Sega Galaxy Force II

ArcadeDanger

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Been talking with some folks about Sega Galaxy Force II; I recently bought it for my Nintendo 3DS, and have flashbacks of when I played it at Flippers in Town & Country Mall in Kendall, FL (West Miami). It was smack dab right in the middle of the space when you walk into the place, had the plastic chained off area so people wouldn't get smacked by the rotating platform. It was pretty expensive per game, when it did get played it was a spectacle, everyone would turn to play it. Or at least, it felt that way.

There weren't too many of them - Deluxe cabs were $26k and the Super Deluxe were in around $40k (1989 dollars).

Looking through Google and this thread, I've found a few other locations where folks said GF2 was available BITD:
Galaxy Game Center, Palatine, Illinois outside of Chicago on Rand Rd. and Dundee (1991)
Billy Bob's Wonderland, Huntington, Wyoming (1989-1990)
Aladdin's Castle in Windsor Park Mall, San Antonio, Texas
Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois (in Lake County) (1990)
Circus Circus, Las Vegas, Nevada
Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, Los Olivos, CA (Santa Barbara County)
Flippers Arcade, Miami, Florida (1990)
Aquaboulevard Amusement Complex, Paris, France (1989)
Celebration Station in Merrillville, IN (1989-1990) [Atari Force]
Time Out Arcade, Auburn Mall, NY [MadPerry]
Arcade in Meridian Mall, Lansing, MI [RobMcRaf]
Namco Land, Meadowhall, Sheffield, UK [ZedEx48K@ukvac]
Butlins Holiday Park, Bognor Regis, UK [Milky@ukvac, Deluxe/Pneumatics version]
?? Boardwalk Arcade, Wildwood, NJ [Whitefox]
?? Arcade, Cerritos, Los Angeles, CA [RalphT3]
?? [arcade with concourse view], Orlando, FL [RobMcRaf]
?? [small arcade], Lompoc, CA (1990+) [Mylstar]
??, Amsterdam, Netherlands [[email protected]: 2,5 Guilders to Play]

There are 2 playable 'in the wild' that user SaraAB87 has located:
Skylon Tower, in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada
Galloping Ghost Arcade, Brookfield, Illinois, USA

Locations of other GF2s:
Simulator Games 1985-Present collection at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. [SaraAB87]
Museum Of The Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY [Permanent Collection] [Pat9000]

Who else has seen/played these BITD?
Do you know of any other locations where these might be playable?
 
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This is a really good list, I didn't even know there were that many in the USA.

There is definitely one in the collection at the strong museum, I saw it there myself and its listed on their website.
 
The one at "Flippers" was the same one that was in Pirates Entertainment in Miami back in 89. I remember the movers dismantling it. I played it a bunch of times. I'd like to remember it fondly when it was fully working, pretty much half the time there was an issue with the motors. Both establishments are long gone. The game , who knows.
 
I played the super deluxe version at the Celebration Station in Merrillville, IN around '89/'90. I have a photo somewhere that a friend took of me playing it. That was the only time I've ever seen one. Never knew they cost so much!

Brian
 
There were certainly dozens of them in the USA. GF Super Deluxe was a pretty common game for larger arcades in it's day. The UR and Deluxe (aka: City) cabinets were probably not fully released in the USA, similar to the AfterBurner Commander type, probably just because there was more money to be made on the bigger cabinets and space is less of a concern here. The only Deluxe I've ever heard of in North America was in Montreal somewhere - never seen one. I'd love to own one.

I've owned 9 Super DXs over the years and seen many more, but there were a few flaws in it's design; they were often scrapped when major issues arose such as the pitch translation link cracking, or deterioration of the turntable's traction ring.

At least one of these problems probably happened to most machines at some point, and it's common to see the pitch link repaired. The turntable ring is probably what sent most machines to the scrapyard, but one operator that owned a lot of them, Pocket Change, made their own retrofit kit to replace it available to anyone - though it required splitting the machine to weld in a new ring. By the time the game was 5-7 years old, nobody wanted to bother with major surgery on one anymore.

Museum Of The Moving Image in NYC (Astoria Queens) has a fully operational machine on display now through October. It is in their permanent collection, so it is brought out for display from time to time. It has it's original stanchions and the proper original lighting features installed such as the Flashboy strobes and the blue Philips flourescent lamps, which are near impossible to find - I don't think I've ever seen a machine on location even in the mid-late 90's that had all the original lighting working.
 
I played the super deluxe version at an arcade (can't remember the name) in Cerritos (Los Angeles) California. Played it quite often back then in 89/90.
 
Time Out in the Auburn Mall, NY. Just amazed by it. I've spent years buying all of the games I played there, including my first game that I actually bought FROM there. Galaxy Force II will unfortunately not be one of them. Too bad there wasn't a cockpit version.
 
I think that Meridian Mall in Lansing, MI had one. Also played one in Florida... would have been around Orlando..... maybe Disney. Was in a mall-ish place and you could see it from the concourse. May have been at the lobby entrance of a movie theatre. I mostly frequented the Fashion Square Mall arcade, but that wasn't it.

Loved the feeling of spinning 360 circles in it but always wondered when someone was going to get sued because some inattentive parent let their 2-year old wander into it.
 
inflation!

I played the super deluxe version at the Celebration Station in Merrillville, IN around '89/'90. I have a photo somewhere that a friend took of me playing it. That was the only time I've ever seen one. Never knew they cost so much!

