Today we’d like to introduce you to Myles Shields (owner) Katie Jones (owner).
Hi Myles Shields (owner), thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
2 Player Arcade Shop is owned by both my wife Katie and I. We were born and raised on the Monterey Bay and have been avid gamers and geeks our whole lives. Katie has been a veterinary technician since 2010/2011 and I was working in restaurants hoping to open my own place.
Around 2018 or so I started getting into fixing and modding up old retro video game consoles. This quickly turned into a small side business that I ran out of my bedroom fixing things at my computer desk. From there, I moved operations into a work shed and when I outgrew that we decided to start thinking about opening a storefront since there seemed to be a need for gaming specifics repair work in the area.
We had already started a small arcade cabinet collection that lived in the dining room and we thought we could tie that into our idea. Once we decided to open a shop, we started investing in game cabinets every chance we got, driving up to San Francisco or down to LA to haul them. We also decided to sell retail collectibles and partnered with some folks who were instrumental in getting the project off the ground.
We opened 2 Player Arcade Shop on April 1st 2023 as a combo gaming repair/retail shop and arcade near Cannery Row in Monterey. Since then we have been able to expand our arcade game selection, retail inventory to include used games and consoles and been able to offer more advanced repair services to include new game consoles like the Playstation 5 or Nintendo Switch.
The shop also has a private back room which we have turned into a tabletop gaming room. We have a selection of board games provided for guests to enjoy while in the arcade and the space is able to be rented for sessions of Dungeons and Dragons and the like. We also host drop-in Dungeons and Dragons games so folks can try the game without the commitment of a long campaign.
Overall, it’s been a thrill owning a gaming shop in Monterey. We’ve had a passion for gaming our whole lives and it’s amazing that we are able to pursue a dream job like this.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been ups and downs but mostly it’s been an amazing experience. As they say, when it rains it pours and it will rain when you least expect it when you own a business.
Obviously when you run a place like ours that is centered around valuable, delicate machines you have to be prepared for when a game on the floor breaks down and goes out of commission. You need to work as fast as possible to get that game back out for play and being that these games are all authentic, older machines sometimes finding the right parts can be difficult.
Luckily, there is a such a robust and thriving community for these old games and even if we can’t replace parts with original ones, there’s a chance someone out there is reproducing parts to keep the games alive.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Before I opened the shop I wanted to be an illustrator and have been drawing my whole life and I feel my first love is definitely art and design. I’ve been able to use my skills as an artist to design the look and feel of the shop and make sure I instill our personal aesthetics into how we present ourselves to the public.
Since we opened the shop Katie has become a stellar miniature figure painter for Dungeons and Dragons. She started painting minis for the games we were running in the shop and soon people were begging her to paint their figures for them.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Come check out our shop! Monterey is a great place to spend the day and we’d love for anyone to come by and and say hi. We put so much love into making the shop a cool place to hang out and really enjoy seeing people have a good time when they are there.
In the meantime, people can check out our website and Instagram page and see what we have going on, or send a note to say hi.
Pricing:
- Console repairs around $40/hr
- One hour of arcade play for $8
- Day pass for arcade play for $15
Contact Info:
- Website: https://2playerarcade.com
- Instagram: @2playerarcade
