Level Up BarKade Limerick

dav09

Level Up BarKade is a new experience opening in Limerick which consists of a Bar/Kitchen/Arcade. Level Up BarKade’s story so far consists of months of planning, countless hours of hard work and we’re excited about the launch of our brand new venue. We’ve already acquired 50+ Arcade Machines coming from Ireland, United Kingdom, USA and some even all the way from Japan. We also will have between 6 - 10 Pinball Machines at Launch too.

We’re going all out with this venue and we want to bring you a truly unique experience while maintaining the highest quality of service in the industry. We look forward to welcoming you in our doors on November 1st when we finally open. This is only the start of our journey, with the overall plan to expand our machine count to 80+ over the next year all going well, while hoping to continuously improve as time moves along.

We have compiled a sneak preview list below of what's planned for launch, holding back a lot of our Retro Machines and heavy-hitters, which will be revealed closer to launch date (There are some real surprises to come, will be posted via Social Media)

Arcade Machines:

Pacman
Initial D8
Afterburner Climax
Time Crisis 4
Sega Rally 2
Groove Coaster 4
MaiMai
Initial D4
Virtua Fighter 5
Taito Chase HQ
Basketball
Outrun 2
Ferrari F355
Killer Instinct 2
House Of The Dead 4
Sega Power Drift
Need For Speed

We also have acquired around 25 Jamma Cabinets (Electrocoin Goliaths, some others) with original boards to provide a truly authentic experience. We have many more boards too, and we plan to regularly rotate these (every couple of weeks) and will have a community vote to help decide what's next.

Jamma Cabinets Teaser

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Pac-Land
Vendetta
R Type
Savage Rein
Super Sidekicks 3
Sky Shark
Puzzle do Pon
Ghoul's N Ghosts
Street Fighter 2
Metal Slug
Final Fight
Aliens
Puzzle Bobble
Double Dragon
Bubble Bobble
Midnight Resistance
Bubble Symphony
Tekken 2

Pinball Machines:

Iron Maiden
The Beatles
Metallica
Star Trek
The Munsters
The Getaway High Speed

Finally, I want to ask you what you'd like to see in this venue as that is the main purpose of this post, whether that's boards, machines, beers, food. We're open to all suggestions and want to deliver the best experience possible.

(I hope this type of post is allowed too I read the rules and seems okay, if not apologies and feel free to delete)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/levelupbarkade/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/levelupbarkade
Website:https://www.levelupbarkade.com

geotrig

good to see some more candies in Limerick!!!
Looking forward to getting a go on id8

Any more shmups coming in?

Is that an LCD Parkman?

dav09

geotrig wrote: »

good to see some more candies in Limerick!!!
Looking forward to getting a go on id8

Any more shmups coming in?

Is that an LCD Parkman?

A couple of more looking shoot'em ups on their way, I know of about 3 in storage but whether they're working or not is the next thing. If they're not they will be in at some point but have to make sure they're working and ready for launch before they're in & announced.

And yeah it is, I know I know. But a good few of our older machines had their CRTs replaced over the years with LCDs and restoring them back to CRTs is probably asking for trouble with reliability, considering they're going to be on a lot. We do have CRTs in some machines but with the number of machines we have, it probably won't be feasible for fixing maybe 2 CRTs each week so we won't have a massive amount, but some. It's a small trade-off for having probably 80+ machines (within the next year) but we'll definitely keep our boards original. We have some scan-line generators and some other tricks up our sleeves for some machines to make it look nicer for those purists

banie01

This has set off shudders of joy in my little heart!
If the food is half decent and the beer is cold...
I and a few mates shall quote possibly be regulars!

Best of luck with the venture, its great to see a bit of bravery in the Limerick bar scene

geotrig

Ssf2, sf3rd strike would be great for a tournament or 2 and some bullet hell would be great for high score challenges !!

Any vewlixs coming in or cough Darius burst? Also more curious on this than anything, any plans on running a exa Arcadia system when they become available ?

dav09

banie01 wrote: »

This has set off shudders of joy in my little heart!
If the food is half decent and the beer is cold...
I and a few mates shall quote possibly be regulars!

Best of luck with the venture, its great to see a bit of bravery in the Limerick bar scene

I've tried some sample food and it is, we'll have a good mix of craft beers and regular beers with loads to choose from. Highly experienced bar manager and highly experienced chef to oversee things. Thank you

geotrig wrote: »

Ssf2, sf3rd strike would be great for a tournament or 2 and some bullet hell would be great for high score challenges !!

