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Post by VectorGamer on Aug 5, 2015 8:48:17 GMT -5
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Post by gliptitude on Aug 8, 2015 22:37:27 GMT -5
WOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! You made me really happy with this one! Now I know where my next road trip will be. I am DEFINITELY visiting this place. In the greater Pittsburgh area, only 5 hour drive for me, and an area I'd like to visit otherwise. What a great variety here. Highlights for me were Warrior, Sky Raiders, Kozmik Krooz'r and the assortments of black and white games and electromechanical games. Plus more common stuff I still haven't seen in person like Gravitar and Star Castle. The website lists some games I didn't see in the video, including Wacko and Sega vectors Tac/Scan, Star Trek, Eliminator and Space Fury: coinophof.com/game-list/video-games... I really like how they grouped games together. Was a little dissapointed though that there weren't more Cinematronics games. You'd think if they could come up with Warrior they'd have games like Starhawk and Rip Off. War of the Worlds and Cosmic Chasm might be a stretch though. .. Also missing Night Driver or equivelent. |
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Post by VectorGamer on Aug 10, 2015 9:51:01 GMT -5
The website lists some games I didn't see in the video, including Wacko and Sega vectors Tac/Scan, Star Trek, Eliminator and Space Fury: Wacko, Star Trek and Space Fury were in the video. Because of the number of games, I had to move quicker than normal so the video didn't drag on. I only filmed the marquees of common games because we all know what a Donkey Kong or Pac-Man look like. I don't remember if Eliminator was there. Tac/Scan definitely was not there. There's a back room where they were repairing cabinets so who knows Tac/Scan could've been back there. I'm thinking of making a return trip just to spend a couple of days there cuz I definitely did not have enough time in the 3 hours I was there. It's a 4 hour drive for me so that kind of sucks. |
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Post by VectorX on Aug 10, 2015 10:30:54 GMT -5
It's a 4 hour drive for me so that kind of sucks. Oof, yeah, as I thought a 40 minute drive to a local place was bad enough!  There's one here called Fun*Plex that's been around since the 1980s. It's an entertainment complex that looks like a shopping mall, but it's all entertainment-related, having stuff for kids (ball pit and all), a retro arcade, possibly still a bowling alley, etc. I only go there once every several years myself due to the distance. Hadn't been there since their arcade became "retro" though, which sounds promising, as I heard the place is going downhill. |
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Post by gliptitude on Aug 10, 2015 15:44:10 GMT -5
Yeah my local limit is like 20 minutes, but this is a destination. I'd consider this a legitimate vacation for me and I'm kind of due for one. .. Unless it's actually in Cincinnati, I pretty much figure that 5 hours drive is THE CLOSEST anything of serious interest will be to me, (Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Louisville). So I'm just glad it's not West Coast, which is generally unreachable for me.
VectorGamer, were they pretty laid back with you filming in there? Did you have to arrange that ahead?
Thanks again for highlighting this and letting us know about it.
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Post by VectorX on Aug 10, 2015 16:01:37 GMT -5
Yeah my local limit is like 20 minutes, but this is a destination. Yeah, that's how I view Fun*Plex: you'd need to spend quite a bit of time there, like bowl a game, at least (if they still have bowling) and doing other stuff than just playing games (the outdoor water slide's out, but they had that for several years though). VectorGamer, were they pretty laid back with you filming in there? Did you have to arrange that ahead? I imagine it's not uncommon to see people filming in there  |
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Post by VectorGamer on Aug 10, 2015 20:56:09 GMT -5
Yeah my local limit is like 20 minutes, but this is a destination. I'd consider this a legitimate vacation for me and I'm kind of due for one. .. Unless it's actually in Cincinnati, I pretty much figure that 5 hours drive is THE CLOSEST anything of serious interest will be to me, (Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Louisville). So I'm just glad it's not West Coast, which is generally unreachable for me. VectorGamer, were they pretty laid back with you filming in there? Did you have to arrange that ahead? Thanks again for highlighting this and letting us know about it. They don't mind if you're filming there. There was someone else there with a pro camera taking photos of the machines while I was there. The PA Coin-op Hall of Fame thanked me in a Facebook post for the positive comments I posted on my blog and they shared my YouTube video. As I stated in the video, share the video so we can get the word out about this place. It's places like this and ACAM where we need to do what we can to support them. I would hate to see this place close its doors with all the rare pieces they have to offer. |
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Post by VectorX on Aug 10, 2015 23:06:32 GMT -5
I would hate to see this place close its doors with all the rare pieces they have to offer. Yeah, I was thinking that this place should stay open forever! Yep, I was able to go through the first 20 minutes of your video. WOW. I was drooling quite a bit  I'm not going to go over all the amazing stuff that I swooned over (probably be a page of thoughts in Word), but to say the absolute least, I like the way it's put together, like how they paired up several sequels (Defender/Stargate, Berzerk/Frenzy), vector games (of course), laserdisc, Williams and environmental (Tron and Missile Command, the latter I only saw at one arcade ever back in the day). Do you know how many HUNDREDS of machines that place has?! Just walking around showing each game for 20 minutes (and beyond that) is really crazy. That place cost a fortune to put up and do current upkeep. You could spend half a day there, only playing one of each game and still probably get nowhere close to trying them all. |
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Post by VectorGamer on Aug 11, 2015 10:16:33 GMT -5
Do you know how many HUNDREDS of machines that place has?! Just walking around showing each game for 20 minutes (and beyond that) is really crazy. That place cost a fortune to put up and do current upkeep. You could spend half a day there, only playing one of each game and still probably get nowhere close to trying them all. They have over 400 machines. One thing that concerns me is that they are located in a strip mall. And with that you can expect they are paying a lot in rent. My concern is that they're not going to make enough $ to pay the rent which happens to a lot of arcades that are renting versus owning the building. That's exactly the reason High Score Arcade (now located in the Bay Area) was able to survive in their former Burlington, NJ location: they were paying mortgage on the building. The arcade was downstairs and they lived upstairs. Well, here's to hoping that this place will be open for years to come. I hope to get back out there again soon on an overnight stay so I could spend a couple days gaming. |
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Post by chadtower on May 4, 2017 14:28:11 GMT -5
Heh, I was there the weekend before they opened. I bought a Star Wars cabinet from them. Drove all the way from MA to Pittsburgh to get it, spent some time at the museum, a couple of days at Hershey Park. That place really is very, very cool. I'd love to go back someday.
