Vintage Vault Arcade Features Retro Favorites and Rare Treasures

Boasting more than 150 games total, the Vintage Vault collection spans the late ‘70s to now, featuring fighting games, driving games, sports games, shooters, platformers, beat ‘em ups and more.

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Mukwonago’s Vintage Vault Arcade (715 Main St. Suite 200) brings the classic feel of a 1980s arcade into the modern age. Featuring a mix of retro favorites and rare treasures between upright and sit-down arcade games and pinball machines, Vintage Vault offers all-day play for just $20 a person and is the perfect place to celebrate a birthday or just have an outing with friends. The arcade is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. while closed Tuesday.

Boasting more than 150 games total, the Vintage Vault collection spans every era of arcade from the late ‘70s to now, featuring fighting games, driving games, sports games, shooters, platformers, beat ‘em ups and more. Due to space limitations, some are rotated in and out. Many ‘80s and ‘90s staples are featured, including Mario Bros, Dig Dug, Tapper, Galaga, Joust, Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat, The Fast & Furious, Area 51, Rampage World Tour, NBA Jam, The Simpsons, Bucky O’Hare, Battletoads, Marvel vs. Capcom and many, many more. Among the arcade’s oldest games are Space Invaders, Asteroids, Lunar Lander and Pong, while some of the newest include Perfect Pour and Cosmotrons.

In terms of pinball, there are many old-school Bally and Williams machines like No Goof Gofers, Theatre of Magic and The Champion Pub alongside newer Stern and Jersey Jack games like Elton John, JAWS and The Wizard of Oz. Some of Vintage Vault’s rarities include a four-person Japanese edition of Pac-Man, Contra: Evolution, Ninja Baseball Bat Man and SEGA Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Game Collector

Notably, Vintage Vault is the only arcade in Wisconsin where the owner owns all the games himself. James Srnec first became immersed in arcade games about a decade ago when his friend sold him a rare Ms. Pac-Man Cabaret cabinet. “Me and my friends were playing it for so long that I wanted more games,” he recalls. “I started going out and finding them on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and eBay.”

Before he knew it, Srnec had 22 arcade games in his house and 53 in storage. “Our basement was a full arcade,” he describes. “From our kitchen to the living room was another arcade, and we had seven games upstairs.”

After collecting for a few years, Srnec entered the business side of things by renting his games to I/O Arcade Bar in Madison. Upon moving to East Troy, Srnec opened Vintage Vault Arcade in late 2022. “Compared to East Troy, Mukwonago has a lot more families and kids,” Srnec observes. “My wife and I decided Mukwonago was the right place to open an arcade.”

Repaired and Maintained

In an industry with a high failure rate, Srnec succeeds with Vintage Vault on account of not only his exceptionally vast selection of games but also his consistent regimens of maintenance and cleanliness. Every single machine is wiped down daily and undergoes monthly inspections. Srnec has learned the mechanical ropes to the point he can do most repairs himself. “Sometimes it takes me 10 hours,” Srnec says about maintenance. “I don’t really play the games anymore, but I’m constantly looking for something to break.”

Vintage Vault Arcade shares a building with Kay’s Academy of Dance. The arcade is in the rear of the building, facing Phantom Lake with a parking lot accessible from the adjacent Andrews St. Light snacks and sodas are available for purchase near the front door. The daily rate is good for the entire day, so patrons are welcome to leave and come back as they please. Group rates and private parties are offered as are ‘frequent gamer’ cards. Vintage Vault hosts pinball tournaments on the last Sunday of every month. “We look forward to expanding the tournaments once we can have more people come,” Srnec mentions.

In fact, Srnec says that he plans to move Vintage Vault Arcade into a larger space in the near future. Once he does, all games in his collection will be hooked up at once rather than being rotated. Eventually he would like to incorporate physical sports games like skee ball and a basketball shooter into Vintage Vault.