In the year 2020, most arcades across the country were forced to close. Travel was impossible.
Come December, as a last resort, I called Tom and asked if he wanted to hit the Round 1 arcade in Milwaukee that had just reopened. He missed out on the one in Chicago, so it was his first time seeing one in person. He’s a busy guy, so it took me a year to finally flag him down to write the blog post. Of course, I wasn’t going to do it without him. I’ve written about Round 1 arcades many times in the past, but hearing the thoughts of someone seeing it for the first time is a lot more interesting, don’t you think? I apologize in advance that his memory of the place is so foggy.
My text will be the default color, while Tom’s is in blue.
(this image was taken from the diner in the hotel I stayed at)
Welcome back. This time, we’re out in Milwaukee for a short one-day trip.
Round 1’s are kind of generic and soulless looking on the outside tbh.
Right, right. For those who don’t remember, this is Tom. He came with me to Chicago a couple of years ago. I brought him along because he lives nearby. But anyway, the reason it looks “soulless” is because this used to be a Sears. The top floor of one, to be exact.
Seems like bad juju to build your arcade on a Sears graveyard, but I guess Round 1 is doing pretty well for itself.
It is. In fact, this is one of the newer locations.
How many does Round 1 have across the US now?
Um… I remember it was 35 in 2017… Probably over 50 by now? (EDIT: Yes, “over 50” is the number their website gives) I’ve heard they were also trying to expand into smaller arcades, too.
Interesting. Well, this one definitely wasn’t too small.
While this is the fourth Round 1 I’ve been to, it was Tom’s first time.
I really liked the vibe of this place. The openness of it and how sprawling yet crammed together it felt was immediately welcoming, didn’t feel too corporate but more like any old local arcade. I guess all Round 1’s probably have a similar-ish feel.
Yeah, but this one was on the bigger side, even compared to the others I’ve been to.
Not to jump to the conclusion, but how’d you say it ranks compared to other Round 1 locations?
Well, you could absolutely tell it was a newer location because it was missing a few staple games that every other location I’ve seen had (mainly Dance Rush Stardom). I’d say it was better overall than the Chicago and Denver ones, though. About on par with the Philadelphia one.
Seems like a good place to experience as a first timer, then.
Yep. I’ve been to so many that I wouldn’t have made the trip to see a fourth one. I mainly made it so you could see one. (Plus, I didn’t get to travel at all last year)
You didn’t travel at all last year? Wonder what happened to cause that. 🤔
Guess we’ll never know.
The counters were all organized against the back corner instead of near the entrance like usual.
It was convenient when I needed more tries on a certain prize game… but more on that later I guess.
Yep, that’s the last game we’ll be talking about.
This was the eating area. You can see the karaoke rooms there in the back.
Have to say the place was pretty dead at that time of day. The whole mall was, really, but there were few people inside the arcade.
I think it had more to do with being December 2020 than the time of day.
Merch was underwhelming here for the most part.
Again, it’s not merch! The merch is at the front counter!
Fiiiine. The various stuff in this location wasn’t too impressive. I guess that’s normal for any arcade new or old though. Ticket games are a racket.
Round 1, in particular, is notorious for having a terrible coin-to-ticket ratio.
When I was a little kid, I won a 10,000 ticket jackpot on some arcade game in a Sizzler. Motherfucker took like 30 minutes to spit the tickets out, and I traded them in for a telescope. It was a shitty plastic thing from like Toys ‘r’ Us that probably cost like 20 bucks if that. Early lesson for young me: ticket games suck.
I can’t remember if you actually went into the prize room, but it’s full of imported stuff. Lots of figures and Japanese candy. And makeup that only works on Asian girls. It’s pretty fancy compared to most arcades.
Fair enough. Maybe I’m just jaded and cynical in my old age.
Anyhow, onto the games. Up in the front were the bigger machines like this.
