/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.777598]

A while back I saw some people on /vr/ talk about bygone arcades, and someone mentioned Milford Amusement/Smiles Recreation Center, which was a favorite of my youth.

Even though the place shut down in 2011 I've noticed people going in and out of the building. The other day I went to scope it out and discovered that an arcade cab seller was using the place as storage.

I took some photographs of a place that was once a vibrant arcade and is now an arcade graveyard.

[Anonymous No.777607]

And I know there's an arcade thread, but that one is more about owning and maintaining them, this is more about the arcade as a place.

[Anonymous No.777609]

[Anonymous No.777614]

[Anonymous No.777619]

Oh my god, how heartbreaking...

[Anonymous No.777646]

>>777619
On the bright side, all the machines in these pics are for sale.

[Anonymous No.777651]

Anyone know what game this is?

[Anonymous No.777657]

[Anonymous No.777659]

>>777598
Is this an actual photo from the 90s (the cars would suggest that) or a recent one?

[Anonymous No.777660]

[Anonymous No.777665]

>>777659
I took that picture two days ago.
In the 90's this place was called Milford Amusement, and before that, Milford Rec Center.

[Anonymous No.777676]

>>777646
do they have the ocean hunter for sale?

[Anonymous No.777675]

I never saw a Battle Arena Toshinden 2 machine in the wild before this.
I always thought it was just a console game.

[Anonymous No.777684]

>>777676
I'm pretty sure everything you see in these pics are for sale.
Can't guarantee they're working though.
They have a showroom nearby with all the stuff that's tested and working.

[Anonymous No.777689]

Is this a one player game with ambidextrous controls, or a two player game with retarded controls?

[Anonymous No.777693]

They said they got Neo Geo machines for $200 - $500. Is that a good price?

[Anonymous No.777704]

>>777689
The former. I've played Vigilante when it was new, and the only cab I saw it in was identical to this.

>>777693
Yeah, as long as the work, and the monitors are good. You don't need a multi-slot unit if it's just going to be for your personal collection, but if you're going to be playing anything but pirate MVS carts, maybe more slots would be better.

[Anonymous No.777702]

[Anonymous No.777706]

You know how older ladies sometimes go "Oh, I wish I could take home ALL of them!" when they visit the pound?

I'm going full "I wish I could taje home ALL of them!" when I'm looking at all these pictures.

[Anonymous No.777713]

[Anonymous No.777716]

This is what a laser tag looks like when you turn on the lights, remove all the barriers, and fill it with skee ball machines.

[Anonymous No.777725]

[Anonymous No.777737]

[Anonymous No.777746]

>>777706

I feel the same way. But at least these games weren't just taken to the dump. Even if they get sold at least they still exist and that's important

[Anonymous No.777748]

i went there once. they had Resident Evil Survivor 2. it was great

[Anonymous No.777771]

rolling for 777777

carry on please

[Anonymous No.777814]

>>777771
ur a faget

[Anonymous No.777819]

This thread is making me sad.

[Anonymous No.777825]

This is it for pics I have.
Might post a few of the lesser ones later.
I plan on returning to this place with a better camera and take some footage.

[Anonymous No.777894]

>>777651
Isn't that one of the Aliens shooter games? Or MAYBE a Ghost Hunter shooter game...

[Anonymous No.777930]

Your picture will be remembered, OP.

[Anonymous No.777956]

Shit. At least you have photos. All my old arcades in my hometown died out over nearly two decades ago, so all that's left are my distant memories.

>RIP: Pocket Change, Aladdin's Castle, Wizard's Fun Factory

[Anonymous No.777963]

>you will never have another birthday party at the local arcade and mini-golf place

h-hold me /vr/

[Anonymous No.777982]

>All these powered down arcade cabinets

Wreck it Ralph is gonna be mad

[Anonymous No.777985]

>>777660
>Target: Terror

OH GOD

[Anonymous No.777983]

This is beyond sad.

[Anonymous No.778086]

And a single tear shed for the mighty who've fallen from grace. Good on you for this thread, OP... Even if you are from tumblr.
Bang.

[Anonymous No.778470]

>>777689
It's also the game they are playing in the "welcome to the footclan" scene in TMNT 1

[Anonymous No.778474]

>>778470
nvm i'm thinking of n.a.r.c. i think

[Anonymous No.778479]

wow, nice thread OP.

[Anonymous No.778557]

>>777737
I would love to have that rc cola vending machine.

[Anonymous No.778764]

>>777609
>All those lightgun games...

I'd give an arm and a leg to play through each of them.

