Author Topic: doesn't anyone care anymore??? (Read 3939 times)

severdhed · « **on:** July 24, 2007, 06:42:06 pm »

I just got back from Chuck E. Cheese, i stopped by to look at the cabinets they had for some inspiration...

they dont have many arcade games anymore, but there were a few...

NBA JAM
TMNT
Zaxxon
Asteroids
Tetris
Pacman.

most of the cabinets were pretty good, i believe original cabinets..however, the tetris machine was a horrible conversion. there was duct tape along the front edge of the control panel where the TMolding should be. and the overlay was lacking. all of the button labels were hand drawn in pencil on little squares of white paper and just lying there under the plexiglass...it was horrible.

but then there was PACMAN. it was an original pacman cabinet and was in decent shape, with the bezel, control overlay and marquee all looking good...however it was actually running Ms Pacman. not that big of a deal..but here is the kicker...it had a 8way, black, bat top joystick. it was horrible. the stick was very sloppy feeling and was completely unplayable.

i dont mind cabinet conversions, but pacman with an 8 way stick is just wrong....should be illegal even.

ahofle · « **Reply #1 on:** July 24, 2007, 07:01:00 pm »

Asteroids? Pacman? At Chuck E Cheese? Can you please share the plans for your time machine? All the Chuck E Cheeses I've seen in this decade only have a bunch of crap redemption games and a Star Wars Pod Racer.

TOK · « **Reply #2 on:** July 24, 2007, 10:06:04 pm »

The one near me has a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other than the redemption stuff, I think every other game is a Sega driving game.

CM · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:19:00 pm »

I recently went with my kid to one and half the machines were the kiddie-gambling-trainer variety (push the coin off the tray or spin-the-color wheel type) and the other half were broken. Maybe we should drop a copy of Project Arcade off for the owner?

paigeoliver · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:48:35 pm »

Check this out, the Dave and Buster's location in St. Louis removed the 4-way stick from their Ms. Pac/Galaga Reunion machine and installed an 8-way bat top. Don't ever waste your money there, they have had games sitting in their "Million Dollar Midway" in need of CRUCIAL inexpensive repairs for years. Some have had the same problems for 5 years or more.

It doesn't matter though, the game is over. Only a tiny handful of arcade games hit US shores in 2006 and even less than that this year. A few years from now that number will likely be zero.

severdhed · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:50:16 pm »

it is just so sad. little kids are going to play that pacman game and think it sucks because the controls dont work right. and they could go all through life thinking pacman is a crappy game, all because some idiot installed an 8way stick in it.

LiquidFire · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2007, 04:31:44 am »

MAME is a documentation project for software.

BYOAC is the documenting of an accurate hardware interface.

(Thanks Saint! I was only looking for a book with photos of completed cabs, then yours popped up-took the chance on it and s**t-howdy, I will soon build the mother of all machines!) (The book gave me some confidence I could create such a machine.)

A faithfully original Pacman cab should be required in every classroom.

f4phantomii · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2007, 09:07:35 am »

Hmm...last time I was in a Dave & Busters sometime last summer it was a pretty good one. It had two stories of wall-to-wall arcade games. This is the one in Ontario, California.

Sadly, the oldest game I saw in there was House of the Dead II.

Definitely none of the classics. But plenty of racing games, blast-em-up zombie shooter games.

FrizzleFried · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2007, 09:57:26 am »

The Chuck E Cheeze here in Boise (I know I was there last week for a friends kids' B-day party) actually had a couple classics. Well...remanufactured classics. They had a Space Invaders/Qix cabinet and a Pac/Galaga reunion cabinet. On top of that they had some big huge ass machine with eye-goggles or something...I didn't pay attention. And even a Simpsons pinball that gave out redemption coupons.

PS: That Dave N Busters in Ontario (Ontario Mills Mall) sits right on top of what was once the best motorcross riding area in all of the Inland Empire...I used to ride my 80cc Yamaha there 2-3x a week.

