A new Scotts Valley arcade is betting on the enduring appeal of analog play

On Halloween, bikes piled up outside Coin Drop Arcade as kids and adults in costume streamed into the new Scotts Valley business. Inside, pinball machines chimed over 1980s dance music as players took turns at arcade basketball and claw games. 

Coin Drop Arcade owner Kacey Lewis spent three hours straight behind the register, selling tokens, 3D-printed jewelry and candy. Nostalgic favorites like Cow Tales and Zotz sat beside more recently popular candies like Sour Patch Watermelon and Hi-Chew. 

“It was wall-to-wall crammed. All the games were going. It sounded like a casino with all the change machines,” she laughed.

Lewis said the high turnout meant more than just a successful opening. It’s proof that Scotts Valley is ready for a gathering space where people of all ages can come together and play.

“For entertainment, everybody goes over the hill or into Santa Cruz. We have very few places for birthday parties,” Lewis said. “Every day after school, this is like a sea of kids coming by, and so now we can introduce them to these old games that we love.”

Lewis and her husband, John, who is the arcade’s operator and repair technician, are former San Francisco software engineers. They moved to Scotts Valley just before the pandemic, wanting to try something new. Now, they’re grateful their toddler has space to play. 

They already had a few pinball cabinets at home. As they got more into it, they discovered a thriving community of players, as well as how the arcade industry was evolving. Though arcade machines might look the same as they did decades ago, modern versions have technology that can help players track high scores through an app or compete in online tournaments. 

“Under the hood, they are computers, and we worked in tech, and we’re like, ‘We understand this.’ I’ve got a few custom ones at home that I redesigned all the graphics for and the UI [user interface] of the actual screen,” Kacey Lewis said. 

Lewis is also incorporating her love of graphic design and user interface design into the arcade. She designed the store’s retro wall paint and plans to customize various pinball machines with extra decorative elements and paint. She plans to add action figures to the X-Men-themed machine and extra moss around the dragon’s cave in the “Dungeons & Dragons” game.

Besides the character-themed games, Lewis is excited for people to play “Night Moves,” which is a nightclub-themed cocktail-table pinball machine. Instead of having a backboard, the cocktail version is designed for players to sit down around the table to play. 

“It feels more accessible, and the game feels faster. It’s just so much fun to just sit down and play a quick game of this, and the music is phenomenal,” she said.

The games reflect a mix of her childhood favorites, like Star Trek and roller derby, with characters that Lewis hopes will draw in younger audiences, like Pokémon and Transformers. 

The arcade at 3111 Scotts Valley Dr. is less than a block from Scotts Valley Middle School and Pacific Sands Academy, with Scotts Valley High School about a 10-minute drive away. 

“I hear parents all the time also complaining like there’s nothing for kids to do and they’re all at Target tearing stuff up. You have to give them an alternative,” Lewis said. “Hell, even if they just want to wait for their parents to pick them up and hang out and have a soda and some popcorn, it can be an open hangout space because we’re not charging a door fee or membership.”

Lewis said she’s noticed “a growing desire to go more analog” among gamers and young people. She’s right: A pinball map of the Bay Area shows machines at over 300 locations, including Clever Unicorn Pinball Arcade, which recently opened in the Capitola Mall. Trends like “digital minimalism” and “grandma hobbies” are resurging. Lewis hopes to draw on the growing interests in vintage technology while also bringing a new generation to the arcade.

“I’ve talked to more young people that are not getting consoles and looking for older physical games where you get out of the house, you get into a real space and you’re off of social media,” she said. “It’s also nostalgia for Gen X and Millennial parents who are having kids now, and so they’re naturally introducing their kids to it.”

Opening the business, however, took longer than expected due to Scotts Valley’s conditional use permit process, which Lewis and her husband said was “very opaque” and difficult to navigate. 

“At every turn, there were so many permits, and at every point, we asked ourselves, ‘Do we want to do this in Scotts Valley? This would be faster and cheaper probably in any other town, Santa Cruz or Watsonville,’” Lewis said. “Every time the answer was yes, because Scotts Valley needs this. We have to bring it here.”

Coin Drop Arcade’s games are sourced from all over California. The couple drove north of Sacramento and all the way down to San Diego to pick up pinball machines from Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. She said machines can range from $1,000 to $15,000.

Besides the games’ IP, Lewis is also trying to keep the prices nostalgic. Many of the older machines cost 50 cents per play, while the newer games range from 75 cents to $1. 

As Lewis gets Coin Drop Arcade off the ground, she plans to have regular hours Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. She also plans to host kids’ parties from 10 a.m. to noon, and eventually wants to host a kids’ pinball league. 

Lewis remembers growing up in Southern California, going to 7-Eleven to play pinball and arcade games. She recalls her local store had machines themed around the Addams Family, the Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“Every time I had a quarter, I went to 7-Eleven to play games,” she said. 

Now, she wants Coin Drop Arcade to help a new generation of Scotts Valley kids make their own memories, while giving seasoned players a dedicated space to hang out. 

“When we told people we were opening this, they were like, ‘OK, who’s your target audience? Is this for kids or this for adults?’” Lewis said. “But it’s always been for everybody.”

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