In August 2010, Brookfield, Illinois resident Doc Mack opened the Galloping Ghost Arcade eager to reinvigorate the arcade business.
“Nobody I knew in the industry thought this would work,” said Mack said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “But I thought it would because I wanted to make it more of an experience.”
Work it did.
In the seven years they’ve been in business, the Galloping Ghost Arcade has expanded from 130 games at their opening to 612, with a new one coming each Monday.
“We opened with about 7,500 square feet and will be up to between 18,000 and 20,000 before the end of the year,” said Mack in 2016.
You may not equate a thriving arcade business with the world of fitness but the two, especially in the Galloping Ghost’s case, have been intertwined from the outset.
Mack has always had a passion for fitness and martial arts and would be routinely found taking nightly gym trips before the arcade became such a huge daily task.
Doc Mack (Galloping Ghost Arcade – Brookfield, Illinois)
To combat this issue, Mack and the Galloping Ghost built an in-house gym allowing Mack and other employees to get their workouts in before, after or during shifts.
“Fitness is important to the entire team at Galloping Ghost,” said employee Brandon Diaz. “We are constantly buying and repairing gigantic, heavy and bulky arcade games. These games can be quite heavy, and loading them into the van or moving them around the arcade can be stressful on the body.”
After building out the in-house gym facility, Mack and the team at Galloping Ghost Arcade got an idea: why not expand this gym facility into something more? Why not parlay their success with the arcade into another business venture?
This glimmer of an idea has spawned the soon-to-be-open Galloping Ghost GAMA, a gym and martial arts dojo, next door to their offices on Ogden Avenue in Brookfield, Illinois.
The GAMA will be a place for people looking for both personal training and martial arts classes. In blending the two ideas, the GAMA has some of the original actors from the hit 90s video game series Mortal Kombat lined up to host classes. Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage, Scorpion & Sub Zero), John Parrish (Jax) and Phillip Ahn M.D. (Shang Tsung) are set to teach martial arts like kung fu and taekwondo as well as general physical fitness.
Phillip Ahn M.D. (Shang Tsung), Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage, Scorpion & Sub Zero) & John Parrish (Jax) from Mortal Kombat
Galloping Ghost worked with Body-Solid dealer FitnessFactory.com – Forest Park to outfit the new GAMA facility with Body-Solid kettlebells, BFPR100r Power Rack, BFFID10r Bench, Body-Solid GDCC250 Cable Crossover, GLPH1100 Leg Press/Hack Squat, G3S Home Gym, GDR60 dumbbell rack and much more.
Galloping Ghost GAMA (Brookfield, Illinois)
“Our time working with Fitness Factory has been great. They are very knowledgeable and helpful,” said Diaz. “We are definitely working with them again when we expand the needs of the GAMA.”
Galloping Ghost GAMA (Brookfield, Illinois)
Galloping Ghost doesn’t have a firm launch day on the GAMA but they expected it to be ready to go within a month or two. As far as arcade expansion, they are looking to have over 1,000 games in the future, expanding their physical space to extend to the whole block and possibly add a second floor to the facility.
Learn More
Learn more about the Galloping Ghost arcade by following them on Facebook or by visiting them at gallopingghostarcade.com. For more information on Body-Solid, visit us at bodysolid.com or email sales@bodysolid.com.
Special thanks again to Fitness Factory for putting us in contact with Galloping Ghost, you can visit them online at fitnessfactory.com or if you’re in the Chicagoland area, visit any of their four Chicagoland superstores.