SirPeale · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2007, 10:06:01 am »

The biggest reason the 4 ways get replaced with 8 ways is because ops have them on hand. Price is a factor too. Six bucks for a 8 way vs $25 for a four way, price wins (in the ops mind, anyway).

mrbigggshot · « **Reply #10 on:** July 25, 2007, 11:52:40 am »

Quote from: Peale on July 25, 2007, 10:06:01 am

The biggest reason the 4 ways get replaced with 8 ways is because ops have them on hand. Price is a factor too. Six bucks for a 8 way vs $25 for a four way, price wins (in the ops mind, anyway).

Bingo. I used to work at a Chuck E. Cheese in high school (yeah...I know...) and believe me, they'd sell the children to make money if they were allowed. They make a ridiculous profit off those tokens. I'm just amazed there are still locations with cabinets that old, the one I worked at only had Street Fighter, racing cabs, and a firefighter one with a giant hose control. The game with the Sea-doos you sit on (I don't remember the name) were the most popular.

Good pizza, though.

RayB · « **Reply #11 on:** July 25, 2007, 01:28:56 pm »

Quote from: Peale on July 25, 2007, 10:06:01 am

The biggest reason the 4 ways get replaced with 8 ways is because ops have them on hand. Price is a factor too. Six bucks for a 8 way vs $25 for a four way, price wins (in the ops mind, anyway).

Yup. They are geniuses. Save $19 now, and then the earnings on the machine gets cut in half. It's no wonder arcade business are on their last thread.

SithMaster · « **Reply #12 on:** July 25, 2007, 01:29:18 pm »

My chuck e cheese is still good but its seen better days. used to have adult size air hockey and like 5 pins (including an addams family) and now it has only a simpsons pin. I think tmnt is required in a chuck e cheese by law.

xmenxmen · « **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2007, 01:47:18 pm »

Arcade of the new age is quite different than the good old time. Kids nowadays (including mine) just really don't spend much time trying to figure things out, so they pass from machine to machine within minutes. Games that require skill and patient don't work well for modern kids anymore.

Can't remember the last time any of my neice or nephew ever spend any time to finish game. It's a sad world now...

FrizzleFried · « **Reply #14 on:** July 25, 2007, 01:56:42 pm »

...it's a by-product of having a bizillion things shoved at them continually from every direction. Have you watched kid shows lately? Not baby show...but like 5-10 year old kid shows? ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- is going on all the time...and from every direction...non-stop and at 5 million words/thoughts per second.

No wonder kids have a hard time focusing on one thing anymore.

BTW: You can't go in to CC around here without a kid. They will kick your ass out or not even let you in. Damn scumbag pedo's have screwed that one up.

SirPeale · « **Reply #15 on:** July 25, 2007, 02:07:17 pm »

Quote from: RayB on July 25, 2007, 01:28:56 pm

Quote from: Peale on July 25, 2007, 10:06:01 am
The biggest reason the 4 ways get replaced with 8 ways is because ops have them on hand. Price is a factor too. Six bucks for a 8 way vs $25 for a four way, price wins (in the ops mind, anyway).
Yup. They are geniuses. Save $19 now, and then the earnings on the machine gets cut in half. It's no wonder arcade business are on their last thread.

My former boss was at the same time very conscious - and at the same time, oblivious - of how money was being spent.

One day we were discussing ordering items to replenish supply. We'd run out of...something...and were being chided for none of us recognizing that we needed more and ordering. He told us when we were out of something or running low to call and order more.

I made the suggestion of a once-a-week call for ordering stuff to save on shipping charges, unless we needed a part RIGHT THEN. I wasn't even done suggesting this when he interrupted me and said "No. Just call and order the parts when you see we're getting low."

Flash forward about eight months later. Boss is ranting about how we're placing all kinds of small orders, and to start consolidating orders.

