Intercard has recently completed an installation at Corky’s Gaming Bistro in Grapevine, Texas, the latest venture the Neil Hupfauer, who pioneered the family entertainment centre model with his Fun Fest and Main Event centres.
The newly-built Corky’s is a casual venue offering 78 classic arcade games, 12 pinball machines, 4 escape rooms and 10 thrilling axe-throwing lanes. The game mix includes classic cabinet games such as Asteroids, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Missile Command and Pac-Man, plus Attack from Mars, Metallica and Star Wars pinball machines.
Hupfauer, one of the first operators to champion Intercard, has used its cashless technology at Fun Fest and Main Event. He chose Intercard for his new venture because its system can track individual games even when they are set up for timed play, as is the case at Corky’s. Hupfauer says most retro arcades and barcades put their games on quarters or free play. “When it’s a free play, the counter doesn’t keep track of the game, so you don’t know which games are being played,” he says. “With Intercard I can tell which games are popular and I can rotate out the games that are not.”
Corky’s Gaming Bistro opened in August 2018. Hupfauer says the reaction from customers has been “Phenomenal. Just phenomenal.” Of course that’s not surprising for a man who has proved he can pull in customers if they’re looking for fun. Hupfauer continues to work as the interim chief operating officer at Cinergy Entertainment, and Cinergy CEO Jeff Benson is a private investor in Corky’s.