RAINY DAY AT THE LAKE?

Rainy day at the lake? Play in town!

NNo one likes to think about it, but occasionally, it does rain at Lake Martin in the summertime. When that happens, don’t surrender the grandchildren to their cellphones and screens. Instead, visit a new arcade in Alexander City, one that is dedicated to the classic video game experience of the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s.

Respawn Arcade, Pinball and E-Sports will debut this summer and will feature traditional arcades, skee ball, air hockey, shuffleboard and modern video consoles, said Jessica and

James Duncan, who launched the business last year. Jessica Duncan is a paramedic and EMS instructor at

Southern Union State Community College in Opelika, and her husband, James, has served as a paramedic firefighter with the

Alexander City Fire Department for the last 17 years. They moved to Alexander City about nine years ago, and both are lifelong video game enthusiasts, having had a passion for the hobby since they were children. “We both grew up playing video games, and one of my favorite memories growing up was going into Aladdin’s Castle in the Montgomery mall. Back when I was a kid, I would get five bucks from my mom and go play video games in the arcade,” Duncan said. As a part of their hobby, the couple vintage and retro video games, which Duncan said fueled the initial idea for the arcade. “We collect all genres of games, old and new, just everything, and James found on Facebook several years ago a Mortal

Kombat arcade machine, and he was like ‘I have to play this thing’,” she said. Since that time, the two have collected dozens of video game arcade machines, repairing and housing them in their basement. “I’ve always kept all my video games since I was a kid. I have a hand-me-down Atari, and all throughout the years I’ve kept them. Ever since then, we’ve just been collecting, and if we find them broken or cheap, we get them, sometimes driving three hours away,” James said. Among the more recognizable arcade machines in the

Duncans’ collection are Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Killer

Instinct and Pac Man; however, James plans to house video games from all eras in the new arcade; not just the decades of the late 1900s, but also some of the first gaming consoles created, including the Atari, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

In addition, the Duncans specifically expressed excitement about bringing their favorite hobby to Alexander City, hoping to revitalize an entertainment venue that has been absent in the city since James was a child.

“Other than the bowling alley when I was a kid. There’s been nothing else here. I used to play them in Walmart,” James recalled. “That was where I’d see all the new stuff. Our parents would go shopping, and we would beg for quarters because we couldn’t play that kind of caliber game at the house.”

According to the Duncans, that sentiment seems to be felt by many in Alexander City, adding that community support has been overwhelming, and the prospect is attracting older and younger generations alike.

“Anybody that we talked to about it wants to know more, and it seems like an equal split between people in their 30s and 40s who grew up with these games and ones who have kids and want to do birthday parties or bring them on Saturdays to play,” Duncan noted. “But every single person that we’ve talked to has been excited about it.”

The Duncans are renovating a building along Calhoun Street in downtown Alexander City, where they plan to house the arcade. Among other amenities, they plan to incorporate a snack bar, karaoke machine and birthday area in the building’s layout.

There also are plans to host e-sports tournaments at the arcade, during which professional players, individually or as teams, will compete in multiplayer video games. James said he is particularly interested in organizing tournaments around such gaming franchises as Call of Duty, Madden NFL and Capcom fighting games.

“We’re making a lot of progress, and we’ve been working towards this specific goal for about a year now and are ready to put the wheels in motion,” Duncan said.