Don’t think we played any of these, but I really had no interest in them personally. I think we were both more interested in more unique cabinets than these. Actually — was this where we played Luigi’s Mansion? I do remember playing that with you. Terrible experience.
That was Gameworks in Chicago!
Yeah, I thought that was longer ago than December. Still stands. Terrible experience.
Here’s one I know we did play.
I wanted to try it for nostalgia reasons. It was OK.
That’s all you have to say about it? Not even going to describe the game?
I mean that was my lead-in. I thought you would also give a general impression!
People have heard my thoughts about this game many times. There’s a good reason I waited a year to do this with you.
But yeah, it’s a rail shooter and the guns are responsive enough, but it really didn’t feel like a Halo game beyond having all the Halo enemies you’re used to.
Do you remember what the gimmick was?
I remember having weapons you could switch between, and sections with shooting from a spaceship, and other Halo mechanics. But not sure what the big gimmick there is in your view.
The game had two screens, so it had a SUPER wide field of vision.
That did cause some difficulty! I remember being hard pressed to keep track of what was going on because there could be shit shooting at me from your side of the double wide screen.
It’s really the only notable thing about the game, though.
Yeah, overall my impression was kind of mediocre. I died early on and had no interest playing again. Seems like it was a total cash grab to capitalize on the Halo brand.
Don’t mind this one. I’m just posting a pic because I haven’t seen it before.
Badass cab though.
This is the second Transformers arcade game. The first looked like Bumblebee. I didn’t get to play it long enough to have much of an impression, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing it again.
Did you see this one?
I did. Didn’t see the somewhat ominous “Join us now!” text appear on screen, though.
I played it a bit before you showed up. Exactly as you’d expect, it plays pretty similarly to Furlong. But the other horse was broken, so I didn’t touch it after you arrived.
Old grey mare just ain’t what she used to be.
Speaking of broken games, this one made me REALLY mad.
Oh man, how you bitched about it! I could tell you were pissed.
This is Silent Scope: Bone Eater. It’s one of the coolest games they have at Round 1.
What makes it so unique?
Do you remember the original Silent Scope? I’m sure you’ve seen it at least once.
Sure.
They went all-out on the revival. On top of the sniper gimmick, it’s got a cool double screen, a fan that blows on you when you’re moving around, and a cinematic, sweeping camera. It REALLY needs to be played in person to be believed.
Now I’m sad it was busted when we went.
I was really looking forward to you seeing this. Oh well, maybe another time.
You remember I told you to keep this one in mind, right?
I SUCK at Bomberman.
No, you just once again failed to read the instructions and misunderstood the nature of this game. What do you know about illegal Chinatown arcades?
Nothing at all.
There’s a really popular game in China that’s a halfway point between an arcade game and a casino game. They’re known as “Fish games”. They’re illegal in the US, but you can find underground gambling dens in most Chinese districts. Each coin you put in gives you one shot, and you have to keep shooting at fish to “reel them in” and win their money. 8-10 people sit around the machine’s edge while playing.
What makes this so illegal? Just because people gamble real money with it?
Yeah.
Seems dumb honestly. Slots are legal. Poker is legal. Why not something in between poker and slots on the RNG scale?
Well, none of the people running these fish game parlors have licenses. They try to skirt the law by giving people a payout ticket instead of cashing out directly.
Ah, the Pachinko parlor gambit.
Bingo. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this is a Bomberman-themed fish game where you shoot enemies with bombs instead of fish. And it gives out tickets, so it’s legal.
Are you telling me this game is a staple in illegal Chinese gambling parlors?
I haven’t seen this particular one used that way, but I doubt it would exist otherwise.
That’s hilarious. Bomberman is the last thing I’d expect to feature in an illegal gambling scheme.
As a side note, the reason you couldn’t seem to do anything in the game is that you just started pushing buttons when the game began and used all of your shots before you realized what was going on.
This one was a highlight for me.
