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Author Topic: Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...  (Read 2605 times)

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Distortion

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Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« on: March 07, 2003, 10:27:28 pm »
Some friends and I decided to visit once again the mom-and-pop arcade we used to go to as young-uns so i could try and get some ideas about cabinets and controls, plus we could have some pizza and a good time.  I was saddened, to say the least about what I saw there.  There were probably around 9 machines there, whereas there were once around 15 or 16.  All but two of the machines (battletoats and TMNT) that used them had at least one broken joystick (which we all know is quite easily fixed) and the video on Battletoads was all messed up.  On the way out, I asked who did the maintainence, and they didn't really have an answer for that, so I just mentioned to them that the super joysticks from happ are on sale for 8 bucks apiece.  They looked at me like I was the weirdest person they'd ever come in contact with.  That's when I realized that they didn't do maintainence.  They just threw out "broken" cabinets, which explained for the rapidly diminishing number of them in the place.  The point I was trying to make was not really that they could get joysticks on sale, but that joysticks are CHEAP!!!  I'm not asking them for much, just to spend 8 bucks on a machine to give people a reason to come back.  Too sad....Too sad.
Game programmers do not play games for a living.  Would you say a mechanic drives cars for a living?

MilitiaMan

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2003, 03:39:36 pm »
Some friends and I decided to visit once again the mom-and-pop arcade we used to go to as young-uns so i could try and get some ideas about cabinets and controls, plus we could have some pizza and a good time.  I was saddened, to say the least about what I saw there.  There were probably around 9 machines there, whereas there were once around 15 or 16.  All but two of the machines (battletoats and TMNT) that used them had at least one broken joystick (which we all know is quite easily fixed) and the video on Battletoads was all messed up.  On the way out, I asked who did the maintainence, and they didn't really have an answer for that, so I just mentioned to them that the super joysticks from happ are on sale for 8 bucks apiece.  They looked at me like I was the weirdest person they'd ever come in contact with.  That's when I realized that they didn't do maintainence.  They just threw out "broken" cabinets, which explained for the rapidly diminishing number of them in the place.  The point I was trying to make was not really that they could get joysticks on sale, but that joysticks are CHEAP!!!  I'm not asking them for much, just to spend 8 bucks on a machine to give people a reason to come back.  Too sad....Too sad.

I agree Distortion --- that is a sad story.

On a recent trip home to the 'burbs of Chicago, my cousin and I decided to stop by the local hangout in the town where we grew up. It was more of a deli/ice cream shoppe, but they had about 10 or 12 games in the back and that was where you could find me pretty much every day after school.

Well, on to the sad part. When we got there we realized immediately that it was no longer the majestic ice cream store that it once was but had been converted into, and I should have seen this coming, a STARBUCKS!!

Not a game in sight --- talk about a disappointment. At least your "mom and pop" was still grasping to some semblance of it's former self and not bastardized into a latte-house.

SAD INDEED ...

-MM

Nailz

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2003, 04:31:06 pm »
Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!  Mine got turned into a Starbucks too!  I sense a conspiracy here.....

rampy

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2003, 04:40:05 pm »
disortion.. if they just "throw out"  "broken" games... you should ask about saving them from the pile...
(or just watch their dumpster =P )

rampy

Distortion

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2003, 08:17:00 pm »
disortion.. if they just "throw out"  "broken" games... you should ask about saving them from the pile...
(or just watch their dumpster =P )

rampy
I was thinking the same thing myself.  I'm actually gonna give them a call sometime this week (I was gone for the weekend) and find out if they've got any broken cabinets I can take off their hands.
Game programmers do not play games for a living.  Would you say a mechanic drives cars for a living?

2slk

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2003, 09:35:01 pm »
 I did a little 'arcade acounting' tour of my local downtown core last week. The total number of arcades from my youth that no longer exist: 6 Total number of arcades that have been signifigantly reduced in size: 2 Sad folks... very sad.

Smittydc

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Re:Saddening visit to my old stomping grounds...
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2003, 01:05:10 pm »
None of my old haunts are even standing.  The comic store was replaced with a citibank.  The arcade didn't make it out of the 80s.  And the mom and pop deli that I can still smell when I play Donkey Kong burned down.

<sigh>

At least there's no starbucks!  :)

Reminds me of the Gross Pointe Blank scene when John Cusack goes to his home town and finds out his childhood home is now a quickie-mart.  :D
Build a man a fire, he's warm for a night.  Set a man on fire, he's warm the rest of his life.