[Anonymous No.778815]

>kids today don't know what lasertag is like
>they think CoD is better

[Anonymous No.778843]

>>777675
>TTT

Come with me baby. I will give you a good home...

[Anonymous No.778870]

>>777646
>the MVS is trying to escape

[Anonymous No.778964]

>>777693
i'm on the market for a neo geo.
is this in the nc/sc area?

[Anonymous No.778965]

Here's one more I forgot to post.
I wonder if this seller has any of those Dactyl Nightmare machines.

[Anonymous No.778971]

>>778964
No, this is southern Connecticut.

[Anonymous No.778973]

>>777598
>CT
holy shit small word brah, where you in? Hartford? I was thinking of opening a barcade in the next 3 years and I could buy a lot of their machines.

[Anonymous No.779005]

There's a blog that occasionally posts Japan arcades, but it's always bittersweet to see because it just makes me miss the arcades that were where I used to live, and makes me mad-jelly that arcades are still thriving somewhere else.

[Anonymous No.779007]

>>777598
Great thread OP. That was one of my favorite arcades too. I had no idea there were still so many games left inside. All the old arcades here in Waterbury were cleaned out years ago but I found some footage of The Crazy Eight Amusement Center from 1985-86: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75QoKCkKew

[Anonymous No.779097]

I went to japan early this year. They arcades are pretty nice. Most are just running the popular recent stuff though. You do have to go out of your way to find the retro stuff. Super potato in akihabara had a few nice things on the top floor (100 yen a play is fucking expensive though considering that other retro places are 50), and there was another arcade in akihabara that had older games in the basement level. Place was pretty deserted, which was weird since it had gundam extreme vs cabs and japs eat that shit up everywhere.

There was a really retro place in odaiba near sega joypolis too. That was mostly mechanical stuff though, with the vidya mostly being stuff from the 90s. It's sort of like Musée Mécanique in SF if you know what that is, but with 80s and 90s stuff.

[Anonymous No.779136]

>>777665
>Lot-o-fun
Oh god I remember that game from where I used to work. It came to us in two parts and the top half is heavy as fuck, took three people to lift it onto the base.

[Anonymous No.779148]

Cripes those pics are depressing.

[Anonymous No.779160]

>>779097

I went to Japan a few of years ago and I was really envious of the healthy arcade scene that they had. I went out to Yokosuka and took a picture of this arcade. I think it's famous?

[Anonymous No.779239]

>>779005
>kamen rider club flying right in the front

I would game there every day. You know everyone in there would be bros like Gentaro

[Anonymous No.779249]

>>779097

You went to too many mainstream arcades. Akiba has little of value in terms of retro game arcades.

[Anonymous No.779264]

So what was the death of the arcade joint in the US? I do know that there's this BRILLIANT law that forces you to pay taxes through your nose if you own an arcade machine. I'm also guessing that, unlike their Japanese brethren, all US arcade machines used proprietary parts as opposed to standardized architectures.

Also, out of curiosity, were arcade machines supposed to be on par with contemporary computers of the time? Essentially making them the "master race" of the late 80s/early 90s? Or were there PC games that were far more advanced than most arcade games?

[Anonymous No.779269]

I hate to see arcades closing. In PA where I used to live it was impossible to find a nice arcade but in AZ it seems like there are a few still around. They don't seem to be really thriving but at least they are still around.

[Anonymous No.779280]

>>777963
The Putt-Putt in my hometown got turned into a daycare.

[Anonymous No.779285]

>>777598

>Daytona
>cruising world
>Outruners
>cyber comando

My body is ready

[Anonymous No.779284]

man, that looks like a great place to do meth OP

[Anonymous No.779289]

>>779264

I think the most common reason is that console hardware finally started to catch up. It was hard to maintain the cost of running an arcade when everybody was playing Street Fighter Alpha 2 at home instead of at your place of business. Online gaming also became the norm for vidya social interaction, which hurt LAN parties too I would imagine. Now why exactly arcades in Japan are still in good shape and they have the same home consoles as us, I'm really not too sure. Most cabs in Japan are sit down and are more comfortable to hang out there for long periods of time. You can also smoke in most arcades there, too. The competitive scene for genres like fighting games seems like it was stronger during the 90's and half of 2000's than it was here in the US, which probably helped, too. Before SF4 came along, VF was actually pretty big in Japan, most people played it in the arcades and didn't really bother with the console releases.

[Anonymous No.779292]

>>779269
awww yea fellow azfag! question is though witch arcade ya prefer golf land or gameworks?

