Reitz Union Game Room

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  The Reitz, as it is affectionately known, can be seen as a three-in-one entertainment center for students and locals.  It offers pool tables, an arcade, and a bowling alley with a decent number of lanes.
  
  The pool hall is the part that I use the least but arguably the most popular.  It has a not insignificant number of reasonably maintained pool tables with tons of generic cues available for casual players.  It's pretty much a pool hall, minus the smoking and shouting, which is a major plus to me but perhaps merits a penalty from the more traditional pool-playing crowd.
  
  The bowling alley has enough lanes to support a pretty big crowd, but does get very busy at night, particularly Fridays because of all the peripheral events going on at the Union.  The lanes aren't particularly great and I never see them doing the oil patterns, but they do run several leagues for students and they're apparently good enough for most of the league bowlers to be happy.
  
  The arcade falls well behind the standard set by the other two parts of the game room.  The selection of games is very poor, and the maintenance of said games is dreadful.  There are certainly bureaucratic issues taking place with this, but you know it's bad when numerous light gun games are rendered unplayable by the calibration (or lack thereof) and a Soul Calibur 2 machine sits frozen for seemingly an entire year.  The DDR Supernova pads are surprisingly well--maintained, probably due to the army of students who will perform Operation Shutdown and cut off 95% of the arcade's revenue when the pads are unplayable.  Unfortunately the machine is terribly old (originally a 3rd Mix, I'd imagine) and the monitor is FUBAR, making everything a strange purple color that is always hard to look at and often impossible to play.  One would hope that the Union, recognizing dance gamers as their major crowd, would lend them a hand in the future.  Similarly, the Marvel vs Capcom 2 machine has terrible joysticks and buttons on both sides which make it hard to play in any serious capacity.  These things are incredibly cheap to replace and require very little effort; people mod controllers at home all the time, yet a professionally-run establishment goes months without fixing simple problems.
  
  The Reitz Union Game Room serves most of it's purposes well enough, but the horribly used potential of the arcade is a definite downer.  Don't expect much from that circle.

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  Posted on 08.11.09 M F.

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  UF's Reitz Union Game Room is truly as good as it gets. USF used to have some arcade games in the old Marshall center, but they are no longer used since we upgraded our student union and UF students are so lucky to have their arcade, bowling alley, and all those pool tables located right on-campus. I have to say I'm quite jealous and when I'm up in Gainesville visiting friends, it's nice to stop by here for a little while and play a quick racing game or check out the area. The free movie, popcorn, and soda upstairs is one of the things that makes me wish I was a UF student. USF has Movies on the Lawn but this is just so cool.

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  Posted on 07.13.09 Carlos H.

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  They have Dance Dance Revolution Supernova (DDR) in their arcade games section. It's the most popular machine with lots of crowds. There are excellent gamers. Currently the price is two quarters for one player, one dollar for dual or two players. (It used to be three quarters for one or two players.)
  
  The bowling area is very clean and cheap. They have near new balls and the shoe rental is not so bad. Their pool tables are pretty nice as well. Much better than any other place in Gainesville I've been to.

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  Posted on 05.17.09 Il P.

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  Mrs. H's review is pretty much spot-on: the Game Room is a combination of pool hall sans the liquor and smoke, bowling alley, and a few arcade games. I used to come here mainly for pool because my friends who are under 21 couldn't, of course, go to a bar to play pool and we do like our pool now and then! The Game Room can get very busy on weekends but still has a nice vibe. And then there is DDR: Mrs. H, I am one of those DDR kids! We're not all that nerdy though: I rock Dylan George jeans and Sevens just like you do and spend a king's ransom on my hair as if I was Gwen . . . let's sit stereotypes aside (but ok, ok, I DO have a soldering iron and can program in ZPL too!).
  
  In any case, the Game Room can't be beat for UF kids as a good location to have some fun. If you're not resident at UF though, know this: parking on campus is very tough, even to an extent after hours. Take note of all signs you see and park some place like the lot near the New Physics Building that is just across from the Reitz if parking at night. And obey the 20 MPH speed limit on campus: they're not joking about this!

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  Posted on 03.05.09 Mike W.

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  A clean bowling alley, board games, video games, pool tables, Foosball,  air hockey, nerdy  kids kicking ass in DDR, all for cheap... What more can you ask for? Oh yeah, come here on a Friday and enjoy the free movie, popcorn and soda upstairs. Stay late and enjoy the free breakfast buffet. You've got to be a UF students, staff  or their guests to enjoy the free stuff (grab one of those kids playing DDR), but the Reitz Union Game Room is open to everyone. Xtreme bowling adventures can be had here on Thursdays and Saturdays.

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  Posted on 08.28.06 Mrs. H.

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