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Walking toward Megaton Games, you might see two unassuming guys, one with red glasses and the other with a Bowser tattoo on his arm, taking a long drag from their cigarettes.

If you strike up a conversation with them, you might end up talking about the merits of Red Dead Redemption 2’s narrative, or which Fallout game is the best, among other things.

Just don’t ask the one with red glasses, Alex Silver, about Sonic the Hedgehog, which his tatted business partner, Xuan Tran, said Silver “hates deep in his soul.” They’re extremely passionate about video games, so go figure they opened a store together.

“It’s just something that people don’t do, open a f*cking video game store,” Silver said. “But one day, I came down here, and the price was perfect. One thing led to another.”

Megaton Games opened up at the start of last November in Syracuse’s Eastwood neighborhood. Tran did much of the work himself, gutting a kitchen in the back and ripping out grease traps.

“There was butter in the walls,” Tran said. “Butter everywhere.”

Once the store was refurbished, Tran and Silver started to envision what Megaton could be. Events and game tournaments in the back, shop in the front.

The store has a countertop loaded with vintage video games and systems. Art from Tran’s favorite fighting games hangs on the walls. In the back, there’s an events area with chalk writings covering the walls. Even the bathroom is covered in permanent marker statements, ranging from kind to juvenile.

There are tons of oddities at Megaton, from a Sega Genesis to a Doom cartridge from 1993 to a game starring 50 Cent, “Bulletproof.” The two have sales competitions where they each choose a game and see what sells better. Silver admitted “Bulletproof” is an unfair pick because of its novelty.

Lars Jendruschewitz | Senior Staff Photographer

Sonic the Hedgehog plushies and vintage Atari games line the shelves at Megaton Games. The gaming shop in Eastwood, Syracuse is a passionate community for city locals.

Tran opened Megaton so the fighting game community in Syracuse could have a home. They’ve been nomadic for years, and their odyssey has taken them all around town. From his friend Chris’ apartment in Tipperary Hill, packing in 25 rowdy people, to Beer Belly Deli & Pub in Westcott (which is no longer in operation), and then online during COVID-19, a place like Megaton has been long desired for Tran’s community.

The fighting game community can “get real ignorant,” Tran said. Rowdiness is expected. But Sean Muldoon, a fellow member of that community and Megaton regular, said that despite the banter and chirping, the community is welcoming and supportive.

“We definitely view ourselves as a family, and we stick together through thick and thin,” Muldoon said. “If anybody is ever down, for any reason, we pick them back up.”

Lars Jendruschewitz | Senior Staff Photographer

Alex Silver and Xuan Tran are co-owners of Megaton Games in Eastwood, Syracuse. The two banter behind the counter as customers dash in and out of the store.

Tran said there’s not a lot of video game stores in the area, and Megaton fills a niche. There’s Microgame Play and Trade in Clay, New York, and Voltage Video Games in Downtown Syracuse. But Megaton has more of a “neighborhood feel,” Tran said.

“It’s somewhere that you can stop in, check out, maybe find something,” Tran said. “We got a couple of (games) that are a little weirder that some of the other guys won’t take.”

Tran’s more conservative than Silver when it comes to business estimates. As with every business, there’s a slow season and a busy season, and Tran’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But business has been booming in the three months they’ve been open. Almost too good; Silver estimates about 25-30% of their starting inventory is gone.

To make up for that, Megaton offers repairs, especially of old video game systems, like the stack of PlayStation 2s lying behind the counter. Tran’s background in network engineering helps the business when stocking games becomes an issue.

Megaton can’t buy games wholesale; they don’t have the scale for it. If they did, even if they sold all that inventory, in Tran’s estimation, the profit margin would be a little over $5. So they order games off eBay, go to yard sales, check Facebook Marketplace and accept trade-ins from customers.

Lars Jendruschewitz | Senior Staff Photographer

At Megaton Games, owners Alex Silver and Xuan Tran sell Pac-Man mini-games. Customers visit the shop to browse the game selection and compete in tournaments.

Events are also a major source of revenue for Megaton. First, attendees pay a venue fee to get into the building, and then a bracket fee to enter into the prize pool. But not every event is paid; Tran also likes running free, casual game nights for less-skilled players.

“What (Silver) and I both agree on is doing something for the community,” Tran said. “I don’t want people to come in and then get their ass kicked, which is probably gonna happen.”

The events have done better than Tran or Silver anticipated. Tran didn’t prepare for the sheer amount of people that showed up, and had to move tables around on the fly.

The goal in the competitive gaming events is for everyone to improve their skills, so they can travel and “beat up Buffalo, New York City, Rochester,” Tran said. There are national-level competitions as well.

Tran and Silver banter for hours. On Sunday, their topic of conversation surrounded Death Stranding, a 2019 game Silver says he loves, despite it being strange.

In the game, the player character, a mailman, drinks Monster Energy and showers in the nude every hour to rest. There’s also a baby in a huge jar strapped to the back of the player’s avatar. The controller triggers are used to direct the player character’s hands on his backpack, a bizarre gameplay choice, Silver said.

Campy and strange stuff like that is just what Silver and Tran love, even if it isn’t palatable to most people. But Megaton isn’t just for the weird gamers, Silver said.

“My philosophy is that anybody who does any video games is a gamer,” Silver said. “If your mother has 2,000 hours of Candy Crush and has never touched anything else, she’s a gamer.”

Published on January 29, 2025 at 11:16 pm

Contact Ben: bnbutler@syr.edu