Abraham Salume’s eyes sparkle with an excitement even his glittering aisle of games can’t match. He’s proud to provide a proper tour of Game Nest, the newly expanded, 10,000-square-foot Chinatown arcade that offers customers an hourly rate and has become a neighborhood treasure during the last decade.
The founder even bears a tattoo of its logo … though Julie Ann, his wife and co-owner, warns that it’s not in the most flattering of spots. Such is Abraham’s devotion to gaming.
“I spent most of my life savings on every arcade game we could get our hands on,” says Abraham, a former mechanic from El Salvador. “I’m proud to say since we’ve started we have not been in the red ever. It was a lot of years of struggle to make it work, but it was well worth it.”
Salume originally got into the arcade business with his best friend’s dad, later buying him out to take over Game Nest. For years, he repaired machines himself, even creating a new one that doubles as a secret door to other parts of the arcade.
More than 100 arcade games, from Japanese rarities like Konami’s Bishi Bashi and Scotto to rhythm games like Guitar Hero and the arcade version of Luigi’s Mansion, line the walls like a neon jungle, lighting up alongside Japanese graffiti art from local artists. It’s truly a place of childlike wonder.
How did your childhood experiences with arcades shape how you run yours today? Abraham Salume: My cousin was a big influence in my life. He would take me to play arcade games, and I would always see him pumping quarters in to continue playing with me. All respect to the business—I get the hustle, it’s a way to make money—but I didn’t enjoy it as much, because it was more of a guilty pleasure. That was a big thing I instilled into my business … and I think makes us very different: Everybody who comes here knows we’re not here to make a crazy amount of money. We’re here to give people the joy of arcade games. I can’t stand quarter eaters. I can’t stand ticket eaters. It’s not what I am passionate about, and it’s not what I want to instill.
A lot of arcades come and go, especially on the Strip, where Gameworks used to be. Does location play a big part in how successful one is? AS: I think it’s location and also market research. I have a quote that I love: “It’s not always the first person that did it; it’s the first person that did it right.” When we were moving from the other side of the plaza to this side, I was adamant that I wanted to stay in Chinatown. I’ve been to so many cities, all over the United States and every single Chinatown or Asiantown has some kind of tiny arcade. Japanese culture has a big factor with arcade games, and Vegas has never had an Asian-themed arcade in Chinatown since we’ve lived here. That was a big thing we were missing as a city.
Julie Ann Salume: Another thing that really helps is the fact that we are an hourly place. Since we have such unique games, at a normal arcade a lot of people would get intimidated to put in their money to try it. Since we’re hourly, they have that pressure taken off of them to try something new.
I’ve heard people say that your Japanese games are typically the most fun, even if they don’t speak the language. JAS: It’s pretty intuitive. Whenever you play a new game in general, in Japanese or English, there’s gonna be that learning curve. I feel like video game [makers] in general know that people don’t really like taking risks, and they do a really good job of showing a tutorial. It’s very visual.
How did you find all these cool rare Japanese games anyway? AS: It all actually started with this [Sega racing] game called Initial D. I grew up playing it ever since I moved here. In the United States, it stopped with Initial D Version 3, [but] in Japan, they went all the way up to Version 8. When we took over Game Nest, that was one of the games I did so much research to find. I was very proud to say that we were the first to have that game in the States at the time. The ability to get that game gave me the connections to get the rest of the games I really wanted. Nowadays, we order full containers from Japan ourselves, and we take trips to Japan. We have to do a lot of market research, see what games are popular in Japan and see what games would be popular in the States that aren’t popular there.
Why does an arcade like this still draw people out even if they have state-of-the-art game consoles and PCs at home? AS: I’m a big advocate for arcade-specific video games. For example, with Bishi Bashi, there is no home console version, even though it seems like a really simple game. A lot of the games we like to incorporate into our store are something you cannot experience at home. Our market sees that and appreciates that. A big one is our DJ game called [Beatmania] IIDX. We actually get a lot of dads that enjoy the game. They might not understand what’s going on on the screen, but they’ve got that nostalgic feeling of “I remember when I was a DJ” and they get a chance to relive that.
What kind of demographic do you mostly see here? AS: We get every single age group in here. Grandparents will bring in their kids, and they’ll think, “I’m just gonna go sit on the couch and do nothing,” [and] they end up playing. Parents end up having a lot more fun than the kids do. They come back without the kids to have their own little date night.
How often are games at Game Nest switched out? AS: About every six weeks, we have at least one new game. I have my box truck out there that I drive personally to California every six weeks. I take games that have been here for a while that no one’s really played that much. I sell them, and I buy something new to us. That’s another thing that keeps us fresh in people’s minds. Every time they show up, there’s something new to play. At a lot of corporate stores, that kind of thing falls between the cracks.
Would you say Game Nest compares to an arcade you’d see in Japan? AS: I love Japanese culture, I love Japanese arcade games, but it just would not work in the States, because they’re very strict on what games they like. When you go to Japanese arcades, you’ll see a file of the same game, 10 of ’em. Just because everybody likes that one game, and that’s the game they want to get good at. That’s Japanese culture, that behavior of “I want to master this game.”
JAS: They’re all at least three stories tall, also. We’re tiny compared to them (laughs).
Game Nest has plans to open a café and offer beer and wine. What’s else is coming? AS: The café will be a huge start. We’re supposed to go into construction next month. I’m also hoping to get the [space] next door, which is another 5,000 square feet. There’s always games I’m looking at that I want more of. I like to collect them all, kind of like Pokemon.
JAS: It’s so hard to think of what we’d get rid of, because these are all in our collection. That’s why we keep striving to get bigger, so that we can have more games and just enjoy all of them.
AS: It makes me tear up a little bit, but I would also like to say thanks to Vegas for choosing us.
JAS: With COVID, it was really difficult. I lost my job, he lost his job and then we were closed down. The community really stepped up. They helped spread the word for us to be known. We’re thankful now that we’re known as a gem, but before, it was like, how do we keep going? It’s all thanks to Vegas.
GAME NEST 4525 W. Spring Mountain Road #112, gamenestlv.com. Sunday-Thursday, noon-midnight; Friday-Saturday, noon-2 a.m.
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