Farewell NYC. I was tired of you anyway.
My next destination was several hours away by bus. Luckily, it was a huge, fancy bus with a snack bar in the back and some random in-ride movies. At this point, I had been traveling for two weeks and was long exhausted. After 43 arcades, I think anyone would be. But I wasn’t done yet. There were still two arcades I wanted to see.
On the way, we stopped at a Pilot station. Hopefully, this would be an excellent chance to get some photos of a real truck stop arcade. They’re never very big but usually a lot more elaborate than the last one.
Still not quite what I was looking for, but I’ll take it.
This game room follows the standard “shooting game-racing game-other game” formula I’ve mentioned. This time, the other game is a rather unusual-looking Namco-Galaga machine. Why is the marquee so far back?
…wait, the Fast and the Furious has an upright version?? It even looks pretty official. I must have seen this game over a hundred times throughout my travels, but I’ve never seen this version of it. Weird.
Their choice for a shooting game is a rather bizarre one. It’s usually something like House of the Dead, Time Crisis, or a Raw Thrills machine of some sort. Paradise Lost would be one of my last guesses for filling their light gun quota.
And this is the MegaTouch, which is similar to those bartop games you sometimes see. If it were working, it would have a variety of half-assed touchscreen minigames to play. There’s an option to enable sex-themed games, but I doubt it was turned on. The machine was broken, so I’ll never know.
Sorry to rush through that. I’m excited about the next destination.
After nearly an entire day of traveling, I rolled into this small town under the cover of night. Since this was only a quick detour on my travels, I only got to spend a few hours here. It was worth going out of my way for.
Anyone who knows anything about arcades knows that the (former, depending on how you count it) biggest arcade in the world was Fun Spot in New Hampshire. Sadly, it’s in such a remote part of NH that the buses don’t go anywhere near it. While researching the place, I stumbled upon the similarly named but completely unrelated Fun World. This amusement center is in the middle of a rest-stop town that’s been around for decades.
This is gonna be good.
Arcades Visited: 44
It doesn’t look like much at first glance, but even I can see some stranger ticket machines mixed in with the typical stuff.
We immediately see Three Tickats, a ticket machine from 1994 that I’ve never seen before. The only reason I could find out what year this game came out was because there’s an owner’s manual for it online. There’s very little documentation about it (although a rom of it exists, apparently). I can tell right now that this arcade has been accumulating games, at least since the 90s. Maybe longer.
Here’s Quick & Crash, a game that was very common in the early 00s. Strangely, I don’t see much of it anymore. You can probably get the gist of the game just by looking at it: Those targets pop up, you shoot them fast, and you’re graded on your speed. See that mug with the target on it? It EXPLODES when you shoot it. Or, I guess it just looks like it explodes. Maybe that explosion effect damages these machines and causes them to get scrapped.
Just seeing all of these unusual machines (the left one, not Flamin’ Finger) fills me with joy. I’m going to make you look at each and every photo I took of them.
Titanic is another game that used to be super, super common, but I haven’t seen it since Vegas. Much like Tower of Power, this game has a bunch of voice lines like “She can’t take much more, captain!” engraved into my mind forever.
I’ve talked about these once or twice before. Variations of these machines are THE staple of a 90s ticket arcade. Usually, they have much more elaborate gimmicks than this, so this is probably one of the oldest versions. Then again, it could be one of those games that’s been around since the 60s and gets a new incarnation every decade. Sadly, this game has such a generic name that I’m having trouble finding anything about this particular model.
This one is Spacey Racers, a very large game with a 90s color scheme. Redemption arcade manufacturers generally like to keep the release dates of games like this hush-hush, so arcade owners don’t realize they’re buying old games when clearing out their backstock. The color scheme reminds me a lot of Discovery Zone. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game was made around that era.
This game has four radical little aliens racing along a track like a slot car derby. You roll the trackball faster to make them move faster. While looking up information about this game, I found a replacement part of that green racer going for 300 dollars.
I, for one, consider any Skeeball machine with 100-point holes to be blasphemy. Now’s probably a good time to point out that nearly every wall of this already gigantic building was lined with mirrors.
This one is Key Catcher, a game that Key Master is likely modeled off. Instead of pushing a rigged key into a hole to push your prize out, this one works more like a vertical claw machine. The prizes in it all look pretty cheap, so I assume the payout rate on this one is high.
…Wait, what?
This machine isn’t an import, as far as I know.
