Not sure anyone cares but I spent a great many hours at this place today, and I wanted to share my experience.
Firstly:
http://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/The Galloping Ghost Arcade is a good sized (400 games or so) video game arcade in Brookfield, IL, a suburb of Chicago. It has a unique pricing structure in that there is a one-time entry fee, and all the games within are set to free-play. A one-day pass costs $15 per person. Weekly, monthly, and yearly passes are also sold. You can come and go as you please once you've purchased the pass.
Their game selection is significant and covers a very wide range of genres and ages. There is a very slight focus on fighting games; there are entire rows of MK and SF cabinets. There are several PS3 games shoved into arcade cabinets, and there is at least one modern gaming room, with flat-panel TVs on the walls, couches, and modern video game consoles. This is a nice touch.
A lot of the cabinets are "original" in that the side art matches the marquee, and the marquee matches the game. There are a few cases where the side art does not match the game, and many where the cabinet just isn't right for the game at all, or where button placement is just wrong.
This is definitely an operators' arcade; very little effort is spent to keep cabinets original, or even looking good. Holes are cut where holes need to be to fit a monitor frame, for example. Bezel art is often missing, control panels are loose, buttons don't work or don't feel right, etc. This is not a collectors' arcade, and if you go in there thinking you'll see an arcade from the 1980s, you will be unhappy with what you see.
VERY few of the monitors were even close to looking good. A few had LCD panels, the rest were CRTs or projection. Nearly all the CRTs need attention beyond what the turning of dials can accomplish. There was at least one monitor with vertical collapse, several with chassis connected to earth ground (a no-no for monitors driven by isolation transformers) and had visible noise to show for it. Many had extreme burn-in, many had severe tube/yoke issues, and, sadly, 90% had distracting color issues. There were less than 10 monitors which I considered to have a "good" picture. There was a Neo-Geo cabinet where green was indistinguishable from black, and red and blue were similar enough that I had difficulty playing Puzzle Bobble.
At this point I think it is important to note that I am starting to believe that operators such as this one are at least partially to blame for their own industry's downfall because of things like this. It felt like very little attempt was made to keep things in good shape, and it soured me quite a bit on the arcade industry as a whole. It felt very much like a place that cuts corners and does not value its customers; it was weird and not comfortable. Once I paid and went inside, I felt like I was in the way, and annoying the staff.
In comparison, the arcade in McLean, IL is clearly run by a collector. Attention to detail is prevalent in nearly all machines there, and each time I go back, I see more things fixed, and fresh games that look great rotated in.
The Galloping Ghost Arcade is staffed by 1-2 dudes that seem to be running things, and 5-8 more who don't give a damn about anything. Most were firmly seated at computers in offices in a nearby "expansion" where the pinballs were located, swearing up a storm in front of my kids and nephews, or tending to about 2 dozen guitars in a collection. To be fair, these offices might have been subleased.
The play sounds and atmosphere (when your eyes were closed) were surreal and authentic. Not all games had audible audio (I suspect because volumes were turned down in many cases) but those that did sounded good. The bathroom smelled like an industrial waste accident, the shop was a giant tangle of parts that looked like it hadn't seated an actual repairman for a decade.
This place has game pricing done correctly, but it felt more like they stand up games to get their game count up, rather than providing a good gaming experience. They need a jukebox, a bar & grill, and a full-time monitor repair guy. 350 cabinets or so, and at least 330 of them had monitors which needed repair...
Overall, if you go in expecting what I've described, you will not be disappointed. If you go in expecting to see the personal collection of a collector with an eye for detail, you will be SORELY disappointed, as I was.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: Galloping Ghost Arcade review (Read 4311 times)
