In the Game

Call GameWorks a mini-theme park. Call it a high-tech town hall. Call it an interactive nightclub.

Just don’t call it a big, expensive arcade.

The, um . . . venue--a joint project of Sega, Universal Studios and DreamWorks SKG--clearly has aspirations far beyond that of its ancestor, the simple mall arcade. Sure, they share the same basic component--video games, lots of them. But this is the 1990s, so the games reside only steps away from a lounge, restaurant and coffee bar.

At the GameWorks club opening Sunday at the Ontario Mills Retail Center, the decor is decidedly industrial: brick and corrugated steel walls, exposed ducts, wires and beams. And everywhere you turn, there is something to steer, ride or shoot.

During the day, GameWorks is populated by its share of after-school gamers and families who are past the Chuck E. Cheese stage. But at night, the GameWorks “crew” turns down the lights, turns up the music and starts checking IDs.

Jon Snoddy, GameWorks vice president for design, said GameWorks’ target audience is people in their 20s who want to be actively involved in their entertainment. In other words, people who want to do, not just watch.

“There’s a generation of people who are starting to take over the world who grew up with video games,” he said. “Being in control of their entertainment is the kind of thing that drives things like interactive cable.” His mother, he said, is happy with three channels on TV. His kids, by contrast, “want every possibility at their fingertips.”

There are a lot of possibilities at GameWorks--not just video games, but also a batting cage, pool table, air hockey. But at 30,000 square feet, it’s still half the size of Dave & Buster’s, a food and gaming complex that’s been open for four months on the other end of the mammoth Ontario Mills mall.

The two places have a lot of games in common, but their atmospheres are entirely different. If GameWorks is supposed to be a restored factory, Dave & Buster’s is an early 1900s gaming parlor. GameWorks strives to be cutting-edge; D&B; has more billiard tables than virtual reality games. Ontario Mills, though, will be the first place that the two go head to head, competing for twentysomethings with twenty bucks to blow.

Don’t bother hoarding quarters, by the way. Besides the fact that you’d need a lot of them--”Classic” games like Pac-Man cost 50 cents per game; Vertical Reality costs around $4--GameWorks is a cashless universe. There are reverse-ATM stations throughout the place: You put in cash and get back a card.

GameWorks, with already-opened spots in Seattle and Las Vegas, has done its homework. The research showed that: a) young people go out in packs, and b) there aren’t many places for such large groups to go.

Thus, one area of GameWorks, the Arena, has games to play against friends (or strangers), like racing cars, motorcycles or jet skis, for example. The Indy 500 Formula game stacks up eight drivers, and spectators can follow the action on video monitors. The Game Arc runs PC-based games on huge sit-in stations, where--for 50 cents per minute--you can play Redneck Rampage against your neighbors.

Another area called the Loading Dock caters to hard-core gamers. Here, it’s man against the newest machine the industry has to offer. A glance around the Loading Dock in Seattle shows virtual motorcyclists leaning into the curve, skateboarders flipping off ramps and skiers hopping moguls. Snoddy promises that the Dock will get one new game a month. “That’s part of the experience,” Snoddy said. “If you like games, there will always be something new.”

First, though, the new games get a trial run on Universal’s Sound Stage 35, where GameWorks cooks up new ideas, and Steven Spielberg apparently drops in between movie duties. The DreamWorks co-honcho apparently has offered opinions on the design of the club and its signature games, starting with Vertical Reality.

Four Vertical Reality players get strapped into special seats and compete to kill baddies. Whoever hits the most gets boosted into the air--up to 24 feet--and the player farthest from the ground when time runs out wins. (To test the idea, they lifted Snoddy--a former executive with Disney Imagineering--up on a forklift, said creative producer Mark Stutz.)

But if all this shooting and lifting gets overwhelming, patrons can retreat to the Loft. Here, you can get drinks, coffee or gourmet pizza--or sign on to the Internet at scattered computer stations.

To take advantage of everything GameWorks offers, you could have several drinks and then see what it’s like to drive an Indy car under the influence. Or down a few espresso shots and see how quick you get that Virtua Fighter’s fists pumping.

BE THERE

GameWorks is at the Ontario Mills Retail Center in Cucamonga, at the Milliken Drive exit off Interstate 10. Open Sunday-Thursday 10 a.m.-12:30 a.m.; Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-1:30 a.m. (909) 987-4263.