Level Up BarKade Limerick

beejee

Very nice, will 100% be checking it out

keane2097

Best of luck.

dav09

Cheers all

beejee

Sent you a pm re alien 3 there

DaveyDave

That list of games is savage, looks like I'll be having a road trip down from Dublin at some stage!

The Last Bandit

Worth the drive down just for a crack at Ikari Warriors again

DaveyDave

Don't see any opening times or information about any token deals

dav09

Hope everyone enjoyed the night, had bit of a disaster at the start of the night with a small hiccup but once we got up and going. A couple of machines we didn't have quite ready unfortunately due to the electricity mess all day, but we'll be putting out more and more machines over the next few days and considering am putting them on free play for the first while.

XsApollo

All the sites aren’t working that were linked in the op?
Or is there a new site?
Just every search I do on google throws up a dead link too...... in case you didn’t know.

Will be popping out with the kids in the near future.

dav09

http://leveluplimerick.com/

Thanks, we had to change to leveluplimerick, hopefully that should work!

XsApollo

XsApollo wrote: »

All the sites aren’t working that were linked in the op?
Or is there a new site?
Just every search I do on google throws up a dead link too...... in case you didn’t know.

Will be popping out with the kids in the near future.

Strictly over 18’s only :-)

Shapey Fiend

Popped in for an hour today. The game selection is good, everything worked and the staff were friendly.

My only criticism is the same one with Barcadia and Token, you can't hear most of the games over the background music and the place needs some curtains/sound absorbing panels cos that many hard surfaces plus pinball equals headache.

banie01

Paid my 1st visit to Level UP last night.

Great staff, great selection of beers and games and even some on free play which is always a bonus.

There is still a lot to be done mainly cosmetic, but the drive and the potential is massive.
Best of luck to Dav09 and all involved with it up there, I really hope the venue gets all the success the effort deserves

dav09

banie01 wrote: »

Paid my 1st visit to Level UP last night.

Great staff, great selection of beers and games and even some on free play which is always a bonus.

There is still a lot to be done mainly cosmetic, but the drive and the potential is massive.
Best of luck to Dav09 and all involved with it up there, I really hope the venue gets all the success the effort deserves

Cheers! We've a lot to do cosmetically yes, particularly down stairs. We have a lot of ideas and some stuff in the works on that side of things. Lots of new machines coming in very shortly too hopefully over the next week or so, added HOTD4, Manx TT over the past 2 days and Daytona 2 too soon. New beers, getting the food up and running are some of the other challenges ahead but glad to have the doors open and things running relatively smoothly.

c.p.w.g.w

dav09 wrote: »

Cheers! We've a lot to do cosmetically yes, particularly down stairs. We have a lot of ideas and some stuff in the works on that side of things. Lots of new machines coming in very shortly too hopefully over the next week or so, added HOTD4, Manx TT over the past 2 days and Daytona 2 too soon. New beers, getting the food up and running are some of the other challenges ahead but glad to have the doors open and things running relatively smoothly.

Ye stocking any locals beers?

dav09

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Ye stocking any locals beers?

Yep of course! On tap we have Treaty City Larger and Treaty City Harris Pale Ale. Also JJ's Garryowen Pale Ale on tap and JJ's bottles, a couple of others on bottle too I believe.

c.p.w.g.w

dav09 wrote: »

Yep of course! On tap we have Treaty City Larger and Treaty City Harris Pale Ale. Also JJ's Garryowen Pale Ale on tap and JJ's bottles, a couple of others on bottle too I believe.

No Treaty City Red?

dav09

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

No Treaty City Red?

I'm not 100% sure on that one, it might be on bottle but I'd have to check.

brianregan09

Was in there last night , really enjoyable relaxed atmosphere in there unfortunately the MK machine was off when we got in there hopefully get's sorted , spent 20 quid on tokens and came home with some and played pretty much everything I wanted to play , Pints were nice too so really can't complain will be back again for sure

dav09

brianregan09 wrote: »

Was in there last night , really enjoyable relaxed atmosphere in there unfortunately the MK machine was off when we got in there hopefully get's sorted , spent 20 quid on tokens and came home with some and played pretty much everything I wanted to play , Pints were nice too so really can't complain will be back again for sure

Great and glad you enjoyed

Apologies about MKII, when I was over yesterday it was working fine, will get it back up and running over the next day or so.

DaveyDave

I see the opening hours are now 1pm midweek, makes it more feasible to drive down from Dublin.

