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2 of my favorite dying hobbies: arcade games and drive in's

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vintagegamer:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on June 11, 2007, 10:38:26 am ---
That site shows two in my area within 15 miles.  Not sure I'd want to sit in my car for two hours, though, watching a movie through the windshield.  I don't think the kids would be able to see very well from the back seat.

--- End quote ---

That's why you back into the space and bring beach chairs if you got 'em, Chad- they also usually have playgrounds there for the kiddies, and then there's always the arcade :D

DEFINITELY go at least 1x if you can- more of them close up every single year.. if you have 2 that close to you, you are a very lucky person.

knave:

--- Quote from: shardian on June 11, 2007, 10:30:47 am ---http://www.drive-ins.com/
EDIT: Just in case you don't notice, the mileage shown in the search results are not very accurate. Once you get the address off the drive-in's site, do a directions search over at yahoo or mapquest to get accurate travel info.

--- End quote ---

LOL, it showed the one about an hour north of me as being 16 miles away...(it's really ~50 miles or so...)

But still a pretty cool site.  I searched for "all" and it listed the ones that have since closed in my town.  Nostalgic but sad.  I never went until about 10 years ago. I really liked it.  I guess my car was pretty comfortable and playing it over my 4 car speakers seemed to sound great too...

...I think I'll have to take the wife and kids...

ChadTower:

I was thinking about this last night and a thought occurred to me.  If people usually sit in lawn chairs outside the car, and the speakers are inside the car, you're basically sitting listening to a mono broadcast.  You're outside the room in which the stereo channels both exist, hearing a combination of both channels, plus the same combination from every car around you.

Or are they also broadcast over larger speakers in the parking lot?

Ken Layton:
All drive-ins distribute sound differently from theater-to-theater or in the case of multi-screen drive-ins, even from screen-to-screen. Here are the currently available sound distribution methods:

Individual "in-car" speakers. These are connected to a cast iron post atop which sits a "junction box" (sometimes lighted!). The speakers usually sit in a wireformed basket or in grooves on the junction box top cover. Generally two speakers are connected to one junction box. Each speaker recieves a maximum of a half a watt of audio power (one watt total to the junction box). This is a mono system and one car on one side of the post uses one speaker and the car on the other side of the post uses the other speaker. The speaker cords are usually 6 feet long to allow you to either hang the speaker on your car window or (if you're sitting outside in a lawn chair) hang it on your lawn chair. RCA invented the "in-a-car" speaker system in late 1939 and it's based on multiple speaker public address systems. This allows many speakers to be connected to an amplifier (or bank of amplifiers depending on theater size). The amplifiers are all vacuum tube (transistor amplifiers don't work in this application) and in general 80 watts RMS in audio power output. This generally means one amplifier can drive 160 speakers (80 posts). Many drive-ins using speakers have at least two amplifiers in operation at all times and are equipped with an 'emergency' operation switch. In the event of the failure of one of the amplifiers during a show, flipping this switch changes the entire speaker load to one of the amplifiers to continue the show (at a slight reduction in volume). This is a temporary measure that can keep a theater in operation for up to two weeks with only one amplifier. Transistor amplifiers could never do anything like this. My old drive I worked at (the Skyline) had three amplifiers (two normal and one emergency amplifier). Our amplifiers were built in 1955 and I recapped them back in 1994 and brought them back to full operation. Since the new owners took over this theater 4 years ago, they have RUINED the entire speaker system and amplifiers. All my hard work went down the drain when they took over (they don't care about this theater, tey only want piles of money). When leaving a theater equipped with speakers, be sure to hang the speaker back on the post before driving away lest you break your window.

AM radio broadcasting. This is always AM MONO from a low power AM radio transmitter in the projection booth. Usually a frequency at the bottom of the AM band is selected (like 540 khz) so as not to interfere with commercial AM radio broadcast stations in the locality. This is the only legal theater broadcasting method authorized by the FCC in the USA for drive-ins.

FM radio broadcasting. This is mostly FM STEREO from a low power transmitter in the projection booth. As with AM a frequency at the bottom of the FM band is selected (like 88.9 Mhz) so as not to interfere with commercial broadcast stations. Some theaters with older transmitters are FM MONO. Some theaters have a Dolby (or compatible) theater audio processor ahead of the transmitter to give you good quality noise reduction/EQ/channel seperation so what you hear on your FM car radio actually sounds pretty good. There are 3 drive-ins in the USA that have actually adapted Dolby Digital and DTS Digital sound to work with FM stereo transmitters. The Rodeo Drive-in (3 screens, located just 45 minutes from me, www.rodeodrivein.com) has such a system and it sounds fantastic! However, there is a downside. The FCC has NEVER authorized or licensed any drive-in theater to use low power FM radio transmitters. If a person complains to the FCC about a particular theater, they WILL shut their transmitter down. Technically speaking all FM radio transmitting by drive-ins are illegal. Those that use FM are taking a chance that they could be shut down and their equipment confiscated.

lanman31337:

--- Quote from: rovingmind on June 09, 2007, 01:01:51 pm ---i take a 1974 cj5 with the top off to our local drive-in, then we put the windsheild down.
 Usually we get to park in the row next to the snack bar because thats the first row of van/light pickup parking.  the vehicle height is just enough that we're not bothered by people walking in front of us.  

--- End quote ---

I used to own 3 cj's in my life, the first a 77 cj7, the second a 72 cj5, and the third a 79 cj5.  i used to take the passenger seat out and set it on the ground for the lady i was dating to sit in, was good times.  the 79 sat monsterously tall with 40 inch tires and 9 inches of lift, i'd always sit in back, and be able to make it out quickly.

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