Brian

Now adjust 2x for inflation! $80K for the game. Think I owe my parents a BIG thank-you for buying those Atari carts in 80-81. That would have been $100 in 2016 dollars. If my son asked me to buy an Xbox game for $100... Bwah-ha-ha! HELL NO!

Even at $40k, I can't imagine them getting a ROI (especially when you factor in maint), but maybe they did. Was a cool thing to draw people in to play other games.
 
There was a deluxe version at a small arcade in Lompoc, CA back in the 90's.
I know the owner and I'll see if he stills has it.
 
It is possible that they are still in the back corners of warehouses of operators who have moved on to vending and other stuff to stay in business. I know a guy with 1 (or 2) AB Deluxe machines because and entire building would have to be spilled onto the street in order to forklift it out. Maybe disassembled and sitting in boxes like the Rock-A-Fire Explosion!
 
An arcade at one of the boardwalks in NJ had one of the super deluxe, full movement ones.

Not certain if it was the boardwalk near Red Bank where the MTV beach house shit was, or in Wildwood or Atlantic City. I'm thinking Wildwood.
 
There was one in eBay 2 years ago for a few months out in the Ohio area. I almost got it when I went out to get my F355 challenge dlx, but the Galaxyforce wouldn't fit through my 60" door for my game room. I was told they don't break down at all. I would still love to have one. If one pops up local, I would consider putting in a larger door.
 
It is possible that they are still in the back corners of warehouses of operators who have moved on to vending and other stuff to stay in business. I know a guy with 1 (or 2) AB Deluxe machines because and entire building would have to be spilled onto the street in order to forklift it out. Maybe disassembled and sitting in boxes like the Rock-A-Fire Explosion!

This is possible, a lot of operators will not pay to dispose of a large machine such as Galaxy Force as its time and money, and most do not want to pay for something they do not have to so it sits in the warehouse till someone discovers it and wants it, especially if they own the warehouse and its not hurting anyone by just sitting there. AB cockpit doesn't break down from what I hear either so that would not be an easy one to deal with.

I know a guy who got a R360 for free (non-working) minus whatever it cost to move the machine because the operator just wanted to get rid of it and if someone comes in and takes it away it is easier and cheaper on the operator rather than having to move and dispose of it themselves which would cost the operator money and time in most cases this is not something the operator wants to deal with.

The only reason the one up here is running is because they had 2 of them and broke down the other one bit by bit to keep the one in the arcade going. Hopefully it keeps running, if it makes it till 2018 I plan on having a party to celebrate its 30th year in the arcade!
 
Now adjust 2x for inflation! $80K for the game.
Even at $40k, I can't imagine them getting a ROI (especially when you factor in maint), but maybe they did. Was a cool thing to draw people in to play other games.

Rob, I cross checked with WolfRam Alpha and you got it very close, 40k in 1989 comes to $79380 in 2016 US dollars based on Consumer Price Index.

I was thinking about the business case for something like this, and I agree with you, you'd need 20,000 $2 dollar plays to make it break even by itself. How did so many of these make it into the US arcades at all? What were the financing tricks available in the late 80s/early 90s? Or were the big arcades making such bank with other avenues that they could wing this?

Flippers didn't have any concessions as far as I remember - makes me wonder what other arrangements were there.
 
Found a post on shumps.system11.org that mentioned that there was an appearance of a GF2 Deluxe (the white one on hydraulics) that was showed during the 2006 California Extreme. I've never seen that version, would be a treat to see it.
 
There have been a couple on ebay in the last couple years. I think the last one was in PA late last year for around $2k, surely needing plenty of work...

As for defending the new cost of a game like GF. I'd imagine most of them paid for themselves within months. A game like that would easily make $600+/day on weekends in high-traffic locations, which is who bought them.

An arcade at one of the boardwalks in NJ had one of the super deluxe, full movement ones.

Not certain if it was the boardwalk near Red Bank where the MTV beach house shit was, or in Wildwood or Atlantic City. I'm thinking Wildwood.

There was one on the north end of Seaside Heights up through the late 90's. There were certainly more of them on the boardwalks when it was new.

Found a post on shumps.system11.org that mentioned that there was an appearance of a GF2 Deluxe (the white one on hydraulics) that was showed during the 2006 California Extreme. I've never seen that version, would be a treat to see it.

Nice! maybe it's from Mylstar's guy...

This seems to be an all-too common misconception, but I don't believe any standard arcade-released Sega motion games use hydraulics. They are all electric, or pneumatic for games with less motion like Super Monaco GP DX, Virtua Racing DX, Daytona Special, or Waverunner DX. GFII S-DX is electric, and even the giant later-model cabs like Cycraft are electric.
 
This seems to be an all-too common misconception, but I don't believe any standard arcade-released Sega motion games use hydraulics. They are all electric, or pneumatic for games with less motion like Super Monaco GP DX, Virtua Racing DX, Daytona Special, or Waverunner DX. GFII S-DX is electric, and even the giant later-model cabs like Cycraft are electric.

Makes sense, hydraulics in an arcade would be a pain - I used to work for a mining equipment company, I remember the heavy boring drill hydraulic systems would leak and make messes everywhere when the hoses eventually wore out and sprung a leak.
 
the arcade at the B&I in Tacoma, WA had a non-working one on the floor a few years ago (i think Herb the tech was trying to get it to work,) but i'm pretty sure it was sold when the arcade closed and most of the games were auctioned off.

i know there was at least one or two in the Seattle area on location when they were new but i couldn't tell you exactly where. i just remember they looked so cool but where too rich for my blood.
 
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