Mr. Chuck E. Cheese

History lesson for all.... I never got to go to Chuck E. Cheese as a kid. The folks thought it was crappy and always shot down my suggestion to go to the nice family eatery. Years go by and I would sometimes see a Chuck E. Cheese at the side of the highway or something, but never at the right time or anywhere close to where I lived. It was really upsetting.

So imagine my surprise when I saw a Chuck E. Cheese close to me... at long last a sore point from my childhood would be addressed, I was even hungry for pizza!! Amazing... the stars were aligning, this was really going to happen.

To get there was a long walk, but I was brave... I was also getting more and more hungry.... and the weather was starting to look bad, the wind was picking up and things were starting to look sketchy. Because of where the place was I decided not to change and drop off my computer bag, this was a bit of a bummer cause I REALLY wanted to go there wearing my Atari logo t-shirt... You see Nolan Bushnell, who started Atari, sold all his shares at some point and opened Chuck E. Cheese, I thought it would be a fitting tribute.

The good news is that I got there! I have to say I was a little surprised at the set up. I thought this was a restaurant that had games, it's actually an arcade and kids play land that has pizza... AND if you go there on your own as a man over the age of 12, you feel kind of weird.

So, I got over being totally out of place and looked around, not a bad selection of games actually, I was surprised in particular at these ones:
Metal Slug 6!! The Sega Firefighter game!! So cool.....











At this point I decided I needed some tokens... and I was still starving so I ordered some pizza too. As soon as I got my tokens......

...this happens. Black out, HUGE rain and lightening storm started up, little kids were screaming and it was dark in there. I later found out that there were many reports of multiple tornados, 1 person died, power lines were pulled from the ground and roofs were ripped off houses!! I just wanted my pizza...

Fortunately the worst of the storm was not right above Chuck E. Cheese but man... there was a lot of lightening and the rain came down in buckets. Once the power came back on all was good (other than 20 minutes of the fire alarm going off right after a huge and close lightening strike)

So, I ate my pizza, which was like a cross between Pizza Pizza and Pizza Hut, and played some games.... all in all a good time. Not sure if I'll be eager to go back soon, but it was a crazy experience.

Below are some more pics, the oddest of them was the Namco "Flamin' Finger" game. I was very confused by the choice to add a game with this name to a kids arcade.... =)

what's this? another post so soon after the last one?? Yes. It's true.

So... control panels... these have been such a money pit, new sticks new buttons new overlays new harnesses blah blah $ $ $. This time I got a good deal, actually a very good deal.

What you see in the pic is a Sega made 2L16B CP (2 player, 8 buttons each) for the New Astro City and I think it's quite rare. When these cabs were new the Sega Saturn was around and Sega didn't miss an opportunity to exploit the popularity of the cabs. They created a 2 player joystick that included this panel and had a New Astro City style dedicated fibre glass casing. These things were EXPENSIVE and they are still very collectible.

But despite this someone broke theirs apart!! Out of that I got the CP and the Saturn connectors/wires. These were pretty easy to take apart and then I just put the CP into the cabinet. This CP will allow me to keep the cab it's for looking like the others but also provide an extra level of flexibility. SWEET!

Another new thing in my world of arcade enjoyment is NOS side art. NOS stands for New, Old Stock. SO this stuff is factory original just never used. The side art is the big sticker that they would attach to the side of the arcade machines back in the day. I think I may start to collect some of this cause it's really nerd-beautiful! The one I got is not the best one ever, but it's really fun and it's for a VERY fun game. I'll post pics if I come across any more of this....

Playdium!!

I rarely go to a real arcade, but if I do I really need to take some pics and take some notes. This time I did both... sort of.

First some observations. For a business owned, at least partially, by Sega..why are there no Sega branded toys shirts or anything for sale?? These guys have tons of characters and loads of products around the world, yet none in the arcade. Total RIP OFF. I almost cried, almost.


I wandered the floor of the place and found very little of real interest. I saw a Namco/Pac Man coin game, which was cool and a Sonic and Tails spinner thing which was sweet!! Sadly it was hidden behind a pole. ???












I have to admit I entered with high expectations....so I should not be surprised that they were not met. There were no really sweet cabs there, the closest would be the Tekken 6 cab, which was decent, the pic id not turn out well though, sorry about that.

Street Fighter IV should have been the highlight and centre point of the arcade, but it was in some weird new version of a Showcase cab but with LCD's... the LCD's were a decent size but ended up looking tiny and weak.... as well as weird. The control panel area may have been some strange factory original I really couldn't tell. At least there was some nice art on it, but too many people around for me to get a pic with the flash.













What the place did have was a lot of gun games and a lot of racers, some very new and potentially very cool. The gun ones all had big fat machine guns on them mostly attached as though they were a turret or were mounted on a jeep....neat and all, but I was not in the mood I guess. Maybe next time!!

ahh video games... I do enjoy them ever so much!

Check this out! After far too many issues and having to order each part from a different country I finally sorted out a nice, clean Net City CP. This one is on the Naomi cab (obviously) and replaces the VOOT CP when I don't have that game in the machine. I think this means I need another machine actually...... =)

Any way, so this is obviously a standard CP for normal games. Been playing Virtua Fighter 4: Final Tuned as well as Capcom vs SNK 2. Both are really cool and I look forward to getting better at them. VF4 is a really deep game and that will take forever to learn, so far I am an effective button masher, but I would really earn no respect at all in Japan or if there were REAL arcades around here still.

In other video game news I am SLOWLY going through MGS4, great game!! I also picked up Battlefield 1943 for some quick pick up and play run and gun action.... very cool stuff!