What do you think the viability is of this business idea, and do you have any suggestions to add to it?

So an idea for a business occurred to me. As my generation (I’m 26 now) grows older and becomes the core of the work force/money makers, things we had as we were growing up will become more valuable or sought after. I know for example that I really enjoy old school Nintendo/Sega/etc games. I thought to myself, man it would be great if there were a place you could go to play these games. They can still be found on the internet, but it usually requires ordering offline, paying a sometimes hefty (pending the game) price, and then usually playing alone or with a couple buddies who happen to like the games as much as you (it’s almost like there’s still some kind of stigma with playing old school video games, even though modern games are becoming pretty common place across all social groups).

So I thought, what if I made a business, a “hangout” if you will, that had tons of these old school game systems and games. You could set up “booths” or areas of some kind, with one individual system set up to a TV at them, and let people use the games and play at those booths with their friends or whoever. It would have to be a huge selection of games for a ton of systems. Stuff you can’t get in your regular game stop stores anymore. I’m talking Super Mario Brothers, Zombies ate my Neighbors, duck hunt, street fighter, Zelda… you could even do some old arcade rigs like a pac-man or ninja turtles, turtles in time….

Now I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to “sell” use of the games at your establishment thanks to licensing of the games. But you could sell drinks, food, souvenirs, cigars, etc. You could do a membership or cover fee even (though I would personally shy away from that).

To me that sounds like a great way to spend a night with some friends. Everyone goes out to this place…. Classics is the name that comes to my mind…. get some drinks, a few snacks, maybe a cigar if you’re with the guys, and play some old school games you grew up with.

I know I would go to a place like this, but what do you flutherites think the viability on a business like this is? How would you make it more viable or better? Would you go to a place like this, or know an area that would?