I just stared at him for about fifteen seconds. Cool Guy actually walked away, he knew what was coming. "Uh, boss? You told us months ago to just order stuff when we needed it. What you're suggesting now was the suggestion I had months ago."

He just looked at me. Told me that there are grey areas to what he told us, and we should know better. Then he left.

NightGod · « **Reply #16 on:** July 31, 2007, 12:07:11 pm »

I have a friend who owns a handful of very successful small businesses who calls that behavior "tripping over dollar bills to pick up pennies".

Seems apt.

vintagegamer · « **Reply #17 on:** July 31, 2007, 02:51:42 pm »

That's why I was so surprised actually that Hersheypark had so many classic games, and not only that, they were all WORKING! I just stood staring at all the nostalgia. It was a rarity..

VG

AtomSmasher · « **Reply #18 on:** July 31, 2007, 03:30:15 pm »

Quote from: ahofle on July 24, 2007, 07:01:00 pm

Asteroids? Pacman? At Chuck E Cheese? Can you please share the plans for your time machine? All the Chuck E Cheeses I've seen in this decade only have a bunch of crap redemption games and a Star Wars Pod Racer.

Thats what my local Chuck E Cheese it like as well. Whenever I go to one for my neice or nephews birthday, I spend probably 99% of my game playing time on the skeeball machine.

ChadTower · « **Reply #19 on:** July 31, 2007, 03:57:36 pm »

Last time I took my kids there we couldn't play skee ball because there were kids running across them. Two kids had actually used a screwdriver to pry open the ticket dispenser door and were taking out the whole roll of tickets, and there was a kid inside the rotating hoop basketball game. I'm totally serious. There were like 150 kids in there and probably 20 adults (counting myself and my wife). There's no way in hell most of those kids' parents were in the building and the employees were just standing around looking completely helpless.

shardian · « **Reply #20 on:** July 31, 2007, 04:09:50 pm »

Quote from: AtomSmasher on July 31, 2007, 03:30:15 pm

Quote from: ahofle on July 24, 2007, 07:01:00 pm
Asteroids? Pacman? At Chuck E Cheese? Can you please share the plans for your time machine? All the Chuck E Cheeses I've seen in this decade only have a bunch of crap redemption games and a Star Wars Pod Racer.
Thats what my local Chuck E Cheese it like as well. Whenever I go to one for my neice or nephews birthday, I spend probably 99% of my game playing time on the skeeball machine.

They took the old-school skee-ball machines out of the local Billy Bob's and Chuck-E-Cheeses...

. Now they have the crappy short body basketball ones.

ChadTower · « **Reply #21 on:** July 31, 2007, 04:13:25 pm »

Those are the ones our Chuck E Cheese has too, but there is plexi covering all of the opening except about 6" above the ramp, so you can't throw the balls in (and probably so the kids can't just run up and dunk them).

shardian · « **Reply #22 on:** July 31, 2007, 04:35:12 pm »

If I ever see an old skeeball machine locally, it is soooo totally going in the garage at my house - pre-approval from the wife already in hand.

Barry Barcrest · « **Reply #23 on:** July 31, 2007, 05:16:46 pm »

You guys think you have it bad, here in the uk it's all Fruit Machines. Blackpool still has a fair few arcades but most of them are 90% fruit machines. The only one i found some retro games in always seems to closed. But through the window i saw 3 space invaders a ROTJ stand up Original cab, a sege turbo and a pole position. One time it will be open and i can go and play... It's so bad i struggled to find a working Daytona Link Up last time i was there which was around this time last year.

langdoguk · « **Reply #24 on:** July 31, 2007, 06:24:52 pm »

Quote from: Barcrest on July 31, 2007, 05:16:46 pm

You guys think you have it bad, here in the uk it's all Fruit Machines. Blackpool still has a fair few arcades but most of them are 90% fruit machines. The only one i found some retro games in always seems to closed. But through the window i saw 3 space invaders a ROTJ stand up Original cab, a sege turbo and a pole position. One time it will be open and i can go and play... It's so bad i struggled to find a working Daytona Link Up last time i was there which was around this time last year.

