07/01/2004 Entry: "X-E visits the Casino Arcade!"

Whew, finally done. Here's another trip report, this time taking us to the almighty summer retreat, the Casino Arcade. It's a two-pager covering everything from crane machines to Skee-Ball, plus a look at the shitty prizes 100 bucks bought us. Got a lot going on on this side that I'll tell you about over the weekend, but in case anyone's off for the holiday, have a good one! They'll probably be another article of some sort before the 4th, but give me a break -- this most recent one is 80,000 paragraphs long, and most of the paragraphs contain more than a sentence.

Chestnuts roasted by kodekitten @ 07/01/2004 11:33 AM EST

The one and only time I went to Chuck E. Cheese's I earned enough points for a spider ring and that's what I got. Not that I was uncoordinated. I was small and scared to get too close to the animatronic, larger-than-life rodents.

Chestnuts roasted by CasinoRoyale @ 07/01/2004 11:54 AM EST

These articles are the best ever. I've always referred to these places as "The Ghetto Chuck E. Cheese" when in reality, 90 percent of Chuck E Cheese places are pretty ghetto themselves.

Chestnuts roasted by Casey Jones @ 07/01/2004 11:55 AM EST

The dorky little one at Crossroads Mall in OKC pales in comparison to this. Last time I went to a Chuck E. Cheese's, I was sorely dissappointed. The redemption prizes weren't all that great. On top of that, recent ads have proclaimed him to be a mouse, not a rat like at first, many years ago. We should all send Matt some money and see if we can fund a marathon casino arcade weekend.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 07/01/2004 12:00 PM EST

A reference to the TRAILER for Bird on a Wire!?! This has to be the greatest article EVER.

Chestnuts roasted by Sweetie @ 07/01/2004 12:08 PM EST

Those octopus yo-yos could definitely be something called a worm ball. My little cousin has one and it feels absolutely disgusting.

Chestnuts roasted by Emmaaaaa @ 07/01/2004 12:13 PM EST

Matt- I'm pretty sure the alien ladybug game you mentioned was Area 51. Classic shooter, that one.

Last big arcade I went to was at an awesome restaurant called Downstairs at Eric's in the Denver area, during spring break. It had this great big-screen Alien vs. Predator beat-em-up all the way back from 1994 from Capcom. I can't believe I'd never heard of it.

And has anyone else been looking for signs of an F-Zero AX arcade machine? It seems to be among the most elusive on Earth.

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 07/01/2004 12:18 PM EST

Those fried Oreos are INSANE. INSANEly delicious.
That AvP game was one of my favorites, and "Behonkiss" There is an F-Zero AX arcade machine at the flea market at the Mansfield Drive-In theater in Mansfield CT.
At leas there was 3 weeks ago when I played it after unsuccessfully trying to buy a garden hose from a fat lady for $3.

Chestnuts roasted by BaronVonHotPants @ 07/01/2004 12:24 PM EST

OK. This article brings to mind something I have been searching for for years and years now. I hope someone can help me...

Where I live, in Salem, MA is a place called "Salem Willows." It's like a really small version of Point Pleasant. It's got a regular arcade, a casino arcade, a Carosel, a few fried food and saltwater taffy places etc...

Anyway when I was a kid, my grandmother used to take me here all the time and I'd play the shit out of skee-ball. I too liked the cheapy prizes, and my favorite one was as follows:

It was a small brightly colored plastic item that I called a "lucky number generator". Basically, it was the size of a domino, but thicker. On it were two small number wheels. One pressed a small button on the top of the unit, and the little number wheels whirred around and when they stopped, whatever number was pointing to the arrow was your lucky number for that day.

I *loved* those goddamn things!! And they do NOT have them at the Willows anymore, and I have looked in vain online for them, but I don't know their real and true name so I don't know if they still make them and SOB!

Does ANYONE else EVER remember something remotely similar to this at their local places of prize winnery?

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 07/01/2004 12:38 PM EST

F'n awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 07/01/2004 01:03 PM EST

Yeah, I had one of those lucky number generator things too, but I got mine out of a cereal box! I cant even remember what brand. I'm sure marshmallows came into play.

Chestnuts roasted by Adam @ 07/01/2004 01:21 PM EST

Woo NJ!

One of the few times I get to see someone else losing tons of money on crap for once!

Those octopus balls appear to just be another version of those stupid water yo-yos.

If you'll excuse me, now I have to mosey on over to Point Pleasant and get me a Gizmo...

