Who here has opened up their arcade for Halloween?

gibbous

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
4,313
Reaction score
32
Location
California
Kind of on a whim and for the first time in the few years we've lived here, I repositioned all the games and opened up my garcade for the trick or treaters. I've never had so many games working at once, so I figured it was a good time to share.

I'm kind of amazed at people's...umm...amazement! I don't think of them as such a big deal but people kept reacting like it was the coolest thing ever. I also had to keep telling people they are FREE to play. They were shocked at that, as if it was unheard of that you could play games for free. Is it just my neighborhood or is everyone that cynical?

I'd say half the people that came by stopped to play a few games. A few of those stayed a half hour or longer, and a few that didn't stop the first time came back to play.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I think everyone enjoyed it. We don't generally put on many parties at home, but we might do it more often now. We had a lot of fun seeing people's reactions and chatting with neighbors. Didn't take any audits, but from occasional glances, Centipede cabaret got a lot of love, as did the Spy Hunter sitdown, Star Wars, and the Baby Pac.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.34.43 AM.jpg
    Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.34.43 AM.jpg
    14.4 KB · Views: 253
  • Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.35.02 AM.jpg
    Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.35.02 AM.jpg
    11.5 KB · Views: 253
  • Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.49.58 AM.jpg
    Screen shot 2011-11-01 at 6.49.58 AM.jpg
    20.6 KB · Views: 250
I had 3 of my games on in the garage for people to play. I really didn't think they would go over as well as they did. All 3 of the had continuous play from kids that were 12 and under. I don't think my wife took any pics of them being played (I was dishing out candy all night), but I will check and post if I can find any.
 
I had three games out as well - Pac Man, Gyruss, and Street Fighter II CE. All three got some play, and people said they'd love to come back next year.


Unfortunately, I am rearranging my home to allow my mother-in-law to move in so I will not be able to have a gameroom set up next year unless I decide to put up a tent.
 
Yeah, I didn't snap many pics but at least once there were enough people in there for every game. I was too busy either passing out candy or explaining Baby Pac-Man to people, or chatting about it all to someone. It was definitely cool and I can see doing it again next year. Maybe with way, way more blacklight. Maybe a fog machine? I also need a sign that says "Free Play" or something like that.

I had Brentradio's Halloween sounds going, too. First time I actually listened to it all the way through. Pretty cool track.
 
Yeah I had my party last night. I love the people that come and say that their kids look forward to my house every year. I even had a gentleman go googoo over my games. He told me after he was done playing them that he was officially jealous of me. I really need to get more games! They might make me mayor of this tiny town!! :p
 
Awesome gibbous!

Yep, I opened up my garage/arcade at my new place, too.

I'll try to get my pictures posted tonight, but I had a pretty decent turn out overall. I wasn't sure what to expect from my new neighborhood, but word did get around a bit and I probably had about 60 kids and some parents when all was said and done :) .

All 28 games and 2 pins worked great, too...no problems at all other than some weird sounds from Mad Planets that has happened before and just required some quick connector reseating action to bring it back to normal.

Jon
 
Aww, man, Jon, you have some sweet games. Wish I was there.

Up until last night, I'd been pining for a dedicated game room indoors rather than a garcade. But it really is kinda cool to just be able to open it up to anyone and everyone. Plus it would be easier to fix games because they'd be closer to the tools and the work bench. Maybe it would be cool to just get a place with a 3-car garage.... Or maybe a tandem 4 or 5 car.... Oh, the possibilities.

My Ikari Warriors rebooted a couple of times last night, I think it was fine all through CAX, although I hadn't even unwrapped it until last night. Maybe something's just jarred from the rough ride back.
 
This was what I did in 2004.

A pair of little boys walks up.

"Woah! What game is this? It has werewolves fighting!"

"What game is the guy crushed by? Neeeeyooo...JEEEEeeeyo?? What's that? Some X-Box game? Do we have that on X-Box?"

"I dunno. I've never heard of it. Who cares. This one is cool!"

The end.
 
This was what I did in 2004.

A pair of little boys walks up.

"Woah! What game is this? It has werewolves fighting!"

"What game is the guy crushed by? Neeeeyooo...JEEEEeeeyo?? What's that? Some X-Box game? Do we have that on X-Box?"

"I dunno. I've never heard of it. Who cares. This one is cool!"

The end.

Bwahahaha. I love it! That's some funny shit right there.
 
the normal street view of my house
IMG_20110915_172252.jpg


last night
IMG_6860.JPG


at one point like 60 people were all up in there...
 
