WORCESTER, Mass. — Virtually every arcade game and pinball machine in a pizza parlor from the 1980s have made their way to Union Street. 

They’re the main attraction at Free Play Bar & Arcade, a 21+ arcade with a full bar complete with arcade themed drinks such as “Pac-Man Punch” and the “Princess Peach,” the latter of which is concocted from Ciroc peach vodka, peach Schnapps and soda water with a splash of cranberry and grapefruit juice.

The bar-cade is the second of its kind opened by co-owners Jay Leone and Anthony Santurri. The duo opened the first Free Play Bar & Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2017.

Leone is an electrical engineer who began collecting arcade games as a hobby about 12 years ago — and being an engineer, he knows how to repair them.

Leone approached Santurri, a longtime friend and bar owner, with the idea of opening a retro bar-cade after he noticed similar establishments opening up across the country.

“I kept accumulating so many of them, and this bar-arcade idea was sweeping the country; on the West Coast before the East, so I saw this coming, and I talked to Anthony and I said ‘Anthony, we should look into this,’” said Leone. 

Free Play Bar & Arcade in Worcester was initially set to open right as the pandemic hit in March of 2021, when Santurri and Leone had nearly finished obtaining all their permits and licenses from the city.

“We started leasing this place in 2019, and we were finished in March of 2020,” said Leone. “So, what you are seeing here has basically stood in time for about a year and a half.”

The grand opening took place 16 months later than expected from July 29 through 31 of this year. For a cover charge of $10 on the weekends and $7 during the week, you can play 130 retro video games for free.

Leone said he chose a free-play format because “once you’ve exhausted those tokens, it’s hard to get people to stick around.”

The arcade includes timeless classics like Pac Man and Galaga, and some of the games lined along the back wall are organized by decade. The section starts with Robotron Defender and Joust from the 80s and transitions into some of the fighting games from the early 90s like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Tekken 3. 

In the middle of the arcade are a series of driving games such as Artic Thunder x2, Hydro Thunder and Crazy Taxi. There are also three skee ball lanes, 18 pinball machines and two air hockey tables. 

Santurri said that eventually, he and Leone plan on opening an 80s and 90s dance studio attached to the bar-cade, similar to the studio they presently have in their Providence location. 

“Here in Worcester, we want to duplicate that,” said Santurri. “So, we have an expanded space that we are just shelling out right now and we are going to bring that in the future, hopefully in the fall.”