Massive Vintage Pinball and Video Game Arcade is Opening This Week

Set your Apple watches: We've got an opening date on Quarterworld, Portland's giant new 4,000 square foot video and pinball palace that pinball impresario Phil Ragaway is opening up in the old Alhambra Theatre on Hawthorne Boulevard.

It's Friday, April 8. At 3 pm.

Quarterworld be open every day but Monday, until 1 am on weekdays and 2 am weekends, and will be all ages until 8 pm.

"We've got a lot of my all time favorites," says Ragaway. "Black Hole [pinball], which is beautifully old school, a nicely restored classic—one of the first audio games. I've got four skee balls, basketball, Snocross, Time Crisis, it's just awesome. To see that many games in one room is just jaw dropping. All the juices are flowing, the beer's moving, I'm licensed up, pedigreed and signed off."

Like the Alhambra, Quarterworld will have two sides—a lounge and a main-event area. The larger space that housed the venue will have multiple walls of pinball machines, and large islands of arcade consoles.

"You go to the right, you're in the Q Lab, the mad scientist laboratory—that's all ages till 8 o clock, then its 21 and over," says Ragaway. "You go to the left—there's games in the Q Lounge, a comfy, cozy loungy area, very original to what it was but more accommodating. The games there are all set up in a way that they're multiplayer."

That side will serve beer, cater only to adults and feature head-to-head games like Boxer and Pac Man Battle Royale, "a vicious game of Pac Man where you eat the other Pac Men—it's a Thunderdome of Pacmen. The goal is to kill your opponents. Loser buys the next round."

Food will be made by Alan and Stacie Torres, the people behind The Baowry in St. Johns. In addition to their trademark banh mi and Chinese bao sandwiches, Quarterworld will serve artisan-style pizzas, deep fried burritos, deviled eggs, house-made cotton candy—what Ragaway calls "glorified, exaggerated carnie food."

Willamette Week