Pictures of my trip to the Penny Arcade in Manitou Springs, Colorado

kiwasabi

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Pictures of my trip to the Penny Arcade in Manitou Springs, Colorado

Hey everybody,

I saw the pictures posted from the penny arcade in Rhode Island and figured it was my duty to show everybody the awesomeness that is the penny arcade in Manitou Springs, CO. The place has been around for about 100 years and must have over 200 games from all generations. They have an impressive collection of games from all eras: 60's and 70's EM games, 80's classic games, 90's, and some really new games as well. The place is right by Garden of the Gods and close to the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad (aka Manitou Springs is a tourist town) so it would be a good trip to make.

Anyway, enough yapping; on to the pictures!

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I love this game. I had only ever played it at Chuck E Cheese's before. I thought I'd never see one again because I learned that Chuck E Cheese's destroys all its games after it's done with them (because they don't want to get the competition to get them or some crap). I was quite pleased to find one here:
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Up 12 people compete in this game where you have a horse that moves as you roll a ball and try to get it to land into a hole with a 1, 2, or 3 on it (amount of steps it moves). There's always an employee running it, and I think they're supposed to do an announcer type thing...but they're not very into their line of work apparently.
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This is a weird redemption game where a row of ducks on a conveyor belt moves by a spring-loaded boxing glove under your control. You push the button to try and hit the ducks with the boxing glove.
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Worst hellcade I've ever seen on location; a Police Trainer inside of a frikkin Gun Fight cab! Brutality:
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First person plane EM game where you're pursuing an enemy plane as he moves all over the screen. You have to push the shoot button at the exact moment that your paths cross in order to take him down. Very challenging, but I really enjoy it.
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Nintendo Super System; I had never seen one of these on location before!
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This is a really fun automatic EM shooter game where you shoot at helicopters, tanks, and enemy soldiers:
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This may be the most interesting game in the whole place; a Sega Basketball! It's a two player game where there are 15 holes on the board, each one of them has a spring loaded trap underneath them. Each hole is numbered 1-15, and each player has 15 buttons, all of which are numbered. When the ball lands in a hole, the players must press the corresponding numbered button in order to shoot the ball towards their basket. This game is a blast and my girlfriend loved it (it was her favorite game):
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This was the only $1 game in the entire place, and we meant to play it at the end as a grand finale, but we forgot, unfortunately. It's a four-player slot racing game. I'm guessing this machine must've cost in the $20,000 range new.
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This is an interesting Namco light gun redemption game where you shoot at real targets (cans and such). It's also a fast-draw game; you have to grab the gun out of the holster and then shoot all of the targets in the fastest time possible:
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This is a very interesting bowling game where you aim the bowler and then press the other lever forward in order to shoot the ball forward. It's a 50 cent game which means this must've been really expensive back in the 60's or 70's (whenever it was made). But it's a long game because you play a full 10 frames:
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This is a basketball game sort of similar to the bowling game; however, this game is only a nickel but is a lot less challenging:
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This is an interesting EM game where you shoot at ships and bases.
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A soccer game from 1898; It only costs a penny!
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A couple of pitch and bat games; they had at least 2 more:
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A fun nickel game where you look through a telecope type thing:
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Some idiot jammed a nickel into this game's quarter slot so I was unable to try it out:
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My girlfriend playing one of their many EM shooters.
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Here's a pretty fun game where you move the space ship around and try to hit the 4 different metal targets as they light up. This one is really challenging:
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Another cool periscope sort of game; only a dime (as are most of the EM games except the newer/more expensive ones like Ambush, Sonic Fighter, Sea Raider, etc):
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Sea Raider was pretty fun, but it seemed as though the periscope locked up whenever you shot, and it caused me to get whacked in the face once. I dunno if this was just bad design or what, but I didn't play it again.
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And that's all of them; I hope you enjoyed these pictures. I only was able to cover about half or less of the games; this place has around 6 different buildings housing all the games. It's definitely an arcade that is not to be missed.

-Adam
 
Great pictures! It's amazing to think that some of those machines have survived this long and still look as good as they do. That foot massage machine looked out of place next to the Centipede, lol. The Nintendo Super System was cool, never seen one of those. All the old EM's are cool. My sister in law lives in CO, looks like we'll be visiting soon. ;)
 
Thank you for posting all of those pics! Great post. I played Sky Raider and Sea Raider a couple of months ago. Both are really cool games. Love the old EM's. I'd love to go to this arcade...
 
Nice job. I lived in Colorado Springs for 3.5 years and spent a lot of time in Manitou. It's a cool little town. I've talked to the owner of that arcade a few times. A little gruff at first but really warms up when you start talking games.

Other cool stores there are the fondue restaurant, was it the Mona Lisa or something like that? Also the Christmas Store has some great stuff in it.

Thanks again for the pics, really brings back some memories.
 
My in-laws live in Colorado Springs and a few years ago I went to this arcade as well. Awesome time warp back in time. I thought it was interesting how some of the games are in that open area.
 
That looks like a cool place! Yeah I'd be lost the entire day in there. I remember playing the bowling game except the one I played used mechanical wheels for scoring. Good times indeed!
 
WOW! It would be hard for me to to leave that place! So many gems there, especially being an EM fanatic! I don't even know where to start with my comments, I have to laugh at the hellcade Gunfight in there, my guess is that he got tired of repairing pcb's in that old Midway, but strangely it kinda works with those newer guns on there! I used to play that old SNES arcade machine on the Ferry boats out here in WA. Ambush is an awesome EM shooter, I've been fortunate to play the hell outta one and would LOVE to find one someday! SEA RAIDER should not hit you in the face, nobody has ever complained to me about mine geeking like that. I brought one of those Twin Rifle EM's to California this year to a SAC collector, cool game but such a HUGE MOFO! He even has the new Seawolf machine, TOO DAMN COOL!!

The diversity of games in there is mind blowing... And they all appear to be in really great shape. That is one owner that truly cares about his machines and the quality of the game.
 
WOW ! That has to be one of the best arcades still standing. Might have to bust out a little road trip. How are the machines ? Are most of them working and maintained well ?
That place totally rocks.
Dave
 
WOW ! That has to be one of the best arcades still standing. Might have to bust out a little road trip. How are the machines ? Are most of them working and maintained well ?
That place totally rocks.
Dave

everything's pretty much working. usually there are a couple of empty junk cabs he keeps along the wall outside that are for sale, jamma type cabs, but i've really never seen a non working game there. just ones that need cap kits, etc.

and nice pics, kiwasabi! what part of colo are you in? the wife and i usually try to make it down there 5 or 6 times a year. it's an awesome arcade. the outside stuff is sheltered with a roof over it, and they don't turn the games outside on unless it's over 50-55 degrees, from what they told me last spring when i was there.
 
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