30 replies to this topic

[Crazy Climber]

WOW! I never expected it to be so much fun. I thought for sure it would just be a bunch of Redemption/ticket crap and just depress me as I thought about what they once were but they actually had a nice set up of newer arcade machines. No, it was not the CEC that I grew up with and it was a little light on the pinball (only one sad/abused Roller coaster tycoon) but plenty of modern drivers/shooters and the best thing was every game was only one token!! For like $25 you get a large pizza, two drinks and 50 tokens or something like that, not bad but best of all...my daughter loves it! I know the arcades I grew up with are gone forever but sitting at Chuck e. Cheese last night, sipping on a soft drink and waiting in line to play 18 wheeler while listing to the audio of 50 or so arcade machines being enjoyed by a rather large crowd of people.....it really brought me back. I'll be stopping in there a few times a month for sure, very nice surprise Anyone else been there recently?

[Random Terrain]

Problem is that you must always have a kid with you or they'll think you're there to steal one.

[HatefulGravey]

Yeah, I don't know that I could be a reagular at the local Chuck-E-Cheese. I can go when the kids have a birthday party or something and have fun with them, but just going on a Tuesday? I don't think so. I agree, that it is better then one might think it would be. My problem is all the kids waiting to play a game and me in line to play too.

1) I stand out like a soar thumb.

2)People look at you like you must be remaking "Big"

3)I'm one more person for a kid to wait through, and I just think the adults should get of the way sometimes and let kids enjoy it while they are young.

It is fun though to let the youngest drive while I work the gas and all. Its like a safer, and much faster, version of tho old southern tradition of letting the kid sit in your lap and "drive" to the dump.

[Brian O]

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:54 AM, said:

Problem is that you must always have a kid with you or they'll think you're there to steal one.

Hahaha. Exactly.

[Buyatari]

I bought a huge bag of tokens from an arcade machine dealer and take my daughter there all the time. The food there is horrible so we do try to eat before we go. If you can get a deal on tokens I'd recomend it to anyone with kids.

[Atarian7]

<grumpy old man> In my town we didn't have Chuck e cheese. We had Showtime and that 's the
way we liked it! </grumpy old man>

[rmaerz]

Did they have the new Sea Wolf?

[Crazy Climber]

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:54 AM, said:

Problem is that you must always have a kid with you or they'll think you're there to steal one.

Yeah, there was one shooting game I was playing where I put 2 tokens in so I could use both guns at the same time. Some random kid starting saying how cool the game looked so I gave him the other gun and a few tokens so he could play too. Well, his Mom must not have liked that for whatever reason and made him stop playing and come with her. I definetily felt akward since my daughter was not around (downstairs in the toddler area with the Wife)

HatefulGravey, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:03 AM, said:

My problem is all the kids waiting to play a game and me in line to play too.

3)I'm one more person for a kid to wait through, and I just think the adults should get of the way sometimes and let kids enjoy it while they are young.

Hey man! Are you saying I should get out of the way!!

[Crazy Climber]

rmaerz, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:33 AM, said:

Did they have the new Sea Wolf?

Yes they did, I liked it. I played it about 10 times or so but I am not very good at it yet. I like that about it though, gives me a challenge for next time

[Krytol]

Crazy Climber, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:38 AM, said:

Yeah, there was one shooting game I was playing where I put 2 tokens in so I could use both guns at the same time.

That's kinda badass.

Why have I never thought of that?

[HatefulGravey]

Buyatari, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:27 AM, said:

I bought a huge bag of tokens from an arcade machine dealer and take my daughter there all the time. The food there is horrible so we do try to eat before we go. If you can get a deal on tokens I'd recomend it to anyone with kids.

Thats bad stuff man! I understand saving money and all that, but instead of supporting the place that has the machines you want to play you are supporting someone else that is basically taking money right out of the arcade owner's hands. Don't think I'm thinking any less of you, because this isn't THAT big of a deal, but people need to start thinking of the effects of these kinds of things. Sure, one person wont kill the arcade, but its never one person, and these things always pick up more and more people as they go. If you really like something, support it. Doing this is abusing it.

Again, just my 2 cents.

[Crazy Climber]

HatefulGravey, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:53 AM, said:

Buyatari, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:27 AM, said:

I bought a huge bag of tokens from an arcade machine dealer and take my daughter there all the time. The food there is horrible so we do try to eat before we go. If you can get a deal on tokens I'd recomend it to anyone with kids.

