Riverscape Arcade the place to be in Sunriver for the Retro Arcade experience.
Want to visit a cool 1980’s retro arcade? While visiting Sunriver, Oregon, we discovered a retro arcade called Riverscape Arcade, that specialized in restored 1980s arcade games. For the past several years our family has dreamed of building a shop on the property that would house our business, art studio, automotive shop, radio shack, tools and equipment, and a retro arcade.
This year I had the wood and truss order in hand and was about to buy the supplies to finally build our dream shop. However, the previous years of hard work on the homestead had taken their toll, I did not realize the extent of injury I had endured. The heavy lifting, the twisting, the falling on ice, and then finally this past June my knee gave out. I thought I could power through the pain, but I was down and realized the construction of my shop could never be accomplished while I was lame and unable to walk without a cane or crutches. The dream shop once again fade from view as I headed toward knee surgery.
During the brief time before the knee surgery, my wife’s family was having a long awaited family reunion in Sunriver, Oregon. I decided to go, knowing my knee was not getting better without surgery. We drove from North Idaho to Central Oregon and while in the Village at Sunriver, my wife, son and I noticed a retro arcade with many beautifully restored machines from the 1980s.
My son with two of his cousins, two uncles, and myself, made an evening ride on our bikes to the arcade. We spent the last remaining hour closing up the shop and with the entire arcade mostly to ourselves being in the middle of the week. The cousins, my son, and I we’re quickly morphed into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 4 player game and continued to battle the enemy Shredder and his henchmen for 20 minutes, then we separated to explore other games before closing.
It was a fun night in which the dad’s could play their old arcade games with their sons and also let them explore our past when we were their age. After closing, we rode our bikes as a youthful pack to the vacation home.
Just a week ago, after my knee surgery with my leg propped up and iced. I looked through the videos I had made and decided to make a video about Riverscape Arcade. I decided to contact the company via email and left them my number to call if they were interested in talking. John Teagarden the owner, gave me a call back and I was able to hear an amazing story about how John started Riverscape Arcade a year ago and to hear his plans for the future. Riverscape Custom Builds is already launched and John is now taking orders for custom built bar top arcades. After visiting Riverscape, I was amazed that hundreds of 1980s games could be loaded on John’s custom builds and the fun of the retro arcade can be brought home. All the games I plunked in quarters from recycled bottles and cans I cashed in when I was a kid can now be mastered either at Riverscape or in my own home with a custom build.
As mentioned in the video, Sunriver is truly an amazing place with so much to do. I was limited by my knee, but what made it possible for me to even bicycle was renting a pedal assist electric bicycle from a place across the street from the village. The electric pedal assist bicycle took the pressure from using my injured knee and allowed my functioning knee to do the work required to get the electric motor to spring to life. The electric bicycle allowed me to keep up with the family and even keep ahead of them on the hills. I was considering converting my bicycle into an electric bike, but now my physical therapy requires the work without the electric assist.
After reflecting on the trip, we had an amazing time and renewed the healthy connections with my wife’s family again after a six year hiatus from our last trip to Sunriver.
If you want to see more about our journey to Central Oregon, visit our post titled, “Vacation Destination the Last Blockbuster?“
Living a Sustainable Dream 