Billy Mitchell opens "King of Kong" arcade. Not a single retro game inside...

[Jakobud]

Thought you guys might find this amusing as well.

http://www.slashfilm.com/billy-mitchell-opens-king-kong-arcade-orlando-airport/

[yotsuya]

Genius!

[b3dr0ck]

There was a pinball game, but that was it.  Looked like a small Dave and Busters or something like that.  You would think the guy who had all the high scores to a bunch of retro games would at least have some of them.

Seems like odd marketing to me.  The people who loved the movie would be drawn more to the classic games.  Then again you can just play them on your phone.

[RayB]

That's weird.

Probably not licensed either.
Nintendo Cease & Desist in  3... 2...

[TOK]

Movie made him out to be an a-hole, he said he never watched it, opens an arcade with ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- games named after it about 3 years too late to cash in.

Billy Mitchell Always Has A Plan.

[DJ_Izumi]

The arcade may not need to be all retro, but it should at least have a classic Donkey Kong machine.  Maybe even offer prices for reaching certian scores.

[mgb]

I'll be in the Orlando airport next month. I'll stop to look in but it looks lame.

[VanillaGorilla]

Opportunity Missed?

[_Iz-]

Man, I was just there a month ago and had no idea!

[jtslade]

I'm here in fort lauderdale for three weeks so I was going to stop by Hollywood... I wanted an excuse to interview Billy for byoac.com..

Maybe his new arcade is the perfect reason.

Any thoughts? Post your questions and I'll call his BBQ joint and try and setup an interview.

[yotsuya]

I'd like to know how much involvement the film's producers had in the new venture, as he's using all the artwork and even the name, presumably with their consent.

[Woodshop Flunky]

I don't understand his thinking...

1. I'd assume the Orlando has got a lot of "forced" 30yr old or better business traffic.  These folks would be more inclined to burn some quarters on classic games waiting for a flight.  From what I saw, I would probably have walked in and out without playing a single game.
2. Kids will still play the classic games.  My son wants to drop a quarter in anything that will take it.  My son recently saw Donkey Kong Jr. for the first time.  He asked me why that little monkey was trying to get to the top, and why did Mario have his dad?  He didn't say, "These graphics aren't as good as my Wii.  He wanted to play it right away! 

Just my thoughts

[amendonz]

pretty hilarious he claims to still have never seen the movie....
 

[Osirus23]

Seems kinda dumb to not have any retro games but hey Billy has a lot more experience running a business than I do.

[Lilwolf]

Question for him.  What year do you think that hairdo went out of style?  And how come thats the most classic thing in the place? 

As for copyright... I think they can say "sure we copied something, the movie... you should talk to them"

[VanillaGorilla]

Billy Mitchell looks like a homosexual prostitute that hangs around at nascar events and Alabama reunion concerts. He just looks sooooooo child molester. Is it really possible to be THAT out of touch with style?

[BurgerKingDiamond]

It looks absolutely pathetic.

[SavannahLion]

It's hard to make out about half of the cabs in the video so digging around I found a list of of cabs he has. Honestly, if you don't know how to shoot a video, don't share it. Damn guy acted like he was being chased around or something stupid like that. I dunno, maybe he was, I didn't bother listening to the audio.

* Dead Heat
* Terminator Salvation
* Super Bikes 1 (2 sets of them)
* Avatar pinball machine
* Air hockey table
* Aliens Extermination

It didn't list the obvious redemption games which seem to make up 1/2 the units there. Dead Heat and Super Bikes are so new that they're not even listed at KLOV. Given that I wouldn't technically consider two of the six games on that list arcade video games, that makes for less than half of that arcade filled with actual video games. Kind of goes against the places name sake there.

I have to echo Woodshop Flunky's sentiment there. I understand the business model he's trying to follow, it's the same one that Chuck-e-Cheese, Dave and Busters, etc follow only without the food. BoomTown is a pretty accurate likeness but I haven't been to their uber arcade in years so it may have changed some.

But I digress, I'm not sure I understand his thinking either. Or maybe I don't know Orlando's Airport market. It strikes me that redemption ticket arcades has one of two things going for it that make it successful. Repeat business (Chuck-e-Cheese for example) and person time (restaurants have a specific name for this, I just can't recall what it is). An airport location seems like it would be an epic fail on person time, especially for redemption games. Someone can get an assload of tickets the three hours they spend at Chuck-E-Cheese and they'll likely come back to keep playing and accruing tickets. Chuck-E-Cheese even set up this online gaming thing where you can earn tickets to entice you to come and redeem those tickets you earned.

But in an airport? How much time does have one have between flights? Is that enough time to accrue enough tickets? Seems like it makes more sense to have arcade cabs, pinballs and the like so travelers can pump in a few "quarters" between flights.

Or maybe this is a brilliant marketing strategy in the making. Use some sort of credit tracking system like what John's Incredible Universe uses. Tickets are virtually stored. As families wait for connecting flights, the kids can play the redemption games and finally redeem for their prizes on the last leg of their trip. That would be one heck of a franchise.

Gotta get rid of that ugly mug though. It really does make him look like a child molester.

Did he get Steve Wiebe's permission to use his image too? I'm not sure if the likeness is an altered photo or just an artists rendition. So it might no be like the Taster's Choice man. But if Tom Cruise can successfully prevent a vast majority of anybody from using his likeness in anything, I imagine Wiebe can have some success against Mitchell.