Mate I was there 3 weeks ago

, it was open after about 6pm on a wednesday night (if it's the one outside the pleasure beach along from Ripley's) , 10 pence a game , also had a Hyper Sports + Paperboy , one of the Space Invaders is broke but looks in okay condition (make him an offer

) , I saw it during the day and thought it had been shut for years then just by luck passed later on , I was on holiday so not sure of usual times?

10p a game , great fun mate , keep checking if your local

vintagegamer · « **Reply #25 on:** July 31, 2007, 08:48:54 pm »

Quote from: shardian on July 31, 2007, 04:35:12 pm

If I ever see an old skeeball machine locally, it is soooo totally going in the garage at my house - pre-approval from the wife already in hand.

Sharidan, you and me are WAYYYYYYYY too much alike.. The only thing holding me back is that the dam thing's 10ft long!

VG

Crowquill · « **Reply #26 on:** August 01, 2007, 04:07:46 am »

I'm not sure things are much different now than they were in the past.

I've never been surprised to find one of my buttons doesn't work after I put in my hard-earned quarter. In an actual arcade things were a bit better, but even then it's a crap-shoot. Games on a route were always the worst. This is why I started a new practice:

Always use the player 2 side. Controls are usually in much better shape and take a lot less abuse. Still a bit of a gamble, but you're less likely to find you can't jump after dropping 50 cents into a fighting game.

I've never had any problems at the Cincinnati Dave and Busters. Our local GameWorks is the same way. All machines are fairly clean and well-maintained. Not long ago I was at a local laundromat and was excited to play the Rocky and Bullwinkle pin. Apparently the start button was broken. About a year ago at an arcade in Pigeon Forge, TN I had to literally argue with a clerk who wouldn't give me another token to replace the one that dropped all the way through the coin door without tripping a credit.

I know these things take a lot more of a beating than they do in our homes, but joysticks, buttons, and switches are cheap and easy to replace.

rlehm · « **Reply #27 on:** August 01, 2007, 06:10:22 am »

I don't think it's a matter of not caring, but a matter of kids not liking arcades these days. They are into graphics+consoles+pc games. Playing against friends online (xbox-live) and games that allow communication like World of Warcraft have changed the gaming world. W.o.W. has 8 million subscribers to it's game. You won't see that kind of frenzy for an arcade game these days. In Las Vegas there is a huge arcade, Game Works. I used to go there and play acrades... all the old arcades, asteroids, pacman, etc.. were 1 cent, so it was fun, and the new games were mostly ignored. The kids would play each machine maybe once, or twice, and move on. Only 2-3 out of hundreds had any real attention. Kids were there to eat pizza, and try and get dates. The pool table room had people on every table, and a line waiting to play, while all the arcades behind them remained empty. in my town, and the areas I have been to, kids just don't like aracdes today. I'll quote a neighbor kid "Why would someone want a machine that only plays one game?" And "You can't even save your game, you spend quarters to play, then when you leave, you have to start from the beginning again." Clearly, the console generation is like oil to the arcade, water generation that i grew up in. If the person isn't about 30 or older, don't expect him to understand an arcade machine. I mean sure, kids play mine and have fun, but after the 3rd or 4th visit, they aren't exactly dying to come back and play... and all of them reach for my xbox360, or PS3 and ignore the arcades that i have completely.

SirPeale · « **Reply #28 on:** August 01, 2007, 08:32:33 am »

Quote from: Crowquill on August 01, 2007, 04:07:46 am

Always use the player 2 side.

Sage advice. In my travels I've found that 99% of the time controls issues are with the P1 side.

Here's a tip for you street repair folk. Heck, you might know this one already. If your joystick isn't hitting all the corners anymore because the spacer has worn down to a point, pull the shaft out, and flip the spacer over. You still have the height of the spacer because of the point, but you now have the flat bottom because it's never been used.