Any vewlixs coming in or cough Darius burst? Also more curious on this than anything, any plans on running a exa Arcadia system when they become available ?

We actually have a Super Street Fighter 2 board I believe, and yeah that would be great! Also, we plan to host competitions and tournaments regularly, have some VGA streaming hardware being looked at which will be used for tournaments.

As for Taito Vewlix, we were offered a few from Japan I believe so we'll see what happens there. I'm not overly familiar with Exa Arcadia but I assume it's some sort of Jamma Arcade FPGA hardware? We want to keep everything authentic and on original hardware and would rather not, however, if the demand is really there for rare boards and as long as it's above board then we'll definitely consider (we have a few more rare boards already, need to be tested shortly however, its a pity one or two of ours like Salamander has issues).

johnnyryan89

Chicken wings, bottles of beers and sega rally. My dreams have come true, can you say where this is going to be located in Limerick?

73bc61lyohr0mu

Yeah I'm pumped for this as well. Where in Limerick?

dav09

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Chicken wings, bottles of beers and sega rally. My dreams have come true, can you say where this is going to be located in Limerick?

Great

I can't right now unfortunately with our lease and legal stuff going on. As far as I know, we'll be given the all-clear to announce this coming week. It's quite accessible which is the main thing.

geotrig

Exa arcadia is a new jvs based hardware and software been launched and is aimed at the vewlixs market, It launching Soonish in Japan and will be offered worldwide hence my question on the vewlixs and it.
Have ssf2x myself but just sent someone good to play Against at this stage!!!

dav09

geotrig wrote: »

Exa arcadia is a new jvs based hardware and software been launched and is aimed at the vewlixs market, It launching Soonish in Japan and will be offered worldwide hence my question on the vewlixs and it
Have ssf2x but just sent someone to play Against at this stage!!!

Okay that's interesting yeah, read a little on it there. I didn't deal with much of the Asian stuff personally but will have a chat one of the guys involved and see what he thinks, I know he was definitely considering Vewleix's from the UK and Asia so we'll see what happens.

banie01

dav09 wrote: »

Great

I can't right now unfortunately with our lease and legal stuff going on. As far as I know, we'll be given the all-clear to announce this coming week. It's quite accessible which is the main thing.

I'm racking my brain trying to rack my brain for a premises that would suit in Limerick and city centre there are really only 2 that spring to mind.
3 if I include a premises that is likely ideal but wasn't previously licensed.

Wherever it is, I really do wish this venture the very best of luck.

DaveyDave

Christ, that's a nice list of games. 2hr 20m from Dublin.

What's the parking like?

dav09

DaveyDave wrote: »

Christ, that's a nice list of games. 2hr 20m from Dublin.

What's the parking like?

Cheers, Onsite parking and free as far as I'm aware!

banie01

dav09 wrote: »

Cheers, Onsite parking and free as far as I'm aware!

That's my city centre theoretical locations ruled out then...
Free parking brings business/retail parks to mind.
Here's hoping if its in one of those that its near a bus stop and not in Eastway/Delta.

80s Synth Pop

I'll be making a visit for sure. Great selection and I for one absolutely love the old electrocoin cabs.

For the crts, there is a guy in the uk named grant who will fix and service the chassis making them good for years to come. Here is the website:
http://www.error24.co.uk/
Price is reasonable too - most of the chassis I've sent have cost around 60 to repair. Just one cost over 100 due to needing a ton of parts.

Those electrocoin cabs will all have common monitors in them. A "cap kit" takes around an hour to install DIY and would restore picture to it's former glory.


Wish you the very best of luck in your new business venture!

Edit- love the logo

coffey87

Not so much arcade gaming, more retro gaming, but would be cool to setup an N64 or SNES or some couple of older consoles. Can get a Goldeneye tournament going or something. Along those lines, could also have retro games and consoles on sale or available for trading.

RocketRaccoon

This has made me very very excited, I'll be a first night customer for sure.

Shapey Fiend

This is excellent news. I can have a few drinks and still get the bus back to Ennis.

My main thought with this place is give some thought to the accoustics. The Dublin and Cork barcades are stripped back concrete boxes which is why i expect they've the volume off on half the machines which i find a bit of a buzzkill.

dav09

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

I'll be making a visit for sure. Great selection and I for one absolutely love the old electrocoin cabs.

