Many quarters given: design your own dream arcade!

[Johnny Unusual]

Remember when you were a kid and you'd draw a house you'd have when you grow up and maybe there's a room for animals and one with rubber walls.

If you were to have your own arcade, what games would you want to include, what gimmicks may you have, etc. Have fun with that.

 

[Torzelbaum]

That's a pretty big question. I would have to think about that for a long while to come up with a definitive answer.

Off the top of my head I know that I would want cockpit / environmental cabinet versions of Spy Hunter and Road Blasters. And that's just a start.

Edit:One other thing I do know for sure is that my machines would accepts quarters but would also have tokens because I think they're neat.

 

[Issun]

Definitely some version of Street Fighter II. Soul Calibur 1, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, tabletop Ms. Pac Man, Zaxxon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (original and Turtles in Time), Mortal Kombat. More as I think of them.

The design would be a pizza parlor from the 1980s/1990s.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Tokens! Tokens with your own exclusive design, so you know they're from your own arcade!

Generally, an arcade game player like the Super Retro-Cade or the Legends Gamer Pro, connected to a big screen television with a crapton of ROMs, is good enough for me. But if I had infinite money for my own arcade, it would probably be a converted retail store, like a K-Mart that would otherwise end up getting turned into something dull, like a Harbor Freight or a Hobby Lobby. There'd be plenty of room for any arcade cabinet I would want in there, plus maybe a drink bar in the back, and some silly novelty rides.

A long long time ago, in central Michigan, there was an arcade called The Malt Shop which seemed fairly small on the outside, but was like a TARDIS on the inside, which lots of games from the past and present. If a game got too old to make significant bank, it would get shuffled downstairs into the basement. It was like an orphaned game dungeon, and being a nerdy video game historian even in my teens, I found myself spending as much time downstairs as upstairs. Splatterhouse, GORF, Black Tiger, Granny and the Gators, probably a bunch of other ones I'm missing... it was a delight, and those games were typically just a quarter because nobody else played them.

I'd want my own arcade to be like that. The cutting edge 3D stuff on the top floor, and the golden oldies on the bottom, with a staircase and maybe an elevator separating them. And of course, dim lighting and tacky carpeting that gives off its own eerie glow when the lights are off. Every arcade cabinet turned on at once, with their volumes up and the attract modes singing in cacophonous harmony. Oooooh yeah.

 

[Torzelbaum]

If you were to have your own arcade, what games would you want to include, what gimmicks may you have, etc. Have fun with that.

So is this supposed to be a business or part of our home or what? And if it is a business then is it supposed to exist in the present?

 

[Purple]

This has been a consistent pipe dream of mine that's faced a lot of revisons, but the current not-guaranteed-to-go-under-immediately-if-I-really-did-it revision is just focused on "what experiences can't you get with emulators?

So... LOTS of pinball, lots of sit-down cabs and weird gimmick controllers. Stuff with trackballs. Vector graphics. Probably some of the more ostentatious brawlers.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Quantum! I Robot!
...Cube Quest!

 

[chud_666]

I remember seeing pics of the Kowloon walled city theme arcade in japan. That's my design. Lol

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I always wanted to have this wide open restaurant with arcade machines lining the walls, sort of like this one place I went to a long, long, long time ago, but more so.

If I couldn't manage that, then dimly lit with neon lights and carpet that will make you thankful the lights are dim.

Games... the TMNTs, the Street Fighters, the Mortal Kombats, some Pac-Man and Galaga, the Mega Man arcade games (natch), among others, with a Wild Gunman machine in the back that no one will be able to figure out how to play.

 

[ArugulaZ]

I mean, it is a baby's toy after all.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I can't argue with the Saved by the Bell party carpet.

I need stuff from every era fer sure AND a lot of pinball.

I was a beat em up guy so definitely lots of those (TMNT, Simpsons, The Punisher, X-Men), definitely the Don Bluth laserdicsc games, Trog, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, Gauntlet, NBA Jam, most of the notable early era games, many of the big fighting games. This will include the cards to customize characters from Tekken Tag Tournament 2. That's a thing I did in Korea! Oh, and those VERY big cabinets for Gundam and, most importantly, Initial D games).

Also, all the classic pinball games, especially Addams Family and Twilight Zone (my all time favourite), plus basketball thing, skeeball, things that spit out tickets. You can win for real GOOD prizes that are possible to get over time, including comics, action figures, a bike. But here's the thing, we know that it's easy to lose tickets and most of the good stuff DO cost a lot of tickets, we concede. So we also have a ticket bank. We will bank your tickets and you will have an account.

