An Arcade for the ‘90s : Wizardrome Lets Kids Try Out the Latest in Video Games, and There’s Something for the Parents Too--the Players Use Earphones

It could have been a parent’s worst nightmare.

Picture 16 young boys gathered in one room playing 16 different video games.

Then imagine the cacophony of computer-generated music and sound effects as this youthful band of video warriors bash, annihilate, evade and gobble up their on-screen enemies.

Forget that scenario.

This is Wizardrome, a kinder, gentler video game entertainment center where video-game enthusiasts can play all the latest Nintendo, Turbo Grafx and Sega Genesis games on all the latest equipment, a place where parents can carry on a civil conversation--a place where the players wear earphones.

At Wizardrome on this particular Saturday afternoon, the atmosphere is almost as peaceful as a library’s, with the soothing sound of the easy-listening music on the radio punctuated only by an occasional outburst of video-charged youthful exuberance:

“I passed it! I passed the second level!”

And:

“Oh-h-h! I got to kill the guy!”

Welcome to what may be the future of video game-playing outside the home, a place industry sources say may be the first of its kind in the country.

Inside the 1,800-square-foot game area are seven large round tables, each bearing four 19-inch video monitors. There are 12 monitors for Nintendo play, eight for Sega Genesis and eight for Turbo Grafx.

A timer on the wall behind the game checkout counter controls the time on the monitors, allowing either a half-hour ($4) or an hour ($7) of play.

During the allotted time, customers can play as many games as they want. You don’t like playing Bonk’s Adventure on Turbo Grafx? Turn it in for Super Mario 3 on Nintendo or Michael Jackson’s Moon Walker on Genesis.

There are nearly 300 games to choose from, and also some games and equipment not readily available in this country, such as Super Grafx (an NEC game system used in Japan) and Sega Mega Drive games (Japanese games that may be released as Genesis games in this country).

There is even a 48-inch big-screen TV near the front of the store to play games in full stereo.

And there’s not a coin slot in sight.

In fact, don’t even utter the word arcade to owner David Scott. To him, it’s a word that conjures up visions of noisy, dimly lit caverns with cigarette-dragging denizens milling about.

Parents find the relatively quiet family atmosphere of Wizardrome so agreeable, in fact, that many don’t even drop off their kids. Rather, they stick around to have a soda at the snack bar overlooking the game area or they read the newspaper or write letters. One mother who shows up with her son every Sunday even uses this “quiet time” to balance her checkbook.

Only another parent--aware of what children like and what parents don’t--could have designed such a place.

“The idea is to keep it quiet,” said Scott, 36, who, with his wife, Debra, is the parent of two boys. Without the noise-containing earphones, “I couldn’t handle all the noise all the time,” he says.

David is an American Airlines pilot who works at Wizardrome on his days off. Debra puts in 60 hours a week at the business, which they opened in June.

As David Scott sees it, the concept is great for parents: Their children can try out different video games without an investment of $50 or more in a game that they could end up not liking.

It’s also beneficial to the game manufacturers, David Scott said, “because they get to show off the newer equipment” to potential customers. “Looking through plate glass at a Toys R Us doesn’t really do it.”

Added Debra Scott: “It’s a great way for parents to judge one system against the other, to see which graphics they like better. Rather than just seeing the commercial on TV, they can see for themselves and decide.”

It was as parents that David and Debra Scott got the idea for Wizardrome. Sons, Cy, now 11, and Christopher, now 9, discovered Nintendo in 1988, and last Christmas helped pay for a Turbo Grafx system, which boasts of highly sophisticated graphics and colors.

David Scott was amazed by how far video game technology had come since he had played Space Invaders and Pong back in the late ‘70s.

“You can’t imagine what’s coming out,” he said. “I wouldn’t buy anything if I was a parent. The minute they buy anything, it’ll be old in six months.”

David Scott figured other parents shared his unwillingness to spend a small fortune on new games and equipment. As for starting a business, their first, he said: “It’s one of those things: We had an idea and said, ‘Let’s go with it.’ ”

The high-tech Wizardrome is situated in the low-tech Jamestown Village, a folksy shopping center built in old Tustin in the late ‘50s.

Housed in what was once the Tustin Playhouse, the center still has the original brick fireplace, pine paneling and log beam ceiling, and there is even a potbellied stove near the front window. The stove and the fireplace, however, are not just for show. Although Wizardrome is air-conditioned, Scott said, it is not heated.

In fact, Wizardrome, which also sells games and equipment, is a true family business. Christopher and Cy help out, working behind the counter and giving players game tips. “I couldn’t do it without them,” Debra Scott said.

Although the Scotts advertise in the Recycler, their most effective advertising seems to be word-of-mouth.

That word has already reached Video Games and Computer Entertainment magazine, which will run a story about Wizardrome in its December issue.

“Wizardrome is very different than the typical arcade because of its use of home gaming machinery,” said Arnie Katz, computer entertainment editor for the magazine. Katz also is president of Katz Kunkel Worley Inc., a Las Vegas-based company that provides design and consulting services to the computer and video game industry.

Katz noted that in the mid-’80s, Atari briefly had a small group of stores called Atari Adventure, where people could play Atari games on Atari equipment.

Wizardrome, however, is “not wedded to any (one) company’s hardware or software products,” Katz said. “They can offer all machines and all products and really provide a much better mix of stuff than Atari was able to provide.”

Wizardrome, Katz said, “is a nice, original idea, and everybody’s watching him closely to see how he goes.”

One of the Scotts’ goals is to keep up with the latest in video game technology.

For example, Super Famicom, the new high-tech Nintendo system, will not be available in this country for at least a year, but the Scotts plan to purchase it for Wizardrome shortly after it is released in Japan in November. And NEC, the company that makes the Turbo Grafx system, loaned the Scotts 10 unreleased games for an in-store competition in September. “NEC is very supportive of what we’re doing,” David Scott said.

They also plan to buy Neo Geo, an arcade system that has been translated into a home entertainment format in Japan, as soon as it is available in this country. The system alone will sell for about $550, Scott said, and the games will be about $200 apiece.

And that’s the appeal of Wizardrome to customers such as 9-year-old Garrett Greiwe.

“I think it’s good because you can experience playing games that maybe your parents aren’t going to let you go out and buy,” Garrett said.

Twelve-year-old Mike Jay, who owns about 70 video games of his own, nevertheless praises Wizardrome’s “very large selection of games.”

“If you’re thinking about buying a game you can try it before,” Mike said. “If you don’t like it, you’re not disappointed. I’ve bought games before, and they’ve been super easy and so they’re boring after a while. And they have the Japanese games, which you can’t get here in America.”

Not all of the Scott’s customers are school-age children, however.

One day recently, a 28-year-old man was waiting at the door when Debra Scott arrived to open up at 11. He selected Nobunga’s Ambition, a Nintendo strategy game that puts the player in the middle of 16th-Century Japan’s bloody civil war.

Debra Scott said the man played from 11 a.m. until nearly 8 p.m., stopping only to buy two sodas and a pack of Rollos.