For the crts, there is a guy in the uk named grant who will fix and service the chassis making them good for years to come. Here is the website:
http://www.error24.co.uk/
Price is reasonable too - most of the chassis I've sent have cost around 60 to repair. Just one cost over 100 due to needing a ton of parts.

Those electrocoin cabs will all have common monitors in them. A "cap kit" takes around an hour to install DIY and would restore picture to it's former glory.


Wish you the very best of luck in your new business venture!

Edit- love the logo

Cheers! Yeah we honestly would love to keep it as traditional and authentic as possible and we will be doing so to the best of our ability. We're well aware of Grant and I believe we'll have some chassis going his way shortly, if they haven't gone already. It's been really ticky with monitors and CRTs, for example out of the 20 Electrocoins we bought in unknown condition, 2 CRTs worked and a similar number of gameboards were functional too (they apparently mostly worked when they went into storage). Some chassis, some tube issues, Hantarex mtc 900 I believe they mostly are. There's a lot of work needed on that side of things and not a lot of time but we'll see what we can do.

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

This has made me very very excited, I'll be a first night customer for sure.

Great, I hope you'll enjoy

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

This is excellent news. I can have a few drinks and still get the bus back to Ennis.

My main thought with this place is give some thought to the accoustics. The Dublin and Cork barcades are stripped back concrete boxes which is why i expect they've the volume off on half the machines which i find a bit of a buzzkill.

Good stuff, we're keeping that in mind for sure. A lot of the newer styled machines will be quite loud and noisy, we have a plan to keep them upstairs and away from tables to ensure guests are comfortable at their tables with volume. Our older retro machines will be downstairs and shouldn't be as loud but we want to ensure everything about the venue is top class, so if we don't get it right we definitely will work on it if we're given feedback after launch, but it's something we've considered already and we're aware of. All of this is info subject to change. too but that's the plan. One of the team members has been to 10+ similar venues around Europe & America too so he's been keeping a keen eye on things on his visits over the past couple of years and see's how they work.

RocketRaccoon

Is there any chance this will be in the old Vic snooker club building?

I only ask as I remember there being game machines upstairs there a long long time ago aswell as quazar and the snooker tables.

I don't know what's there nowadays.

banie01

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

Is there any chance this will be in the old Vic snooker club building?

I only ask as I remember there being game machines upstairs there a long long time ago aswell as quazar and the snooker tables.

I don't know what's there nowadays.

Would be a great spot actually IMO.

dav09

banie01 wrote: »

Would be a great spot actually IMO.

Ahhh the Vic, I remember it well, went there a good bit up until (what feels like) recently enough and remember the arcade, laser tag, pool hall, poker, snooker hall, American pool, casino and the many iterations it went through. Honestly would have been a great location with the underground feel, but bar licences cost a lot, fire safety and a number of factors had to be considered when choosing the venue. All shall be revealed shortly anyway, over the next few days.

MontgomeryClift

This looks mega and brill. Good luck!

The Last Bandit

Fair play hope it works out well. Great to see this boards back in action again instead of hiding in the attic !!

dav09

Thanks all, appreciate the kind words

80s Synth Pop

Where did you get all the cabs? Are you a long time collector or find an OP selling? Goliath cabs.. Bob's casino??

BobMc

Location, Location, Location, as they say, I think anything outside the centre if you are expecting an 18+ crowd and to sell beers will be a hard sell imo

o1s1n

That's some selection of machines, hope it all works out for you guys. Will have to organise a trip down when it opens.

dav09

Cheers guys, we've been all around the country sourcing cabinets over the past number of months so it's good to see it coming together slowly. We've picked a strategic location for it's size and scale, it's fairly accessible.

Thanks, David.

Shapey Fiend

If you want to don balaclavas and steal the Scud Race from Shannon airport in the dead of night I'd be eternally grateful. It's my favourite racing game but our local distributor hasn't seen fit to fix the gear stick that broke circa 2002.

kevin2me

o1s1n wrote: »

That's some selection of machines, hope it all works out for you guys. Will have to organise a trip down when it opens.

How about a Boardies meetup for a nite down there?
Cidermans you'll be glad not to have to host or cleanup for a change?

CiDeRmAn

I don't mind driving down and back again, for a change!

