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Post by gliptitude on Nov 24, 2012 20:20:19 GMT -5
I'm visiting family in LA until Thursday morning. Anybody know if there are any vector graphics arcade cabs I might have access to in these parts while I'm here?
I've checked several of the larger arcades and it doesn't look like much, (i think just Asteroids Deluxe so far, which I already have access to back home). There is a museum type collection in Pasedena called Penny Arcadia, which I inquired with. But they require an appointment and will not be available until after I'm gone. ... A retail showroom in Glendale has many good ones, but I'm not sure I could go in just to look and play.
Games i'm trying to play and have never played (besides raster emulation) are:
Cinematronics (all)
Gravitar
Battlezone
Space Duel
Star Wars
Major Havoc
... Pretty much everything vector besides Asteroids Deluxe actually.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 24, 2012 20:41:42 GMT -5
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 26, 2012 13:12:00 GMT -5
Well I went to one at Santa Monica pier, which was a bit lame, but the one I could convince my family to go to since there is other family stuff there.
I'm going to try to go to this showroom today (has Battlezone, Star Wars, Star Castle, Armor Attack, and a few others), while my sister lets me borrow her car. I will try to convince them that I'm a potential customer I guess so that they hopefully let me play some games.
That Penny Arcadia place seems like an awesome resource if anyone gets the chance to plan a visit ahead of time. The guy I talked to seemed willing to pull numerous machines from storage just to accomodate my visit, (free and private). Just the timing didn't work out.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 26, 2012 13:18:32 GMT -5
That Penny Arcadia place seems like an awesome resource if anyone gets the chance to plan a visit ahead of time. Yeah, someone in my gaming e-mail group went once and had nothing but high praise about the place. The guy I talked to seemed willing to pull numerous machines from storage just to accomodate my visit, (free and private). Just the timing didn't work out. Wow, that's too bad, as it seems like he'd go the extra mile there! |
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 27, 2012 4:25:09 GMT -5
Well I went to the showroom in Glendale. They had tons of stuff but most of it was covered in dust and definitely not available for a walk-in non-customer to try out. I confessed my intentions and my specific interests (vectors) to a man i think was the owner. He said the only vector cab convenient and working was Space Wars. ... So I followed him to the warehouse area, he wheeled the machine out and plugged it into an electric cord hanging from the ceiling, then he just walked away.
Gah of course we know this game requires two players, so not a very good choice. I popped my quarter in anyway and played for a few minutes until the buttons completely stopped working.
... So then I wandered back to the main showroom area, where many machines were set up and running. These were all freeplay and actually they did have a vector game, SOLAR QUEST. I played for 15 or 20 minutes, (would have been longer if I'd found a bathroom there). It was awesome actually.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 27, 2012 10:23:39 GMT -5
Gah of course we know this game requires two players, so not a very good choice. I popped my quarter in anyway and played for a few minutes until the buttons completely stopped working. Hah, great merchandise there! These were all freeplay and actually they did have a vector game, SOLAR QUEST. I played for 15 or 20 minutes, (would have been longer if I'd found a bathroom there). It was awesome actually. That's a fairly rare one too. I think I saw the cab at a local bowling alley back in the day (we'd drive past it) but I never played it. I think the ghost ship takes a lot longer to appear than with the Vectrex version, but since if you've never played a game before until MAME (the only thing I've played it on) you could have an earlier ROM or something, so I don't know if that's trustworthy or not. |
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Post by gliptitude on Nov 27, 2012 11:51:43 GMT -5
That's a fairly rare one too. I think I saw the cab at a local bowling alley back in the day (we'd drive past it) but I never played it. I think the ghost ship takes a lot longer to appear than with the Vectrex version, but since if you've never played a game before until MAME (the only thing I've played it on) you could have an earlier ROM or something, so I don't know if that's trustworthy or not. The sound was great, very warm. Shooting your bullets made a soft crackling noise. The monitor was mirrored from underneath the window, and somehow projected over this painted space pattern, (black field with various neon star spots). The overlay was similar to the Vectrex one, and directly on the monitor. ... Controls were more difficult old button steering type, but the 'nuke' function was easier to use - you could see it fire as a projectile away from your ship and then when you press the button again the projectile explodes. |
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Post by VectorX on Nov 27, 2012 12:53:31 GMT -5
The monitor was mirrored from underneath the window, and somehow projected over this painted space pattern, (black field with various neon star spots). That sounds nice!! |
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Post by celtroniclabs on Dec 4, 2012 20:08:33 GMT -5
Solar Quest has a half-silvered mirror in it like Warrior. Using that combined with the overlay, made it kinda look like it was actually using a color vector monitor, since you don't see the overlay while playing. The machine had a daughter video board that generated vector lines with 64 different levels of intensity. The most advanced the vectorbeam display ever got on the old Space Wars hardware.