Although I'm a bit concerned about the games I think they've been braking a bit?

c.p.w.g.w

DaveyDave wrote: »

I see the opening hours are now 1pm midweek, makes it more feasible to drive down from Dublin.

Although I'm a bit concerned about the games I think they've been braking a bit?

Know the lad who owns Barcadia in Cork...has similar issue with games breaking dowbn...its mainly people with drink in them being to forceful with games

dav09

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Know the lad who owns Barcadia in Cork...has similar issue with games breaking dowbn...its mainly people with drink in them being to forceful with games

DaveyDave wrote: »

I see the opening hours are now 1pm midweek, makes it more feasible to drive down from Dublin.

Although I'm a bit concerned about the games I think they've been braking a bit?

Its part of the business unfortunately. Mechanical and moving parts break and lots of issues arise for a lot of different reasons. Anything unreliable we tackle, we've taken KI2 and MKII off the floor for probably the next week or so to sort them fully.

Typically have myself or the other engineer on the floor for most of Fri/Sat/Sun to sort issues as they arise, and it typically only takes 5/10 minutes to sort each issue and one of us come in during the week a few times to sort things too.

We've 8 pinballs with loads of moving parts, and nearly 50 machines (including pinballs) in total so we try take things off the floor if they're constantly giving trouble. For the first week or two we had loads of issues, I think i counted 15 machines going down one busy night at the start, but now it's much more stable and usually only 2 or 3 (maybe a bit more busier nights) and almost all are sorted within minutes.

We try to update our list too as much as possible as to what's out on the floor leveluplimerick.com/?page_id=56

Fair play.
I'd say it's soul destroying at times.
Do you have a nice big workshop out the back ?

dav09

BrownFinger wrote: »

Fair play.
I'd say it's soul destroying at times.
Do you have a nice big workshop out the back ?

It can be at times yeah, especially with old boards and different machines being rewired over the years, along with many machines having CRTs which are another pile of fun. Thankfully one of the other lads has much more experience than I and is down usually at some stage each week. We have a very big space in the back for our workshop, probably 10 or 15 machines back there and still only a small part of that space used by those there at the minute, Sega Rally 2, Space Invaders, KI2, MKII and a good few others.

jface187

Going down here on March 7th. Can't wait. Really looking forward. Fair play to all the hard work your doing.

dav09

jface187 wrote: »

Going down here on March 7th. Can't wait. Really looking forward. Fair play to all the hard work your doing.

Thanks very much, it's all in the faith of giving a good experience, something new and fresh down here so hopefully you'll enjoy yourself, still a few bits to be done but mostly there now, mostly good feedback so far which is fantastic.

BuckoA51

Haven't been to Limerick yet now I really want to

Went to Token in Dublin, it was ok but loads of faults with the machines.

The broken Token ?

safetyboy

BrownFinger wrote: »

The broken Token ?

The have there own repair shop next door too lol

I hope these places have plenty of hand sanitiser :eek:

jface187

Level Up had to close at the weekend, they missed out on gamerfest. There back open now, go down and show them some love.

dav09

jface187 wrote: »

Level Up had to close at the weekend, they missed out on gamerfest. There back open now, go down and show them some love.

Cheers for the support, yeah it's a shame but the guys made the decision to close for health and safety to sort things and hoping everything will run smoothly from here. Hand sanitiser and gloves are available I believe, machines were always cleaned regularly in the first place.

BuckoA51

I will definitely pay a visit once this is all over, but nobody can tell how long that may be right now I guess.

dav09

BuckoA51 wrote: »

I will definitely pay a visit once this is all over, but nobody can tell how long that may be right now I guess.

Thanks we'll need as much support as possible really with everything that's happened and it unfortunately doesn't look like any pub will be opening any time soon. We'll have an awful lot of changes by the looks of it when we get back up and running but all for the better.

coffey87

dav09 wrote: »

Thanks we'll need as much support as possible really with everything that's happened and it unfortunately doesn't look like any pub will be opening any time soon. We'll have an awful lot of changes by the looks of it when we get back up and running but all for the better.

Hi dav09, any new games lined up or other changes for when you open back up? Was there a few weeks before the lock down and had a great night

banie01

coffey87 wrote: »

Hi dav09, any new games lined up or other changes for when you open back up? Was there a few weeks before the lock down and had a great night

Not meaning to speak for Dav or any of the Barkade crew
But!
They do a great job of keeping their games and community contact updated on their Social Media.
Insta and FB are always up to date.