BGOllie

I might even be able to make it this time

Shapey Fiend

I went to the Computer Museum in Galway a couple of Fridays ago by the way Ollie. Well worth a look they've got some mad stuff in there. The first electronic calculator, Minitels, earliest laptop, tons of different early Compaq computers etc. One of the fellas helping run it is a fan of yours. https://www.facebook.com/ccmireland/

dav09

You're all welcome, might be able to set something up in relation to that closer to opening date and couple potentially reserve a few tables/ section if there's interest

banie01

Just on the topic of BarKade opening in Limerick...
I have never had so many friends contact me regarding a bar opening!
I really hope it goes well!

diusmr8a504cvk

Mr. Dav, your BarKade campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?

RocketRaccoon

Scotts bar is the location

johnnyryan89

That's a good location for them being that close to a third level school.

banie01

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

That's a good location for them being that close to a third level school.

If being close to 3rd level school had any bearing on the success of a bar a hell of a lot of pubs would never have gone out of business

TBH everyone I know that's talking about it is in the mid 30s and up bracket too.
And I say that as nearly 40y.o 1st year Uni student.
The demographics of who this bar will appeal to will be very interesting.

Its definitely going to be a very instagrammable spot
But I'd wonder how much business the student crowd will bring?
I really do think its going to be more of a Daddy Day Care :P
Rather than a crèche once the initial novelty of opening wears off.

I'd love to see it hit every demographic and hold all the cards with, beer, games and great food...

c.p.w.g.w

Looks like barcadia in cork which was great craic the times I've been

Firefox11

30min walk from my front door. I'll definitely be down.

coffey87

Any update on opening dates? Hows the fit out going?

dav09

Things are going fine thanks, as you can probably tell we've had a number of hold ups but not to worry, it is what it is. Currently waiting for everything to fall into place I.E. Electricians/Plumbers/Builders but things are making progress. We were hoping to be opened 1st week of November initially but things have progressed quite slow and we had a number of hurdles put in place. Will update everyone on an opening date ASAP.

On the machine side of things, stuff has gone well. One or two hiccups (a box of CRT chassis has issues after repair) and some parts took a little longer than expected but things should be almost good to go with machines (I believe there's about 25 of them coming down today from up the country). We have most of the high-demanded machines and most of the machines we were after at this stage.

Kickstarter also seems not to have went to plan so that's another issue since it's all or nothing, we'd still love to ensure our venue is ultra-accessible for disabled access so we'll do our best, but it doesn't look like we'll reach the goal unfortunately.

dav09

dav09 wrote: »

Kickstarter also seems not to have went to plan so that's another issue since it's all or nothing,.

Didnt even know there was a KS

dav09

We do, here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leveluplimerick/level-up-arcade-bar-limerick

We're going to do one last drive towards that tonight and see how that goes.

banie01

dav09 wrote: »

We do, here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leveluplimerick/level-up-arcade-bar-limerick

We're going to do one last drive towards that tonight and see how that goes.

Kinda gutted the Kickstarter failed as I had pledged at a medium"ish" level chasing some value and loads of tokens :pac:
I hope that some alternative plan can be formulated, really looking forward to paying ye a visit when ye open and maybe even celebrating my 40th in with ye

dav09

Opening Friday 20th, here's a solid list of what we should have ready (Some Jamma cabs, some originals):

Ghostsquad 
Terminator
Time Crisis 4
Guilty Gear
Street Fighter 4
Vewlix
Suzuki 8hr
Final Fight
Ghouls n Ghosts
Street Fighter 2
Bubble Bobble
Shinobi
Double Dragon
Ghosts n Goblins
XMen
The Punisher
Marvel Vs Capcom
In The Hunt
Ikari Warriors
Bubble Symphony
Sega Rally 2
Aliens
Outrun Original
Outrun 2 SP
Sega Power drift
H2Overdrive
Need For Speed Underground
Pacman
Golden Axe
Mortal Kombat 2
Killer Instinct 2
Simpsons
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Dance Dance Euromix
House of The Dead 4
Batman Pinball
The Beatles Pinball
Metallica Pinball
Iron Maiden Pinball
Ghostbusters Pinball

Coming very soon (in UK at the minute, just off a ship from Japan):
Maimai
Initial D8
GrooveCoaster 4

dav09

dav09 wrote: »

Maimai

very cool.
Seen these in Tokyo,looked like a row of lads looking into industrial washing machines.

dav09

BrownFinger wrote: »

very cool.
Seen these in Tokyo,looked like a row of lads looking into industrial washing machines.

LOL yep, looking forward to playing it when it arrives!