[Anonymous No.779296]

West coast at least still has Golf Land...For now...

[Anonymous No.779297]

>>779264

Most of the arcades machines uses JAMMA as a hardware convention. USA and JP machines are most of the times identical inside but the outside design catered different market necessities.

In the USA I think what killed arcade machines were consoles and low foot traffic.

[Anonymous No.779301]

>>779249
I did I guess. Oh well, I ended up spending most of my money playing stuff I could only play there anyway, like Gundam Kizuna (I'm a gundam fan). I probably spent near 100 bucks on that game in 2 weeks. The Sega joypolis rides are in a way pretty retro though. The hang glider thing is basically saturn graphics.

>>779289
> You can also smoke in most arcades there, too.
I actually have no idea how to feel about this. I vape, so I do understand why people smoke, but it's not a very pleasant when its in a very confined space. Shit even leaks down to the lower floors with all the animu UFO cathcer machines (fucking rip offs those things are. I didn't win something though).

[Anonymous No.779305]

>>779301
>I did win something
is what I meant to say

[Anonymous No.779315]

>>779264
Arcade machines always had better hardware than home consoles. Parts to stuff like the atari, nes, genesis, snes were never as good as the arcade.

[Anonymous No.779321]

>>779301

Fuck those prize machines. I spent 2000 yen on one where you try to pull the prize to the front of the machine, went to go make change, and when I got back the figure I had been working on was already moved to the back on the machine.

[Anonymous No.779332]

>>779315

Yeah but since late 90's the gap was not much, also they were pretty much dying until daytona and sf2 appeared.

It was sweet while it lasted, but it the dead of arcades was inevitable.

[Anonymous No.779339]

>>779005
The problem with most big Japanese arcades is they are now 70-80% UFO catchers. And the gaming arcades are all fighters (tekken or SF4), rhythm games or CCGs.
Those are the big money makers these days.

[Anonymous No.779351]

>>777651
Space Gun by Taito

Also what's with the tumblr filenames, are these really your pics?

[Anonymous No.779353]

>>779339
All arcades are pretty much fucking gundam actually. Some places has 16 fucking cabinets of extreme vs full boost, then another 4-8 cabinets of kizuna. That's half their god damn floor. Other popular shit is that dual wielding light gun game and horse racing games.

And those miku games, those fucking miku games.

[Anonymous No.779360]

>>779292
ive never been to gameworks but golf land is pretty awesome and so is "Flashback Games" in Tempe, Flash back has a few cabinets and they aare free so it works out.

[Anonymous No.779364]

>Namco arcade in my hometown mall's food court
>stays there from about 1990 to 2007
>huge awesome marquee with wicked hand-made paintings on the storefront
>highly nostalgia and one of my favorite places in the universe
>shuts down one day in 2007
>cool marquee covered with blank white wall

>fast-forward to a couple of months ago
>walking in the mall
>see the blank wall is gone and the old familiar arcade graphics are rockin' the wall out front
>I think arcade is back so I excitedly rush up to it
>..hmm, something is different..
>turns out it's occupied by a shitty butt-rock radio station with DJ booth that looks out in to the food court
>two untalented, unfunny faggots do their lame by-the-numbers "morning zoo" radio show there every weekday >they play Creed and Nickelback albums in between their terrible skits
>their booth is in the exact same area where the Tekken machines were

They didn't even change the paintings out front; they just lazily slapped a big ugly adhensive sticker with their logo right on the paintings where the arcade name was, which will likely peel the paint off when they try to remove the sticker.

It just keeps getting worse. I can deal with a favorite thing being dead, but it's the bastardization of its corpse that gets me. I'm sure by 2020 it'll be a MLP-only store or something equally horrible.

[Anonymous No.779369]

>>779292
also this might sound stupid but im trying to find more people that wouldn't mind gaming together, where about are you in AZ, I'm in mesa around university and linsay.

[Anonymous No.779386]

>>779364
that hurts to read I can't imagine the feeling you get every time you walk past it. Sorry anon.

[Anonymous No.779393]

>>779386

The mall itself is dying in a big way, so I go in there maybe 3 times a year tops.

[Anonymous No.779396]

I still have a local arcade. Well, it's more like a room with a few arcade cabinets rather than an actual arcade. It's more focused on fighting games on clone namco noir cabs with ps3 stuck in them.

The do have a dual virtual on cab and silent scope though. I would have preferred a better light gun game though, like time crisis 1. There's also IIDX, a few games other actual arcade cabs (3rd strike, tetris, some kawaii shmup, snk multicab, etc).