Indeed, it’s a game I hadn’t seen in person before, either. Omatsuri Quest Hippare-Q is the name of it.
The mechanics are so simple, you really only have that handle to pump in various ways, but it’s so frenetic and engaging. And a good workout by the later stages.
It reminded me a lot of another game called Bishibashi that plays similarly but without the pull-handle gimmick. It was a VERY Japanese game.
This one was very Japanese too. The tenugui, the yukatas, everything about the characters was just cartoonishly Japanese. But it also had this world traveling gimmick for the different events. Logging trees in Canada, for instance.
Then would you believe that this game ALMOST got localized?
I believe it. It’s a great damn game.
It was shown off at the Arcade Expo down in Flordia under the name “Festival Hero”, but Taito ultimately passed on bringing it stateside.
That’s a real shame, but I’m super glad I got to see it. It’s really a great example of how simplicity can be a strength.
And here’s the opposite of simplicity!
Can’t argue there. I didn’t even know how to play it right until the third time I saw this machine.
You gave me the insider tips on how the dual wielding works and I still struggled hard. It was fun as hell, but I’d need to play a whole lot more to really understand it and get good at it.
It technically has a PC version, but it’s kind of awkward because of how much the original control scheme revolved around the dual guns.
Yeah, this is a game I really can’t imagine without its gimmick control scheme. It would be like playing DDR with a controller.
And I told you Gen Urobuchi was the one who designed the characters and setting, right? This game even had an anime adaptation at one point.
Yeah! You can see his style in it. The characters are really outlandish. I think I played the blonde American titty-monster.
I’ll have to get around to watching the anime one of these days. I still don’t know what the plot of this game is.
Who cares about plot when you’ve got PLOT?
Remember this?
Vaguely. Did we even play it?
We tried. It’s the one that ate our money.
Shit. I remember now. I love air hockey, so I feel especially betrayed.
Giant Tetris.
Megablocks Tetris.
Do you remember the Sega Naomi?
No.
Arcade board based on the Dreamcast hardware? Super popular? Marvel vs Capcom 2? Power Stone?
Yeah, I’m reading about it now and jogging my memory.
Near the end of its life, they made one final revision to it. A cheaper version of it called the Sega System SP is meant to run games that didn’t need much hardware power. I suspect it was made for one series in particular, but a small handful of other games used it. This is one of those few.
What series?
A certain series that’s literally extinct due to security measures. I’ll tell you about it in great detail another time, but now isn’t it.
As we transition from the main section to the rhythm game section, here’s a game that walks the border between the two.
Ah yes. This game was pretty wacky. I dug it, though I was shit at it.
It’s Musical Gun Gun 2. Similar to how Gunslinger Stratos is a fighting game played with light guns, this is a rhythm game played with light guns.
I just couldn’t get the timing of shooting the enemies as they lined up with the indicators, even on the baby mode settings. You did way better than me, naturally.
You did way better than I expected. We made it through the song okay.
I did have a blast though. No pun intended.
Side note, every Japanese rhythm game really can’t exist without Bad Apple and a few other standard Touhou songs, huh?
Rhythm games had a lot of Eurodance and Techno early on. Nowadays, there’s a lot of J-pop-type stuff.
You were playing this DDR machine as I arrived, if I recall.
Nope. I couldn’t get near it. The locals were hogging it. That’s their stuff on the machine. I managed to get a game in just before we left.
Ah. I do remember seeing you go hard on it, as you always do. This machine is pretty prominently visible right as you walk in, so not surprising that it gets a lot of players.
You’ve never seen me go hard on a song. I’m always out of shape whenever we get together.
Well damn. You do pretty freaking well even out of shape. Respect.
On that note, the 20th-anniversary cab is really something to behold.
Really going all out with that gold theming.
I love it so much.
They had a total of 5 dance machines. Very close to the record of most I’ve ever seen at an arcade.
What’s the WR?
Eight of them, in an arcade north of New York that closed its doors last year.
