Remember arcades? Quarters stacked high on long rows of big clunky machines with classic titles- Frogger, PacMan, Qbert, Zaxxon, Space Invaders, and a few pinball machines.
Well, except for a few beach town boardwalks, most arcades are gone. The reason they went away? Home video game systems got so good that dropping a quarter for each play seemed like a horribly dumb idea. And yes, hooking game systems up to a high-speed web connection brought some degree of socialization back to the gaming experience, but ultimately, it was still just you sitting there in your boxers by yourself staring at the tube.
Enter "Virtual Rush." Some people join tennis clubs, some join country clubs- well this is like a club for gamers. Your monthly membership fee gets you access to tons of high-powered computers and a load of consoles, controllers, and flat screens. The games are all linked to each other so you can do a little in-house butt whooping, and they're also hooked up to the web, so you can open up a can on strangers around the planet too.
The average member here is a guy in his 20's, but they have members of all ages. Their 5000 members come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes, their moms drop them off. The manager at Virtual Rush says, while they have violent games (Gears of War 2, Mirror Image, Tekken, etc) they do NOT stock games that promote violence against women or other blatantly over-the-top titles. So while you can come in here to start a Guitar Hero band, you CAN'T come here to play Grand Theft Auto.
Virtual Rush is located in a small strip mall on the south side of the Granite Run Mall in Media, Delaware County. Check their site for hours, prices, and policies. Happy gaming- and don't forget to stretch out those thumbs before and after gaming- you don't want to sprain those little guys.
