When I was a kid, entertainment was a video arcade about three blocks from my house. It had low-tech games like pinball and pool and high-tech games like Pac-Man and Pong.

My friend Billy O'Kelly and I rode those three blocks on our bikes and spent hours feeding quarters to those machines, trying to beat high scores that mirrored the national debt.

With the advent of home computer games, video arcades have gone the way of parachute pants, Culture Club and mohawks.

But Cape Girardeau is getting what could be the video arcade of the future.

It's called Space Walk Cafe, a new downtown venture that is the brainchild of Victor Kantchev, a 40-year-old immigrant from Bulgaria who arrived here 11 years ago with a sackful of entrepreneurial ideas.

He's run a cultural exchange program, sold nature photography and calendars that feature those pictures -- and he's even working on a movie that he hopes to begin filming here next year called "Mississippi Island."

Kantchev's latest idea is the Space Walk Cafe, which will open in the next two to three weeks at 46 N. Main St., where Hecht's Too had been.

The concept centers around 15 computer stations with high-speed broadband Internet connections. Five of the computers will have flat-screened monitors.

The business is a joint venture with the guys from Otacom Computer Systems -- Deniz Cakir and Hakan Atilgan. They're providing the high-speed computers and will perform maintenance on them.

While the computers can be used for anything -- for about $4 an hour -- Kantchev believes most people will use them for Internet gaming.

"Playing computer games online is a big deal," he said. "They can come here and play the games among themselves or against people all over the world."

That idea by itself, to me, would sound like a tough sell. But -- in my best advertising voice -- there's more. There will be two big-screen TVs, with X-boxes and PlayStation games.

The cafe part comes in with the offering of European coffees, pastries, cakes, sandwiches and a variety of nonalcoholic drinks. There's also going to be live music, starting with this year's City of Roses Music Festival later this month.

"I believe this is something that is missing," Kantchev said. "These are very popular in Europe, and I think it will be here as well."

He hopes that groups will feel comfortable meeting at the cafe and added that he plans to host talks on topics he's familiar with: photography, computers and cinematography. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.

"Yes, it is geared toward college students somewhat," he said. "But I hope it is also a place where professionals can come, too, and have fun."

Casey at the mall

Carl Ritter was disappointed when he heard that Cookie Corner at the mall was closing.

"It's strange, but I wasn't alone: Everyone you talk to said they missed the cookie store out there," said Ritter, who lives in Advance, Mo.

So Ritter decided to rectify that situation by opening his own cookie store at the exact same spot. Casey's Cookies will open at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park about Oct. 1.

People who loved Cookie Corner will notice little difference other than the name, which is shared with Ritter's daughter. The cookies will be baked on-site. The dough is coming from the same vendor. Even Cookie Corner's manager, Sandy Little, is returning as manager, along with several of the former employees.

The cookies will be chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter, snicker doodles and other popular flavors. There will also be a line of gourmet cookies. They are also offering decorated cookies again for birthdays, anniversaries or other occasions, Ritter said.

Mall manager Jim Govro said he's glad this store will be a "mom and pop" business.

"Carl's a good businessman," Govro said. "This should make a lot of people happy."

Tangled Web

Most businesses realize in these heady high-tech times that if they don't have a presence on the Web, they don't have much of a presence.

T&C Web Sites has started operations in Cape Girardeau. Owners Carl Wagner and Tony Ank say their goal is to provide small and medium-sized businesses in the Southeast Missouri area with straightforward, attractive, fast-loading Web pages.

Wagner, a longtime friend of mine who must forgive me for calling him by his last name, recently moved back to Cape Girardeau from Atlanta, where he had designed Web sites. He said he moved the business because he felt there was a market here of small businesses looking to promote their product on the World Wide Web.

"I know there are a lot of big companies out there," he said. "But we're looking to give more personalized service. We work real closely with the business owner."

Wagner is a graduate of University of Missouri at Columbia with a bachelor's degree in computer science. Ank, who is in charge of sales, got a business degree from Southeast Missouri State University.

Ank said the business really sells itself.

"People know how important the Internet is to business," he said.

T&C offers Web-site building and hosting. The Web site is www.tandcwebsites.com.

Rocky V

In those "Rocky" movies, the fighter keeps getting knocked around, but he always comes back in the end to win.

It's a winning formula in the movies that Cape Girardeau's own Rocky hopes will transfer to the business world.

Rocky Brown has owned four bars in the past. For various reasons -- poor profits among them -- he eventually sold or closed each of those businesses.

But Rocky Brown is planning a comeback. Cue for "Gonna Fly Now."

Brown will open his fifth bar and this time he's keeping his approach simple. Rock's Basic Bar will open later this month at 2100 Big Bend Road at the site of one of his former bars that most recently had been Jim's Place.

"It's just a basic bar, buddy," Brown said. "We're going to have pool, darts, various video games and your favorite cold beverage."

I'm pulling for Rocky this time. He's a good guy.

Just one question. Wonder if he's ever known someone named Adrian?

Basket catch

Anita Lambert of Scott City, Mo., is opening Gift Patch at the Town Plaza at 213 S. Plaza Way next to Clark Appliance.

The business, Lambert says, features ready-made and custom gift baskets that she calls "goody baskets." The business will also have jewelry, hand-made wreaths and swags and other gift items.

"The baskets can have themes," she said. "It can be for Mother's Day, and it will have baby lotions, bibs, whatever. It can be for firemen, police or the Super Bowl or your birthday. I'll make anything that anybody requests."

Lambert had been running the business out of her home for a few years.

"But I was ready to make some real money at it, or at least try to," she said.

Quickly

Dockside Consignment at 5 N. Main has changed owners. Wayne and Brenda Voss has sold the business to Susan Strode.

Scott Moyers is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Send your comments, business news, information or questions to Biz Buzz, 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699, e-mail smoyers@semissourian.com or call 335-6611, extension 137.