Another casualty of the rona.
This arcade takes the highest by default now.
F.
I fell in love with this game. Completely unrelated, I want to fuck the mascot characters.
Many of the rhythm games you see at Round 1 are legacy games that have been running for years, but Wacca is a very new game. I believe it started in 2018 and came stateside in 2019.
The gimmick is you have to slide your hands around the speaker-shaped screen there as lighted bars cross the outer ring. It’s got a satisfying tactile dynamic to it that’s hard to describe.
I took a photo of my hand on it in Denver to try to get a good shot of how it looks, but it’s still very hard to get a picture of.
I have to say this was another highlight for me. I didn’t get very good at it in the time I had, but this is one where if I had a cab nearby I’d probably grind it.
My biggest issue is that the hardest difficulty needs to be unlocked, so I can never see how hard it gets at top levels on my short trips.
If I had lots of money, I’d straight up buy a cab for my own house. For me who isn’t as into arcade games as you are, that’s really high praise.
I can’t believe you liked it that much. Even I don’t own any (complete) arcade machines.
It was just a unique experience. Great aesthetics and novel gameplay. Maybe it would get tiresome or feel too shallow if I played it enough, but something tells me I’d love it on the 1,000th or 10,000th play too.
I finally found one that works.
Haha. Remind me about this one.
This is the special Sound Voltex print station add-on!
I don’t know what those words mean!
After you play, it prints out a card.
Ohhhhh yeah. You got a special character card, right?
Yep. Bemani games have huge collector bases, so the idea went over extremely well in Japan. Original arcade posters for rhythm games like Beatmania can go for 200+ dollars.
It’s an idea that seems obvious in retrospect. I wonder why American arcades never tried out these collect-em-all style games.
Oh, they did a couple of times.
Guess it didn’t go over.
A certain game that’s the most important video game of the 2000s in Japan flopped HARD in America. I was lucky enough to play it when they location-tested it at Walmart in Texas. But that certain game aside, Raw Thrills recently brought the idea back. So now games like Minecraft and Injustice arcade have collectable card systems.
I see. Wonder if it’ll take off any more than it has.
Like four or five games have been released since Injustice, so it must be doing well.
Anyway, onto these!
MORE Tetris?!
Tetris the Absolute! Part of the Tetris The Grand Master line! I’m sure you’ve seen videos of it before!
Yeah, I was about to mention it actually. Although I’ve got nothing too much to say about it, Tetris never grabbed me personally. But seeing high level players on these TGM machines is a spectacle.
I mostly posted the pic as a lead-in to talk about Round 1’s candy cabs. These tend to be the most spontaneous of all the machines at Round 1. I’ve seen LOTS of random stuff in these before. Another location had Sega Tetris. That’s the Japanese version of Tetris from the 80s that all modern versions are built off. Other times, I’ve seen stuff like Virtua Tennis and Gradius 3. A lot of these are just whatever the Japanese branch had lying around.
Here’s a good example of something completely random.
These cabinets were definitely eclectic. I don’t remember playing this one either. Is this a curtain shooter?
…it’s Raiden III. You died almost immediately, so I just beat the first boss then killed myself.
Oh yeah. Yeah, I’m shit at vertical shooters, too.
You said you were good at them. What happened to that Touhou thing?
Look, I’m shit at video games, period. But with Touhou you can at least practice on specific spell cards and get good at them. Traditional arcade shooters are a much more difficult grind.
If you paid attention to my constant rambling about the Raiden series, you’d know it goes HARD from the get-go. It took like a week of practice before I could consistently beat the first stage without dying.
I definitely didn’t get there on my attempt, haha.
Maybe if you didn’t promise to play Raiden online then forget…
Anyway, have you heard of this one, by any chance?
What’s the title, again?
Castle Shikigami II
I don’t remember this one, sorry to say.
