Orlando report from Disney Quest and King of Kong arcades...

LeeB99

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Orlando report from Disney Quest and King of Kong arcades...

Ok,

So I just got home this afternoon from our family vacation to Disney World this week. My son and I went to DQ for a couple of hours on Wednesday and we really didn't have enough time to do "everything" we would have liked. But, I was able to look over the selection of classics. Knowing about all of the issues and concerns that have been aired on here, I was completely expecting the worst and hoping for the best. The most notable things that I observed during the visit were:

Asteroids Deluxe had some sort of ROM modification that changed the "explosion" noises to (get this) what sounded like MUSICAL NOTES??? Never heard of this before! WHY???

Discs of Tron worked, and this is the ONLY time I have ever seen one on location. After looking at images of other people's games, I think that the monitor needed work as the text was not yellow but a plain white (black and white looking). It APPEARED to be functioning mostly, but after playing it a couple of times, I'm not going to be losing any sleep not having one in my collection next to my original Tron. Speaking of which, the Tron sitting immediately to the left of it (although the monitor looked MUCH better than the Tron on the floor below) had a joystick that was tilted back like it wasn't mounted anywhere near properly and didn't always move "up" when you pushed up on it.

The Robotron had graphical glitches on the screen, but amusingly, was not resetting due to the RAM issue that was certainly causing it. It looked like vertical garbage in a column just to the right of center on the screen. Didn't bother trying to play it, as I have a properly working one in my collection.

There were 2 Galaxians, which I was initially excited to see, but the one on floor 4 had two different control issues. First, the original joystick was replaced with a bat handle style joystick that didn't always respond to your command properly. But that was NOTHING compared to the fire button issue. It was so bizarre. Apparently it would stick in the "closed" position so that your ship would not "fire" until after the button became un-stuck. The strange thing about this is in order to time the shots, you had to pop the button with authority and the then shot would execute upon button release. Here is where things got really weird. Every time a bullet hit an enemy, your next bullet would AUTOMATICALLY fire without you pressing the button. Is this some sort of modified version of the ROM, or is this a result of the button sticking issue? I've never seen anything like this before. Anyhow, there was ANOTHER Galaxian on the 5th floor, but it was occupied by someone who was REALLY into it, and I never got a chance to try it out.

Many of the classics had various monitor adjustment issues or simply needed to be re-capped. They had a Tron Pinball (regular pro version) that my son and I played a couple of times. The volume was too low to hear everything that was going on.

One of the surprises was a Donkey Kong with a 25" monitor. I really wish I would have made a video of it, as the difficulty seemed to be CRANKED UP on it really high. The barrels and fireballs were FAST, even on the first screens. Of course, I am sure that the monitor being larger means that they have to physically travel a further distance over the same period of time, which could leave the perception of an increased pace. Regardless, the high score was not very high, and I was able to match it on my first man. I've never tried adjusting the difficulty on DK, but it was SURELY different. Whether it was a hack or just an adjustment, I have no idea.

On my way back home, I decided to look up the "King of Kong" arcade. When I first got there, no one was there at the counter. Inside the glass case were T-shirts with quotes from Billy Mitchell on them and some various bottles of hot sauce. There was both "Rickey's" wing sauce as well as "King of Kong" hot sauce labeled as being from the "World Famous King of Kong Arcade Orlando Florida". There were also some collectors "Trading Cards" with Billy and Walter Day on them. On the back of each of these cards were their high scores and dates that they were set. After picking up a couple of bottles of sauce and running off grab a bite to eat, my curiosity regarding the "baseball style cards" got the best of me. I just HAD to go back and find out what the hell they were. My wife thought I was crazy, and that I was just feeding Billy's ego by even having a passing interest in them. I went back and sure enough, they were available for sale signed by both Billy and Walter. I thought that they were just so over the top that I just HAD to have a pair. They were a whopping $2 each. A no-brainer...

As an aside, I asked the attendant if Billy had anything to do with the arcade, and she told me that he was the owner. When I asked about how far away he lives from Orlando, she said that it is a 3 hour drive that he has to make to get there when he needs to. I then asked if the equipment was provided by Apollo Amusements (which is from Billy's home base area) and she had no idea. Then, I popped the FINAL question: WHY ISN'T THERE a Donkey Kong or PAC Man machine here? She said they were working on it, but it has been hard for them to make it happen. So, let me get this straight: they were able to have all of this custom wall art, T-shirts and posters printed out, put in a Terminator Salvation, redemption equipment, air hockey and "Maximum Tune?" or whatever the new Namco racer is called and they CAN'T seem to be able to get a $800 Donkey Kong machine to an arcade that is themed after it? Not even one of those units from the "Kong Off" at Richie Knucklez? After all, those fully restored examples sold for a FRACTION of what that new equipment costs. So, I suppose that there is STILL a little mystery surrounding this place. I can only imagine what the rent must be like per month for such a prime location...

Lee
 
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so whos really running this place? is the wagon in front of the horse here.how can they run such a half ass place like this.
 
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so whos really running this place? is the wagon in front of the horse here.how can they run such a half ass place like this.
 
i live 5 minutes from Rickey's and they have a Ms. Pacman in there at least. he must live in Hollywood/fort lauderdale area if he lives 3 hours away as thats what it takes me to get to Disney. Ive been to Disney alot and never been there. maybe on my next trip ill check it out. Good post lots of information. thanks
 
Thanks for the update on this, me and the family are headed to Disney in September, and I was hoping to get a crack at Tron pinball. Thanks again!
 
Seriously!

...when you consider how much money and effort is required to put something like this together, it boggles the mind that there are no classics, much less a DK machine! SOMEONE has put a lot of expensive equipment in a very pricey location and yet they are not capable of putting the very game that the location is themed after??? It just doesn't make ANY sense whatsoever. I'm sure that DreamTR would be the first to come on here and tell us that a DK won't earn enough money to pay for it's square footage, BUT consider this. They could put a sign on top of any classic machines in there with Billy's high score with a challenge for people to "try and do better". That might motivate casual visitors to play the old games. I understand that you need to run what makes money and is hot "right now", but not having a DK machine is just weird...

Glad to hear that my Disney Quest report is of some help. I put out a post before leaving to see if anyone wanted me to check for anything in particular, but had no specific requests. I also didn't get a chance to see if they still have the old Chester Pollard "Play Football" machine from the 1920's in the Magic Kingdom in the foyer of the train station just inside the front gate. That thing is REALLY cool and a must-see for people who are into coin operated amusements. It WAS there the last couple of times that I went, and just last night I walked right past the stairs that went up to the room and said OUT LOUD "well, it looks like I'm not going to see if the Chester Pollard game is still here". Nobody cared because it was getting late and everyone was tired.

I can also report that ALL coin operated items have been completely removed from the main street store that has the "arcade" signs in front of it. The last time I was there (4 years ago) there were a few Mutoscopes and a really old automatic player piano complete band assembly that Walt Disney had personally purchased back in the 1950's. Of course, back in the 70's and 80's, it was a proper arcade. Also, the only "proper" arcade in the Magic Kingdom (which is in front of Space Mountain) has been scaled back considerably. The 8 player Daytona deluxe is gone as are many "older" games, which at this point (sadly) means games from the 1990's. And lastly, the nifty shooting gallery in Frontierland was covered up for renovation of the facade. But, the attraction will re-open without any changes to the actual shooting gallery...

Lee
 
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Not including DK from the beginning - even in the form of a new multi machine - is, for me, the ultimate symbol of a soulless, quick cash-grab business leveraging a film.
 
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