Rec Room

I took the monkeys to the latest Taylor Berger/Michael Tauer production, the Rec Room, and we loved it. It's on the corner of Broad & Tillman. It has a nice patio. No smoking or vaping allowed!



There is usually a food truck there, like our beloved Stick 'em.



Inside there's tons of old school video game machines, foosball, ping pong, a bar, and six different livingroom areas.



Take a minute and let that sink in. How cool, right!? Well, guess what? The old school games are free. We made a beeline.

I thought the kids would love Donkey Kong since it is what spawned Mario, but eventually Satchel admitted he had no idea how to play it.



Jiro was similarly disillusioned with Tron.



You know who was having a blast? Me and Ms. Pac Man.



I am not bragging, but merely stating facts. The kids could not believe how good I was. (I really have no idea how to play any of their games.) Satchel called me MLG, which he said meant "Major League Gamer." I have to admit that I loved that. Soon, it became clear that he expected me to beat the high score of 116,320. Of course, once I realized that, I tanked. I blame the joystick, which had a little crick in its neck every so often. And the fact that I was trying to send a text at one point.

The monkeys soon discovered the menu for the living room area and started begging me to let them rent an Xbox One so they could play Fifa 15. Uh, isn't that what we do at home? I asked. Yeah, but we want everyone to see how awesome we are, they replied.



Lucky for the monkeys, this speech came as I was chatting with Michael Tauer. He graciously offered to let them try it out for free. (Normal rental is $25/hr.) They were psyched. Once they placed their order, we went to the livingroom area for the hot dude with beard and bun to set it up for us.



While he did that, I procured a beer, water for the monkeys and some free popcorn. (Seriously, could this place BE any better?)



Sadly the Xbox One did not work. It needs to connect with wifi and for whatever reason that wasn't happening. So they compromised on playing some war game on Xbox 360.



Once they were settled in, I went back to Ms. Pac Man. I was on a mission! I broke 100,000 but I couldn't get the high score. The monkeys came over and actually expressed their boredom with Xbox 360. What!? We agreed to leave, because there was homework to do, but then we ended up playing foosball and ping pong instead.




Oh and this game with guns.



It was actually really hard to leave!

We never even played the Guns n Roses pinball machine!



The kids and I all really want to go back. Satchel said they weren't really equipped for "modern gaming" just yet, but he liked playing the other games. Jiro wants to have his birthday party there. I won't rest until get the high score on Ms. Pac Man!