Arcades, pinball & oddball play in Denver
12 arcades and oddball play spots in Denver, The Monkey Barrel, Ante Up and The Lyric among them. Pinball basements, vintage cabinets, mini golf with a grudge — competitive, cheap and better than dinner for a first date. They spread across Sunnyside, South Platte / Overland, Fort Collins, Westminster and 8 more areas, so two or three can make a whole afternoon. Every entry is hand-vetted against real sources — not scraped off a top-ten list or averaged out of crowd ratings.
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The Monkey Barrel
From the corner of Tejon in Sunnyside it looks like any other neighborhood building, but inside is a music-and-arcade clubhouse: a Nintendo 64 bolted into every booth, a room full of pinball, and walls of memorabilia signed by Nirvana, the Beastie Boys, Shepard Fairey and more. It's a born-again punk bar — the original got pushed off Platte Street by a developer, and regulars rebuilt it here in 2016 down to the Wreck-It-Ralph shelf from the old spot. Denver officially named it a Legacy Business, which is the city's way of admitting the place matters more than its plain exterior lets on. Thursday open-mic comedy is usually free.
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Ante Up
Opened January 2026 by a husband-and-wife team, Ante Up is a totally substance-free all-ages punk/hardcore/emo space on a stretch of S Platte River Drive nobody drives down on purpose. No booze, no drugs, no smoke — and every show doubles as a donation drive (the opening night pulled ~300 people and 200 food items for Lakewood's Action Center). There's a greenroom with donated couches, a pool table, and an arcade machine, which tells you exactly what kind of place it's trying to be: a clubhouse, not a bar.
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The Lyric
The Lyric is a genuine Fort Collins oddity: a locally owned cinema-bar-music venue that screens cult classics and indie films on three indoor screens plus a towering outdoor screen, hosts circus performers and comedy nights, and whose sprawling back lot has grown into the city's largest sculpture garden since the Swetsville Zoo closed — filled with kaleidoscope towers, welded metal creatures, and found-object art. The full bar, counter-service restaurant, pinball machines, and couch seating in the main theater make it feel more like a weird living room than a multiplex.
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Akihabara Arcade and Bar
Akihabara is built around imported Japanese 'candy cabinets' you almost never see stateside, leaning into fighters, shmups, rhythm games, and racing titles, with many cabinet menus still in Japanese. There's a full bar with craft beer and mixed drinks alongside console setups, so it plays more like a slice of an Akihabara game center than a typical American barcade. It opened in 2016 and stays open late into the early morning.
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The 1Up Arcade Bar - Colfax
The Colfax 1Up is the largest of Denver's 1Up arcade bars and packs in one of Colorado's biggest collections under one roof: 90-plus classic arcade cabinets, around 30 pinball machines, and six skee-ball lanes. The walls are covered in retro game memorabilia and custom murals, and it regularly hosts IFPA-endorsed pinball tournaments. It's a full bar (12 taps plus cocktails) and strictly 21-and-up, so the games come with drinks rather than tokens-and-pizza kid energy.
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Colorado Pinball Pub
This is a pinball-and-whiskey hybrid, pairing a wall of pinball and classic arcade games with a deep 200-plus whiskey list and craft cocktails. It runs leagues and tournaments and skews more grown-up than a family game room, going 21-plus after 11pm. The combination of serious flipper time and a serious back bar is what sets it apart from the metro's other arcades.
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Secret Level Arcade & Bar
Secret Level is an 80s-soaked arcade bar in walkable Olde Town Arvada, mixing pinball and retro cabinets with neon-era decor and a full bar. It stays all-ages with a rotating pinball lineup and a weekday happy hour (2-5pm), then ramps up the cocktails, craft beer, and DJ and tournament nights after dark. The Olde Town setting lets you pair gaming with a stroll past the district's shops and restaurants.
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SomePlace Else Brewery
SomePlace Else is a dog-friendly 'brewcade' that has paired house-brewed beer with a mostly vintage pinball lineup and skee-ball since 2016. Plays run cheap, from a quarter for skee-ball up to about a dollar on the pinball machines, and it hosts IFPA-ranked tournaments on alternating Mondays. The vibe is easygoing and local, with a competitive edge for anyone who wants it.
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HD Escape Rooms
HD's escape rooms are built into the basement of an actual 1889 Denver mansion, in the space where a real Prohibition-era speakeasy once operated (the original bootlegging tunnels are still part of the lore). The setting is genuine historic architecture, not a soundstage, and the puzzles and props are custom-built locally with the crew behind Frightmare Compound rather than pulled from a franchise kit. The flagship room leans into the building's haunted history, with staff tying the puzzles to the mansion's real backstory as you solve it.
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Wynkoop Brewing Company Billiards Parlor
Wynkoop is Colorado's first brewpub (1988), founded by future governor John Hickenlooper, inside the 1899 J.S. Brown Mercantile Building across from Union Station and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Climb to the second floor and you hit a billiards parlor with 15 tournament-sized tables under beautifully restored turn-of-the-century woodwork. There's also shuffleboard and darts, plus live improv comedy down in the basement at the Impulse Theater.
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Pindustry
Pindustry is a two-level, 54,500-square-foot warehouse-style complex with the rare East Coast import of duckpin bowling (smaller balls, no finger holes) alongside traditional lanes. Beyond bowling there's shuffleboard, Skee-Ball, ping pong, cornhole, darts, and a deep pinball-and-retro arcade. It tops out with the 16,000-square-foot rooftop Sky Deck — one of metro Denver's largest patios — plus a beer hall with live music.
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Monster Mini Golf Denver
Monster Mini Golf is an indoor 18-hole course lit entirely by blacklight, so the monster-themed obstacles and the players themselves glow. A live DJ works the room with music, callouts, and prize giveaways while you putt. There's also a video-game arcade and redemption center attached for after the round.
Arcades, pinball & oddball play in Denver — FAQ
Where can I play pinball in Denver?
The Monkey Barrel (Sunnyside), The Lyric (Fort Collins), The 1Up Arcade Bar - Colfax (Capitol Hill, Denver) and Colorado Pinball Pub (Littleton). Plus 3 more in the list below. Each listing has the address and what it costs to play.
Which arcades, pinball & oddball play in Denver are the strangest?
Ranked by how strange they actually are: Ante Up, The Lyric and Akihabara Arcade and Bar. Ante Up — Opened January 2026 by a husband-and-wife team, Ante Up is a totally substance-free all-ages punk/hardcore/emo space on a stretch of S Platte River Drive nobody drives down on purpose.
Where in Denver are they?
Across Sunnyside, South Platte / Overland, Fort Collins, Westminster and Capitol Hill, Denver and 7 more. Each listing gives the neighborhood and address so you can cluster a couple into one outing.
Is this a good weird date in Denver?
That's what the list is built for. Every entry has a specific move rather than a vague recommendation — at Ante Up, for instance: Go to a sober hardcore or emo show and actually be able to hear each other afterward — shoot pool and play the arcade in the greenroom between bands, and bring a couple cans for the donation drive on your way in.
How were these arcades, pinball & oddball play chosen?
An agentic research system digs for the genuinely obscure — the spots even locals miss — and every one is verified against real sources before it makes the list. We deliberately skip the landmarks already on every Denver guide.