You can do this with worn microswitch pushbuttons too. Pull out the plunger and flip it around. Good for another ten years.

shardian · « **Reply #29 on:** August 01, 2007, 08:34:45 am »

Quote from: vintagegamer on July 31, 2007, 08:48:54 pm

Quote from: shardian on July 31, 2007, 04:35:12 pm
If I ever see an old skeeball machine locally, it is soooo totally going in the garage at my house - pre-approval from the wife already in hand.

Sharidan, you and me are WAYYYYYYYY too much alike.. The only thing holding me back is that the dam thing's 10ft long!

VG

Ahh, but I can solder!

telengard · « **Reply #30 on:** August 01, 2007, 06:47:29 pm »

Quote from: severdhed on July 24, 2007, 06:42:06 pm

I just got back from Chuck E. Cheese, i stopped by to look at the cabinets they had for some inspiration...

they dont have many arcade games anymore, but there were a few...

NBA JAM
TMNT
Zaxxon
Asteroids
Tetris
Pacman.

most of the cabinets were pretty good, i believe original cabinets..however, the tetris machine was a horrible conversion. there was duct tape along the front edge of the control panel where the TMolding should be. and the overlay was lacking. all of the button labels were hand drawn in pencil on little squares of white paper and just lying there under the plexiglass...it was horrible.

but then there was PACMAN. it was an original pacman cabinet and was in decent shape, with the bezel, control overlay and marquee all looking good...however it was actually running Ms Pacman. not that big of a deal..but here is the kicker...it had a 8way, black, bat top joystick. it was horrible. the stick was very sloppy feeling and was completely unplayable.

i dont mind cabinet conversions, but pacman with an 8 way stick is just wrong....should be illegal even.

Wow, I'm pretty impressed they have a Zaxxon there.

~telengard

grantspain · « **Reply #31 on:** August 01, 2007, 06:57:12 pm »

well my arcade down here in the south of spain is still going strong-keep the faith

vintagegamer · « **Reply #32 on:** August 01, 2007, 09:14:39 pm »

Quote from: shardian on August 01, 2007, 08:34:45 am

Quote from: vintagegamer on July 31, 2007, 08:48:54 pm
Quote from: shardian on July 31, 2007, 04:35:12 pm
If I ever see an old skeeball machine locally, it is soooo totally going in the garage at my house - pre-approval from the wife already in hand.

Sharidan, you and me are WAYYYYYYYY too much alike.. The only thing holding me back is that the dam thing's 10ft long!

VG

Ahh, but I can solder!

Showoff..

Barry Barcrest · « **Reply #33 on:** August 02, 2007, 07:37:04 am »

Quote from: langdoguk on July 31, 2007, 06:24:52 pm

Mate I was there 3 weeks ago , it was open after about 6pm on a wednesday night (if it's the one outside the pleasure beach along from Ripley's) , 10 pence a game , also had a Hyper Sports + Paperboy , one of the Space Invaders is broke but looks in okay condition (make him an offer ) , I saw it during the day and thought it had been shut for years then just by luck passed later on , I was on holiday so not sure of usual times?
10p a game , great fun mate , keep checking if your local

Yeah that's the one i was on about, you found it open... Damn i might go and check it out the bank holiday weekend. It's not to big is it? I want to know what happened to all the Sit Down Star Wars Cabs and Dragons Lair Cabs the Pleasure beach had. They were running into the 90's even the Dragons Lair's (Was probably converted to Dragons Lair II then). All of a sudden around the mid 90's they all went. It was around the time of Daytona and the Dance games that the bulk of the classics seemed to dissappear. Then after that it was just more and more fruit machines. Comes to something when a game on Crazy Taxi is as retro as you can find. I did find a bar in preston with a 4 game cocktail cab in it. They were all re-makes though and although graphically correct the pac-man was un playable due to the 8-way 4-way scenario


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Author Topic: doesn't anyone care anymore??? (Read 3939 times)

f4phantomii