Trip to Galloping Ghost- wow

@78whiteorbs

Any recommendations for places to stay overnight?
Stayed at Best Western Plus Hillside 10 mins away. Solid 3 star hotel for 80$ clean and everything was up to par. Few others in that area way better than the roach motel but 10 minutes away. If you are into Dumb and Dumber heart shaped jacuzzi tubs across the street has that and more but I'd be scared to see those beds with a black light.
 
Cool trip!
Seeing pics and reading pics about GG, it makes me wonder why Funspot claims it's the World's Largest Arcade, or some nonsense.
Maybe it was in 1987, but GG has way more games that I can see visually than what FS claims.
They are over 1000 now. Had fun with pins too, the had a Joust 2 player pin me and my son enjoyed
 
Awesome

Wow a working Spy Hunter 2. Did you play it? Was it as bad as they say it i

Awesome

Wow a working Spy Hunter 2. Did you play it? Was it as bad as they say it is?
I did not play that 1.There were a few that I didn't get to because I was just enjoying the other so much For the first 2 hours we just walked.Around looking at us pretty Spectacular For anyone who likes arcade games. I went in there with a plan golden and bronze era only. As well as all the vectors
 
@78whiteorbs

Any recommendations for places to stay overnight?

Name a price range and I can recommend something close.

I'd probably stay around Naperville, and make a run up.

Nicer hotels and restaurants.

The neighborhood GG is in isn't great. It isn't like there are vagrants or muggers, but it's an old neighborhood - the road was widened and the sidewalks are now up against the building with the cars whizzing by.

Naperville is way too far out, plenty of fine places a lot nearer. Half a mile down the road either way you're already in Starbucks and micro-brewery laden territory.
 
Name a price range and I can recommend something close.



Naperville is way too far out, plenty of fine places a lot nearer. Half a mile down the road either way you're already in Starbucks and micro-brewery laden territory.
200$ ?
 
Made it safe back home with Space Encounters. Even picked up a $300 Popeye in an Ohio basement along the way.
 

Attachments

  • 20250214_101845.jpg
    20250214_101845.jpg
    453.3 KB · Views: 12
  • 20250214_101853.jpg
    20250214_101853.jpg
    459.6 KB · Views: 13
  • 20250214_101900.jpg
    20250214_101900.jpg
    526.1 KB · Views: 12
  • 20250214_101927.jpg
    20250214_101927.jpg
    498.7 KB · Views: 13
Were most of the games in good condition? I'm just curious because I went there like 3 years ago and while the place was cool, the condition of most of the games was pretty poor. Like 75% of the games had issues, possibly more. It would be a bad monitor, bad sound, or bad controls, but it was something.
 
Do they have a TON of pins? They have to be in another building…. Close by?
Not at all maybe like 40 tops
But some good ones. Little bit of classic and some newer. They had a qbert pin and a haunted house, and the Joust was really cool, first I've played. For new stuff they had a nice Alien and Godzilla and more I'm forgetting.
 
Were most of the games in good condition? I'm just curious because I went there like 3 years ago and while the place was cool, the condition of most of the games was pretty poor. Like 75% of the games had issues, possibly more. It would be a bad monitor, bad sound, or bad controls, but it was something.
I would say for the amount of games they had and the number of job title "techs" (2 only) it was great. Beavis and Butthead was down and two others I wanted to play just for bragging rights but everything else pretty good. I am soooooooo sooooooo hesitant to criticize an endeavor of this magnitude out of respect and admiration but one tensy thing that I thought would make a compound interest of difference is alot of games that they didn't have the og marquee for (most all the Japanese rare stuff, fighting etc) they had some sad low res prints for the marquee which would have been 1 million times better printed on translite with high res. Maybe alotta people wouldn't notice but ai worked in the sign industry for a number of years and I did notice it. My understanding though is that as they get the correct parts or cab they swap them out and Doc is on camera saying that if you have a dedicated cab for any game he has he's happy to give you the old cab the game was in to make one complete so they are constantly trying to improve and that's noble that you can play something even if few things aren't perfect.

My $.02
 
Last edited:
I actually thought hard about offering to give them the Space Encounters I just got for free because they didn't have one which blew my mind and it'd be my contribution to the arcade world for historical preservation but 2 things held me back : one being I love playing that game and I live in NC and 2 I love playing that game and I live in NC. Him being in Chicago and this being g a Bally game I was astonished he didn't have one. I think it's the only game with an external strobe so that'd make it unique enough to earn it's place and the fast slow in out steering is unique. As matter a fact gonna go play some now!!
 
Do they have a TON of pins? They have to be in another building…. Close by?

The pinball building is like a block further down the street... and after being at the arcade side, it feels like an after thought (just based on the small number of pins compared to the massive number of vids).

The pinball side isn't bad, per se, I was just (incorrectly) expecting way more games, based on the variety of games they had in their main building.
 
The pinball building is like a block further down the street... and after being at the arcade side, it feels like an after thought (just based on the small number of pins compared to the massive number of vids).

The pinball side isn't bad, per se, I was just (incorrectly) expecting way more games, based on the variety of games they had in their main building.
Agreed. My son and I did appreciate the breather we took there as its little less overwhelming and let's you catch you breath so to speak lol. Great Thai place between the 2 buildings with good prices.
 
Agreed. My son and I did appreciate the breather we took there as its little less overwhelming and let's you catch you breath so to speak lol. Great Thai place between the 2 buildings with good prices.

My wife's way more into pins than vids, and she still had fun in the pin building, so that's all that really mattered.

It did also let me try some of the oddball pins I'd heard of but never played before, like Varkon and Granny & the Gators (curiosity satisfied, no need to play either again).
 
My wife's way more into pins than vids, and she still had fun in the pin building, so that's all that really mattered.

It did also let me try some of the oddball pins I'd heard of but never played before, like Varkon and Granny & the Gators (curiosity satisfied, no need to play either again).
Did you like Joust? I thought it was great.
 
Did you like Joust? I thought it was great.

Didn't get a chance to play it. Think it might have been down when we were there?

I've seen a Joust pinball on two occasions, and didn't get to play it either time (I was in line to play one at the NW Pinball and Arcade show one year, and it went down while the people in front of me were playing it).
 
My buddy and I found Joust tons of fun at GG. That may have been the pinball game we played the most.

I was unimpressed with Aliens - just too dark for me. I found it hard to see what was going on.
 
Back
Top Bottom