Who remembers W.C. Frank Arcade?

[creepfactory]

I am from Omaha, Nebraska, and the midwest and specifically Omaha had a chain of arcade/restaurants calle W.C. Franks. They served Turkey meat hot dogs, man they were great! They had THE best arcade in town for three or four years till...gasp!...the crash of 84! They limped on for a few years, but eventually closed for good. Are there any still open somewhere? I miss them! Thats what drove me to Mame, cabinet building etc. Just trying to re-live those awesome 80s nights playing 'vids (as we called them then) at WCs. Or any other misty stories about arcades long gone?

[SNAAAKE]

yes..there is one...In Montreal...the place was called Black Lotus.Where they had about 10 machines,and pizza/bar,a huge 50" tv to watch wresling and cable.pool table and a ping pong table.When i was like 14 I started hanging around in that arcade place and MAN !...whoooo....that was life... hanging around with everyone I knew and play games,watch tv,play pool(cant ask for more).However,they just closed the store because of some weird reason.They had nothing illegal goin on down there(not sure if there was anything goin on )THAT WAS the saddest thing ever damn it .

[Nailz]

Ahhh, I smell the nostalgia in the air....  

There was a place in Seattle called Ivory's (on 4th r 5th Ave as I recall), this was back in the early 80's, I was about 10,11 at the time.  In the summer time I would ride the bus (how many of us would let a 10 year old do that these days?   ) downtown to my Mom's office, she'd give me $5 for the day and I'd spend the day in there playing vid's and then meet her at 5 to ride the bus home.  Those were the best summers as a kid that I can recall....

[dhansen]

The town where I grew up had a place called Wizard of Oz where in the late 70's, early 80's they had a variety of games, air hockey, and those mechanical/video games.  Does anyone remember the game where you shot harpoons at a stingray?  It wasn't a video game but it was some mechanical device with a rear projections screen.  I can't remeber what it was called.

Doug

[MinerAl]

Hey Creepfactory, if you're still in Omaha, there are a couple of retro-arcade/eateries in town.

Bene Pizza is good food and has a little classic arcade off to one side.  The mood isn't as dark and smoky as the arcades I remember from the 80s but, I can sure do without the smoke anyway!

I miss W.C. Franks and Showbiz too.

[creepfactory]

Yea I went to Bene, its AWESOME! Such care in restoring. I think Family Fun center trashed the classic arcade also. Ah Showbiz pizza, I remember it well, Billy Bob and the Rockafire Explosion. on 132nd & center.

[Phreakwars]

So I'm on google searching for WC Franks from my youth, and wow, the first hit leads to the BYOAC forums...

So yeah, here I am bumping a topic that hasn't been responded to since Michael Jackson dangled a baby over a balcony, but OH YES, I do indeed remember W.C. Franks (the frank we could all afford). We had one in Estherville Iowa when I was a kid and it was THE place to go to play arcade games. They had Mario Bros, Gauntlet, Hogan's Alley, 1942, Track & Field, Zookeeper, Super Pacman, Punchout, .VS Ice Climber, Kangaroo, Kung Fu Master, Joust, Tron and so many others I can't remember right off hand.... Oddly enough, I have NEVER ate one of their hot dogs. Mine, and most all of my friends and family, went for the pizza. The mini pizza's were the ones to get, they actually tasted somewhat different then the other sizes... probably because when Blaine made the minis, he piled on the cheese whereas, on the other sizes, the cheese was kind of spread out... But man, I loved, loved loved MINI PEPPERONI. Oddly, now a days, I will rarely eat a pepperoni topped pizza, I'd for sure eat a W.C. Franks mini pepperoni though.

But yeah, W.C. Franks is one of those business I wish we still had around for my son to experience. I know I'd never be able to get him to leave. Coincidentally, the very first Hyperspin setup I did for my boy for his laptop had ALL the games I remembered from W.C. Franks (except Hogan's Alley for obvious reasons).

[reptileink]

I was a Dream Machine kid. There was another large arcade, but that was about 25 minutes from our house, and even though we live in the smallest state (Rhode Island), our parents never thought of driving "that far".....lol.

So Dream machine was a quick 10-12 minute ride, and also anchored in the only mall in the area. So Mom and Dad could go shopping, and drop us kids off at the arcade for an hour or so with a $10 roll of quarters.  What was nice is there was a cinema right across the hall, so lots of afternoons consisted of a movie, then a trip to the arcade. Man, I can still smell the smells and hear the sounds. Nothing will ever come close to that anymore. Even the newer arcades that are popping up here and there lack that atmosphere/smell/experience. Plus, redemption games 

We have a fancy new bowling alley and "arcade" coincidentally in the same mall, now what, 25 years later? It's all full of redemption games and you can't even put money into them, you have to use a card (Like Dave and Busters). After 5-8 games depending, your card is out of money and you walk out with a glow bracelet or something for your troubles....lol.