Also, a food court. Sure, you can get pizza, but we also have Ethiopian food.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Some of my favorites that I would have to include (even if some of them are relegated to the back or the basement or whatever) are:
Rampage, Xenophobe, Samurai Shodown 1-3, Bad Dudes, Moon Patrol, Blasteroids, Bump 'n' Jump, Sinistar, Double Dragon 1 and 2, King of Dragons, Magic Sword, Mappy, Time Pilot, Lady Bug, Roc'n Rope, Black Tiger, Pac-Land, Operation Wolf, Power Instinct, Area 51, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Paperboy, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Ikari Warriors, Zaxxon, Tapper / Root Beer Tapper, Toobin', Cabal, Wrestle War, one of the WWF games, Champion Wrestler, The Combatribes, Dig Dug, Q*Bert, Vendetta, Joust, Robotron : 2084, Bust-a-Move, Splatterhouse, Golden Axe, Xevious, Ninja Gaiden, Altered Beast, Xybots, Galaga, Space Invaders, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DJ Boy, Gauntlet, Sky Kid, BurgerTime, The Legend of Kage, ...

A Neo Geo MVS and maybe a PlayChoice-10 with rotating selections.

One of my gimmicks would be to allow players to access the dip switches for an additional fee.

Would definitely have a snack bar but it would be pretty classic. Would probably also have some vending machines as well. And with those I think I would have cup holders and snack trays attached to the machines.

I think I'd also have flat screen TVs that would rotate through scans of flyers for different games.

I think I would also want to provide some way for players to permanently record their high scores.

all the classic pinball games

Does that include Pin-Bot? I'm not very good at pinball but that is one of my favorites.

basketball thing, skeeball, things that spit out tickets. You can win for real GOOD prizes that are possible to get over time, including comics, action figures, a bike. But here's the thing, we know that it's easy to lose tickets and most of the good stuff DO cost a lot of tickets, we concede. So we also have a ticket bank. We will bank your tickets and you will have an account.

In this day and age I feel like that ticket banking could be done with a smart card or an app.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Does that include Pin-Bot? I'm not very good at pinball but that is one of my favorites.

I never played it but I'm familiar enough with it's reputation that, yeah.

Also, some of the last great pinball games from 1999 like Phantom Menace and Revenge from Mars 3D

 

[lincolnic]

Can't believe no one has mentioned any light gun games yet. Where are the Houses of the Dead, where are the Time Crises?

I also didn't see anyone mention the X-Men side-scroller, which would also be a must-have for me.

 

[Torzelbaum]

an't believe no one has mentioned any light gun games yet.

Are these not light gun games?

Area 51

Operation Wolf

 

[Voncaster]

Arcade Memory 1

Tokens! Tokens with your own exclusive design, so you know they're from your own arcade!

My family moved to Santiago Chile when I was in middle school. There were two arcades near our house. Both of them had the same tokens but different exchange rates.

My brother and I would go to the arcade with the cheaper exchange rate. Then we would walk to the other arcade with the better games. That other arcade is the only arcade that I ever found the glorious beat em up Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!

Arcade Memory 2
In Downtown Minneapolis there was an arcade chain called Gameworks (Operated by Sega?). My friend and I went to a Timberwolves game and got a coupon for $5 at Gameworks. As we are leaving the a large group of people who went to the game asked us if we wanted their Gameworks coupons. They had no intention of using them. We said yes and we both ended up with around $50 worth of coupons for the arcade!

Our favorite game there was Star Wars Racer Arcade with two synced pod racer cabinets!

Arcade Memory 3
My friend and I make a trip to Dave and Busters in the early 2000s. There is an 8 player horse racing game with cocktail style consoles?!? Derby Owners Club: World Edition. We sit down at one of the consoles and proceed to play this bizarre game. We feed our house various things before the race. He seems happy.

Then its race time. All horses are in a pack at the beginning. We are whipping our horse to make him go faster, but we don't whip him too much. Just the right amount of virtual animal abuse to make him go fast. We pull a head at about the halfway point of the race. The other horses are hot on our heels (hooves?). Its exhilarating. We are winning the 8 player horse race!

Then with about a quarter of the race to go. A horse at the back of the pack cruises ahead to victory. That horse smoked the field. We look around to see which of our human competitors won.

Unsurprisingly the winner was the guy who had a bowl of Nachos and like 4-5 empty beer cups. He looked like he lived at Dave and Busters and Derby Owners Club was his game of choice.

