Local gamer ‘Nutt’ attempts to recreate the feel of old-school arcades

By Mike Nolan

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Gene Nutt used to drive more than an hour from his hometown of New London, Mo., to the nearest mall to do what he loved most: play video games. Fast-forward a couple decades and Nutt has turned a childhood passion into a livelihood and is attempting to bring the dying breed of arcades back to life in Lawrence.

As the owner of Game Nut, 844 Massachusetts St., Nutt’s attempt at recreating the feel of a video game arcade turned into a reality during the past six months.

Nutt entered the video game industry in 1990 working at Software Etc., a now obsolete video game chain. He then worked in management at EB Games before realizing he could go into business for himself.

“After watching someone else do something for long enough, you learn how to do it yourself,” Nutt said. “It’s simple, buy low and sell high.”

photo

Photo by Mindy Ricketts

breakbox

Gamer Loft

844 Massachusetts St.

Hours:

M-F 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m

Sunday 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Rates;

$3.99 for 1 hour

$9.99 for 3 hours

$30 for 1 year membership includes reduced rates.

Three years ago, he left Topeka for Lawrence and opened his own store. When he purchased the property three years ago, he planned to turn the second floor into a video game lounge. He also sold pre-owned merchandise and collected obscure video game artifacts.

In December 2007, Nutt opened the Gamer Loft on the second floor of his store. The loft features 14 HD TVs equipped with every video game console ever sold. Gamers play anything from the original Nintendo, released in 1985, to Playstation 3, released last year. Nutt offers a snack bar to keep gamers refreshed as they compete in video games. He said most of the gamers were men ages 18 to 25.

Nutt said he did not intend to make a profit with the Gamer Loft, but wanted to give gamers a place where they could play together like he did in the arcades.

“I grew up in arcades,” Nutt said. “They do not really exist anymore and there has been nothing to replace them. I just wanted to try and bring it back.”

As the host, Nutt does not compete with the gamers who come to the Gamer Loft, or participate in any gaming tournaments.

“It wouldn’t be fair if I went up there and schooled everyone,” Nutt said.

Nutt said places like the Gamer Loft existed on the East and the West Coasts, but in the Midwest there was nothing like it. Nutt said that if he could play host to national gaming tournaments at his store, people from neighboring states would drive hours to participate.

He said online gaming reenergized him for playing new video games. New games feature online gaming, where players around the world compete against each other in popular games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3.

Nutt’s next step is to try and link gamers at the Gamer Loft with other gaming communities around the nation and be a host site for national tournaments.

When he is not attending to other gamers at the Gamer Loft or working downstairs in his store, Nutt is a married father of three girls. He said being a family man forced him to balance his gaming time with family time, but still found time to continue gaming.

Nutt said he played Atari when he was a kid and Asteroids was his favorite game. Today he owns an Xbox 360, which he uses to play popular first person shooter titles such as Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3.

“I just want to shoot stuff,” Nutt said.

— Edited by Rustin Dodd

Comments

phoenix (anonymous) says...

Awww. I thought it was gonna be an actual arcade with old-school games. I need to get my Street Fighter fix.

June 5, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

elsmacko (anonymous) says...

Sorry, but that's a terrible line to end this article with.

But the place sounds fantastic. I've been wondering if Lawrence could support an actual arcade. I guess this is reasonably close enough, but I'd like to get my street fighter fix as well.

June 6, 2008 at 4:23 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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