Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Inside The Worst Videogame Arcade In The World? 58

Posted by simoniker from the ever dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "Arcades may be a dying breed, so it's a good thing the crusty hotels around the world haven't put the axe to their old game rooms. An article at X-Entertainment provides a lighthearted review of one of the worst hotel arcades out there, featuring broken video games and enough stains to make every joystick in the place off limits."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Inside The Worst Videogame Arcade In The World? More

Inside The Worst Videogame Arcade In The World?

Comments Filter:

  • Not the worst (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @07:24PM (#8786493)
    I seen worse, lots worse. Good places to look are small time airports in the back rooms near the gates. Dang.

    • I agree (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @07:34PM (#8786587)
      This is nothing. At least the game machines had the correct sidepanels and banner titles, and no one was currently having *sex* on them...

      Bad memories...

  • Didn't bother asking this question because the thread was already old, but what's that odd looking game that's standing beside the pinball machine in the wide shot?

    Rob

    • Re:Saw this on Fark (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 00420 ( 706558 )
      Good question. It appears to be working too even though the article says that only one game was working.
    • Didn't bother asking this question because the thread was already old, but what's that odd looking game that's standing beside the pinball machine in the wide shot?

      No idea, but judging from the bulge of the screen, I'd say it dates from the 70s.
    • It has a touchscreen, which guarantees it is one of those Multiple parlor game / card game type machines. You know, the ones that don't count as videogames but they put them in bars so that people without enough money to actually gamble can pretend to do so.

    • Touchmaster 5000 (Score:4, Informative)

      by hiroshi912681 ( 589840 ) on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @10:16PM (#8788054)
      I've seen a lot of these games... I do believe it is the "Touch Master 5000" (possibly the 3000?) from Midway. It has a variety of games built into it. One of the best games on it is Quiz Wiz. Well worth the 25c. And if you get the top score, you get a free game. You'll find card games like solitaire, word games, chess, checkers, and weird mini-games...

      I don't believe it's emulated... which is a shame, there aren't enough cool quiz games in English to play
      • Ahhh no. The worst game ever was an import Arcade in a pizza shop down my street a while back.

        - The game was in some dirty old wooden japanese case with japanese instructions on all buttons.

        - The plug outlet was converted from the japanese wall adapters so that it could fit in the wall.

        - The game consisted of this arkanoid like paddle except all you do is move the paddle left and right to get attacked by samurai stick figures.

        - Monocolor screen + the greasiest joystick I have ever seen.

        - It had an ame
      • I actually looked briefly into trying to emulate one of those systems - it is basically a standard X86-based PC, IIRC. So it is potentially really easy to emulate, though I am pretty sure stuff like MAME is actually very poorly equipped to do just that (though it is probably getting better). Might have some very tricky protection, however - other PC-based games (like Raiden Fighters series) certainly do, probably because the hardware is so easy to get.

        I never played the quiz game, but the various Playboy g
        • maybe a heavily modified bochs would work for the quiz game? =P

          I'm a bit shocked the Raiden Fighters series ran off a 386... I don't see how they did it... considering it's leaps and bounds above any shooter I've ever seen on PC from that era. (anyone remember Kaeon or that shmup from Apogee?)

        • MAME won't emulate these kind of games because there's no emulation necessary; it's already running on x86. So it ends up being just plain old piracy to run the quiz games on your home PC. Also, there's some encryption involved via a card on some. There was a discussion about this a while back on alt.games.mame, and the consensus was that it wouldn't be emulation at all.
  • I hadn't checked X-E in a while and I'd just been catching up on it. Guess that's not going to be lasting much longer.
  • I thought the world was a lot bigger than Atlantic City. Come on! That's nothing compared to arcades in China, or other devleoping countries.
    • Yeah, your right. Those Atlantic City pictures didn't show any dead children with quarters in their hands.

      • http://www.cdmag.com/articles/027/024/vgk.html
  • Snyder's Hot Buffalo Wing Potato Chips. Holy Christ. It's like they took a bunch of regular ridged chips, wiped 'em along the sides of long discarded Domino's Pizza buffalo wing boxes, sacked 'em up and shipped 'em into the stomachs of unsuspecting chicken and potato fans nationwide. Most people would have a hard enough time picturing a chicken-flavored potato chip that sounds remotely palatable, but even if you can, it's not this.

