Tornado Terry’s owner Shannon Bell sits beside a custom Dragon’s Lair cabinet built by her late husband, Terry Bell, at the Fort Worth arcade Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning news
FORT WORTH — By the time Shannon Bell called off the closing of Tornado Terry’s, auction stickers had already turned the games she and her late husband collected into numbered lots.
For Bell, watching the stickers go up felt like losing her husband again.
“When they came and put all these stickers, all the lot numbers, on everything, it was just like watching him die all over again,” Bell said. “It was really hard.”
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Now, the games will not be sold.
Bell has canceled the auction of her game cabinets and other equipment and will keep Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center open, reversing plans to close after Aug. 9, due to struggles since road construction made it difficult for patrons to access the arcade.
A longtime customer and his wife, who asked not to be identified, helped organize an online fundraiser and pledged to cover the remaining financial gap needed to carry the arcade through construction outside the business, Bell said.
A customer plays Offroad Thunder beneath an auction lot sticker at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello/The Dallas Morning News
The couple is not seeking ownership, repayment or a share of the arcade.
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“People are calling, ‘Is this real? Is this real?’” Bell said. “I guess it’s real. Yes, I’m staying open.”
A closing announcement brings a lifeline
Bell decided in early June that the arcade could no longer absorb its mounting costs and declining customer traffic.
Advisers urged her to close earlier, but she wanted Tornado Terry’s to reach its 35th anniversary Aug. 1. She also wanted to give children time to redeem tickets they had saved for prizes.
“These kids, I can’t let these kids down,” Bell said. “They use their allowance money to buy tokens. I didn’t want to walk away from that.”
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After Bell announced the closing, the arcade received a substantial increase in sales. Customers shared memories and asked how they could help save the business.
Bell initially resisted starting a GoFundMe because she did not want people to contribute unless she knew the arcade could remain open.
“If it wasn’t enough, then I wouldn’t have been able to stay open,” Bell said. “I’m not good with people giving me money and me not being able to follow through.”
Then a longtime customer visited with his younger daughter and asked what it would take to keep Tornado Terry’s open.
A young customer selects a prize at the redemption counter at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello
The man told Bell he and his wife did not want to buy the arcade or become partners. They wanted to organize the fundraiser and cover whatever it could not, she said.
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The GoFundMe launched with an initial $100,000 goal. Bell said the amount needed to carry the business through the construction is considerably higher, but she declined to disclose a figure.
The auction was already underway, but Bell said the auction company released her from the agreement without charging fees or penalties.
“I just don’t even know what to say,” she said. “It is beyond belief how this is falling in place.”
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Construction follows the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic depleted the couple’s savings, Bell said. It took about two years for customers to begin returning to their previous numbers.
Just as the arcade appeared to be recovering, construction on Keller Hicks Road began outside the business on Feb. 12, 2024.
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Bell said she expected the work to take about two years but now understands it will not be completed until spring 2027. Road closure signs, changing traffic patterns and navigation apps led some customers to believe the arcade was inaccessible, she said.
Road construction continues along Keller Hicks Road outside Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning News
Russell Bergman, a customer since about 2009 and a volunteer at Tornado Terry’s for the past two years, said he repeatedly saw customers arrive frustrated after navigation apps directed them to park at a nearby apartment complex and walk to the business.
Some said they would not return until construction was finished.
“It’s killing this place,” Bergman said.
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Bell said she has not drawn a paycheck since September 2025 and has operated without paid employees since August 2025. She has relied on credit cards and sold a 1968 Camaro that Terry rebuilt for her to pay property taxes.
She has held onto the 1968 truck Terry received when he was 15.
Friends and customers now volunteer to run the counter, replenish tickets and help maintain the games.
The anonymous family’s pledge gives Bell hope that the arcade can survive until customers regain easier access. It does not eliminate the expense of maintaining aging games and keeping the business operating while construction continues.
Bergman nevertheless believes customers will return. Before the pandemic and road work, he said, Tornado Terry’s could become so crowded on weekends that people struggled to move through it.
