arcade – Experience Bend

Vector Arcade is located in Downtown, Bend and is a fun spot if you enjoy playing classic arcade games of the 70’s and 80’s. There’s a handful of pinball games, a few multi-player games and they have drinks to purchase, including beer.

Cost:

Admission (Unlimited Play):
One Hour: $5
All Day: $10
Ghostbusters premium pinball $.50 no admission required

Alcoholic Beverages: beer, wine and cider range in price from $3-7

You have two options. You can pay $5 for unlimited play for an hour per person. Or you can pay $10 for unlimited play, all-day long. There’s also a new Ghostbusters pinball game at the front you can play for $.50 (whether you pay for an admission or not).

How it works:

After purchasing your entrance fee, you’re giving a clip on tag that will let you know when your time expires (if you purchased an hour of unlimited play). This is basically on-your-honor to pay attention to. Then when you leave, you just return your tag and that’s it.

Types of arcade games:

They do rotate games in and out, so what you see one week may be different in a few weeks. But some of the classics I’ve seen are: asteroids, defender, donkey kong, galaga, pac man, missle command, joust, q-bert, mario bros, star wars, tapper, tron, millipede, etc.

There’s a handful of pinball games in the back-right corner and now they have the newer Ghostbusters game up in the front. You can play this game without having to pay admission. It’s $.50 a game.

Public Bathroom: Yes

There is a nice public use bathroom in the back of the building. It’s clean and actually quite nice looking!

Pros

Unlimited play is great.
Not too loud or noisy but still get the feel or an arcade.
Family friendly, great for kids and adults.
Couch available at front if tired or just want to watch
Good mix of classicarcade games
Super friendly and helpful service
Games are in great working order.
Can book private parties

Possible Cons

These are older games, so sometimes a game will be problematic to play.
Some kids may not appreciate these types of games and start to get bored.
You’ll need to spend at least $5 unless you want to play the Ghostbusters pinball game for $.50
Some of the graphics, particularly on the pinball machines are of a demonic/darker nature. Something to be mindful of if anyone you’re taking anyonethere might be affected by that. I’m glad they have some pinball machines but would like to see more ‘family friendly’ titles.

Kids playing arcade games at Vector Volcano in Bend Oregon

Warlords at Vector Arcade in Bend Oregon

The Experience

I’ve been here a few times now and took my kids both times. We went for an hour each time and that was just about perfect. It’s enough time to rotate around and try as many games as you’d like, and then you can camp out on the ones that you really enjoy.

I had fun playing some of the classics that I loved as a kid (like Tron!) and then finally had a chance to redeem myself on games that could never master as a youngster (Q-bert… I will beat you!).

The same guy has been up front each time we’ve gone. He’s always super friendly and helpful. My daughter had a game that started going ‘wonky’ on her and he was happy to help get it working again.

Out of my 4 kids, 3 out of 4 wanted to come back. Lexi (11) does the least amount of gaming at home, so although she was entertained for the hour, it wasn’t something she felt like she wanted to necessarily do again. She had the most fun on the group table-top game (Warlords) over by the couch. But the rest of the kids (ages 9, 13 & 15) had fun and wanted to come back again.

Helpful Tips

Take advantage of the 4-player table-top game which is located next to the couch at the front. I didn’t even notice it my first time here but it’s fun two play if you have more than one person to play with. And my kids had a blast playing it once they discovered it. So it’s a great game to play with your kids or if someone is starting to get bored. You get to sit down which is a plus and it’s a fun game to play against other people.
If you get tired of standing, or if you have kids that have trouble comfortably reaching the controls, grab one of the stools to use.
Each time I’ve gone w/ my kids, an hour has been the perfect time frame. We’re there long enough to have fun, but we’re not playing so long that people start to get bored.
If you want to avoid it when the place starts getting busier, try going close to when they open.

Special Events

Every so often they will host a special event such as a Kids Star Wars tournament. This particular tournament was open to any kids under the age of 14. They awarded a Darth Vader Pop to the high score winner. I believe the winner of this tournament had a high score of 1,017,722. Some strong competition among the youth of Bend, Oregon!