The land of OZ Lake Geneve Wis.

LovelyCoCoNuts

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Has anyone ever heard of this place?

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Trying to research the history of my machine.

I have the original 77/78 Texas occupation tax stamp, the 79 stamp/permit was removed "void" lines remain where it was. And the 1980 Texas stamp/permit is intact. Showing 2-1/2 to 3 years of licensed use.

The old man I bought it from, stated he was a retired military person, moving to flordia, and did not want to take it on another move.

He had bought it with one of his first checks when he enlisted, and it "smoked" in the first couple of years he had it.

He was sent over seas, and left it with his parents in the garage, moved back and took it with him to California and back to Texas in around 1991. And it sat inside his house as a conversation piece since.

Fast forward 26 years later. I get a call from a guy saying he had a pinball that was not working I could have for parts for $45.

The next day I went and picked it up with the help of my brother.... Holy shit pinballs are heavy.

I have a restore thread. On this machine and it is now working, awaiting wax and a rubber set.
 
In general, Lake Geneva is near the midwest attraction of the Wisconsin Dells.
Also near Alpine Valley which is a venue for many concerts, notable for where SRV died in a helicopter crash.

Wisconsin Dells is heavy on amusement machine entertainment, and assume it has been for many decades way back. The vending routes are heavy up that way.
 
I have always heard of a convention of some king they hold there but I've never been able to attend.
 
There was a chain of arcades under the Bally umbrella called 'Land Of Oz'.
You can find a photo of one of these arcades at this article.
Referencing newspaper archives, it appears as though an arcade in the University Square Mall in Madison Wis. was also referenced as 'The Land of Oz' for a brief time in the early 1980's.
If I were to guess, I'd say that the Lake Geneva tag was a separate entity altogether, though I really have nothing to base that assumption on.
Referencing this list from January 1st, 1991, it lists the Lake Geneva Land Of Oz address only as Hwy 36.

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Lake Geneva isn't that close to Wisconsin Dells. The Dells are at least an hour plus north of Lake Geneva.

Now Lake Geneva used to host the Playboy Club, which is now the Grand Geneva Resort.

No arcade there the last few times I visited.
 
There was a retro arcade there in the early 2000's , first time I was able to beat smash TV . Still had to use quarters .
Dells is over two hours from there . Many great arcades there in the late 80s
 
I've always felt we should have a thread for these. Whether it's stickers, paperwork, tokens, etc, we could have an 'arcade ID' thread that everyone could sub to. People could post pics, and see if anyone else knows what the place was, and has any stories/info about it.

I know whenever I'm looking at old tokens, I always wonder where these arcades were, and what they were like.
 
I loved Gameland too.... and have pics I took in April 2009! I believe they closed in October/November 2009 when the guy that ran it and loved it for decades passed away and the family auctioned off everything :(
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fun lighting!!
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A+ Mini collection (including the Robotron and others not in this row)

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This Tron has the wrong joystick insert.... I should have taken it home at the time :(
 

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