Mukwonago (muck-wanna-go), Wisconsin is a village near Milwaukee, with a population of fewer than 9000, and allegedly, home to America’s best apple pie. At 715 Main Street, there’s a building labeled Kay’s Academy of Dance — but if you’re not interested in learning the Fox Trot, go around back and you’ll find Vintage Vault Arcade!
Admission is $20 for all-day access, and they’re currently open Friday through Sunday, 12 noon til 10pm. (They do have expanded weekday hours during summer.) Upon entry, you’ll pay at a small table, and all games are on free play or have credit buttons.
At first glance, the arcade may seem a bit nondescript; Vintage Vault has white walls, a large VV logo, and standard overhead lighting. None of the “retro arcade” tropes — blacklighting, black walls, ’80s bric-a-brac — to be found here. But that matters not at all: when the arcade is this full of great games in excellent working condition all rocking and rolling, thete’s no need to try as hard as some of those other places. I’d estimate around 100-150 video and pinball machines, filling the space with their own inherently magical aesthetic.
As I visit various arcades around the country, I’ve realized that a list of criteria by which I evaluate them has naturally formed in my mind. First is what I call the “baseline:” Your stone-cold classics which form the strong foundation for any arcade. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Joust, Defender, Q*bert, Frogger — you know, the games everyone knows. Gotta have them. Next is the rarities: What unusual or rare games do they have that you don’t see every day, or perhaps you’ve never heard of, either old or new? Unique offerings for the more seasoned enthusiast? Finally, there’s the condition and working order: Are the games beat-up, in good original condition, restored to mint? How many games are out of order (there are always some), do any of them have trouble starting up, do all the controls work well, how do the monitors look?
Vintage Vault pretty much knocks it out of the park on all counts. Yep, your casual-gaming friends who you dragged to the arcade can enjoy Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man while you check out Ninja Baseball Bat-Man and Dragon Saber, and they all look and play beautifully. Only a couple machines were down, and I didn’t notice any major issues with monitors or controls.
In addition to tons of original classics, a nice selection of ’90s JAMMA games are in store, many of them in cabinets decked out in custom art packages. I’m seeing more and more of this in arcades, and I really enjoy seeing the creativity that arcade operators are bringing to their custom cabs.
As usual, I have to point out some of the more interesting games on the floor of Vintage Vault. One of the first pieces that caught my eye was this cabaret-sized Satan’s Hollow. Although I used to own a full-sized upright Satan’s Hollow, I’ve never seen the cabaret model before!
Right next to that is a Mission Craft. I had to look this one up on Moby Games while I was standing in front of it: released in 2000, Mission Craft is a vertical shmup that uses graphics from StarCraft and music from WarCraft II. Developed by Sun Amusement (not to be confused with Sun Corporation, aka Sunsoft), a company that released one other game in 2000 (Mr. Dig) and has little to no other information available about them. Definitely an obscurity, and I’ve never played Star- or WarCraft, but this was actually a pretty fun shootemup, modeled strongly after the Psikyo style (Strikers 1945, GunBird, etc).
Nestled in their Williams row was a Mystic Marathon machine, which I had never played before either. In MM, you control a…Goblin? Troll? Elf? I’m not really sure…in a footrace through a fantasy setting. As bulletproof as most Williams games are, Mystic Marathon stands out as kind of a stinker. The graphics are decidedly ugly, and for being a “race” game, the gameplay is sluggish and frustrating. Unfortunately, I kept playing it because it turned out I was pretty good at it and kept winning races. At least the cabinet is attractive!
I also got to check out Contra: Evolution, the 2010 mobile phone game that was ported to arcades in 2011. A remake of the original Contra, it definitely feels like…well, a 2010 mobile phone game, with detailed, hi-def graphics but awful control. It’s pretty bad, but an interesting curiosity. Fortunately, a Super Contra machine lives right next door to cleanse the palate.
Getting away from disappointing games, though, I had a blast with some of my favorites like Smash TV and Robotron (always gotta play both, and actually put up some of my best Robotron scores here), Donkey Kong, Galaga 3, and Bank Panic. It was great to play Battlezone for the first time in many years, and I got to suck at Major Havok.
As I said years ago in a post about visiting different types of arcades, modern “retro” arcades all have different approaches. Vintage Vault really has that old-school neighborhood arcade feel, the kind of place you’d bike to with your buddies on a summer afternoon in the ’80s to waste away the day beating each other’s high scores. And I LOVE that. It’s a vibe that’s missing from the barcade chains like Up-Down or Draftcade.
Vintage Vault can be booked for private parties and occasionally run pinball tournaments and other special events. I think I saw somewhere that they even offer repair services for your own arcade machines, which is SUPER cool! The owner posts frequently on the VV Facebook page about machine repairs and maintenance, events, and news, so all the latest updates can be found there.
The only thing I can think of to suggest is that they make t-shirts of their cool VVA logo available. I would proudly rock that.
I’ve actually been itching to get back to Vintage Vault since I visited, so I would love for it to become a semi-regular destination for me (I’m about an hour and 45 minutes away). It’s a really solid arcade and deserves your patronage, so please support them!
Next time I’m in town, though, I’m also gonna check out that apple pie.
Vintage Vault Arcade
715 Main Street, Suite 200
Mukwanago, WI 53149
(262) 378-3079
facebook.com/vintagevaultarcade
Open Fri, Sat, Sun 12-10
Summer weekday hours may vary
No drinks or snacks sold, but patrons are welcome to bring their own
Small outdoor seating area
Free parking in lot