It’s another curtain shooter, but with a pretty big cult following. It even got a brand-new translation on the Switch this year! At least one guy I know got jealous when I found this.
Rare to find stateside, then.
It’s not a game I ever expected to see in person. Outside of maybe something like Galloping Ghost.
Nice. This game is kind of like a 3D Smash. Tons of fun.
Except when you kill me in stage 3, then lose to the mid-boss because the CPU teammate sucks at fighting it.
Shhhhhh.
I think these were the only two machines with a proper back-to-back setup.
I really wish that was more common.
Even in Japan, it’s not as common as you’d think. But the game being run here is Melty Blood. It’s a game by the former Doujinsoft group French Bread. Based on a doujinsoft visual novel.
Yeah, I’m familiar with Melty Blood. Way above my skill ceiling, though.
Your normals are just terrible. Anyway, do you know what French Bread did before they made their professional debut?
Nope.
They made doujinsoft fighting games based on Leaf franchises. So they’d take the moe girls from the most popular dating sim company at the time and make them fight. They even did a whole fighting game based on Japanese doujinshi-writing simulator, Comic Party!
Sounds like a winning formula. Were these arcade cabs too or just PC?
Nope, those were pure doujinsoft. But they were EXTREMELY high quality for what they were. The fighting game remixes of the Comic Party music need to be heard to be believed.
Here are three other random fighting games they had. I believe they’re SVC Chaos, Street Fighter 5, and that DBZ fighting game everyone likes.
Street Fighter will always have a place in my heart, even its lesser entries. FighterZ isn’t too bad either.
Pop quiz. Let’s see what you’ve learned. Tell me what these are.
On the left is a Guilty Gear game, right?
It’s Blazblue, but that’s not what’s important. Think carefully.
Are you talking about the card system these cabs have?
You’re almost there…
Help me out.
Fine. These are the NesicaxLive machines! It’s a digital distribution system where arcades can buy certain games, and they’ll all be hosted on the machine at once! The orange ones are NesicaxLive 2. The second model has newer games like KOF14, New Samurai Shodown, and SNK Heroines.
Nice. There’s another idea that seems obvious in retrospect. It’s a novel distribution model.
Sega was the first to do it around the end of the 00s. It’s a great way to consolidate a bunch of niche games into one machine. In particular, fighting games tend to split the fanbase and cause problems if they push each other out.
And this is unfortunately just Tekken.
Tekken… meh.
It’s unfortunate because it WAS a Kinnikuman: Muscle Grand Prix machine a year earlier!
Complete downgrade.
What are the odds of even finding one of those in the west? Nobody else knows what Kinnikuman is!
Probably close to zero. If you want to talk about a game with an absurdly Japanese ethos…
I scanlated that series personally you know!
Oh shit. Nicely done.
Well, I was half of the team that did it… We got through like 20 volumes of it. One time I textset a two-volume-long fight throughout one weekend. Took 16 hours.
Dedication. You really dive in completely with projects like these.
Of course, I do. It’s everyone else who doesn’t. I’m still waiting for the guy to finish the thing on my Comic Party translation…
Just for the record, this particular location DID have pinball. A lot of them don’t.
What arcade is complete without AC/DC pinball?!
Also, for the sake of archival, the bowling alley was right behind that wall.
I like bowling even less than pinball.
Well, you’ve got to remember Japanese Round 1s are big event complexes that have a lot more than just arcades…
Yeah. In that context it’s more interesting. In the half-assed American version of “oh also here’s a bowling alley” it’s just meh.
They are testing bringing the full sports complex style Round 1 to America. There’s one in California and two more on the way.
You told me! I’m excited for that.
Yep, I might have to make a special trip out there some day.
Let me know. I’d check it out too.
I didn’t even know this one existed, but I REALLY wanted to play it. It was down, though.
Round 1 Milwaukee needs to get their shit together, man.
Here’s a better shot of it. It’s a two-player battle pinball game.
