did traveling carnivals bring arcades BITD?

vintagegamer

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My family loves going to those traveling carnivals that bring the gravitron, zipper, etc- did any of them ever bring arcade games BITD as well?
 
Our fair had an arcade that traveled with them in the early to mid 80s.
It was great getting to check out newer games to me such as Pole Position & Q*bert as our local arcades didn't have them. Still remember spending all my money on arcades and not on typical carnival games.
 
There was one when I was a kid. I believe it was Merriam's Midway. They did the county fair (Platte County, Nebraska). They had a semi-trailer arcade. I don't remember it very well. It was poorly lit but I do remember playing Vs. Super Mario Bros. in it. I think they only had it one year.

There is currently a traveling carnival at the mall in Norfolk, NE. They don't have an arcade but they used to have a skeeball booth with over a dozen machines. Its not there anymore due to its involvement in an unfortunate car accident a couple of years ago. Machines were 30 years old and really showed the wear. No great loss.
 
The first time I played Berzerk was at our annual county fair/carnival. In addition to the arcade games, the other thing I remember about carnivals BITD was trying to win MLB replica batting helmets and those rock mirrors as seen in the pic below.
 

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Our local fair had a big tent full of games. It was the very first place I ever played as a kid. I remember a couple firends told me I should try the games because they were very cool. They had all the bronze age classics at the time. I refused the first day because "why would anyone spend their money on those games that don't give prizes when you have all of these great carnival games where you can win something?" Look where I am now... :)
 
Most fairs and festivals I frequented BITD had an arcade that would travel with them. Usually had a big tent they would put them under. My brother and I would hang out while my parents partied. It was a great babysitter for them as it would keep us entertained for hours. Lots of good memories of those type of arcade scenes. Thanks for helping me think of those simple times.

JJ
 
One of the strangest places to put an arcade was at Raging Waters water park.

Arcade games + water = WTF were the geniuses thinking.

I remember playing games SOAKED to the core...
 
"taste of joliet" when I was a kid, always had coin pushers. I was like 7 years old pumping in quarters trying to win money...they dont let yah do that no more..
 
Yep, we had the semi trailer arcade way back in the day.

Wow how did that work? Was there one row of them side by side? did you bump other people who were playing games? was it hot in there? I'm trying to picture how that would have been! Awesome though!
 
BITD the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede allways had a couple of huge arcade tents.....no pins that I can recall as they were a lot more fragile and would have required a repairman not to mention how much pins weigh as well as the space they take up.
 
Our fair had an arcade that traveled with them in the early to mid 80s.
It was great getting to check out newer games to me such as Pole Position & Q*bert as our local arcades didn't have them. Still remember spending all my money on arcades and not on typical carnival games.

What a cool way to learn about the newest games! Thanks for sharing!
 
There were a few that cut the arcade games in half, and had them sitting on an open trailer. That way they just dropped the trailer, you walk up to it and it would be the right height. Good idea 30 years ago, totally devalued the games today.
 
There were a few that cut the arcade games in half, and had them sitting on an open trailer. That way they just dropped the trailer, you walk up to it and it would be the right height. Good idea 30 years ago, totally devalued the games today.

Ho-lee crap. Imagine a Quantum and MH falling victim to this!
 
My family loves going to those traveling carnivals that bring the gravitron, zipper, etc- did any of them ever bring arcade games BITD as well?

Absolutely they did. I used to do the repair work for one of the carnival operators.

We had two major carnival operators in the Pacific Northwest back in the day: Rainier Shows (hq'd in Spokane, Washington) and Funtastic Traveling Shows (hq'd in Portland, Oregon).

A man named Belford Buck operated the arcade tent for the Bill Blake unit of Funtastic Shows. Belford was a wonderful man and a real pleasure to work for. He paid me very well indeed and so did Bill Blake. Sadly, Belford had developed cancer of the jaw similar to what Roger Ebert had and Belford was forced to retire from the business. This was right after the video boom went bust and the arcade games were not bringing in the revenue amounts needed to sustain a spot in the carnival operation. BTW, Bill Blake lives just a few miles from me (when he's not on the road with the carnival unit).

Rainier Shows had their own arcade trailer. Half the games were in the trailer, the other half were out in the tent. They had their own repair techs.
 
The first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title was the movie "Big." :) Back in the day I remember my county fair had maybe 2 machines set up in one of the exhibit buildings. One I always remember was the 4 player X-Men machine that seemed to have kids playing it quite a bit. Of course there were flies inside the monitor area and as a kid I wondered how they got in there. I guess I thought these things were air tight or something. :D
 
The first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title was the movie "Big." :) Back in the day I remember my county fair had maybe 2 machines set up in one of the exhibit buildings. One I always remember was the 4 player X-Men machine that seemed to have kids playing it quite a bit. Of course there were flies inside the monitor area and as a kid I wondered how they got in there. I guess I thought these things were air tight or something. :D

I hadn't even thought abt Big when I posted the thread- it was just one of my many random thoughts! But yep I remember the movie well.
 
I know the Monoe Fair here in washington had a amazing Arcade setup at the Fair. I have not been there since 1988 but the arcade was still there and it was happening!
 
One of the local county fairs used to have the tent with video games BITD. I'm betting alot of the games were bootlegs, as they had at least one (maybe more) Crazy Kong cab ;) I remember one year they had no arcade, but some kid had his Atari 800 set up at one of the food booths and was charging $.25 to play.
 
The Dade County Youth Fair in Miami had 3 tents filled with arcade machines up until 1996 (they probably went down to 2, then 1 later on) not sure if they still have them, but every year I looked forward to playing those games there...
 
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