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Tampa arcade is renting out retro pinball machines, games amid coronavirus pandemic

Lowry Parcade is offering games like Pacman, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat and more

TAMPA, Fla — Tampa Bay is filled with a lot of top hangout spots, but most of those places are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

That’s why Tampa’s Lowry Parcade is offering their pinball and arcade machines for rental. The best thing about it? They will deliver it to your home.

The idea was born after a simple hangout with a friend turned into a great opportunity to spread joy during the pandemic. 

“I had taken one pinball machine to my friends. They mentioned you should do this for everybody, you should do rentals,” Lowry Parcade owner Robert Leonard said. “I said well, it’s possible."

He spent a couple of days figuring out the logistics of his site. Once he made it live, the response was more than what he expected.

“We had no anticipation of a level of response like this,” Leonard said. “We’re able to deliver a machine, you see them light up, a recognition of a childhood favorite. It’s nice to still see that even though we haven’t been able to experience that on a day to day basis.”

They are offering dozens of old retro pinball and arcade games for rental.

While they are delivering the machines, they are making sure to practice social distancing and following the CDC’s guidelines.

“We wipe down the machines. We sanitize each machine like the entire machine before we deliver it,” Leonard said. “And then we have gloves and you know with masks as well so we're practicing social distancing.”

Once machines come back post-rental Lowry Parcade is making sure to wipe them down again before going out for another delivery or pick-up. 

With the unexpectedly positive response from the community, Leonard is now taking more machines out of storage so people can rent.

Lowry Parcade is not just offering machine rentals, but also offering curbside pickup for beer growlers.

If you’re feeling nostalgic and want to rent out a pinball and arcade game, you can head to their website and put in a request.

All payments and reservations are made through the phone or online.

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