DISCLAIMER: These early Las Vegas entries were the first blog posts I ever did. They’re VERY antiquated compared to the rest of the blog.
“So why is this place called Circus Circus, anyway?”
If you travel through the slot machines, you’ll find a spiral staircase. At the top, you’ll find your answer.
The entire top floor is a giant carnival midway with an hourly trapeze performance in the middle. I think Circus Circus has stuck around as long as it has because of how kid-friendly its gimmick is. Circuses aren’t much of a thing these days, but you’ve still got to admit it’s an exciting theme for a casino.
Unlike most of Vegas, this whole upper floor is mostly unchanged from when I was a kid. Every one of these games is exactly how I remember it, even down to that copyright-dodging Star Darts font. I don’t think they’ve added a single new midway game in the last 20 years.
Take this one, for example. The rubber chickens are on a see-saw, and you use a hammer to knock them into the pot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone win at this game, but it’s always been there.
Notice that this game is identical to the one downstairs, except with Mario prizes. If you don’t like Mario, you can also win a tiny Batman. I had a massive box of generic stuffed animals when I was young. I don’t remember where they came from, but I can only assume most of them were from here.
This Mcdonald’s sold personal pan pizza during the 90s. As far as I know, it was the only Mcdonald’s in the country that sold pizza. Sadly, they stopped selling it when they remodeled the store, or I’d take a picture. Store-exclusive menu items were no stranger to Mcdonald’s in the 90s. There was one in Flint, Michigan, that sold Root Beer shakes. Nowadays, I think they’d just get hit with a bunch of rust jokes if they tried that.
It’s more common to see this game in its deluxe form. When you run out of quarters at the arcade as a kid, you mostly find somewhere to sit until your parents get back. If nobody’s playing it, games like this make good seats. The rock song that plays on the attract screen will forever be drilled into my head because of that.
Remember X-play? While I didn’t watch it often, I remember one episode in particular where they visited Japan. They found a Mario Kart arcade machine, turned to the camera, and went, “take a good look because it’s the last time you’ll ever see it.” The joke’s on them because it’s one of America’s most common arcade games these days.
Yeah, that’s right. They had two more upstairs. This arcade is excellent.
Speaking of which, I should mention that this upper floor has a LOT of the same games as downstairs for some reason. That Mario Bros/Donkey Kong machine earlier wasn’t the only one in the building. I think they had extra copies of every House of the Dead game up here too, but they were spread out around the floor.
Alright, Crazy Taxi!
Everyone already knows about Crazy Taxi, so let’s focus on the other game. It’s Jambo Safari, a game from the same era that ran on the same engine. Instead of taxing people around, you drive around throwing nets at wildlife. When you beat the game, you get a mysterious screen teasing you with a strange ostrich-like creature. For years there were rumors about how to make it appear until data hacking provided the answer: You can’t. It’s not in the game. Sega just wanted your money.
EDIT: Yes, it is. I need to source my information better.
Most people are familiar with the Lost World arcade game (I took pictures of it at a later arcade if you’re not), but this one is far less known. It was based on the first movie and looked strangely childish. I love the silly teal color choice. Do you remember that iconic scene where they’re running through the field with a bunch of lousy CGI dinosaurs? You can live out that scene in this game, except you shoot those dinosaurs while wacky music plays in the background.
Not one, but THREE water-spraying games. You can’t see it in this photo, but the game on the left has a toilet as the seat.
I’m not a fan of In the Groove, but that’s the infamous Roxor cab. Instead of being hacked DDR machines, they’re a much nicer cabinet explicitly made for ITG. The Supernova machine was far more playable than the one downstairs but way more expensive.
Also, there’s more House of the Dead.
Again, nothing to say about most of these. This arcade is so big that I’m feeling burnt out.
