Inspiring Conversations with Jesse Baker of Arcade Legacy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Baker.

Hi Jesse, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2004, my best friend, Jeremiah, and I decided we wanted to open a business when he got back from the Iraq War. We grew up at malls and arcades, and that is what we ended up deciding on. While he was overseas, I was in the states collecting all the arcade games and pinball machines we would need to open a place. For the next five years, I would be all over the midwest buying games out of people’s basements and auctions for dirt cheap. At the time, arcades were almost completely dead. It seemed like no one wanted them. It was the ideal time for two low-income twenty-somethings to start picking them up and storing them at any relative’s house that would let us. I’m pretty sure everyone I know and love had an arcade game or ten it their house or garage during this 5-year period. After we finally collected the games and Jeremiah was back from the war, we found a place and opened Memorial day weekend in 2009 in Fairfield. The first year was hard. We barely made enough to cover the bills and were lucky to take home a couple hundred dollars a month. Jeremiah didn’t want to continue the business, so I bought out his half and moved locations the next year. I had some new ideas I wanted to implement. I added a media store, selling video games, music and movies. I built a stage in the new location to have live music. Business grew steadily those next 18 months in the new location. More events and the media really helped get us a lot of new customers. As that lease was coming to a close, we got a call from the Cincinnati Mall (AKA Forest Fair Mall AKA Cincinnati Mills). They wanted us to move there as they had plans for a big revitalization of the mall. After they made us an offer no one in their right mind would refuse, I packed it all up and moved again. This proved to be the greatest decision I could have made, despite the mall being almost completely empty. Business really took off at the Cincinnati Mall despite the plans to renovate falling through. With the success there, I was able to pursue opening a second location. That location ended up being what is commonly referred to as a barcade (just don’t dare use the name publicly or you will get a C&D from the actual place called Barcade). We opened that location in Northside in 2015. We had a successful run there until COVID hit. We decided not to reopen after the lease expired. With the success of now two locations, I was able to look into opening a third location! After scouting some areas far enough away to not compete with ourselves, we chose Newport, KY. We opened there in 2017. This location never took off in any way. We had a lease that unfortunately took us through COVID and beyond, so we struggled quite a bit during that time having to pay rent with no income from three locations. By the grace of God, we came out of it with some help from our loyal customers and government assistance. We closed the NKY location as soon as we could in 2023, We had a lot of hard decisions to make about the future of the business during the COVID period. My ultimate goal was to find a place where we could consolidate all three locations into one mega Arcade Legacy spot, where we would offer everything – admission based arcade and pinball gameplay, console gameplay, a media store that sells video games, movies and collectibles, and a bar and kitchen. With the amount of space I was looking for, it was really hard to find a place. Then one day we had an interview on the news (I forget what channel). In the interview I stated that we were searching for our new home for Arcade Legacy. I got a call from a building owner in Sharonville who said he thought his place would be the perfect fit for us. After checking it out, I instantly had this feeling I had found the place. It needed a LOT of work done to make it usable, but the landlord worked with us to make sure we could accomplish our goals to get the place to what it is now. It beyond what I could have ever imagined for Arcade Legacy when I began the journey into owning a small business. At this point, I feel like we have found our forever home for AL. Business is fantastic in Sharonville. I love the area, the people and what AL has become. Still even more upgrades in the works. We are continually working to improve the building and aesthetics, always looking for arcade games and pinball machines to keep things interesting, and making sure we consistently have events to draw people to AL. The ever-changing formula has now worked for 16 years!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Arcade Legacy?
Most of this was also covered in the opening statement, but I’ll add some more.

You can come play at Arcade Legacy for only $5 for one hour or $10 for an entire day! We have kept our admission price the same for the last 16 years! Probably not any other business who can say that.

We also have a full media store where we sell video games, movies, collectibles and Pokemon and Magic the Gathering cards.

Our business model sets up apart. Arcade, media store, bar and food (coming soon). Family friendly environment. All ages all the time. All day game play on 100+ arcade and pinball games and consoles for an insanely low price. Very competitively priced items in the media store. Weekly events in the pinball and fighting game communities. We pride ourselves in maintaining our games. We rarely have more than a few games down at any time as we have multiple techs on hand during the week. I’ve been to a lot of arcades over the years, and I feel like we have one of the more unique setups you will come across.

What makes you happy?
Being my own boss now makes me happier than ever as I get to spend more time with my family. Playing pinball makes me happy. I run and compete in a lot of tournaments locally and around the country.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://arcadelegacyohio.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057198290532
• Other: https://www.twitch.tv/arcadelegacy