This week I had business in Chicago, and took an extra day for myself to visit Galloping Ghost. I went for two sessions, Wednesday evening for about 5 hours split between the arcade and pinball, and 3 more hours Thursday before heading to the airport.
Wow, the place is massive. And I love that it's massive in that "maze of twisty little passages" way, not massive like PHOF's gigantic open warehouse feel. It's easy to get turned around in there and end up in a different section than you thought you were entering. By the time I had to leave I was still finding areas that I wasn't sure I'd seen before! And I appreciated that it wasn't trying to be some retconned version of the old days with black lights and UV carpet and tons of throwback art on the walls. It was dark, the floor was uneven, the carpet was patched with duct tape… it was authentic!
The variety of games was insane, as you would imagine. I was surprised how many cabs had a switcher in them. I did like that they were very consistent with the location and style of credit button for games that needed one and for the switcher button for games that had one.
A few things were disappointing. More than a handful of games were down or missing what I'd consider a key piece of their iconic functionality… for example, they have an Afterburner Deluxe. I was super excited! But no motion. And they had a Journey which I'd never actually played. I spent a good 20-30 minutes figuring out how to beat all the stages of the first level so I could hear the concert… and the tape deck didn't work so the concert scene was silent. The Star Wars cockpit was down. I was also a bit surprised how many games had monitor problems. There were games I wanted to play but just couldn't because the monitor was way too dim, or the colors were just too far out of whack, or the image had a problem or was folded over or convergence was a problem…
But hey, I think that also just goes to show how incredibly difficult it is to keep a large collection running, especially when it's a business and not our personal showpiece collections. There's limited time, manpower, and budget for all the things that need to be done and I get that. None-the-less I was a bit bummed by a few of them.
I did get to play a few games I'd never seen before that I enjoyed. Space Zap was quite fun, and I enjoyed Reactor too. I really liked playing Sea Wolf as well — I'd never played one. I still don't care for the controls on Major Havoc.
The pinball room was… small. Having been to PHOF in Vegas and a regular attendee of the Allentown Pinball Festival here in PA, the 30 or so tables in the room down the street wasn't that exciting. A nice collection to be sure, but small. I had a couple good games of PinBot, Bride of PinBot, and Addams family and then headed back to the video side.
Anyway, I'm glad I went. I would go again — I intend to. I was happy to pay the door fee twice to support the business and everything Doc is doing. And I hope that he can continue to grow and improve the collection for my next visit!