This is a small food court that cuts into the boardwalk itself—nothing but restaurants here.
Except for the small arcade in that back that I stumbled upon by accident! Nothing makes me happier than impulsively wandering somewhere, hoping to see an arcade and find one!
Arcades visited: 29
As you can see, there’s not really much to it. Since the mini-golf place’s name is Under the Sea, the back wall is decorated with a copyright-friendly painting of Ariel and Generic Crab. When the movie Tarzan first came out, they made over my home arcade with a jungle theme, including a massive mural of Tarzan on the wall. Oh, actually…
EDIT: I originally went on a tangent about the arcade I grew up near. I removed it because I think there will be a better time in the future.
Muppet Babies debuted in 1984 and ran for eight seasons, concluding in 1991. In 1992, its reruns found a home on Nick Jr., where it stayed until 1999. Right around that time, Nick purged most of its older shows completely, and Muppet Babies finally left the air (although it did linger on the Hallmark Channel for a few years after that). It’s incredible how much longevity the show had, isn’t it? It’s a shame they forgot to consider that VHS would someday become obsolete, so they can’t legally release the show in any newer format without going through legal hell.
The white motorcycle game is so bad that I mistook it for Suzuka 8 Hours. No, it turns out that this is Motocross Go!. I gather that it’s a spiritual sequel to Suzuka 8 Hours, but the central gimmick is that it was primarily made for those 90s gigantic “interactive” cabs I was talking about in the last post. When you’re not playing the full-size version, it’s just a standard motorcycle game.
This, however, is a bit more interesting. Released in 1998, Vapor Trx was one of Atari Games’ last arcade releases before they were rebranded Midway West. In this game, you race through a bunch of narrow canyons with flying jetcars. Imagine a weird cross between Hydro Thunder, San Fransisco Rush, and the plane levels from Diddy Kong Racing. It’s fun, but I don’t think I’ve ever run into it. To my knowledge, this game’s never had any home release, so it’s long since faded into obscurity. Shame, this one’s enjoyable.
So we’ve got a Muppet Babies kiddie ride, a mural of a renaissance Disney movie, Motocross Go! from 1998, and Vapor Trx from 1998. I think we can make a pretty good guess about how old this arcade is.
I didn’t have much to say about that one, but I love running into games I haven’t seen before. We have the fourth and final Ocean City, NJ arcade: 7th Street Beach Arcade. Like I’m sure I said way back in part 1, Ocean City and Atlantic City are sister towns. While Atlantic City is known primarily as an adult-oriented gambling town, Ocean City is far more family-focused. The sheer quality of the arcades so far reflects that well. Let’s see if we can go four for four, shall we?
Arcades visited: 30
Once again, I forgot to take an establishing shot. Instead, have a photo of this corner. I’m pretty sure the ice cream and coffee establishments outside are part of the same business, so the various ingredients are kept there. I can’t say that the rest of the arcade DIDN’T look like this since there were multiple boxes scattered around, but it wasn’t nearly this messy.
This arcade had a lot of odd ticket games I hadn’t seen before. I do have a theory about them. I THINK Chuck E Cheese uses a different distributor for ticket games than most arcades, and this place orders from the same catalog. I know we have at least a couple of these at my local one. It’s just a theory, though.
On the off chance that someone is both reading this and remembers the prologue post, I mentioned that there was a way to unlock the original Pac-man on this machine. This arcade has instructions taped right to the front of the game. Neat.
Ah, here’s the main attraction. I alluded to this in my last post, but here it is, Rapid River. These humongous machines were all the rage in the mid-late 90s, and everyone wanted to make something that would stand out. That led to many utterly bizarre and now-forgotten games like this one. Rapid River is an excellent arm workout, but it’s not easy. I only played it a single time in my youth, but the memories of how hard it was being clear. Any kid who makes the mistake of trying to play this game alongside an adult will only have their arms jerked around.
Speed of Light is a ticket game where you hit the light-up buttons. It’s made by the same guys who make Stacker, I believe. It’s enjoyable. I recently found out that some pro players go to their local D&B and can make a decent ticket profit off it, but the reflexes required to make it a rarely farmed game. Let me try.
20 tickets, but it cost me a buck to play. 5 tickets per coin. Meh.
I have tickets for once, so let’s grab something. I wouldn’t say I like the word, but this is the comfiest redemption counter I’ve ever seen. Look how friendly it seems, with all its cheap, obtainable novelty prizes.
I got the Fortune Teller Fish, a small piece of plastic that reacts to static electricity or something. When you put it on your hand, it’ll move around somehow. Mine did nothing. Does that mean I’m dead or the fish?
And that’s it for New Jersey’s version of Ocean City. I can honestly say I enjoyed all four of these arcades. All of them feel homely, like they don’t care whether or not they have the most up-to-date games or the fanciest redemption counter. I was hoping to find these kinds of arcadesfrom the beginning. I feel like I can finally leave my boardwalk journey in peace. Of course, we’ve still got one last stop before we can start seeing something that isn’t a beach arcade. Did you think I would come out here and not take the time to visit the legendary Atlantic City Boardwalk?
But before I outro entirely, I need to call attention to tonight’s motel room. It’s got all wood floors, satellite TV, and fancy furniture.
Look at this; it’s got a goddamn sofa AND a recliner. With drink holders! My apartment only has a few cheap shelves and desks, some chairs, a crappy table, and a bed. When was the last time I sat on a sofa, much less a RECLINER? Oh my god.
It even had a fancy placemat thing in the bathroom. I mistook it for a bathmat, only to find out it was paper in the shower when it started falling apart. Oh, paper bathmat, what is your purpose?
I ruined the end of the post for this motel room, but it was totally worth it. Tomorrow, Atlantic City!
