17 August 14 - 20, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ▼ FIRST LOOK GAME ON, GRUB UP THE ULTIMATE GAMERS DAY OUT, BY LAUREN DURIE W hen you think of museums, you probably picture artifacts behind glass and stern “no touching” signs. Not at Nerdvana (5757 Main St., Frisco). This place is 100% hands-on and unapologetically designed to be played. It’s sensory overload in a dizzying pixel-pow- ered euphoria — buzzes, dings and glowing screens with computers and consoles just begging for button-mashing. As you snake through the decades, you’ll pass a life-sized Pong, a full lineup of Ataris and SEGAs, computer setups through the years, a re-created game shop (RIP) and ev- ery Nintendo known to man — ending in a vintage arcade that’s an ode to the joystick generation. Your kids will either be amused or completely confused by the unidentifi- able analog objects, but either way, they’ll be enthralled. And with tickets just $10-12 a pop, it might just be the cheat code to cheap entertainment while sneakily serving up some hands-on tech history guaranteed to be 100x cooler than your basic mall arcade. For my fellow millennials, it’s as much a haven for gamers as it is a museum of nostal- gia. It was like walking into a time capsule and landing straight in your cousin’s bed- room circa 1986, where we were perfectly content playing Duck Hunt on a bean bag chair with Save Ferris cheering us on. One chaotic, overly sugared kid pro- claimed, “This is my happy place.” And hon- estly, same. You could play all day, but when you need a power-up, keep the fun going just five minutes up the road at Nerdvana, a food and game ha- ven that would make your inner child cry 8-bit tears of joy. Show your wristband for 10% off (we’re full of cheat codes here). You’ve got two and a half hours to hang out (with a $15 per person food/drink mini- mum), and when seated, you are given the choice between board games from their massive library or rotating video games — just ask the staff which controllers are avail- able. We were given the choice of N64, PlayStation 4 or Switch and messed around with some retro gems. Every table comes with its own console, and the two-tops even have side-by-side seating so you can stare at a personal screen in what feels like a futuristic gamer pod. Menu-wise, it’s kid-friendly with playful category names like “Quick Play” and “Mul- tiplayer” for shareables, and a wildly imagi- native “Potion” list for the grown-ups. Think: Diamond Butt Station (fluffy lemon meringue unicorn magic in a glass), Fett Dreams of Boba (with elderflower foam) and a boozy caramel Butterbeer shake. The brisket quesadilla was smoky, melty and satisfyingly crunchy. The shrimp and grits were artfully plated and rich — though a bit too heavy for Dallas’s triple digits, which was fine because the food felt a bit like a side quest, slightly inconvenient right as Jordan’s up for the perfect fadeaway in NBA2K. There will be a moment of table tension when the plates drop mid-match. Handheld might be the more strategic choice. You’ve been warned. GOT WEEKEND PLANS? NOW YOU DO! Scan here to view our events calendar (updated daily!) D