I saw a Solar Quest machine, when it was new, in an arcade at Atlantic City back in the day. I walked up to it and watched the attract mode, but never played that one. Probably didn't have a quarter handy at the time..
First time I actually played Solar Quest was on Zonn Moore's DOS Cinematronics emulator in the summer of 97. His old emulator had no sound or overlay support and I think it was 640x480 resolution with aliased lines of course.
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Post by jasonbar on Feb 22, 2013 14:55:53 GMT -5
Good gravy! I've lived in Pasadena for 8 years & never heard of this! My Googling is failing me too. Please elaborate!
Thanks,
-Jason
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Post by VectorX on Feb 24, 2013 14:13:03 GMT -5
You can go here for the information: www.caextreme.org/Next show's in July. Hopefully that's enough time to plan to attend! |
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 25, 2013 1:54:53 GMT -5
Good gravy! I've lived in Pasadena for 8 years & never heard of this! My Googling is failing me too. Please elaborate! Thanks, -Jason Heh, well welcome to the forums! I'm not certain to what you refer, but I think you must mean Penny Arcadia. (It is the 3rd result when I type "Penny Arcadia" into my Google machine): www.arcade-museum.com/penny-arcadia/Penny Arcadia is a museum without a home. It is a collection of arcade machines which the proprietors intend to present to the public as a museum IN THE FUTURE, but currently they have no such museum space or the funding for it. They have an office and a small space in Pasadena. The collection is supposedly available to the public BY APPOINTMENT: www.arcade-museum.com/visit-us.phpYou can try emailing one of the contacts provided on these links. It did not work out for myself because of scheduling conflicts. But I did get a response from my email inquiries, and they seemed pretty accommodating. ... I think they will be most responsive if you present yourself as a collector or researcher of some kind, or if you can arrange a group visit or event of some kind. |
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Post by jasonbar on Feb 26, 2013 12:59:37 GMT -5
Thank you very much, gliptitude. Yes, I meant the Penny Arcadia. I didn't realize it was the "HQ" of sorts for KLOV? Under what rock have I been living!?!?!? Yes, I just came across this board when I saw a post on rec.games.vectrex the other day. I've been missing out & have some catching up to do! Thanks, -Jason PS--I didn't realize that a response has been posted--I didn't receive an e-mail notification from the forum, even though I'd subscribed to this thread. Is there a trick to get notified? (Sorry if that's off-topic--let's not create too much of a tangent!) Good gravy! I've lived in Pasadena for 8 years & never heard of this! My Googling is failing me too. Please elaborate! Thanks, -Jason Heh, well welcome to the forums! I'm not certain to what you refer, but I think you must mean Penny Arcadia. (It is the 3rd result when I type "Penny Arcadia" into my Google machine): www.arcade-museum.com/penny-arcadia/Penny Arcadia is a museum without a home. It is a collection of arcade machines which the proprietors intend to present to the public as a museum IN THE FUTURE, but currently they have no such museum space or the funding for it. They have an office and a small space in Pasadena. The collection is supposedly available to the public BY APPOINTMENT: www.arcade-museum.com/visit-us.phpYou can try emailing one of the contacts provided on these links. It did not work out for myself because of scheduling conflicts. But I did get a response from my email inquiries, and they seemed pretty accommodating. ... I think they will be most responsive if you present yourself as a collector or researcher of some kind, or if you can arrange a group visit or event of some kind. |
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Post by VectorX on Feb 26, 2013 13:21:04 GMT -5
Yes, I meant the Penny Arcadia. I didn't realize it was the "HQ" of sorts for KLOV? Under what rock have I been living!?!?!? Oh well, sometimes you just miss things  Yes, I just came across this board when I saw a post on rec.games.vectrex the other day. I've been missing out & have some catching up to do! I look forward to more posts from you! PS--I didn't realize that a response has been posted--I didn't receive an e-mail notification from the forum, even though I'd subscribed to this thread. Is there a trick to get notified? (Sorry if that's off-topic--let's not create too much of a tangent!) Not a problem. Did you try the usual stuff like checking your spam folder? Did you get a notification for this reply here? |
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Post by gliptitude on Feb 26, 2013 18:01:00 GMT -5
Thank you very much, gliptitude. Yes, I meant the Penny Arcadia. I didn't realize it was the "HQ" of sorts for KLOV? Under what rock have I been living!?!?!? Yes, I just came across this board when I saw a post on rec.games.vectrex the other day. I've been missing out & have some catching up to do! Thanks, -Jason PS--I didn't realize that a response has been posted--I didn't receive an e-mail notification from the forum, even though I'd subscribed to this thread. Is there a trick to get notified? (Sorry if that's off-topic--let's not create too much of a tangent!) If you do manage to get an appointment and visit Penny Arcadia PLEASE UPDATE ME ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE. I am really excited to get in there someday. The man I had talked to there told me that ideally visitors should make their appointment A COUPLE MONTHS IN ADVANCE. |
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