North America’s first motion-simulated virtual reality (VR) arcade has opened in Kelowna, B.C.
Brothers Kyle and Michael Markus, along with family, recently opened Virtual Rcades after five years of development.
“We decided because we’ve been here 27 years to bring something new to Kelowna because Kelowna is missing a huge chunk of entertainment these days,” Kyle said.
“We brought a very complex system over from overseas to North America, but mainly to Kelowna. Everyone thought we should go to Vancouver, Toronto, but it’s our hometown. We’ve been here a long time, we’re very community-driven, so we really wanted to open up first in Kelowna.”
The facility is more than just a traditional arcade. As Michael explained, it’s more like an adventure theme park that utilizes virtual reality.
“This is an indoor Disneyland amusement park. If you’ve ever actually wanted to race in a multimillion-dollar Formula One race car, we’ve got race cars here,” Michael said.
“If you’re afraid of heights, well, you can go in a hot air balloon and only be a couple of feet off the ground. It’s pretty cool.”
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Virtual Rcade currently has 32 different motion simulators, with multiple seats, and six different gaming categories including racing, sports, flight, adventure, theme park, and cinema.
“There’s everything from a bird flight simulator to hot air ballooning, street bikes, war machines, jetpacks, roller coasters, skydiving, anything you really can think of can be done here,” Kyle said.
Kyle said visitors can have an “infinite” number of experiences on the machines.
“Currently, there are thousands of experiences. If you come today, it can be different tomorrow.”
Rcades is open to kids and adults, as well as bookings for corporate events, families and even date nights.
“It’s an indoor facility here in Kelowna that’s not seasonal. You can come any time of the year and come experience some rides that you’ve never been able to experience before, other than maybe Disneyland,” Michael said.
Virtual Rcades held an open house over the weekend and will officially open next week.
“I’m so excited, so relieved. It’s been such a labour of love for my brother and me to be able to give back to the community here that raised us up,” Michael said. “We’re so excited to see people on these rides having a great time, laughing, screaming and getting everybody interacting again.”
More information on where to find Rcades can be found on the Virtual Rcades website.
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