ABOVE: Bowlmor Lane’s new arcade, which boasts 14 games and opened to the public on Friday.

FAIRMONT– Bowlmor Lanes in Fairmont recently expanded with the addition of an arcade. The new space fits over a dozen unique games for people to enjoy and is ready for use just as the bowling alley enters its busy season.

Bowlmor has been in the Pederson family for over four decades and is currently owned by Doug, who took it over from his parents in the summer of 2020.

The Bowlmor offers 20 lanes of bowling, a golf simulator, a jukebox, a bar unofficially called the 21st lane and a full menu featuring speciality pizzas and burgers and a variety of appetizers. There has also been a few small games, including a crane game, but Pederson explained that adding on a whole arcade is something he’s been considering for awhile.

“Fairmont doesn’t have anything like this and it will bring non-bowlers into the Bowlmor,” Pederson said.

He also noted that it’s another activity for kids to do in the quickly-approaching winter months.

The arcade is an investment Pederson made worth about $225,000. He did research before taking the plunge and found that aside from the Wow Zone in Mankato, a bowling alley in Owatonna and Bridges Bay in Okoboji, all of which have arcades, there aren’t many local options.

“East and West, I’m not sure there’s anything there,” Pederson said.

He believes the arcade will help bring people into the Bowlmor, and to Fairmont.

Pederson said he started ordering the games from Moss Distributing in June. After they were ordered, some remodeling needed to take place.

The arcade is located immediately to the right upon entering the Bowlmor. The space was previously an office and storeroom.

The office was relocated to another room in the building and the bowling alley’s WiFi also needed to be significantly upgraded as a result of the addition of the arcade.

“The card kiosk connects to the internet. And then all the games connect to that as well,” Pederson said.

He said that previously the WiFi would crash when there were 15 or more kids on a Saturday watching YouTube videos because it couldn’t handle the volume. Now there are several access points in the Bowlmor to handle a higher volume of internet use.

With the addition of the arcade, Pederson said they’re adding a deluxe birthday party package to provide gaming cards for the arcade. He’s still working out details for that but it should be ready in the near future.

“We have 14 games right now but one wouldn’t fit through the door so we’re waiting for a 15th game but we’re not sure what it is yet,” Pederson said.

The games currently in the arcade include a basketball game, Rick & Morty game, Skee Ball, candy crane, Bop It, a piano game and a Jurassic Park game, plus more.

The arcade is more modern than the traditional arcade as it doesn’t involve tokens or tickets, but an E-card. People can use a credit card or cash to put money (points) on an E-card. The cards are also rechargeable and can be reused.

People will tap the card to play a game. After the game is played, the points will go back on the card. Rather than producing physical tickets, the points on the card can be used to select a variety of prizes.

Prizes include smaller items like sticky hands, bouncy balls, animal figurines, erasers and wristbands and larger items ranging from Yo-Yos, keychains and headphones, speakers and a percussion massager.

The arcade first opened to the public on Friday and will be open whenever the Bowlmor is open.