It may look like a strip mall but it's more like a half empty 25 years past its prime strip mall. There is an indy console game store a few doors down and not a ton else of merit in there.
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 17, 2017 15:18:39 GMT -5
So I have finally made this trip. It was pretty cool.
Most of the games discussed were still there and were indeed the highlights, for me at least. Otherwise, one standout for me was a motorcycle racing game called Star Rider, just a really weird sit-down game, maybe laser disc.
WARRIOR was actually the biggest treat for me. I say "actually" as if this was a surprise, only because I expected the game to be nothing but a novel relic, but actually .. well it's just a REALLY novel relic. The mirror display is different from other games I've seen. The players are looking DOWN at the game and the cardboard background is very clear and prominent, with the vector graphics warriors looking very small and distinct moving around. The scale and the minimalist style is really intriguing. I'm pretty sure also that you are looking straight at the monitor and seeing a reflection of the diorama, which is not the norm for half mirror displays. .. In addition to the trick display there was also some novelties to the animation and the sword swinging mechanic which are different from George's Vectrex version. I think his might be more functional, but there is an interesting move I couldn't figure out where the warrior seems to lift the sword over his head or something. .. I might post pictures later. The animation of the Warriors was really impressive.
Kozmik Krooz'r was on the floor but not operational. Wacko was awesome though, at least for the few minutes I had with it. Simple enough game but there was a really excellent and consistent visual style to the whole thing, far beyond just the crooked cabinet frame.
Space Fury was in the repair room. I played my first-in-person Sega vectors, Star Trek and Eliminator. Star Castle, Starhawk, Omega Race, Gravitar and Major Havoc - also firsts for me. Among these, maybe none of them really matched my expectations. Star Castle was fantastic - the audio-visual and mechanical aspects of it do not translate to the Vectrex version, in my opinion, (not that the Vectrex one isn't a good Vectrex game..). Major Havoc started to get interesting in the third or fourth level, which is as far as I got in my short time and apparently farther than I've gone before in the various emulated versions I have.
I was expecting to spend the most time with Gravitar, but I just wasn't enjoying it as much as I expected. The ship seemed to be moving at an artifically slow speed and I'd rather play Gravitrex. .. Starhawk was not even slightly better than the Vectrex version, which was surprising and disappointing to me, actually shocking that even the sound was no less irritating than on Vectrex - (how can such a visually dynamic and vector-appropriate template yield such an inane game!?!?). Neither of the Sega vectors impressed me, (but they were pretty much the lowest priority Sega vectors for me so I still need to see Tac Scan, Zektor and Space Fury some day). Omega Race I guess was mostly as expected and not one of my favorites, but the sound did add quite a bit and the control layout of the cockpit version was actually kind of cool and unique I think.
If you are keeping track, there were other vectors there that I haven't mentioned or commented on because I've played them before (and mostly didn't play them this time) - Solar Quest, Armor Attack, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Tempest, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Red Baron, Black Widow, Space Duel. .. Rip Off was on display but not in service.
I had pretty limited time, wildly short actually if you consider that I drove 4.5 hours to get there and that this was the main purpose of my trip. But it was worth it to me, not having ever seen so many of those games. Pittsburgh was awesome too, in my equally brief experience of it.
.. BTW, I think they changed their name to Pinball PA.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 17, 2017 15:47:19 GMT -5
Otherwise, one standout for me was a motorcycle racing game called Star Rider, just a really weird sit-down game, maybe laser disc. Right. If you got far enough in the game, by the way, you should've spotted the Sinistar in the background briefly at one point  Wacko was awesome though, at least for the few minutes I had with it. Simple enough game but there was a really excellent and consistent visual style to the whole thing, far beyond just the crooked cabinet frame. I never saw that in an arcade back in the day but it was at a gaming expo I've attended once. Hopefully I'll see it again at one point, along with playing it. Omega Race I guess was mostly as expected and not one of my favorites, but the sound did add quite a bit and the control layout of the cockpit version was actually kind of cool and unique I think. Don't think I played a cockpit version. Not my favorite vector game either but ok. |
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I'm not going to go over all the amazing stuff that I swooned over (probably be a page of thoughts in Word), but to say the absolute least, I like the way it's put together, like how they paired up several sequels (Defender/Stargate, Berzerk/Frenzy), vector games (of course), laserdisc, Williams and environmental (Tron and Missile Command, the latter I only saw at one arcade ever back in the day).
