In Wyandotte, Michigan, near Detroit, the owners of the Biddle Blend coffee shop opened a gaming space upstairs, which they call Level Up Lounge.

The game shop, Broken Sentry, opened recently in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Opening soon in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis is Pieces, a bar, a restaurant, and a place to play board games.

Well Played’s opening is scheduled for early 2017 in Asheville, North Carolina. It’ll serve board games with locally sourced snacks. Also craft beers and coffee.

Liverpool, England has a new board game cafe, Sugar and Dice.

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Startup publisher Restoration Games this week shared the specifics for its planned initial products, remakes of three older titles: Stop Thief, Dragonmaster (now to be Indulgence), and Top Race (now Downforce). Redesigns and nostalgic reprints are nothing new in the game business (see for example, Winning Moves’ classic versions of Sorry and Life, or Fantasy Flight Games remake of Dune as Rex) but the mission of Restoration Games is a little different. As Justin Jacobson, company president, explained:

We’ve certainly seen lots of reprints of hobby games. And you can count on Hasbro to release new versions of Monopoly on a regular basis. What we haven’t seen is new versions of these older mass market games. These are games that didn’t become evergreen titles but are still beloved. For a variety of reasons, those games have been largely forgotten. But because they are older, they suffer from being of their time. Roll-and-move for example. We’ve simply gotten better about designing games in the past several decades. So we decided to take these modern design concepts and apply them to these forgotten games. You get the spirit of the game that you love in a well developed package you will enjoy.

Stop Thief is a deduction game put out by Parker Brothers in 1979. What made it special at the time (for 12 year old me, included) was a handheld electronic device that played audio clues as players tried to find the invisible thief on the game board. In the new edition of Stop Thief, Restoration Games promises a mobile app to replace the device with more sophisticated game play and better sound quality.

Dragonmaster, a 1981 title from Milton Bradley, is a trick-taking card game with different contracts set each round by the dealer. Restoration Games’ version, Indulgence, keeps the same general game-play but features 20 possible contracts and makes it about papal intrigue during the Italian Renaissance.

Top Race, one iteration in a series of card-based auto racing games by Wolfgang Kramer, is being brought back by Restoration as Downforce. Besides the name change, the new version is pretty much a reprint with a component upgrade.

We chose the first three games, in part, because they fit three different visions of what a restoration can look like. For Indulgence, it was about smoothing out the game play while keeping the high aesthetic standard of the original. For Downforce, this is a brilliant design by a legendary designer. We just wanted to make sure this new generation of gamers got to experience it. For Stop Thief, it was about showing what technological advance can do bring a game back—in this case, replacing the crime scanner with a smartphone app.

Restoration Games expects all three to be ready in time for Gen Con 2017. But don’t you go expecting to see them in the traditional long, flat board game boxes.

Alas, no. We looked into it. Those largely disappeared with the advent of the quad-fold board. But we are always looking at ways we can reimagine those bits of past design in new ways.

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Ready for a board game origin story on the big screen? Not one about a plucky inventor. Instead, Ouija: Origin of Evil tells a tale of 1965 Los Angeles and how “a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their séance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home.” In theaters October 21st.

Recently released on Netflix is The Dwarvenaut, a documentary about the founder of Dwarven Forge and the company’s Kickstarter campaign.

Disney’s Queen of Katwe, based on the true story of Ugandan Chess player Phiona Mutesi, is in theaters now.

It appears that the Jumanji remake replaces the board game with a video game. On the other hand, star Dwayne Johnson claims it’s not a remake but rather a sequel.

A new Clue movie is in the works, being developed by 21st Century Fox. Unlike the 1980s Clue, this one will be a “worldwide mystery” action-adventure story.

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Otherside Games opened a few weeks ago in Edwardsville, Illinois with the usual assortment of games and play space.

Tabletop Game Cafe is soon to open in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus. Despite the name, the business intends to focus on the cafe aspect with games a nice accompaniment to the meal. There’ll be no cover charge or rental fee for games.

Monopolatte in Ottawa is closing. The owner said that despite the restaurant and game-space doing a brisk business, it wasn’t bringing in enough money to pay himself and the employees a living wage.

Drew Lovell and Courtney Hartley are raising funds on Kickstarter with the hope of opening Bonus Round as Chicago’s first board game cafe.

Toy Hub, a High Street toy shop in Dunblane, Scotland, is running weekly Game Clubs in local restaurants.

Zander’s Game House, a game cafe (minus the coffee) in Camarillo, California, is focused on providing a family-friendly venue (so also no alcohol).

A new Toys “R” Us store has opened in Huddersfield, U.K.

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Qatar has its first game shop, Cheeky Camel, opened by a pair of gamers who have day jobs in the petroleum industry. Though on weekdays it’s only open in the evenings, the store seems to host a pretty active gaming scene in its upstairs play space.

Stay2Play is a service in Calgary that sets up restaurants and bars to host board game events. The company provides a library of games, training of staff, and publicity. So far, there 16 locations participating.

There’s a business in Milwaukee that’s planning to open a single venue to serve both video gaming and Chess tournaments… I don’t even…

The Game Boutique in Youngtown, Arizona is relocating to a larger space, with expanded hours, and a different name. What’s now called The Orc’s Lair will have a grand opening event July 1st.

Also opening in July is the Playopolis board game cafe in Rochester, UK.

A new game store will be part of the revitalization of the Bradford Mall in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

Brewpoint Coffee Company in Elmhurst, Illinois already had small selection of board games for its customers but is now partnering with local Tyton Games shop to run weekly board game nights.

