arcade visit = major disappointment

OregonPacman

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Last week, while in Omaha, NE, I visited the Omaha Family Fun Center. For those not familiar, it has indoor minigolf, laser tag, pizza and a large arcade. Back in the day (about 10 years ago) I went there a few times. At the time, they had a room called Memory Lane that had a pretty good number of classics in it. They also had a ton of JAMMA games and a lot of drivers. I also remember that they had 3 or 4 MK3 Ultimates and were hosting tournaments. There was a pinball wall with somewhere between 6 and 10 pins. It was a real blast back then.

Unfortunately, its not the same as it was. Memory Lane has now been replaced by at least a dozen pool tables. There are a tonload of redemption games. The bulk of the videos are driving and gun games. There are a number of dance games and fighters. They also have pay to play X-box and the like. The minigolf takes up a large part of the upstairs arcade area. Spread out in that area are a handful of games. The area itslef is painted with blacklight reactive paint (much like a laser tag arena). Some of the holes have been set up with classic arcade themes (Pac-man and Space Invaders, ect). Near one of them was a Pac-man that had been painted (badly) with glow colors to match the original paint and artwork of the cabinet. It was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. It had a Multi-Pac marquee and did not work. In fact, there were 6 classics, most of which did not work either. Pac-man, Missile Command, Q*bert, Tempest, Joust and Donkey Kong. Upon approaching Q*bert, I noticed that it was stuck in test mode. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and the damn thing booted up like a computer. Ahhhhhh!!!! The Missile Command worked and played fine but it was apparent that it had an LCD TV instead of a monitor. Probably gutted and computered as well. My guess is that all the other classics were the same way but none of them were turned on (except Joust which didn't come up). Just from looking around there were probably 125 to 150 games including redemption and about 20 of them didn't work (or at least correctly). Oh yeah, there was only one pin, Star Wars EP-1

Yeah, it was pretty awful. I played some games, but not as much as if the classics had been working. The best game I played was Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. I went in expecting to see the awesome place I remembered but all I got was a big let down.


(Dislcaimer: For those who like MAME, it is fine. I just don't like playing it in a classic cabinet. I would rather have a working classic and play the ones I don't have on my computer.)
 
I lived in Omaha back in 1990. Family Fun Center was righteous. I was back there around 7 years ago. Family Fun Center was starting to conform to the corporate beast and was heading down hill. Really suprised they haven't folded yet. I think the only thing keeping them afloat is b-day parties. Next time go down to the old market. All sorts of cool odds and endz shops.
 
These days, any "arcade" you happen to come across is almost guaranteed to be a wasteland of crappy redemption machines with the occasional 'Big Buck Hunter' or 'Namco 20 Year Reunion' thrown in.

At least that's how it is in my neck of the woods.

It's disappointing for those of us missing the glory days of the early 80's, but it's also kinda cool to think "MY arcade kicks this arcade's ass."
 
These days, any "arcade" you happen to come across is almost guaranteed to be a wasteland of crappy redemption machines with the occasional 'Big Buck Hunter' or 'Namco 20 Year Reunion' thrown in.

Describes all the "arcades" around me perfectly. What is it with Big Buck Hunter and other hunting games. They can't be that great of money makers and I live in California for gods sake. Hunting is not that big of a deal out here. Even the CEC by my house has an Extreme Hunting 2 as one of it's three shooting games. Must be some ploy by the hunting industry, get em' early I think.
 
What is it with Big Buck Hunter and other hunting games. They can't be that great of money makers and I live in California for gods sake.

Yeah, for reals.

I can understand that such a game would make good money here in ("red state" superstar) Tennessee. But California? I wouldn't think it would do so well.
 
The amount of redemption games was about the same as the last time I had been there (long ago). I guess the thing that got me most was how many games were out of order or just plain off. How can you expect to make much money when you have a ton of games sitting there broken?

Yeah, I too was a little surprised that the place was still open. Maybe they sell a lot of pizza?
 
I don't even like going to the "fun center" places (places with redemption) It's just not a true arcade to me. The only arcade I go to every once in a while is Pinball Pete's in Ann Arbor. It's a pretty cool place (no redemption) and a good selection of pinball and newer arcades with some good classics thrown in like tron, mr do, joust, dk. But from what I hear this arcade is a condensed version of what it used to be.
 
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