Top Five Games Coming to Tappers Arcade Bar

Since raising more than $30,000 through their IndieGoGo campaign, Jeff Moulton, Aaron Miller, and Austin Howard have been hard at work, adding to their collection of retro arcade games in preparation for the opening of Tappers Arcade Bar. Still in search of a downtown space that fits their needs, the three hold strong to their business model, which pairs a free arcade-gaming experience with Indiana craft beer.

“We’re stoked that we got our funding,” Moulton says. “The next step is to find a home and start building it out.”

This Thursday at The White Rabbit Cabaret, Tappers teams up with Roving Cinema, giving moviegoers a chance to play arcade games while viewing 1989’s The Wizard. Before the event, IM caught up with Moulton and company to discuss their favorite games that will appear at the bar when it opens.

1. X-Men 6-player

Moulton: Back when we had 50 likes on Facebook, we posted something like, ‘Tell us what games you want.” X-Men was by far our most requested game. There’s a two-player version, a four-player version, and the big, crazy six-player version, so we just decided, “We’re going to hunt down the big crazy one.” Personally, I’m a huge X-Men fan. So it just feels right that it’s the franchise everybody wanted to see.”

 2. NBA Jam: Tournament Edition

Miller: Everybody wants to play NBA Jam. It’s a great team-based sports game. With the Tournament Edition, you have a larger roster and more players per team, and you can cycle through them.

3. Mortal Kombat II

Moulton: A great tournament game! Matches don’t last that long, and a lot of people still remember the moves. Of all the different Mortal Kombats, I think it’s the best one. It’s also historically significant for video games because it’s bloody, and the first Mortal Kombat is actually the reason why video games are rated with a parental guidance system.

4. Pole Position

Moulton: This is a classic racing game. You’re kind of playing against the clock. What’s cool about this one is we got the cockpit version, so you can sit down inside of it and race. We have a couple of other driving games, but this one is an iconic 1980s throwback. The fact that you can watch it from behind lends itself to a party-style game, and we’re all about that.

5. House of the Dead

Moulton: The game is fun because it’s fairly mindless—you just shoot zombies. We picked the first one because if you buy a Wii, you can get all the other House of the Deads in one game except for No. 1. So it’s not something you can do at home, and that’s kind of what we’re all about.

For more information on the upcoming Roving Cinema event, visit its Facebook event page.