On a different but still Barkade related note.

I hope that the team can take advantage of any and all business supports that are put in place.
Hospitality is a difficult enough business without the pandemic.
Barkade really do have a brilliant offering and it was gaining great traction.

When ye reopen, I will be by to spend whatever spare cash I have.

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay hopeful guys!
Until ye re-open!

dav09

coffey87 wrote: »

Hi dav09, any new games lined up or other changes for when you open back up? Was there a few weeks before the lock down and had a great night

Hi there, yes changes planned but we'll probably speak more on that over the coming months as some stuff isn't set in stone. But games wise what I can say is we'll almost definitely replace Daytona 2 with Sega Rally 2, there'll be 7 or 8 games gone and hoping somewhere between 7 and 20 new games coming in depending on how a few things play out with some of the lads involved and what games they already have. We announced Dariusburst (very rare in europe), Atari Supersprint (also very rare) and Sunset riders recently on our socials so they're almost definite, I can see some of our previously announced games from before we opened like Initial D4, maybe Crazy Taxi, Afterburner Climax and Mario Bros potentially making an appearance when we re open but as I said, there's nothing too set in stone yet. Lots of other exciting games too potentially but holding off as I said until we're 100%.

banie01 wrote: »

Not meaning to speak for Dav or any of the Barkade crew
But!
They do a great job of keeping their games and community contact updated on their Social Media.
Insta and FB are always up to date.

On a different but still Barkade related note.

I hope that the team can take advantage of any and all business supports that are put in place.
Hospitality is a difficult enough business without the pandemic.
Barkade really do have a brilliant offering and it was gaining great traction.

When ye reopen, I will be by to spend whatever spare cash I have.

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay hopeful guys!
Until ye re-open!

Cheers Banie hope you're keeping healthy and well! We very much appreciate all of the support you've given us as always, it really goes a long way. And it's a shame yeah as it was really starting to build before this happened and is very hard on all small business, especially one that was only open a few months.

In terms of small business support there really hasn't been a whole lot of additional support offered by the government unfortunately it seems, I assumed with quantitative easing measure in place (which typically devalues assets + money in turn) grants would have become available here like in the UK and many European countries but for the moment there's not a whole lot of new schemes, a small few aimed at employee wages and retail but very little in the hospitality sector. Most of the support offered has been in forms of loans which just replaces debts with slightly easier debts, holding out hope the government might release something shortly. If not, maybe looking at some of the pre-existing initiatives might be an idea. As with every business, either way we'll probably have to get some cashflow over the next few months if this really prolongs into late this year and next year but we've a few ideas around this. The good thing is there's a good team involved with everyone going above and beyond at the minute so we'll do whatever we can like most businesses, everyone's in the same boat really.

As for the social media, cheers! I'm mostly just keeping things ticking over for the minute, potentially might start live streaming from the Arcade at some point too as it'd be unique and would give people something different to watch. I've tried to keep content going like suggesting new games and stuff to keep people occupied, encouraging interaction, etc.

Thanks again, definitely looking forward to being back whenever that might be!

BuckoA51

I noticed the National Videogame Arcade in UK had started a crowdfunder to keep it ticking over until it can open again, maybe something like that would help?

dav09

BuckoA51 wrote: »

I noticed the National Videogame Arcade in UK had started a crowdfunder to keep it ticking over until it can open again, maybe something like that would help?

Thanks, and it certainly would yeah. Had it have happened in a years time we most likely would have been much better off but right now we've quite a few bills being a new business, loans, creditors, etc to meet even if some of our costs are obviously halted. We'd be okay in the short term probably but if this goes on months and months like it looks then we'll have to raise cash for cashflow somehow.

We ran a crowdfunder at the start before we were opened and were met with quite a bit of backlash, unfortunately. It was cancelled and people were refunded. People didn't seem to understand the concept too well and was portrayed by some like "we were asking for money", eventhough there were rewards offered at the time for backers. It certainly would be something we could try again but I would worry we wouldn't be backed or for backlash.

All suggestions are much appreciated, if anyone has any more we're open ears. Some ideas we have been working on have been Merch or potentially live streaming from the arcade and one or two other ideas while we're closed, but either way we'll probably need something it looks to survive in the long run since this isn't going away anytime soon.

One of the pinball arcades in the states dd a fund raiser to PAY staff because they were closed.
They have thousands worth of pinball machines sitting there......
Didnt go down to well with the community and rightly so.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gofundme-for-logan-arcade

o1s1n

Eejits, it would have been so simple for them to do up vouchers.