Bowlingo is one of those cheap bowling allies that local Family Fun Centers tend to have.
Brought to you by Capcom!
I found a user manual for a version of this game from 2000, but it was a much more high-tech edition than this one.
Those things are usually used as filler candies that you accidentally grab when trying to pick up something better. This whole machine is nothing but filler.
This is a quick shot of the game room I took on my way out. I love how dedicated this place is to its castle and mirror theme.
They even had one hell of a big area for kids’ birthday parties. This place must be lit for elementary school kids since there’s not much else to do in this town. That’s probably why Fun World has survived as long as it has.
As you can see, Fun World is a treasure trove of old ticket games you won’t find anywhere else. Going three hours out of my way for this place was totally worth it to see what they had. Before we finish, there’s one more important thing I’d like to point out about Fun World.
IT HAS THREE FLOORS.
The top floor is, by far, the smaller of the two, so let’s start here. The first floor is tickets. The second floor is… We’ll get to that. The third floor has the kind of line-up you’d see in someone’s garage. This is where Pinball, DDR, Air Hockey, and other such things have been tucked away.
Seriously, they even have a Foosball table. When do you ever see those at arcades?
If you were to give this floor a theme, it would be Sports. There’s Sega World Series 99, NFL Blitz 99, and NBA Showtime.
Check it out; NFL Blitz even has the N64 memory card slot. It’s one of the very few games to use the N64 memory card, so I’m not sure how many people really owned one. I remember many PSX ports using it over an internal battery…
This is one dated game I’d like to call special attention to. This is the final arcade sequel to NBA Jam. Unlike its sister game NFL Blitz, the NBA Jam series switched up its name with every installment. Because of that, it’s kind of hard to tell at a glance that this game is, in fact, an NBA Jam sequel. NBA Jam is still a mainstay at most modern arcades, but the poor sequels tend to get ignored. NFL Blitz 99 doesn’t have this problem.
Someone bothered to upgrade this machine to ITG3. The fan on the ground there tells me they must have some hardcore local players.
It’s even got USB ports grafted on the side. A part of me considers this to be video game gore. I’ll let it slide this time since they also have a DDR machine.
Which has totally seen better days. Yikes. Look at how discolored that monitor is. The bars have the paint rubbed off, too.
Of course, I wouldn’t blame it all on the operators. This machine is pretty old by DDR standards, judging by the fact that it has memory card slots. It looks like the right one had to be replaced at some point.
They also have a Drum Mania machine tucked away. For some reason, these machines seem to linger in arcades much longer than Guitar Freaks. I guess replacing the drum pads is much easier than replacing the guitar controller. Or maybe more of them were imported. Either way, I can’t help but wonder if this is the kind of arcade that went all-in during the Bemani craze and once had six or seven rhythm game machines set up. The world may never know.
(by the way, I spent like 5 minutes waiting for the title screen to see what version this was, but now I honestly don’t remember. I want to say 4th?)
I’m sorry, I don’t know what this is. I’ve identified most of the games at the last 43 arcades I’ve been to. Please leave me alone.
UPDATE: I’m not who I used to be. Five years later and I can identify this machine at a glance. This is Strikers 1945 III.
The sad remains of another very old-looking DDR machine. It does look like they’ve set it aside to fix it, though. Or maybe they’re just storing it for parts and don’t have anywhere better to put it. I’m not sure if the photos do it justice, but this place has a LOT of floor space. As we’ll see when we get to the second floor, it also had a lot of stuff like this laying out in the open.
This was the remains of another game I didn’t recognize. Thanks to the good folks online, I know this game is Johnny Nero, Action Hero. I’ve never played it, but from what I gather, it’s like a kid-friendly version of Area 41. You play as the hero of a pulp comic book and shoot through different stages themed after comics from that era. Every time you hit an enemy, you get a big Adam West sound effect on the screen saying something like KABOOOM or POW, so the violence level is pretty minimal. Most of the gameplay videos I’ve seen of it are cam recordings from Chuck E Cheese, which would explain why I’ve never seen it before. There are quite a few games that common at Chuck E Cheese, but pretty rare anywhere else. This could very well be one of them.
Before we get to the second floor, I’d like to point out some of the other things they had around. A full-sized play area was hidden away in one corner of the arcade. It was pretty late, so there weren’t many kids around.
They also had a containment unit for preschoolers.