After the race the game issued us a little card which saved our horse. I think that is the one and only time I've got a save card from an arcade.


Dream Machines for my Dream Arcade
720
Altered Beast
Arkanoid
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Derby Owners Club World Edition
Daytona 500
Gauntlet
House of the Dead II
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road
Magic Sword
Ninja Gaiden*
NARC
Paperboy
Rampage
R-Type
Smash TV
Star Wars Racer Arcade
Sunset Riders
Super Street Fighter II
TMNT

*I can't have a dream arcade without this:

 

[jpfriction]

Based on the play stats with my legend ultimate, I’d get by with copies of marble madness, Kick, and Raiden.

Wouldn’t mind a pub champ table, though, that game rules.

 

[lincolnic]

Are these not light gun games?

I don't know those, sorry!

 

[Issun]

Are these not light gun games?

A: They are Devo!

 

[Torzelbaum]

Did they have an arcade game? I know other bands / musicians did.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

this carpet

Yes! That's precisely the stuff!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Did they have an arcade game? I know other bands / musicians did.

Nope, just a nearly unplayable adventure game for the PC.

It's... as Devo as you can imagine.

 

[Ixo]

- Point Blank
- Hydro Thunder
- NES Playchoice
- Spider Stompin'
- Initial D
- Wacky Gator
- Ms Pac-Man cocktail cabinet
- Simpsons Arcade
- A Polybius cabinet with a permanent out of order sign stuck on it
- Colorama
- Air Hockey tables
- Skee-ball
- Luigi's Mansion
- Any of the old Virtuality set ups:

And then all the rhythm games, but with the caveat that they're spaced out far enough from each other that they don't drown each other out.

- DDR with pads that are maintained. I don't care which mix, just...please have sensors that register.
- Beatmania
- Drummania
- Guitar Freaks
- Taiko Drum Master
- In the Groove
- Pop'n Music

Toss in a prize counter with sticky hands and a snack bar with giant pretzels & Icees.

 

[Becksworth]

What was that game where you piloted a pedal helicopter, where you had to sit on a bike and actually pedal to control it? I don't care if it's bad, I'd want in the arcade just for the sheer novelty.

 

[ArugulaZ]

Prop Cycle?

Holy crap, this is great! It's like Pilotwings meets JRR Tolkien. If they ever made a video game based on Olias of Sunhillow, this would be it.

 

[Becksworth]

Yeah, that's the one. They had it at the local arcade when I was little. Thought it was cool at the time, but hadn't heard much of it since, so wasn't sure what it's overall reception was. Sounds like arcade enthusiasts still like it at least.

 

[Ghost from Spelunker]

I would go with a lot of driving games since there's a huge difference between playing those in a cabinet and an on emulator with an XBox gamepad.

Roadblasters cockpit
Race Drivin'
Spy Hunter cockpit
Sitdown Outrun with the moving cabinet
4 Big Runs connected. I've never seen this in real life, but I'd want it.
Pole Position: love the controls of that game
Turbo Outrun: just because it took me so long to find one in real life after the early 90's

Other choices:
One used-looking American cabinet with the wrong artwork on it
Lucky & Wild: very unique hardware
Some Time Crisis game, love the recoiling gun
Skeeball with the wooden balls

One other thing, what is the name of the game where you shoot a row of clowns with a big pneumatic cannon? I want that too.

 

[ArugulaZ]

One game I thought was always nifty was Namco's Quick and Crash. It's such a brief game (hence the Quick in the title, I guess), but it's a fun shooting gallery that uses sleight of hand to make you think you're using real bullets. At the end of your game, a cup appears... shoot it and it bursts into pieces, or so you're led to believe. The reality is that the cup is quickly hidden from view, and pre-smashed pieces pop up from the bottom of the playfield. It works so damn well that you'll wonder for days how they managed to make it work.

It's fun when designers blur the line between video games and toys. Maybe it made more sense for Bandai to purchase Namco than I realized.

 

[Torzelbaum]

One other thing, what is the name of the game where you shoot a row of clowns with a big pneumatic cannon? I want that too.

Do you mean Balloon Blast?

(But I think that goes by a lot of different names.)

Roadblasters cockpit
Spy Hunter cockpit

Off the top of my head I know that I would want cockpit / environmental cabinet versions of Spy Hunter and Road Blasters. And that's just a start.

*thumbs up*

 

[jpfriction]

I think I know what he is talking about, I had one at the local place growing up. Can’t find the exact thing but it looks like this down the clown machine, but you have a little cannon instead of balls to throw.