Making it a multiplayer comp match makes me much more interested in a pinball cab. But yeah, too bad it was down.
You got to play Initial D for the first time, right?
Yeah! It felt as smooth as I expected. Although I wasn’t brave enough to play manual.
90% of the game’s depth comes from playing it on manual.
Yeah, yeah. I know.
I’m a huge fan of the series, but version 3’s absolutely the best. Version 8’s a bit clunky until you upgrade your car a bit. It feels SO good to play once you do, though.
Even without 90% of the game’s depth, I can tell why it’s top of the line in racing cab games. It’s so responsive and fluid. Great music, well designed tracks. GREAT cars.
This is one of the series that REALLY got me into anime back in the day, you know. Initial D was the first manga I collected physically.
Must feel nostalgic, then. The anime is really good too. Never did check out the manga.
I hate to admit it, but I don’t fully remember where the mokier “Tash” came from. I fear it may have been influenced by the fact that the main character is called “Tak” in older versions of the English arcade game…
Haha.
Very embarrassing fact for you.
I know we didn’t get a chance to play it, but hopefully, you will remember this. I went on a VERY long tangent about it when we went to Chicago.
Jog my memory.
This is the OTHER big anime-based racing game series, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5. It and Initial D have pretty different styles but were rivals in the early 00s.
Huh. Did we play this one?
I just said we didn’t.
Oh duh. I’m tired, clearly.
Unlike Initial D, it’s VERY story-heavy. Like, characters will talk during the race, and sometimes there will be “events” like a third racer popping up halfway through a race. Because it happened in the manga.
Honestly seems too gimmicky.
It’s done in a pretty natural way.
Now it’s time we have a discussion about IGS. You had to learn about them some day.
Man, this one really didn’t leave an impression. I only vaguely recall it. Then again, racing cabs generally blur together in my mind unless they’re really great.
No, we absolutely did NOT play this one. I wouldn’t subject you to such a thing.
Ah. What makes this such a shitty play?
First, we must talk about IGS. The company who made it. They’re basically the one notable arcade game maker to come out of China. (who doesn’t make fish games, anyway) And their games are a bit… Well, this one here is Speed Driver 4
I just want to take a moment to note that Speed Driver is the stupidest name. The stupidest.
It’s a character-based racing game with a story mode where characters will talk during gameplay, and “events” will occur based on the story, like a third car appearing halfway through the race.
Waaaait a second.
Yep. Their games are VERY derivative.
I guess you could say copying is integral to IGS’s strategy.
In the late 90s, their first major “accomplishment” was a Neogeo MVS ripoff. Nowadays, it’s mostly known as a curiosity, but they’re still putting out games.
What is it with China and intellectual property theft?
No idea. This isn’t even the only one of their games I’ve run into before. They’re not common, but I do see them from time to time. The other one I see often is a blatant Taikomaster ripoff.
And this one is Overtake, also by IGS.
Yeah, I see. Which superior game is this cribbing from?
First, take a look at this trailer. Especially the 1:50 mark.
Die Hard?!
Nope. Now watch this.
I gotta say, the scene at 1:50 is like frame for frame from a Die Hard film. But damn, this one also has a suspiciously similar car vs plane moment huh.
Yep, they’re both games where the central gimmick is events occurring around the track as you race. Came out just two years later. In its defence, Overtake does have a time warp gimmick where the track changes with every lap, but it’s still very blatantly based on Split/Second.
Yeah. For shame, IGS.
By the way, did you know about this game?
I’m familiar with the Daytona series in general.
This is the recent revival. It’s VERY common in the UK, but I’ve only seen it a few times in the states.
Your take on it?
It’s fine. I think Daytona’s strongest point was how much more technically advanced it was than everything else on the market at the time. Something modern arcade games just can’t do. So it comes off as kind of vanilla by modern standards. The drift physics don’t feel as complex either, but maybe I haven’t spent enough time with it.
