‘World famous’ Eagle arcade’s closure ‘came quick.’ Here’s the fate of the 308 games.

Cue the disappointing “Donkey Kong” death sound.

Grinkers Grand Palace, a sprawling arcade at 228 E. Plaza Drive, has closed after nearly eight years in Eagle.

Owner Steve Barbey said the permanent shutdown happened after a lease abatement taking COVID-19 into account couldn’t be reached with the building owner. Grinkers opened in late 2012.

“It came quick,” he explained. “We tried to secure extra time so we could find another place to potentially move to. But the landlord was super-aggressive. We did not have time to do anything.”

Like many businesses, Grinkers has struggled in recent months after the pandemic caused forced closures, capacity restrictions and other financial duress. “It’s 100 percent because of COVID,” Barbey said. “... It’s just not sustainable.”

Lined with old-school gaming and pinball machines, Grinkers was Idaho’s largest vintage arcade. The coin-op video games came from the “Bronze” and “Golden” ages, Barbey said. “The Bronze Age is the black-and-white games from the late ’70s,” he explained. “The Golden Age is ‘Pac-Man’ and ‘Donkey Kong,’ ‘Centipede,’ et cetera.”

Grinkers expanded three times over the years, more than doubling in size to over 8,000 square feet. Fans traveled thousands of miles to jam quarters into ’80s classics such as “Tempest,” “Star Castle” and “Battlezone.”

“We had people from Japan, South Korea,” Barbey said. “We had a guy from Finland come. A bunch of people from Canada. It was a world-famous arcade.”

Now all 308 games will have a new home in Utah. Passers-by in Eagle have noticed the Grinkers machines being hauled outside and loaded into trucks.

Barbey and his wife sold them to a fellow collector — a friend who is “cut from the same cloth.”

“He has a very substantial collection of his own,” Steve Barbey said. “His plan ... is to build a building down there and open an even more expansive arcade ... just outside of Salt Lake City.”

As for Barbey? He’ll still fiddle with joysticks. Just not as many.

“I have a few games at home,” he said, “but all the games from Grinkers were sold to him.”

As for other vintage gaming enthusiasts in the Treasure Valley?

Spacebar Arcade remains open in downtown Boise, but it’s not a family destination. You must be 21 or older to enter.

This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 4:22 PM.