I've only been there once, and was disappointed since I didn't like their PS3 in clone cabs setup (I already have a decent stick at home and all the PS3 games I'd like to play). I guess some people like the atmosphere though, and I would as well if it was more "authentic".

[Anonymous No.779405]

>you will never again go on a Sega R-360

;_;

[Anonymous No.779417]

>>779364

That's sounds agonizing. I feel for you man.

My favorite mall got rid of its Tilt arcade sometime around 2009 or 2010, and a spray paint t-shirt shop was put in its place. At Chuck E Cheeses they had the Simpsons and TMNT cabinets next to each other. Another arcade, Celebration Station was closed in 2001 due to health code violations and instead of bringing it up to code they abandoned the building which is still there to this day right across from my community college.

There was Mortal Kombat 4 and the X-Men arcade game by Konami if I remember correctly. Here in Memphis, they don't like to demolish buildings that aren't being used. They like to let them sit and complain about them when squatters move in.

[Anonymous No.779479]

>>779396
Silent Scope is not a light gun game. There is a joystick where the gun is attached to the cab.

[Anonymous No.779762]

>>779405
Milford Amusement had one of those and they were so cool!

>>779289
Another reason Japanese arcades still persist is that there's a lot of foot-traffic around them. It's easy to just pop in on your way home from work and play a little Street Fighter.

>>779351
My next guess was gonna by Monster Buster by SNK.
The tumblr filenames are there because when I started this thread I was on a computer that didn't have my original files, so I used the ones I posted on tumblr because they were already compressed. You can ask me more here: http://spaceleech.tumblr.com/

[Anonymous No.779778]

>>777963
I spent all my birthdays alone.

[Anonymous No.780038]

If you want arcades to return, they have to be more powerful than consoles. Like be able to run Crysis at SUPER MAX UBER. This is what drove arcade machines back then. being more powerful than consoles
>B-but its way too expensive
Did you know that Daytona USA was developed by Sega AND LOCKHEED MARTIN, WHO FUCKING MAKES STEALTH FIGHTER JETS FOR THE GOVERNMENTS?

[Anonymous No.780067]

>>779417
>>779364

I think a lot of us have been there. My local mall used to have a small arcade, but it had some pretty good stuff in it over the years. I got exposed to DDR there when they got the Korean 3rd Mix machine in. Place closed down 8 or so years ago 'cause the owner got busted for dealing pot in the back. There have been a couple photo studios in its place since then, but right now it's an empty outlet. After that arcade closed, they had a small room with a few games in it at the food court like MvC2, but it was at one of the entrances to the mall so the afternoon sun would shine in and cause all kinds of glare on the screens, making it unplayable half of the day.

[Anonymous No.780076]

>>779301

Sega Joyopolis is an awesome place (it also has a Condomania nearby which is kinda funny) but that's in Odaiba and not Akihabara. I always loved Odaiba best when it comes to having fun in Tokyo since it has such a wide variety of cool things all in one place. If you decide to go to Tokyo again, please visit "Mikado". Go to the station called "Takadanobaba 高田馬場" and it's a small 2 floor arcade right behind it. It has the best selection of retro games, very competitive prices and some modern games too like GGXXAC+R and AE2012. One of my favourite things about it is that it still has a Virtua Cop machine.

There are plenty of other great arcades but that one is my favourite after all these years

[Anonymous No.780108]

>>780076
What's the arcade scene like in Osaka? You seem to be a Tokyoite, so you might not know. I want to take a job in the Kinki area, so I'm just curious.

[Anonymous No.780124]

>>779289

>Now why exactly arcades in Japan are still in good shape and they have the same home consoles as us, I'm really not too sure.

Different culture. In Japan most people don't spend that much time at home (most homes are comparatively tiny square-footage-wise), and spend more of their time out at 'social' meeting places (cafes, restaurants, arcades, etc). Home is a place mainly to sleep - everything else chances are you'd be doing it somewhere else.

[Anonymous No.780187]

I have not just one but two small arcades in my city and the nearest large city had a Gameworks that closed but it reopened as KDB with 90% of the machines

[Anonymous No.780375]

>>779364
...why is that cat in a diaper

[Anonymous No.780397]

...Christ, OP. Milford Rec used to be my arcade too. I passed by there a few times since it closed and I thought I still saw games in there but I didn't think it had been repurposed for storage.

...I got real sad looking at the photos. I had some fuckin good times in there and now it's gone. Shit am I actually getting misty-eyed over this?

