Co-owner Tim Eide at The Attic in downtown Baker City.

Familiar tunes from classic video games such as Street Fighter, DigDug and more drift down the stairs of Baker City’s newest establishment — The Attic.

Located above Kicks Sportswear, at the southwest corner of Main and Valley — the entrance is on Valley — the dynamic club offers a variety of games and a fun atmosphere for everyone to enjoy.

“Kids want thrills and this is kind of a place to do that without getting in trouble,” said owner Timothy Eide.

Eide, 38, had been thinking about starting a sitdown arcade for six years and his dream came to fruition when he found the space above Kicks was available to rent.

The Attic isn’t just a place for kids — it caters to families of all ages. Eide offer snacks, coffee and other beverages, and more.

Chris Brown, 38, who is The Attic’s co-owner, said Baker City residents have helped them with donations.

“Just thinking about how, Xboxes, controllers, and games, people were just donating stuff to us. It was really cool,” Brown said.

“Once we posted on Facebook, it was growing like wildfire and I was picking up ten TVs a day,” Eide said.

The Attic’s gaming offerings include Super Nintendo, Atari, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, XBox 360s, Wii, and a couple of modified systems.

“We probably have about 7,000 to 8,000 games in here,” Eide said. “We need more TVs still. We need gaming chairs and we need entertainment centers.”

The Attic also has ping pong tables and older arcade games such as DigDug. The owners have even more games in storage that haven’t been installed.

The Attic also has a selection of board games.

Donations and volunteers are also needed at The Attic. Volunteers can be ages 16 and older.

Eide and Brown have received donations from Les Schwab, ranchers, and business owners. They are also looking into grant opportunities.

“Things are in the works,” Eide said.

Eide said they need about $5,000 to install electrical outlets for additional gaming consoles.

“That’s really our biggest need right now is funding,” Eide said.

Admission to The Attic is $5 per person, and they offer memberships.

“We have four different membership levels right now; you either pay a year in advance, pay three months, six months in advance or pay monthly,” Eide said.

People who sign up for automatic pay for a membership receive 20% discounts on merchandise, snacks, and other items. People will also receive 50% off entry fees for gaming tournaments that are planned, the first taking place Dec. 18.

“We’re going to do a lot of old school tournaments like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, hockey, and maybe baseball,” Eide said. “There’s almost an unimaginable amount of games we can play.”

Eide has lived in Baker City off and on since he was five years old. He attended every school in Baker except Churchill.

The Attic is the eighth business he has started, and he said he only failed at one.

“My favorite part actually about business is just doing the business, designing it, and setting it up,” Eide said.

He said one of his goals with The Attic is to show younger residents that entrepreneurship can be successful. He also hopes to develop a rapport with kids.

He worked as a barber for years and said he noticed kids who went in had their heads down and didn’t really communicate.

“I think we’re just really interested in teaching kids how to communicate,” Eide said. “That’s part of being in a barbershop; when you go in a barbershop, you learn how to talk to a man, how to shake a man’s hand, how to look a man in the eye. This is kind of part of that too.”

The Attic is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m, Fridays from 4 p.m to 11 p.m., and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.