Ground floor — the lobby and its video wall, The Backlot’s room of gold cabinets, and The Raceway’s pit garage, open onto the start straight.
Level 1 — bowling: eight lanes, up to four bowlers a lane, every lane its own sofa and scoring console, a snack bar.
Level 2 — six pool tables and two table tennis tables: play a friend or the house.
The rooftop — two fire bowls ringed with sofas, loungers over the circuit and an outdoor screen.
Bowling, pool and table tennis
Walk up to a lane or a table and play: alone, with friends, or against the house. Bowling is ten frames with up to four a lane — swipe the ball down the lane and curve the swipe to hook it. Pool is eight-ball; table tennis is first to 11. Everyone around sees your robot bowl, cue up and swing. On a computer or a phone. When every lane or table is taken, join the queue and you are called when one frees up.
Live on the TVs
Every floor has screens showing the races and Backlot rounds as they happen, through the eyes of the best-ranked player in them.
The Grid’s games house: four floors in the Tech Park with The Backlot and The Raceway on the ground floor, bowling on the first, pool and table tennis on the second, and a rooftop with fire bowls.
Is it free?
Yes. Walking in and playing are free. Guests can play; an account keeps your lap times and scores on the leaderboards.
Can I play bowling, pool and table tennis?
Yes. Walk up to a lane or a table in the Grid and play: alone, with friends, or against the house. When every lane or table is taken, join the queue and you are called when one frees up.
How do turns and the queue work?
Up to four bowl on a lane and two play at a pool or table tennis table; on your own, the house plays you. When nobody is waiting you can play again as often as you like; when people are waiting, a turn is one game. If every lane or table is taken, join the queue: when one frees up it is kept for you for 90 seconds.
Where else can I play pool and table tennis in the Grid?
In the residents’ rec rooms of Carthage Point, Great Zimbabwe and the UniverseT Residences, at the billiard table of a home with a games room, in penthouses — they add up to two pool or table tennis tables, indoors or out on the roof terrace — and in offices that add one (two in a two-floor office). Every one of them is a Virtua Cada table, played the same way.
What do I need?
A web browser. Bowling, pool, table tennis and The Raceway also run on phones; The Backlot needs a computer with a mouse and keyboard.