Chestnuts roasted by Ian, Just Ian @ 07/01/2004 02:00 PM EST

Wow, Matt, those prices for the prizes are very high.

Here in Lubbock, we have two places that had these types of games that I used to frequent as a kid: Putt-Putt Golf and Games and a local place called 50th Street Caboose.

50th Street was THE place to be, mainly becauase of there "reward for grades" promotion. You could get something like five game-playing tokens for every "A." Definately a nice reward when you are a 10 year old kid with no money to spend in the first place.

But I don't remember the prizes costing THAT many points. Those plastic cup thingy's that were 3k in your establishment probably would have been about 500-750 here, 1k at the most.

As I got older, the prizes became less desirable (especially since most of them were the same old crap), and I got to the point were I would just give my tickets away sometimes if there wasn't a prize I wanted. Mostly, though, I saved them. Heck, I think I still have a few unredeemed points.

I haven't been back to the place in a few years, so I don't know if it has changed much....

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 07/01/2004 02:03 PM EST

This brings back memories. I remember going to a casino arcade on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. That was fun stuff. Thank you for such an awesome article. Makes me want to go back.

Chestnuts roasted by The Chairman @ 07/01/2004 02:16 PM EST

Hnn...Minnesota has jack in the way of good arcades. I miss the east coast, man! All we have is an Addams Family pinball game, Virtua Cop, and DDR at a movie theater.

Sniffle. Too poor to go all the way to Mall of America for a good arcade...

Speaking of, they sell those bootleg Hulk bubbles at a dollar store in the MoA. A dollar, of course. Along with Gundam bootlegs, and transvestite navy seals...

Chestnuts roasted by The REAL Mother of Kane's child! @ 07/01/2004 02:25 PM EST

Damn Matt, great article! Being from up and down the Jersey coast my whole life, you've summed up this arcade very well! I was actually there last week peddling away on the Skee-Ball and Big Crane - which I did manage to win a huge Shrek & Donkey for my nephew! Spider rings for 5 points - I'll tell you what, I used to manage Party Stores and we sold spider rings for 5 cents each or $1.99 a gross! (Matt if you need spider rings, I'm the man to talk to) Anyhow, Jersey Shore arcades rule - almost as much as azz-MaTazz did when I was little. Razz-MaTazz, for those that never heard of it, was an imitation Chuck E. Cheese near where I used to live.

~ I read somewhere, someone wrote, 'that New Jersey has so much attitude that it's residents don't even refer to the state as a whole name - when asked where we're from, we just say "Jersey" (or Joisey for some). New Yorkers don't even have the gall to call their state York now do they?!'

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 07/01/2004 02:26 PM EST

Mugzy -- you talking about the Razzma by the Amboy cineplex? I had an old birthday party there.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 02:28 PM EST

Yeah, your "ladybug" game was Area 51. From the mid-90's, it's one of the last arcade games to become a "classic" before the arcade market died for good.

You weren't serious about that arcade giving out booklets on how to rape dolphins, were you?

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 07/01/2004 02:28 PM EST

And today's my birthday! Woo!

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 07/01/2004 02:29 PM EST

New x-e article + eating a jello pudding pop = a little slice of heaven

Chestnuts roasted by lain @ 07/01/2004 02:35 PM EST

Happy Birthday Mars!

Anywho I feel so sad... I haven't EVER been to an arcade... I am so deprived.

Chestnuts roasted by Lena K14 @ 07/01/2004 02:37 PM EST

Matt, how dare you knock the Simpsons game! For a while, that game and the X-Men multiplayer platform were the only games I played!!! The near-animation quality graphics were orgasmic! And the in-game episode references were a treat. I fooled myself into thinking Nintendo would release a version of this game much like they did with the TMNT arcade game... but that never happened.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 07/01/2004 02:44 PM EST

What?! I didn't knock it! I praised it!

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 02:45 PM EST

Those beat em up games are the best things ever. They are better than some of the games that are on the market for the home consoles, I wish they would release remakes of X-men, the simpsons, and the ninja turtle beat em ups, they would eat so many quarters.

Chestnuts roasted by Spider-Carnage @ 07/01/2004 02:49 PM EST

That sure looked like fun!

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragonrider @ 07/01/2004 03:36 PM EST

Sorry, Matt, sorry... I inferred from your statement that you thought the game sucked but we still played it simply because the Simpsons were the rage; whereas, you MEANT to imply that the game, even though it was GREAT, would STILL have made bank, if it was lousy, because it involved the Simpsons.

