Visited: August 6, 2024

Location: 22 South Street, Morristown, NJ

I debated when I recently went up for a three day stay at Parsippany, NJ to make the trek over to Morristown to visit a game and pinball place that Jeff Bakalar mentioned on a Bombcast within the past year or so. The opportunity came when my supervisor decided to let me go from the office at around 6 PM. After checking into the nearby hotel, I ordered a Lyft to head down to the place. It took a minute after walking away from the building and needing to resort to Google Maps again to find that the arcade was housed in a First National Bank building.

After going through a set of doors and getting a paper bracelet around my wrist by an employee, I was finally in to enjoy what Morristown Game Vault had to offer. After walking around the area to gauge the offerings, I came away mostly impressed with how they organized the machines in a small area and the selection of arcade and pinball machines to play. The machines in the main area are set up similarly to what I experienced at Galloping Ghost with machines set next to each other in rows. The place could be hard to get around if a lot of folks were inside but there weren’t many folks when I was there on a Monday evening.

All of the arcade game selections were geared toward the 1980s to 1990s era with most of the well known games were there and operational. You got the usual arcade suspects like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, etc. Some arcades that I thought were neat to see available to play were Battlezone, Tron, Moonwalker, Area 51, and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Morristown’s quantity isn’t going to compare with the sheer size of Galloping Ghosts but folks that recall the golden age of arcade video games will find them here. Right behind the entrance/employee stand was a table with four Nintendo consoles and a Mario game hooked up to a TV, which I thought was slightly odd to have there.

The most interesting area of the arcade was the bank vault, where they placed the Tron arcade game and a bank robbing pinball game that I don’t recall the name of. It was neat to walk into the vault and see the numerous small vaults that I assume were used when the building was operating as a bank back in the day. The other room that had the restrooms had three really old Bally’s pinball games to play and a vending machine for drinks. A third room was cordoned off and looks to be used for events to house food and drinks there.

I was more intrigued to see their pinball selection and they have a good amount available to play. Most of them are placed toward the right side where it’s all pinball machines there and a few others scattered around elsewhere in the area. I assume those who know the history of pinball machines will likely say the same with the arcade selection, the most well known ones you know are here to play. The really older ones definitely showed wear on the playboard but otherwise at a glance all the pinball machines seem to be in good shape and work as intended.

All games are set to free play and most of them are just pressing a button to get started. There were certain arcades where you had to press in the coin rejection button to start and had trouble getting one machine to start, so I sadly just moved on from that one. The machines look like they’re in good shape as I didn’t have many complaints about any of the operations of the arcades I did play. I am curious on how often they perform maintenance on the machines and if they had more folks on staff. During my hour stay, I think the only employee I saw was the female manning the register at the entrance. I’ll assume they may have more staff for events and busier days butI guess they know how to roll.

The arcade charges folks for how long they’re inside the building. They keep track by scanning a barcode on a wrist bracelet, first when you arrive and then when you’re ready to leave. I was at the arcade for an hour and fifteen minutes and the employee was kind enough to charge me for an hour which was $15. There was a note on the website (I didn’t see if they also noted this by the register) that they charge an extra fee if you pay by credit card, which is B.S. but I did have cash on hand to pay at the flat $15.

There’s not much I can say about the place, it’s just another neat place to place classic arcade and pinball machines and it seems like the staff are doing a good job with the upkeep. If you somehow find yourself in mid-northern suburban New Jersey and need some time to fill, ain’t nothing wrong if you’re nearby Morristown to make the trek and spend a few hours there.

P.S. If you need a food suggestion at Morristown, check out The Committed Pig down the street from the arcade if you want a good, large burger with a healthy supply of fries packed if you’re really hungry.