Yeah, they had a bunch of rides scattered about, too. The word “big” doesn’t do this place justice. In terms of sheer floor space, this is the biggest arcade I’ve ever been to in my life. Hell, it might be the biggest in machine count, too.
Here it is: The second floor. The stuff that dreams are made of. There is no way to do this part of the arcade justice because its layout makes taking an establishing picture impossible. If you were to ask me what my dream arcade looks like, this is the closest example I’d be able to come up with. You’ll understand more once we start going through it.
Here’s a better shot of the Deluxe American 18 Wheeler machine we saw the other day. If you look in the background, you can get an idea of how many weird corners this place has. I repeat, there’s no way to do it justice in a single photograph.
This machine might look vaguely familiar to anyone who visited an arcade in the 90s. Not because this particular game was everywhere but because this cab style was so common. The huge stand-up monitor alongside a giant, interactive control seat. Sky Target itself is just an After Burner sequel that isn’t billed as such.
Also note Batman off to the side. They do have a handful of newer games mixed in with the old ones.
Beauty of beauties, it’s the Sega Rally DX machine! Just look at how fancy it looks. I could search all my days and never find another one in person. These gigantic machines aren’t space efficient, so they’re tough to find nowadays. Even most retro arcades don’t have room for something like this. The only place you’ll ever find a lot of these huge machines is in a place like this.
I didn’t have nearly as much time to play these games as I wanted, but I had to play this one. Can’t you see how I’m excited??
Here’s another of these machines, although this one was so popular that a few arcades had kept it around. In fact, I’m amazed I haven’t run into it since starting this blog. If you’ve never played it for some reason, it’s a score-attack-based skating game controlled entirely by moving that board around with your feet. As much as I love this game, I’ll be the first to admit that the controls are awkward.
By the way, Micheal Jackson had this game in his personal arcade.
Many blog posts ago, longer now than it seems, I mentioned how damn weird these full-body control games got. These games got really weird; this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s pretty easy to see why this game is so rare nowadays, considering how many things can go wrong and cause a game like this to break down.
And yes, that’s the remains of a second Wave Shark tucked behind the machine. The parts from it are probably the only reason this one has stayed alive for so long.
Taking a break from the full-body machines for a while, let’s look at their other offerings. This is Crossfire, a paintball game that I can only guess came out in the late 90s or early 00s. I was pressed for time and didn’t get a chance to play it.
Look, it’s a motorcycle game, except with ATVs. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that game in the past, though long ago.
In other news, I finally learned what those white machines with the big screens and somewhat disconnected panels are called. The proper term is “Showcase Cabinets.” Like “Candy Cab,” it was a term that originally referred to a particular machine model (Midway’s, in this case). Still, it ended up becoming a generic term for every machine with a similar build.
I can’t remember why I took this one since Rush 2049 is nothing special. I just wanted a better picture for my now-defunct racing game index. Remember that?
They had Hydro Thunder, too.
Strewn across the floor are what appear to be replacement monitors for various games. It must be tough to keep so many deluxe machines alive.
It’s like an arcade graveyard in here. This isn’t even some special wing of the arcade where they store the parts. They’re just lying around everywhere. All of the custom parts on these machines have to come from somewhere. There’s an excellent reason most arcades these days don’t bother. It takes time and dedication to keep an arcade like this going.
I love how the screens sync up on linked Daytona USA machines during the attract screen, don’t you?
That’s what the videos that show when nobody’s playing are called. “Attract screens.”
Three more of these things. That’s it. This arcade deserves my highest honor, which I’m officially creating right now. I’ll call these arcades “S-class,” after the top ranking in a lot of these types of games. An S-class arcade is what I consider to be as close to a perfect arcade as possible. Of the past arcades I’ve written about, only two others deserve this honor. I’m not sure if this arcade edges out Circus Circus, but it puts FunFuzion to shame.
I said early on that there were a small handful of free games at my local Kid’s Quest. Cruis’n USA, NBA Jam, Aaah Real Monsters, Spider Stompin’, and Ribbit Race were all grouped along the back. There was one other machine that was free to play for any kid staying there. It was a machine they kept up front. It was this Prop Cycle. Of all of these kinds of games that were made in the 90s, this is perhaps the strangest. You fly around on a flying bicycle and pop balloons in this game to earn points. Up and down is controlled with the handlebars, left and right by leaning, and speed is controlled by pedaling the bike. Seeing this game again for the first time in years, there was something I absolutely had to know.