For nightly Ramadan break-fasts, the Almaz by Momo restaurant in Dubai serves up board games along with a North-African themed buffet.

The Ampersand Hotel in London has a game room with a variety of board games.

At The Den, a cafe in Sebastian, Florida that from the description seems to define “eclectic”, board game nights feature live music.

There are Backgammon sets in the guest rooms and giant-sized Connect Four and Jenga in the outdoor lounge of Hotel Zephyr on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

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Cafe Mahjong in Moscow, Russia offers selections from a variety of Asian cuisines, as well as Mahjong sets to play at the table and even lessons for those new to the game.

Epic Nerd Camp is a summer camp for adults in the Pocono Mountains. Among the many activities it offers to campers is gaming—lots of gaming.

The owners of two laser-tag and mini-golf centers in Cincinnati are getting in to board games, opening The Rook board game bar in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Borrowing one of their 800 games is free as long as you’re drinking.

Tiki Tiki Board Games of Woodbury, New Jersey is relocating to the historic Polsky’s building. The new space’s 5,800 square feet (Tiki Tiki’s current store in 1,400) will be shared with Luke & Cade’s Toy Chest.

Two friends who met online are opening the first board game cafe in Bristol, U.K., Chance & Counters. They’re getting custom made gaming tables with out-of-the-way storage space for boxes and other bits.

Fellow Pawn, Robert, is blessed with two new game shops near his home in Connecticut, Games In Real Life and Silver Eagle Games.

Club Sosay in Paddington, near Brisbane, is a board game cafe that took over space from a wine bar. The chef’s specialties include South American empanadas. A second location for the cafe is already in the works.

Eastern-Mediterranean restaurant, Tawla, recently opened in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, offers patrons Backgammon sets to play while they wait for their food to appear.

Soon to open in Lafayette, Indiana is board game cafe, Merlin’s Beard.

Amazon’s new Handmade marketplace includes a Games section, where you can find such things as a Bubinga wood Cribbage board and hand painted 25 mm fantasy miniatures.

A brother and sister pair, 10 year-old Liam and 8 year-old Claire Goodowens, have set up three Game Exchange Boxes around Winter Park, Florida. The repurposed newspaper boxes are stocked with board games free for the taking, though leaving one of your favorites for the next person to enjoy is the general idea.

The general manager of Kimpton’s new Mason & Rook Hotel in Washington, D.C. holds weekly game nights with guests.

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The city of Dunsmuir, California (population 1,500) has a new board game cafe called The Wheel House.

Columbus, Ohio is getting one this summer. Tabletop Game Cafe will specialize in Argentinian empanadas so gamers can play with one hand while eating with the other.

Recently opened Elm City Games in New Haven, Connecticut shares space coffee shop, The Happiness Lab.

The Game Chateau in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania opened in March a stone’s throw from I-81 and therefore a convenient rest stop on my next drive to Central New York. Brother-sister owners Chris Moore and Elle Hammond settled on the cafe concept while investigating the challenging economics of hobby game retail.

An Exeter, U.K. brother-sister pair had a pop-up over one weekend last month but were forced to close it for lack of financing. Now with funding through Kickstarter, they’ve been able to reopen their cafe, simply called “Board“, just a block down the road.

Card Table Republic, recently opened in Davison, Michigan, is a board game lounge, meaning it’s a pay-for-play-space with a 500 game lending library.

Ludorati Cafe in Nottingham, U.K. went for a sophisticated, modern style and hopes to become a tourist attraction.

Diversions Puzzles & Games shop of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is adding a second location, in South Portland, Maine.

Younger’s Turkish Cafe in Hull, U.K. has received permission to stay open until 4:00 AM so that it can host Dominoes and card games.

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Making a move outside the furniture business, Geek Chic has acquired Crash Games. Terms of the deal were not announced but Crash Games founder Patrick Nickell will remain at the head of the company. Based on a statement released today, it appears the move is primarily aimed at allowing the game company to extend beyond its core market of Kickstarter backers. Crash Games has plans to publish six board games in 2016.

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1A Games, the company organized originally to publish Tide of Iron, is undergoing a reorganization. Responding to an inquiry by Purple Pawn, Chris Williams, 1A’s Operations Manager, stated that the company remains open for business but is “looking to dispose of Cross Hares.” Other publishers interested in picking up the game should contact the company.

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So, if you’re at Gen Con and were passing by the Games Workshop booth (772) on Thursday, you may have had some questions. Such as why there’s nothing from Games Workshop for sale at their booth, why it’s staffed by the people at Forge World instead of GW, or why you had to go to the other end of the hall to Forge World’s booth (3033) to make any GW purchases.

Reports of all Games Workshop staff denied entry to the United States and deported back to the United Kingdom are a bit exaggerated, said the UK-based Games Workshop employee Purple Pawn spoke to at the booth yesterday. Although some employees from GW’s headquarters did not gain entrance to the United States, some did as did all the product they brought over. Games Workshop products are for sale at the Forge World booth. The majority of the (admittedly small) GW booth is taken up by an Age of Sigmar diaorama.

“Someone at head office messed up the visa application,” writes the GW-fan site Faeit 212. “Rather than travelling on a Business Visitor Visa they travelled to the US on a [non-Working] Visa.” Apparently, one of the UK employees mentioned that the were going to be working at a convention, which is prohibited under the visas they were travelling with.

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