    I, too, have come across these, and at my old high school at that. However,

  • [off-topic] Speaking of worst games ever... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by empaler ( 130732 ) on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @07:51PM (#8786763) Journal
    When I saw the headline, I remembered the worst FPS I've ever tried; In Pursuit of Greed [softdisk.com] - the color scheme and 3D engine somehow worked together to create a nauseating experience. I actually had to stop playing the demo because I got physically ill from looking at it!

  • Ouch...the bandwidth costs... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gothic_Walrus ( 692125 ) on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @07:52PM (#8786770) Journal
    Off-topic, but indulge me...

    Now I feel very bad for Matt, the site's owner. The site is already popular enough...but now the link for this article has made its way to Fark (as much of his work does) and to Slashdot.

    Poor Matt...say goodbye to your house. You'll be living in a cardboard box from now on... :)

  • This ain't nothin' (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <mrpuffypants@gmailTIGER.com minus cat> on Tuesday April 06, 2004 @10:41PM (#8788257)
    My parents are both postal workers. One day I was vititing them and noticed that they had some arcade machines in the break room. One was a shooting game. The poor trigger had been worn down to a nub from all the people playing constantly, shooting villans and innocents on the game.

    nah. That's not totally true but it would have been hilarious if it was.
  • Ok, after reading this older article [slashdot.org] and FINALLY training my eyes to see those goofy 3d images that people used to look at endlessly in the malls (which are actually kinda cool, I must say) - I was trying to look at the image from this article [peel.com] (the one in this story) and I think I just blew both eye-gaskets. I thought I saw something form in the middle of the image, but it turned out to be a 1/3 block of "TV STATIC".

    Drat!!!
    • You're not crazy =)

      It's just a two frame GIF animation. The second frame is the same as the first, except it's flipped (mirrored vertically). I checked it out with the Gimp and ImageMagick.

      A pattern seems to appear in the center of the animated image -- the easiest thing to pick out is a circle just to the right of center.

      I can also see an albatross/transformer dude/helmet turned on its side. It's just an artifact of using a mirror image instead of generating another random static image, I think.
  • I went to my favorite arcade the other day, hoping to get in a good pinball game. They had a measly 3 (lame) machines hidden on the top floor.

    Can anyone recommend a good pinball arcade in the New Hampshire area?
    • I'm guessing you went to Funworld in Nashua. It's a bit of a drive, but Funspt up in Weirs Beach has a much better variety (or did, the last time I was up)
      • Yes, I went to Funworld. It used to be the best arcade. It was there before the arcade boom and survived the arcade bust. Sadly, it has morphed into a chuck-e-cheese clone. I imagine they had to do that to survive.

        "When I was a kid..." Funworld always had the latest games. They used to put the newest games up front and center when you walked in the door. I still remember when they got the first pinball machine that talked. It was "Gorgar" or something like that. That was bleeding edge technology b
    • Can anyone recommend a good pinball arcade in the New Hampshire area?

      Doesn't FunSpot have a decent pinball collection?
  • Used to be my hometown had an arcade. A real one. People lining up, putting their tokens on the screen to play the next round of Street Fighter. The works. There were several pinball machines, mini golf, and Lazer Tag upstairs.

    Those days are gone. There's a Staples there now.

    Some of the games from that arcade made it into a back room at our local ghetto mall along with an assortment of kiddie rides. The result is called "Ride-A-Rama" and it looks like all that equipment was set up there and promptly negle
  • I started university over here in the UK In '94, and my hall of residence's bar had various pinball tables over the five years I was there, including the World Cup '94 one, it was possibly the most fun I've ever had with a set of flippers and a little metal ball.

    The great thing about it was that it was designed in the States, the one nation on earth that doesn't get football. It showed.

    At no point in playing this table did any of the bonuses, options or 'rounds' bear any resemblance to real football term

Slashdot Top Deals

BLISS is ignorance.

Close