Yes, it turns out that this game is just tough to control, and I wasn’t just having trouble because I was young.
On a far less impressive note, this is a skiing game.
Rapid River is out of order. I’m grateful we ran into this one at a boardwalk arcade earlier in the trip.
Oh, a broken-down Virtual On! I discussed this one in great detail when I saw it at Anime Detour this year. Getting to see it in the wild is a real treat. If only it were working.
Another broken-down machine. When I first found out about this arcade, I looked up a listing of their games and noticed something called “Vampire” was mentioned. At the time, I assumed it was referring to Darkstalkers (it’s called Vampire in Japan). It turned out to be Vampire Night. It wasn’t working, but I have heard of it. Okay, so imagine if the Time Crisis team wanted to rip off House of the Dead but realized using zombies would make it too obvious. That’s kind of what Vampire Night is. It’s very similar to House of the Dead, right down to the weird bosses that are vampires in name only. If you’re interested in trying it, I know there’s a PS2 port.
Poor Gauntlet Legends and Silent Scope EX were both out of commission. Given how many old games this place has lying around, I doubt they’ll stay broken for long.
They had these, too. The most notable thing in this lineup is the deluxe version of Crisis Zone. Given how common the deluxe Time Crisis cabs are, you’d think this would be much more common. Speaking of Time Crisis…
Time Crisis 3, 4, and 5 all lined up together. 5 is so recent that they must be collecting these on purpose.
And there’s Time Crisis 2. Darn, they were one away from having a complete set. Strangely, I think this was their only House of the Dead game.
Here’s another one I remember fondly. I’m not much of a Star Trek person, so everything I knew about the series came from cultural osmosis and the two arcade machines. I’ve talked about these before, but for those who don’t feel like trudging through hundreds of thousands of words, this is a machine where you hold the handles and send electric currents into your hands. Or it just vibrates fast to simulate electrical currents. I don’t know; I’m not an arcade technician. Why does a 2-player version of this exist?
Konami’s Police 911 (2). It’s a pretty typical light gun game from around the same era as the silent scope games, so you’d often see them next to each other. This game’s main gimmick is the sensors held above the player. Instead of stepping on a pedal to avoid enemy damage, you have to lean to the side or duck.
Now we’re getting into a special corner. You’ve probably caught glimpses of it in other photos, but I’ve been saving it for last. Let’s start with Sega’s Indy 500. This game was originally developed to be Sega’s first racing game on the model 3 hardware, but due to complications, this one got released on the model 2, and Sega Super GT took the title. This is the larger single-player version of the machine. It’s not the deluxe cab. That thing’s huge.
This is Tokyo Cop, a game from that early 00s blind period that I know nothing about. Supposedly, this is the deluxe version of the machine and…
Okay, I’ve got nothing. I know when to admit that I haven’t heard of every video game.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3!
Oh wait, this isn’t THAT rare.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2!
Yes, you may be able to find WMMT3 almost anywhere, but finding older versions is another story. It’s kind of like Initial D in that regard (they have Initial D v3 too, but I didn’t think it was worth mentioning). Getting to compare how they played side by side was amazing. After playing one round of 2, I could instantly feel how much smoother 3 felt in comparison. This is one series I’ve always wanted to learn more about, and this was a great chance to study it. One other thing…
Both machines were stocked with save cards! In 2017! Can you believe this!? I doubt I’ll ever get to use the WMMT2 card again, but I’ve been using WMMT3 at one of my local arcades. It’s so much easier than having to buy a card online, then trying to talk a technician into loading it into the machine for you. This almost makes up for the other Wangan Midnight being out of cards earlier in the trip. Almost.
EDIT: Something I can’t believe I forgot to mention in the original post: It was a Saturday night, so there was a group of local kids at the racing machines. They seem like they meet here every week to play MaxiTune and Initial D. Can you believe these games still have an active community somewhere in the country?
There you have it. An arcade I went into with high expectations and still walked out impressed. I only wish it wasn’t 9 PM when I got there. Thankfully, the Pizza Hut across the street was still open when I finally walked out, so I grabbed some breadsticks, found the movie Deadpool on TV, and chilled for the rest of the night. My trip was ending, and this would be a great note to finish it on, but there was still one thing missing. I’ve been visiting all these arcades but haven’t really had time to enjoy them.
I won’t be satisfied until I push myself to the absolute limit. Tomorrow, let’s find one last arcade where I can do just that…
