The office is quiet- perhaps too quiet. My companion and I quickly speak into our headsets, describing our surroundings to our partners tucked away in a remote control booth. Cross-checking our descriptions with their information, they tell us to search the bookcase. Sure enough, we find a hidden latch and open a secret door to a darkened room. There, on an illuminated pedestal in the far corner, is our prize- a valuable statue stolen from the art museum. My companion starts to move for it, but I hold him back just in time and point to the floor, an ominous black grid of unusual symbols. Sure enough, our partners tell us it’s rigged to an alarm, but they can guide us through it safely. We scan franticly for the safe symbols they describe, using them as our stepping stones toward the statue. Halfway through we seem stranded, unable to find a nearby safe square. We shout into our headsets, panic rising, until my companion shouts triumphantly and points to a safe spot. But we’ve taken too long now and we’re out of time. A klaxon wails and the room floods with light, and we’re escorted politely but firmly from the room. Caught. Undaunted, we get back in line for another try.
We’re at Entros, a unique restaurant/entertainment center in Seattle that combines first-rate food with games designed to get patrons out of their seats and interacting with each other. Unlike national chains like Gameworks and Dave & Buster’s which appeal to a youthful audience through fast, greasy food, video games and a carnival-like atmosphere, Entros pairs an outstanding dining experience with custom-designed socially interactive games you can’t find anywhere else.
Visitors to the flagship facility (a second just opened in San Francisco in mid November) pass under a 3-D version of the company’s logo- a large inverted red chair- as they cross the threshold. After arching baffled eyebrows at the odd paraphernalia in the lobby (a telescope, a boulder, or perhaps a massive scale, ), visitors are ready to enter the restaurant. But first they have to figure out how. They might need to traverse a maze, or cross a hall of mirrors. When Entros ran their spy-themed games (the games change every few months), patrons had to enter a phone booth and find a hidden exit through the back panel.
When the laughing patrons emerge from this “teaser”, they find themselves in a cavernous dining space. A central open kitchen and bar dominates the room and keeps the energy level high as the chefs work their magic in plain view. The frequently-changing menu at Entros combines the traditional with the unexpected, offering such fare as crab tostidas, chimichurri flank steak, and pepper-crusted pork tenderloin. And though the appetizers are undersized and overpriced to my taste, the entrees are another matter entirely. Here the theme of social interaction is extended to the meal itself in the form of family-sized portions suitable for sharing.
While the food cooks, the servers might bring an “appeteaser” to the table to help pass the time. If diners can solve this paper puzzle before the meal arrives, it’s worth five bucks off the check on a return visit.
After dinner a tantalizing array of activities await. Designed by on-staff gamemakers, these activities aren’t about virtual reality or man vs. machine. They’re about people interacting with each other cooperatively and competitively. Take Interface, for example- Entros’ longest-running game. One player wears a blinding helmet with a front-mounted video camera which sends an image to her monitoring partner. That partner talks the “operative” through a series of activities through a two-way radio link, racing against the clock in a high-tech trust walk. Three different sets of activities exist so players can swap roles and still get a fresh experience.
In the Big Toy Arcade (now in San Francisco), players hustle to assemble wooden hamburgers before the moving conveyor belt carries them away (think Lucy & Ethel in the chocolate factory). They also coordinate the use of an airborne electromagnetic tiki head to snatch virgins from a Polynesian island and feed them to a volcano, or maneuver a ball through a pinball-like maze by collectively shifting their weight on a balancing platform.
Replacing the Big Toy Arcade in Seattle is Entros’ newest prototype, Bumper Karma. In this knock-down, drag-out, full-contact battle for spiritual enlightenment, two teams of four players each sit in colored carts. Pushing off the walls and each other, the teams race to be the first to maneuver themselves into the configuration flashed on the wall in front of them. All of this happens against a backdrop of faux-Eastern music and satirical karmic exhortations.
