Joystick Junction’s old arcade games offer fun at an affordable price

Tim Harty

The Business Times

If you were adept at evading the ghosts in Ms. Pac-Man, were a champ at jumping the rolling barrels of Donkey Kong, or never met a defender you couldn’t dunk on in NBA Jam …

And you long for the good old days when you mastered all of that in your town’s video-game arcade …

You’re going to want to give Robert Trevino a big ol’ hug. Because he opened a retro arcade, Joystick Junction, that allows you to play a whole bunch of those games from the 1980s and ’90s again in Grand Junction.

Trevino officially opened Joystick Junction with its 30 video-game and four pinball machines on Oct. 16 at 2889 North Ave., Unit 8, in the strip mall just east of Walmart. Among them are the aforementioned games and the likes of Street Fighter II, Frogger, Defender II, Battlezone, Centipede, NFL Blitz and Mortal Kombat.

If you have $12 and a few hours to while away, that fee gets you unlimited play on all of the video games in the arcade. The pinball machines, however, are coin-operated and cost 75 cents per game.

Deciding to open a retro arcade in Grand Junction was easy for Trevino, who moved to Grand Junction last year with his wife, Briana, and two kids.

“I’ve always wanted to own an arcade,” he said. “And we moved up here for my job, and I saw that there was a need for it, and I just took the lead.”

Surprisingly, because the 26-year-old Trevino was only 2 years old when the newest video game in Joystick Junction came out, he is well-versed in old arcade games. Yes, he’s been a gamer since he was little and knows and plays the modern video games, but his parents introduced him to the old stuff, and he was able to play retro games at Cidercade in Houston, Texas.

He loved the simplicity of the games, and at Cidercade he saw how customers reacted to playing the old games. That was front of mind when he moved to Grand Junction and realized it had nothing like Cidercade.

“I just was drawn to it,” Trevino said of Cidercade’s retro games. “I was like, ‘Man, a lot of people are having a good time, and it’s affordable,’ and I kind of want to do that same style, and here we are now.”

That sounded simple, but manifesting the idea was much more of a chore. The retro arcade games are in demand nationwide.

“Definitely, it’s been a journey,” Trevino said. “A lot of these games, I had to go to Denver, Utah, New Mexico. Out of 36 games that I own, I only got one from in town, and that wasn’t even in town; it was like Delta.”

When he started his quest in November 2025, Trevino did not anticipate it would be nearly a year before Joystick Junction opened. He said it took him about six, seven months to get 30-plus arcade machines. Then, he needed to renovate the space, which included creating three small rooms dedicated to specific types of games.

Two of those rooms are occupied, one with three sports games and one with three fighting games. The third room is empty, meaning Trevino has space for a few more games, and that plays into another approach he will take with his business. Trevino said he will always be looking for games to bring in.

Already, customers are telling him what they’d like to see, and he welcomes the feedback.

“Everybody wants a Tekken, the fighting game, so I’m trying to find one,” he said.

In the meantime, he already has a few new games coming, such as Golden Axe and BurgerTime.

“We’re going to do a healthy rotation,” Trevino said. “I’ve got six in the rotation pool, and I’m just gonna keep going up from there, try to get more and more and more.”

Trevino’s efforts have yielded a few gems that aren’t so easy to get, such as Battlezone, a tank game that Joystick Junction has, and a Grand Junction customer was thrilled to learn that.

“This individual said he was going around to all these arcades, and he could never find a Battlezone, and that’s the tank game I got over there,” Trevino said while pointing toward the game. “He was super-excited, and he came and played the game. He’s like, ‘I haven’t played it in over 40 years,’ and he was having a bunch of memory flashbacks and came back the next day and brought his friends, so that was awesome.”

Word of mouth and social media have been working for Trevino as he works to bring in business.

Asked about the turnout so far, he said, “Oh, man! More than I could ask for.” 

Trevino said 50-plus people showed up on the Friday the store opened, and the next day brought 100-plus people. The following weekend, he said, “was even busier than our opening weekend. It’s been awesome.”

And the customers aren’t just adults familiar with the arcade games. It’s also young kids coming to play games they’ve never played before, and it may be their arcade-veteran parents bringing them.

Trevino also is seeing repeat customers, as he said, “Some I’ve already seen three or four times.” The repeat business suggests Joystick Junction will be what Trevino ultimately envisions.

“This is something for Grand Junction,” he said. “That’s why I love asking people what kind of games they want to see here is because it’s YOUR local arcade. So, that’s what I want the community to know is that it’s for them. It’s all for the community.”

Joystick Junction location and hours

Joystick Junction, 2889 North Ave., Unit 8, is open six days per week, closed on Monday. The hours are: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; noon to 11 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.