I'm kind of amazed at people's...umm...amazement! I don't think of them as such a big deal but people kept reacting like it was the coolest thing ever. I also had to keep telling people they are FREE to play. They were shocked at that, as if it was unheard of that you could play games for free. Is it just my neighborhood or is everyone that cynical?

I think anyone would be amazed to be walking down the street and then suddenly seeing a garage full of arcade games on free play. I would do the same but we get no trick or treaters on my block. Cool set up!
 
I wish I could have opened my gameroom up but I can't do to legal reasons (wife is a local teacher and we can't have students in the house). Wanted to bring a buch out in the driveway this year but with the foot of snow we got the night before that didn't happen either. What I did do was bring the Candy Man candy crane out to the driveway and made the kids play for their candy. At one point I had a line down the street waiting for a chance to play. All the adults were taking pictures but unfortunatly I didn't get a chance to.
 
Several years and two apartments ago, I opened up my ground floor garage for the trick or treaters. At the time, I had Ms.PacMan, Black Tiger, Double Dragon 2, Time Pilot, Space Encounters, OutRun, Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters and a few others.

Parents enjoyed playing as much (possibly more) than the kids!

One amusing moment was the father helping his 6 year old daughter play OutRun. Despite her best efforts to stay on the road, she kept crashing. The father turned to me and said in a mock-depressed tone...

"Only ten short years, then I'll be teaching her to drive for REAL!"

Kyle :cool:
 
Last edited:
On your garcade diagram is that a jaelco pony against the wall? What game was playing in it?

It's broken. :( But it should be going to a good home soon. :) I had an Astro City up front playing Hot Dog Storm.


This was what I did in 2004.

A pair of little boys walks up.

"Woah! What game is this? It has werewolves fighting!"

"What game is the guy crushed by? Neeeeyooo...JEEEEeeeyo?? What's that? Some X-Box game? Do we have that on X-Box?"

"I dunno. I've never heard of it. Who cares. This one is cool!"

The end.

LOL!, this is AWESOME!

01.jpg


This is a GREAT idea! Way better than just pushing non-working games out of the way. :D


I think anyone would be amazed to be walking down the street and then suddenly seeing a garage full of arcade games on free play. I would do the same but we get no trick or treaters on my block. Cool set up!

Thanks, Steve. Yeah, first time I did anything like this and it was pretty cool. Totally blew me away the reactions I was getting, but, again, it felt good to share. Next year, I need a "FREE PLAY" sign for sure.


Nice idea with the candy crane, too. I think it would be cool to put full size bars in there and let them go at it.
 
This was the first year in quite a while I was able to open the garage door and have trick 'o treaters over. Once the word got out about FREE GAMES on the street, well we had 50-60 kids stop by that night.

http://www.villagebbs.com/forum/index.php/topic,11944.15.html

This is a nice idea, too.

P1020953.jpg


Shallow out the garage. There were times it got crowded in mine, even with the more open layout.

Next year, I might consider putting less games out just to make it easier to play. Less is more.

And a dead guy under the arcade game. Yeah, definitely the dead guy.
 
Next year, I need a "FREE PLAY" sign for sure.

Second that. Lots of people didn't know what to do at first. Maybe they thought it was a private party or something. They would stand longingly in the driveway for a time just staring, until I waved them in to play. :D
 
I was really surprised people were thinking I was charging for playing. That just seems like the worst thing to do in your own neighborhood on Halloween. But I also appreciate that they didn't want to assume they could just walk into my garage. So, yeah, a nice sign will be just the thing.

I do have to confess, however, I did NOT make it obvious they were on free play for the freakin' 20-somethings that were out getting candy BY THEMSELVES. At the very least be out there with a young niece or nephew. Sheesh. :rolleyes:

I also had a 20-something double dipping Spiderman. Came up with his mask off, came back with his mask on. Still gave him candy, but he got a dirty look the second time, too. :mad:
 
3rd year for our haunted arcade... lots of excited return visitors. probably 300+ kids. I have to laugh when you see a minivan pull up and a whole pile of kids file out!
The only casualty was the skeeball, I thought it overheated or something, but it was because people had jammed a ton of tokens into the coin mech (we had tokens out for the crane games), but the game still had a quarter sized switch lane! easy fix once I realized it...

pics here...
https://picasaweb.google.com/110402263563249935041/Halloween201102
 
Back
Top Bottom