Thats bad stuff man! I understand saving money and all that, but instead of supporting the place that has the machines you want to play you are supporting someone else that is basically taking money right out of the arcade owner's hands. Don't think I'm thinking any less of you, because this isn't THAT big of a deal, but people need to start thinking of the effects of these kinds of things. Sure, one person wont kill the arcade, but its never one person, and these things always pick up more and more people as they go. If you really like something, support it. Doing this is abusing it.

Again, just my 2 cents.

The way Buyatari does it is not all that bad. Saves the owner of CEC from having to buy more coins so it's not a total loss for him. It reminds me of a time I did something similar...
My Dad does road construction/removal and I remember back in the 80's when I was a horribly addicted Arcade Rat (like most of us kids were) he would save any kind of coin or token he found while ripping roads apart in a huge jar and give them to me to use in the arcades (probably so I would stop begging him for quarters) Most of them were these things called "Trade Tokens" from the early 1900's. Well, a lot of them worked! I hit the jackpot, free video games! The joke was on me 20 years later when I found the jar and started popping the few leftover coins that didn't work in machines on Ebay....I have been averaging $10 to $20 a coin...I likely wasted a small fortune on the hundreds and hundreds of these I used in arcade machines.

[onmode-ky]

Eh? The CEC owner doesn't have to buy more coins (not very often, anyway). They just reuse their existing coins ad infinitum.

I drop by my local CEC every now and then to play their pinball machine (it's the only one I know of in my area) and H2Overdrive, the excellent spiritual sequel to Hydro Thunder, from the original developers. My most recent visit, I ran into a kid who had played on his profile (you can save a profile on the machine) so much that he had leveled up many of his boats quite a bit. I still only have one partially leveled up boat; I think I've played maybe 7 races total.

The first time I went in there was 2009, I think, to ask if they had H2Overdrive (then just released). That was my first time in a CEC since the 80s. The first time that I went in and actually played something was last year, when they finally got an H2Overdrive cabinet. No one has given me any weird looks so far . . . but then, I look pretty harmless and nondescript.

onmode-ky

[Random Terrain]

onmode-ky, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:47 PM, said:

The first time I went in there was 2009, I think, to ask if they had H2Overdrive (then just released). That was my first time in a CEC since the 80s. The first time that I went in and actually played something was last year, when they finally got an H2Overdrive cabinet. No one has given me any weird looks so far . . . but then, I look pretty harmless and nondescript.

onmode-ky

I don't know about onmode-ky, but if you go in there with regular ky, you will get some weird looks. Some concerned father might actually tackle you.

[jahfish]

Crazy Climber, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:57 AM, said:

The way Buyatari does it is not all that bad. Saves the owner of CEC from having to buy more coins so it's not a total loss for him. It reminds me of a time I did something similar...
My Dad does road construction/removal and I remember back in the 80's when I was a horribly addicted Arcade Rat (like most of us kids were) he would save any kind of coin or token he found while ripping roads apart in a huge jar and give them to me to use in the arcades (probably so I would stop begging him for quarters) Most of them were these things called "Trade Tokens" from the early 1900's. Well, a lot of them worked! I hit the jackpot, free video games! The joke was on me 20 years later when I found the jar and started popping the few leftover coins that didn't work in machines on Ebay....I have been averaging $10 to $20 a coin...I likely wasted a small fortune on the hundreds and hundreds of these I used in arcade machines.

hehe ... i remember the eighties finding out that french 20 centimes coins would work well in germany. while the 1 DeutschMark coin was worth about 40 cents, 20 centimes were like 2-3 cents ... and since i spend every summer in france, i would come back with my pockets full of these french coins ... it helped me leaving highscores on any phoenix machine i came across, and leter to fuel my addiction for the "pin-bot" pinball

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:00 PM, said:

I don't know about onmode-ky, but if you go in there with regular ky, you will get some weird looks. Some concerned father might actually tackle you.

one RT-post a day keeps the doctor away!!

[save2600]

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:54 AM, said:

Problem is that you must always have a kid with you or they'll think you're there to steal one.

Who the hell would want to clutter their lives up with one of those?

