Arcades in California

[Stokers]

Yesterday my family and I returned from 3 weeks in California, i'm jet lagged to hell so why not post some of the arcades we visited on the way.

First up was Arcade Monsters in San Diego, a large venue in the historic Gaslamp quarter with 200+ machines. We paid $25 each on the door for 'all day, unlimited play' and even after a few hours we hadn't really scratched the surface. It would have been good to have more time (and energy) to try more games but I was often drawn back to the Air Hockey tables by my son

A few highlights:

- Tank Tank Tank, A 2 Player, sit down tank battle cab. The entire seat recoils with every shot and you can team up to fight huge bosses.
- Initial D v8. I spent ages on this, plenty of people around the cab challenging each other
- Playing randoms at SSF2X on the versus city
- Chunithm is a very fun rhythm game
- Chase Chase Jokers, the game instructions took so long I didn't play the game much - but a fantastic cab / control scheme.
- A new GunBullet / Point Blank cab

 

[Chihiro]

Nice selection old & new thanks for posting.

 

[Retroman839]

How great to see an arcade with the right games in it !
Nice one ..
Not like the plathora of uk old arcades around the cost full of redemotion ball bags.


I was amazed at the franetic clamóur for the tokens.

Also I got looks from people who wanted to stay playing certain games as they feel an investment is owned but they need to leave the game for a short period maybe out of pocket or need toilet …
And I loved that it reminded me of the risky edge to arcades of old ..
made me warm and chuckle inside ..

I noticed travelling bagatelles
Was popular kinda a re invention cross of pachislo and bagatelle .

My kid wanted to play shooting games but as it was just pure gambling I had to limit his play to just £100 🤣😁👍😜 not really £1
Which in old money wouls be 10p

Sound like you and yours had a great time ! Gettin to Chuck arcades on top of your vacation is a great bonus!

25$ all day free play …. Wow
That’s really good value.

 

[Stokers]

A week later we were in Santa Cruz. The second arcade we visited was the Fun Centre at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It’s a huge open space that combines food stands, ticket redemption machines, skee-ball, basketball, air hockey, laser tag, and video games. It reminded me of a typical seaside arcade in the UK, albeit still thriving — though of course the weather, and the addition of attractions like roller coasters, don’t hurt either.

Entry to the arcade was free; everything else operated on a swipe card that had to be topped up to use the machines. This worked quite well, as $1 = 2 credits, and most of the machines cost $1–$2 per play. Some of the flashier VR cabinets, like Godzilla Kaiju Wars, were a bit more expensive at $4–$6 per play . However, every morning from 9–11 a.m., all the games were half price.

Speaking of rollercoasters, the Boardwalk's biggest ride is the Giant Dipper. I don't mind rollercoasters as long as they are quite tame, anything more extreme than the Nemesis and I stop enjoying them quickly. Anyway the Giant Dipper is a wooden rollercoaster built in 1925 and it's gentle curves give the impression of a smooth and pleasing ride, after all it's 100 years old.. how bad can it be?

It's bad. Fighter pilots pull less G's than I did on this thing. The lap bars leave a good 6 inches of space so you find yourself leaving the seat at the slightest bump, all while wooden support beams pass inches above your head. However the main issue I forgot to pocket my sunglasses and left them on my shirt, after the first drop they simply ceased to exist.

Diagram below of their possible trajectory:



Anyway back to the arcade.. a few highlights:
-The very battered Initial D 5 cab. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this series - great fun and very popular
- It was cool to have lots of modern cabs like Halo Fireteam, Tomb Raider, Time Crisis 5, StarWars Battle Pod all in one place
- Nice selection of fighting games, although I was the only one playing them
- Lots of nice original US cabinets

 

[N10248]

YAY, Project Diva!

 

[ZeroSum]

Very Jealous 😇