Sorry for the accusation! I will try to read closer before I jump the gun like that.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 07/01/2004 03:41 PM EST

You'll pay for it in blood, Nachokhaki.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 03:43 PM EST

I think it was called "Play This While Someone Else Is Playing What You Really Wanted To Play,"

...I nearly shot hot cofee out ma' nose...ouch! Reading XE is getting dangerous. The casino arcade thingy here has booze...all the better to entice you into wasting/spending more monies. On the other hand there's TONS of lil' snot crusted/parents are in the bar and we don't give a damn/living speed bumps to trip over while snoozled on said booze.

Chestnuts roasted by Blah...blah @ 07/01/2004 03:46 PM EST

Matt,

I notice you have a fighter glider? MY ABSOULTE ALL TIME FAVORITE!!!!

I use to collect those things like they were going out of style (maybe they did go out of style?) Anyway.. They were cool to collect as they were of the WWII Variety.. I was always a fan of that War.. and the plans were cool to set on fire with a match when ya got bored with em and pretend it was a burning plane shot down..

And fun to crash as I'd pretend my G.I. Joe aircrafts shot them down.
I still get weak in the knees when I find them at Dollar Stores and the like..

BTW.. My favorite things to get at the cheapy counter were these cool plastic space ships and plastic robots.. They were the most fun I got from there

Chestnuts roasted by Mike A. @ 07/01/2004 03:49 PM EST

Holy crap, so that was what that place was called? Razzma!?

I went to a birthday party there about a year or two before it closed down, but I had always forgotten the name.

I wonder if anyone is ever going to touch that building. It just sits there, lifeless. There's not even a cry of happiness from any snot-nosed brats. It's depressing.

Chestnuts roasted by Ian, Just Ian @ 07/01/2004 03:55 PM EST

What? No "Watch the tramcar, please," this year?

Wario, woo! Ooh, and Giz! It may have been an embarassing reason to crawl into the picture booth, but at least you now have photographic evidence of your love for all things Mogwai.

Ew, Quarter herpes. At least you can use Valtrex and only have three days of meds for every outbreak.

Steven Tyler has foot boob. Gross.

No final picture of the crane game prizes? I was hoping to see your new Wario and Gizzy in in-your-face closeness. Maybe they'll play background instruments in your next article.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 07/01/2004 04:20 PM EST

Matt, I weep in joy and sadness. Joy that such a place a exists and sadness that I live nowhere near it.

The REAL Mother of Kane's child! - you are absolutly correct that Minnesota has no good arcades, even the MoA is subpar 3 tokens for a buck? No way. Not to mention that its the biggest frickin mall in the country and the DDR machine is 4 years (or more) behind everywhere else. The closest you're going to get to a good casino arcade is at the State Fair.

Speaking of casino arcade games, has anyone evey played Lighthouse. I swear I one put $20 bucks in one of those suckers without blinking. I got teased with the Gameboy Advance just hanging there waiting for me to get the top level.

Chestnuts roasted by Emperor_Zorak @ 07/01/2004 04:20 PM EST

Somebody mentioned bloodshed and that didn't invoke Killer Duck? I may have to reconsider my Tall Chick fetish.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 07/01/2004 04:23 PM EST

Ahh spider rings. They were with me whenever I got in danger.

When I climbed scaffolding on the side of the house and my mother yelled at me, I fell about 15 feet. Painful. But my spider ring was there on my finger to keep me company.

Falling out of the second story of a barn. I landed on my ass however, and only suffered a mild ass numbing, but my spider ring was there too.

And when I fell through our small wooden slide, cracking my lip...yes my spider ring was there too.

A small anecdote: Did anyone else have a small wooden slide when they were a kid? It was basically a box with a slide attached to it. There was a hole under the standing platform that you could hide under. But the dangerous part was, the top of the box(where you stood), could be lifted out. And that led to much pain when it liked to fall as you were on it.

Chestnuts roasted by Cobra Soldier #18 @ 07/01/2004 04:26 PM EST

Matt,
What do you mean there were no good prizes in that gargantuan Claw game?? There were Muppet dolls galore!!! I would've driven myself crazy just to own a Beaker doll!! But to each their own. At least you went home with a Mogwai.
Melissa Y.
(resident Tim Curry fan)

Chestnuts roasted by Melissa Y. @ 07/01/2004 04:37 PM EST

Oh, Matt, you are a GOD...Point Pleasant is my favorite shore destination; I spent many a summer's day down there with my Mom and my grandparents, wasting money in the very same arcade reviewed here. And we used to always eat hot dogs at Jenkinson's on the deck; this was before the fire in '89, back when there was no nightclub and anyone could eat out on the deck at any time of day. Those were the days. :-)

And the fried Oreos! Hot damn - kodekitten, you can get them at the snack stand next to the Kohr Bros. closest to the police station.