Yeah, it doesn’t look like anything special. Hard to get ahead of the pack on technical wow-factor these days.
I forgot this one earlier. Did you see it?
Yeah, I did.
It’s cool as hell, isn’t it?
Definitely a unique take on a formula that’s older than time itself at this point.
There’s also a 4 player version. We have it at our local Dave and Busters.
That’s gotta get chaotic.
What’s really chaotic is that sometimes it starts screaming out of nowhere. It’s right next to the DDR machine, so all of the DDR players celebrate whenever it breaks down.
Hahaha.
We’re skipping most of the ticket machines, but I thought this one was cool. It’s a coin pusher with marbles instead of coins.
God, coin pushers are the dumbest. But this is a fun twist at least.
There were two of them. I really liked the gimmick on this one. You collect the dragonballs and can turn them in for a prize, I think.
If you can’t wish someone back from the dead when you win, what’s the point?
2000 tickets?
Ehhhh…
Now onto the final stretch.
Japanese claw games are pretty fun.
Round 1 is pretty notorious for having a LOT of them of all different types.
It was the biggest surprise for me walking in. I didn’t expect so many authentic Japanese prize games.
It’s their specialty. They’re not even that difficult to win. The Goomba I won accompanied us through the entire arcade.
I remember him. Cute lil guy.
He’s currently chilling on the shelf I dug out of the garbage.
Here’s one of the many variants of the game they had.
I was immediately drawn to these games, but then again, I am a gambler at heart.
With this version, you simply stop the light to make the toy drop down.
And here’s another, where you have to grab the box.
As with all claw style games, these things look easier than they ultimately are. But they’re definitely fairer than the American version of claw games.
One thing I notice about these Japanese-style games is that they’re a lot less automatic. A lot of them require the operator to get into them regularly to maintain them. Like the plush drop, one needs to be reset by hand after every win. And the Yoshi one needs someone to get the prize out when it’s won.
Yeah. Worth the upkeep, though.
I also see in anime sometimes that in Japan, operators will often get into the machine and move a prize to make it easier to win if someone has been playing long enough. It feels like the operators are a lot more active than they’re expected to be here.
I didn’t get Kirby, though.
Too bad. On a side note, seeing Kirby beside Ren & Stimpy is a head trip.
The real trip is the fact that a modern Catdog plush exists.
And last but not least…
I dropped a pretty penny on this thing. Finally you helped me win Asuka.
Yep. This is a REALLY unorthodox claw machine.
Super fun, though! You had to successfully pick up one of the balls from the bowl and then drop it into a sort of egg carton where one spot on it is the winner.
It’s way, way harder than it sounds.
Ping pong balls, man, they bounce.
It’s also one of those games where nothing about it is automated, so you have to grab a staffer to get the prize out when you win.
Yep. Anyway, thank you for helping me snag best girl.
Of course. It’s important to always get at least one souvenir every time you travel. Plus we were leaving anyway, so it was a good place to dump our leftover credits.
True!
Anyway, now that we’re through all of the pictures, I want to know the most important thing: what did you take away from this experience?
I found a couple new games that I fell in love with. I also saw firsthand how hard the pandemic fucked arcade business. Would you say it’s rebounded at all in terms of foot traffic?
Yes, absolutely.
I’m glad to hear that. Although the atmosphere was fun when we went, it was a bit depressing to be almost alone in there.
It was, but that’s part of the experience! I never, ever forget an arcade I’ve been to, because each trip is a new experience where I learn new things about this hobby. The more you learn, the more things you see that others don’t.
As with anything. Well, I’m glad I got the chance to tag along and see a Round 1 in person.
I’m glad. Well, we can call the blog post to an end here. But don’t forget… We went to TWO arcades in Milwaukee.
Yes, of course. Although the second one wasn’t as big of a winner.
It’s fine; it’ll be a much shorter post when we get around to it. Even poor arcades like that are a learning experience.
