Fuelling up

WELCOME BACK!

We've been pretty quiet for the last few weeks, but we've been busy in the background - meeting with tradies, discussing the liquor license with the Office of Regulatory Services, finalizing the lease and our company structure, and doing a lot of thinking about the layout of the bar and exactly what sort of stations and games will be on offer.

None of this is particularly scintillating blog material, so we've held off on posting until we had some good stuff to show and tell. However, things are starting to move very quickly now, so expect weekly updates from this point onwards. 

 

WE HAVE BRANDING

Our logo design is finished! Mikeila Scheckenbach has done a great job and has gone above and beyond by providing us with a bunch of variants to pick and choose from. Here are a few of our favorites:

Our design brief asked for something crisp and cool with black, white, electric blue and a Tron-inspired vibe. We reckon she has nailed it, and judging by the likes that have been racking up since we added these to the FB page you guys agree. Thanks Mikeila!

AND STICK CABINETS

Check 'em out! These two bad boys are in Melbourne right now, and we are arranging to have them shipped up to Canberra. 

In case you are wondering, what you are looking at is a pair of arcade cabinets for a regular games console. Big up to my main man Mattmatt Archar for sourcing them for us.

Generobot is excited to be serving you soon.

All we need to do is hook them up to an Xbox360 and drop in a pair of sticks and we have got the fighting games covered. We can also get a copy of Midway Arcade Classics to cater to the retro crowd, although they will have to battle the stick crew for control of the machines.

Mugshot.

We are still discussing how far we should go with other arcade machines - we know there is demand for the retro stuff, but space is an issue and we don't have room for everything. One machine that has definitely caught our eye is the Ultra Cocktail Pro:

Ultra Cocktail Pro has all the things.

This beast can play not only classic 70's and 80's arcade games, but also NES, SNES, Sega, Atari, Intellivision and even virtual pinball. Could be exactly what we need to cover all the retro bases.

AND EVEN A FLOORPLAN!

Below you can see the basic floorplan for the venue. This is a work in progress and will be adjusted as we progress, especially the rear areas which are still not 100% finalized in terms what sort of stations we will have.

The front of house will have the two largest screen (55") stations in the house, hooked up to the latest gen consoles. They are intended for group play and will have couch-style seating and a low table for drinks.

The long shelf/table opposite the bar will feature alternating 40" and 26" screens designed for 4 and 2 players respectively. At the end of the row on the right will be string of smaller 22" screens each hooked up to their own console, so that people can get some MP shooter on without having to split-screen.

The back end of the venue will hold some mixture of arcade cabinets, a 40" 4 player station, the DJ booth/VIP area, and a small amount of seating. We also want to fit 5x gaming PCs (not shown on floorplan) in here somewhere - probably they will go in the booth, but we will have to widen it to fit them in.And then there's the cocktail table...

ALSO...HOUSE RULES

Finally, we've also been thinking about what titles we will start with and how we can ensure that everyone gets to play. We want to encourage a 'shared couch' environment where controllers get passed around and people aren't afraid to jump into a game with some strangers and make some new friends. One concern is that we will get people monopolizing the consoles and (gasp) not spending any money at the bar. We don't want to be running around with stopwatch, kicking people off to turn tables but at the same we need to make sure everyone gets a good go at the fun.

100% accurate depiction of modern gamers.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of 6 or more neighborhood kids all somehow fitting onto a single armchair, taking turns on the NES or C64 (I'm pretty old school). Like most kids, we regulated the games with the old '1 level or 1 life' house rule. It's a natural way to play video games and will serve as the inspiration for our house rules at Reload.

Basically, different games and/or stations will have different rules - Guitar Hero will be 'one song and pass it along', whereas a group that is settled in at a 4 player station will get a certain amount of time before they are encouraged to vacate for the next group (assuming there are people waiting to play of course). The rules will be clearly marked at each station so everyone knows what is up. We hope that the patrons will pretty much take care if this themselves without us having to intervene.

That's it for now, see you next week with the another update!

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