail games on the arcade floor – its so rare to see these out in the wild due to the space they take up:

It’s worth highlighting that that everything was fully working. Literally nothing was down or waiting repair during my visit. This is no mean feat, and is a real testament to the hard work and dedication of the Arcade Odyssey team to ensure the best possible experience for players.

But what made my visit really special was an offer from Rick to show me around his storage areas. Often the more interesting stuff is “out back” of arcades, and this was no exception! Here’s a few highlights from the tour I was given:

Here’s a few more highlights. Rick was good enough to power up some of these games for us to play:

Thanks again to Rick for the walkthrough of the arcade and the storage area. Always a good time when in Miami – if you are in Florida any time soon, do make sure you make the time to visit his place. Excellent selection of super-rare games and a really good vibe. The arcade has a fully stocked bar and snacks are available.

Arcade Odyssey is easily still a 10 out of 10.

I’ll leave you with this interesting interview with Rick from a year ago, where he talks about how the arcade started, and his ethos in running such a unique place:

Arcade Odyssey’s opening hours, game list, pricing etc can be found on their website here.

Tell Rick I sent you!

Thanks for reading this week.

Tony