Few places I frequent have done just that and I've been only too happy to support them. (My local bar is selling bar tabs at 50% discount for example)

johnnyryan89

dav09 wrote: »

Thanks, and it certainly would yeah. Had it have happened in a years time we most likely would have been much better off but right now we've quite a few bills being a new business, loans, creditors, etc to meet even if some of our costs are obviously halted. We'd be okay in the short term probably but if this goes on months and months like it looks then we'll have to raise cash for cashflow somehow.

We ran a crowdfunder at the start before we were opened and were met with quite a bit of backlash, unfortunately. It was cancelled and people were refunded. People didn't seem to understand the concept too well and was portrayed by some like "we were asking for money", eventhough there were rewards offered at the time for backers. It certainly would be something we could try again but I would worry we wouldn't be backed or for backlash.

All suggestions are much appreciated, if anyone has any more we're open ears. Some ideas we have been working on have been Merch or potentially live streaming from the arcade and one or two other ideas while we're closed, but either way we'll probably need something it looks to survive in the long run since this isn't going away anytime soon.

There's a new thing set up called lean on me, there's already a few businesses in Limerick that are set up on it and selling vouchers for when they reopen like Tony Clarke's, Bobby Byrne's and Figaro's.

I liked the crowdfunder y'all did as you got good value for your money with some of the rewards that were on offer.

o1s1n

o1s1n wrote: »

Eejits, it would have been so simple for them to do up vouchers.

Few places I frequent have done just that and I've been only too happy to support them. (My local bar is selling bar tabs at 50% discount for example)

The big romance ?
I know some people with massive tabs.......:D

o1s1n

BrownFinger wrote: »

The big romance ?
I know some people with massive tabs.......:D

Jaysus that was quite the guess!

I hope they have enough beer left to fulfil all these tabs :eek:

dav09

We finally settled on LeanOnMe for raising some of the funds to help get us back up and running, reshuffled some stuff around too to have us in a better position on relaunch and to make sure we'll be back. Big changes coming for sure.

One of those big changes will be announced this evening on our socials so keep an eye out.

*Content Removed On Request*

Thanks!

brianregan09

SO what happened with this lads i see there is new owners now

dav09

brianregan09 wrote: »

SO what happened with this lads i see there is new owners now

Some changes but the majority of the same owners and opened fully under new management. We spent some of the time during Covid closure fully finishing everything, launching new cocktail/bar/food menus, bringing lots of new games, making it fully wheelchair accessible (incl our lift), finishing the kitchen and the what felt like 1000s of other jobs so we're finally fairly happy where we're at. Have been down every day for the past few months so glad we're back running again after hard work

Shapey Fiend

I was in here with the young lad last Sunday and it's excellent. It's got a bit of a Bury Arcade Club vibe about it now they've got various modern Japanese arcades you'd never typically see in the west. Groove Rider, Taiko No Tatujin, that one with the circle you hit I can't remember the name of.. A couple of interesting lightgun games like Elevator Action Death Parade. That game where you have to flip a dinner table Cho Chabudai Gaeshi. Small but high quality pinball selection. Loads of classics.

Everything I played worked great. There were a couple of machines down but nothing much.

Staff were incredibly friendly and the pint I had was tasty as well.

dav09

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

I was in here with the young lad last Sunday and it's excellent. It's got a bit of a Bury Arcade Club vibe about it now they've got various modern Japanese arcades you'd never typically see in the west. Groove Rider, Taiko No Tatujin, that one with the circle you hit I can't remember the name of.. A couple of interesting lightgun games like Elevator Action Death Parade. That game where you have to flip a dinner table Cho Chabudai Gaeshi. Small but high quality pinball selection. Loads of classics.

Everything I played worked great. There were a couple of machines down but nothing much.

Staff were incredibly friendly and the pint I had was tasty as well.

Cheers! And that game was the amazing Maimai, a few less pins than before + yeah there were a few machines down Sunday as myself and one of the lads spent the day down the back getting 6 or 7 back working again and ready for the floor to swap them. It's a shame we had to close as we were hoping to do a good re-fresh of the games gradually with some new ones but I suppose we can probably still do that now during the next few weeks anyway while closed.

Thanks again for the nice words delighted you enjoyed and a great compliment to have it somewhat compaired to Arcade Club Bury (which I still haven't visited somehow, trip got cancelled in March and it'll be a while yet I'd say)