Remember those unusual items in the lobby? Those are part of the multi-media odyssey, which is really just a fancy term for a puzzle hunt. The current one (which I co-designed) is a murder mystery parody called UnClued. Players watch a brief video sequence introducing them to the victim and any of three different crimes, then scour the rooms of the victim’s mansion (installations throughout the Entros facility) for evidence to solve the crime. At each location players manipulate oversize puzzles incorporated into things like a wine rack, bookcase, jacuzzi, and telescope, gathering clues to a meta-puzzle which unlocks the mystery and provides access to the climactic videotaped confession.
The first time I visited Entros they were running a multimedia odyssey called The Forever Formula which contained a puzzle sequence which remains my favorite. As we entered the building, we passed by a telescope mounted on a tripod in the lobby. It seemed an usual bit of decoration, but we forgot all about it as we entered the restaurant through the fake phone booths, humming the Get Smart theme song. During the game, a clue suggested that we look between the pillars of Stonehenge. We remembered that a stone arch was painted on the glass of the building’s front door, so we returned to the lobby. Sure enough, when we aimed at the painted icon we could see through the telescope the magnified image of a small sign mounted on a building across the street. The sign said something like, “For your next clue, call the Kremlin.” As it happened, a pay phone sat just a few feet from the telescope. Dropping a quarter, we dialed K-R-E-M-L-I-N and got a recording of a man with a Russian accent directing us to our next stop. Nothing terribly complex, but quite entertaining and very satisfying.
Imagene’s offers patrons the chance to unleash their creative powers. After augmenting their attire with various hats and facial accessories, visitors can take their picture and manipulate it both physically and digitally. Magazines provide raw material for cut-and-paste creations, with rubber stamps, colored markers, exacto-knives and glue sticks standing by for further touches. All this leads to the creation of a fake ID (FBI, CIA, etc), surrealist passport, backstage pass, or similar lark which can be laminated for free. Wine labels, clocks, snow globes, mouse pads, and t-shirts are also available to be customized for an additional fee.
Arguably the best game however is the Blender, Entros’ custom game show experience emceed by a live Entros “guide”. Up to fifty people split into teams and gather around nine podiums facing a large projection screen. Teams vie for points in a game that’s part trivia, part visual puzzle. Six images are displayed for each question, and players must pick out up to three correct ones within a short time limit. The opening question of The Mating Game, for instance, asks players to pick three types of dates. The choices: Venetian blinds, Godzilla, a rubber chicken, a TV dinner, a boy with his finger in a dike, and a wedding cake. Picking the blinds (blind date), TV dinner (dinner date), and the boy (going Dutch) would earn points, and picking them before any other team would earn double points. A complete game lasts about thirty minutes, with a new set of questions rotating in every three months or so.
Don’t want to shell out the fifteen bucks needed for a game pass, the magic sticker that gives you access to all these diversions? Feel free to sidle up to the bar anyway, where you can pass the time with any of a number of toys and games like Boggle, cribbage, shoot the moon, Snafu, Run Yourself Ragged, Labyrinth, or various puzzles culled from Games Magazine. And while traditional games like these usually show up only at the bar, Entros occasionally runs special tournament nights. Past tournaments- all for partnerships, in keeping with Entros’ social philosophy- include cribbage, Big Boggle, backgammon, and Yahtzee.
A full evening at Entros including a meal and games can last anywhere from two to six hours depending on crowds and personal interests. With its continually-rotating roster of games, there’s usually something fresh on each return visit. For gamers passing through the Seattle or San Francisco areas, Entros is a must-see.
And I would have said all this even before I started working there.
Entros is located at 823 Yale Ave. N. in Seattle, Washington and is closed Mondays. For more information, call 206-624-0057 or visit www.entros.com.
Update: This September a new game opened which is possibly our best ever (I'd say that even if I hadn't helped develop it). Typo is kind of a cross between hopscotch, Boggle, and Outburst. Players must leap across a giant grid of letters (which light up as you hit them) to spell out words which fit the category showing on the scoreboard. The longer your word, the higher your score-- but you have to finish the word by leaping off the far end of the grid onto a giant ENTER key. Make a mistake and your opponents will yell, "Typo!", sending you scampering off the grid without scoring any points. After a few valid answers the category changes. The game is played with two teams alternating turns on the grid with a chess clock-style timing system. After two months of testing in Seattle it will move to the San Francisco facility in November 1999.