“Once that construction is done, people are going to come back in droves,” he said.
More than machines
Terry entered the arcade business in the early 1980s after buying an existing arcade and vending route called Video Point.
Customers sometimes mistook it for a video rental store.
Bell said. Around 1990, the couple renamed the business Tornado Terry’s, a reference to Terry’s preferred Tornado foosball tables.
Tornado Terry’s has retained traditional tokens, paper prize tickets, pool tables and a mixture of classic and newer games as many competitors moved to electronic cards and larger entertainment centers.
Bell said that approach is less profitable but central to the affordable, alcohol-free experience she and Terry wanted to offer families.
Terry often said they wanted to “make a living, not a killing,” she recalled.
“There’s nothing like seeing a kid run through the arcade with an armload of tickets screaming, ‘I’m rich,’” Bell said. “You just don’t get that. That’s nothing but pure joy.”
A young customer gathers prize tickets at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning News
The games represent decades of investment. Bell said she and Terry once paid $25,000 for a motion-based Cruis’n USA game. The arcade also has nine pinball machines, most from the 1980s and 1990s, that have become increasingly difficult to maintain as parts disappear.
Terry was the arcade’s full-time technician and its public face. He played games with children, taught them to shoot pool and spent hours talking with customers. He died of heart failure in February 2023 at age 62.
“I miss him horribly,” Bell said. “He was all about the games, and he was all about the kids.”
Not everything inside Tornado Terry’s received an auction sticker.
Bell never intended to sell an Addams Family pinball machine the couple bought new in 1992 or a custom Dragon’s Lair cabinet Terry built.
Terry did not know Don Bluth personally, but Dragon’s Lair, which featured Bluth’s animation, was his favorite arcade game. His admiration for the former Disney animator’s work led him to build the custom cabinet.
Animator Don Bluth’s signature appears across the marquee of the custom Dragon’s Lair cabinet built by the late Terry Bell at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth. Dragon’s Lair, which featured Bluth’s animation, was Bell’s favorite arcade game
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning News
After Terry’s death, Bergman took a photograph of Terry playing the game and other Dragon’s Lair memorabilia to a Dallas fan convention. He told Bluth about Terry and showed him pictures of the cabinet.
When Bluth saw the photograph, he declined to sign an empty portion.
“He said, ‘I want to sign my name on him,’” Bergman recalled.
Bluth wrote his name across Terry’s image and also signed the cabinet. The photograph now hangs behind the machine Terry built.
“I just couldn’t believe he understood the love that went into that,” Bergman said.
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A place families call home
Bryce Delin plays Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with one of his sons at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. Delin arrived with sons Jackson and Luke believing it would be their final visit to the arcade where he grew up, then learned that owner Shannon Bell had canceled the closing.
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning News
Donna Martinez has brought her children to Tornado Terry’s since 2009. Her family has celebrated birthdays there, and her children, now 14 and 15, continue to visit.
“It’s a nice, clean place for the kids to come and do something,” Martinez said. “It’s more interactive. It’s a place to come with friends.”
Martinez said the closing announcement saddened her. Learning the arcade would remain open brought relief.
“Now they can keep coming back, and we can still have birthday parties,” she said.
Bell said customers often describe Tornado Terry’s as a second home.
“Parents talk about, ‘This is home. We’re safe. Our kids are safe here,’” she said.
Bryce Delin arrived Wednesday with his sons, Jackson and Luke, believing he was bringing them for one final visit to the arcade where he grew up playing games.
When Delin learned that Bell had called off the closing, his expression shifted from surprise to joy.
“No way,” he said. “That’s awesome.”
A customer plays Terminator Salvation at Tornado Terry’s Family Amusement Center in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.
Michael Cuviello/Dallas Morning News
Delin was expecting to say goodbye. Instead, he left knowing he could keep sharing with Jackson and Luke the place that had given him so much joy growing up.
“I’m just thankful they found a way to stay open,” he said.