>captcha: fingerplay alollo

[Anonymous No.780760]

The old Namco arcade in the mall next too me is some T-shirt shop or some shit now.

Luckily there's an amusement park with a rockin Arcade a few steps away from the mall.

[Anonymous No.780775]

>>780760
Amusement parks are the only places on the US now to experience full on retro arcades in all their glory because the arcade itself doesn't need to turn a profit not to mention that there's a ton of artificially created foot traffic all season.

Cedar Point rules

[THE GREAT LEON !!1lTeau7nbNO No.780785]

I went to that Smiles a few times. I'm always in Orange/Milford. One of the last times I can remember hanging out with my friend before he died. Then they killed the arcade just for good measure. Fate is cruel.

[Anonymous No.780795]

>>780775
It's saddening, I remember a place called Aladdin's Place in the old mall right by where I used to live. They tore the mall down a built a Wal-Mart

>GS is now where the arcade used to be

[Anonymous No.780808]

>>780795

Here's a vid of the the Arcade that I was talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-YExHWFZ2Y

[Anonymous No.780816]

>>780808

>I remember when all those retro cabs we're on the first floor in the pinball pit.

Luckily they've kept all the machines over the years. I hope C&C doesn't go under, they are the only place in AZ with a half decent Arcade.

[Anonymous No.780824]

They recently opened up an arcade near where I live. Wonder how long it's gonna last. They only have about 15 machines and mostly all fighting games. They do have a deal on Fridays though: $10 for unlimited play 12pm-12am or something like that. Might have to check it out.

[Anonymous No.781103]

>>780824

Might be better to just pay per game depending on how long you are going to be at the place.

[Anonymous No.782308]

>>780775

My town has a boardwalk with a decent arcade in it. They've got a good selection of retro games, but they don't do a very good job maintaining their cabs. Some games have had broken sticks/buttons for over a month, but it's a tourist place so most people aren't going to complain.

[Anonymous No.782328]

>>782308

Depends. Back in the day (04/4-07) They were better about it. I always thought the ocean air might play hell with the electronics, but they seem to be doing all right. The place could definitely use some TLC, though. I imagine its more from having a shortage of people who actually know how to fix older cabs anymore.

Also, lol SantaCruzfag

[Anonymous No.782428]

>>779364

My mall arcade turned into Urban Outfitters.

[Anonymous No.782460]

>>782328

I was actually surprised when I went in there once and they upgraded to Technika 3. I used to go there every weekend to play CvS2 and Tekken 5, but a lot of my friends who I did that with moved on and I don't visit the place as much.

[Anonymous No.782838]

>>777598
If you ever happen to be in Houston during the beginning or end of the month, do yourself a favor and go to Joystix Games located right next to Minute Maid Park. From 9pm to 2am on the first and last Friday each month, they have an all-you-can play Pac-Man Fever Friday, which is just 15 bucks. It's a killer deal. The bar has great service and the last time I went there almost every cabinet was in great condition. They even have some of the more unorthodox titles including Chiller.

[Pirate Benson !!2G3pb9QipZ2 No.782863]

>>777725
They have a Scud Race machine? All of my money.

>>779160
Pretty sure they based the arcade in Shenmue off of this.

>>779364
This happens so much where I live. My community gets more and more bowdlerized by the second. Everyone's about shitty golf and bowling centers too, fucking Main Event. At least I can play OutRun 2 local.

[Anonymous No.782886]

>>777598
You're bringing me to tears, OP. I was the one that started that thread a while back. I miss the Milford Rec Center desperately. I don't even live that close, I'm all the way in Wallingford.

>>778973
My three year plan was to start a barcade in New Haven county. I'll be in South Korea for the next two years, but I would absolutely like to try to open a barcade. I think it could work, given how starved CT is for arcades.

[Anonymous No.782887]

>>779148
Tell me about it, man, I've lived in CT my whole life, and it's a ghost town now. I have to drive all the way up the Berlin turnpike to find goddamn pinball.

[Anonymous No.782898]

>>779007
>crazy eight

Holy shit dude, I remember Crazy Eight from my childhood. Man, I'm having trouble coping with this video. Fuck.

[Anonymous No.782920]

>>782838
Don't tempt me anon, I'm in Sugar Land from 5 to 10 for class every Friday, I might consider cutting out early... the old arcade in Victoria closed down, and I've been wanting to play a bit since.

[Anonymous No.782923]

>Indianapolis
>the only arcade in the whole city, Gameworks, has gone out of business
I still have my card.
One day.