[atarian63]

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:00 PM, said:

onmode-ky, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:47 PM, said:

The first time I went in there was 2009, I think, to ask if they had H2Overdrive (then just released). That was my first time in a CEC since the 80s. The first time that I went in and actually played something was last year, when they finally got an H2Overdrive cabinet. No one has given me any weird looks so far . . . but then, I look pretty harmless and nondescript.

onmode-ky

I don't know about onmode-ky, but if you go in there with regular ky, you will get some weird looks. Some concerned father might actually tackle you.

Geez RT!! That was funny though, only you would think of that!

[Crazy Climber]

Krytol, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:52 AM, said:

Crazy Climber, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:38 AM, said:

Yeah, there was one shooting game I was playing where I put 2 tokens in so I could use both guns at the same time.

That's kinda badass.

Why have I never thought of that?

It is badass! You will feel like a total action hero!

onmode-ky, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:47 PM, said:

Eh? The CEC owner doesn't have to buy more coins (not very often, anyway). They just reuse their existing coins ad infinitum.

Well, what I mean is the tokens themselves do cost money and the owner does have to buy them and replace ones that are sitting in people sock drawers, lost, kept as keepsakes, etc.. Lets say Buyatari gets them for 10 cents each, that is likely the same cost the owner has to pay for them and he gets to keep them after buyatari puts them in a machine. So it's not a total loss for the owners, likely not encouraged but I am sure he breaks down and gets a side of wings and a pizza now and then or at least a coke even if he hates the food

[moycon]

Havent been in years, last time I went was like 5 year ago, and it was for someones kids Bday party.

Its a CEC about 10 miles from my house, but in spite of the fact I've lived in this area probably 15 years, that one time is the only time I can remember going, and while I did walk the floor and play a few games with the kid, I don't really recall the experience much. I might try to get over that way this weekend just for shits and grins, but yeah it's going to be kind of weird since we don't have any kids.

[Nikdog]

Random Terrain, on Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:54 AM, said:

Problem is that you must always have a kid with you or they'll think you're there to steal one.

Not at the one near me. They just think I am ripping off the machines.

[rmaerz]

I went last night and they had Sea Wolf...awesome game!

[HatefulGravey]

Crazy Climber, on Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:53 AM, said:

Well, what I mean is the tokens themselves do cost money and the owner does have to buy them and replace ones that are sitting in people sock drawers, lost, kept as keepsakes, etc.. Lets say Buyatari gets them for 10 cents each, that is likely the same cost the owner has to pay for them and he gets to keep them after buyatari puts them in a machine. So it's not a total loss for the owners, likely not encouraged but I am sure he breaks down and gets a side of wings and a pizza now and then or at least a coke even if he hates the food

The tokens cost .10 each, the customer pays .25 to have the token from the CEC they are at. If the customer gets the token from the CEC for .25 and takes it home the CEC still makes .15 on each one after the .10 needed to replace the token. How many tokens do you think actually make it back home? It can't be more then 10%.

Buying the food does support the CEC. Buying the food and paying the CEC you are playing in to play their games supports them even more. Do whatever you want to do, but when this last good hope for arcades is gone as well don't start thinking you had nothing to do with it.

For the love of God people, SUPPORT THE THINGS YOU LIKE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, or they will go away and you'll be wondering why. Its like buying your CDs from Walmart, and then wondering why you can't buy an unedited CD from FYE once Walmart has shut them down. There might be nothing you can do about it, but once we all give into that thought process the big box stores really will take over.

[save2600]

HatefulGravey, on Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:26 AM, said:

For the love of God people, SUPPORT THE THINGS YOU LIKE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, or they will go away and you'll be wondering why. Its like buying your CDs from Walmart, and then wondering why you can't buy an unedited CD from FYE once Walmart has shut them down. There might be nothing you can do about it, but once we all give into that thought process the big box stores really will take over.

Amen!

[rmaerz]

Some comments about Sea Wolf: The Next Mission

In order to hit the PT boat, you need to anticipate when it is coming. Fire torpedoes to the extreme left and extreme right. If you wait until the boat appears on the screen you will never hit it.

Two things I do not like about the game:

• It is way too short in duration
  
• The game ends when you hit the PT boat!

[Crazy Climber]

rmaerz, on Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:33 AM, said:

• It is way too short in duration

I can totally agree with this, they made it a little more of a quarter eating machine than I would have prefered. Still, way better than I expected it to be