...ahh, yes friends, the wonder that is living in Jersey...

Chestnuts roasted by What exit? @ 07/01/2004 04:42 PM EST

I love the field trip articles. Fantastic job as ever, and I hope we do get to see an article on Care Bears II soon. I've actually spent time and brainpower trying to figure out the continuity between Care Bears I and Care Bears II.

Chestnuts roasted by Beth @ 07/01/2004 04:43 PM EST

Melissa -- the dolls were out of reach. It was big balls or nadafinga.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 04:49 PM EST

Man I love those crane games. I just won a large scobby doo(17 inch tall) and a large bugs bunny 17 inchs tall not including ears) at the store today. Both on the first try. I got the scobby doo one from a over fill crane game. I was able to drag the toy over to the the drop zone.

Chestnuts roasted by JoseRZ @ 07/01/2004 05:04 PM EST

What do you know, I have that exact same rubber lizard sitting on top of my computer at work. Except mine doesn't have a clip on thingy. Does the lizard's belly say "XX FLAT-TAILED HORNED LIZARD" and then "CHINA" underneath that?

Chestnuts roasted by a piece of milk @ 07/01/2004 05:07 PM EST

Aw man, Razzmatazz! I ALWAYS went into a level 10 whine whenever I was going to Woodbridge Mall when I was a kid, never got to go (grrr)...speaking of old kiddie agttractions, anybody remember that place in Long Branch that burned down back in the 80's? THAT place was incredible.

Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 07/01/2004 05:23 PM EST

Was that Kids World? With the seal mascot?

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 05:24 PM EST

Damn Matt, you are fast...I think that may have been it, I used to have a cheap cup with the logo on it, but I think the logo was some big clown face or something like that. All I can really remeber about it was they had killer net climbs, like at Sesame Place, and my parents would drop us there with my grandparents while they played the ponies at Monmouth Park...fun days indeed.

Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 07/01/2004 05:28 PM EST

Chuck E. Cheese is alright, but I prefer to remeber back in the day when it was called Show Biz Pizza. That and Fame City, currently known as Funplex, are the two greatest places there were around my area. Fame City was much like the casino arcades but it also had other sections of fun filled frolic enclosed within its magical walls.

Chestnuts roasted by LoneWolf @ 07/01/2004 05:44 PM EST

Great article.That stuffed Stripe was pretty cool.I have a stuffed Stripe that was made around the time of the original film's release in storage somewhere.

Chestnuts roasted by Robot717 @ 07/01/2004 05:55 PM EST

I dropped some change into the local Shakey's coffers lately playing Simpsons and the only Metal Slug game in town. The Shakey's is literally the only remaining business in a strip/mini mall complex that was the happenin' spot for us kids way back when. I don't know how they've managed to stay open; in fact, I don't know how the francise as a whole is doing, does anybody have a local one that still does good business? Remember the "I play right field" song? That was Shakey's, wasn't it?
We recently got a place called "Pizzatopia" that has my very fav shooter, Point Blank, but it's in Japanese and has a different name. (Gunbalina?) Luckily their pizza blows, so hopefully the handful of elderly patrons keeping Shakey's open will stay loyal.
You gotta know how to catch. You gotta know how to throw.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 07/01/2004 05:58 PM EST

In the SkeeBall picture, what is coming out of the girl in the black shirt's chest?

Chestnuts roasted by casinoskunk @ 07/01/2004 06:01 PM EST

Yaarrr, I wish I could head to New Jersey to check that place out.. Here in Nebraskeeeer, we have a casino arcade/plain ol' normal arcade/mini golf/and all sorts of other crap place called Family Fun Center! (Oh my!) My dad used to like, take me there all the time. at first, I loved all of the prize games, and, I was tHE FUCKIGN SKEEBALL MASTER! I was able to get into a groove where I could keep hittin those 100's, and, everyone around me would jsut stare in awe... And, I'd rack up the tickets.

They had some pretty swank prizes too, and, they didn't cost that much either, for about, 4k tickets, I was able to nab me a giant stuffed Yoshi, which, I so loved, until my brother ripped it open and tore it's guts out with a boy scout knife, GOD WHY!!!?!?

Now, I really love the more arcadey section of it, and, the arcadey section... god, it kicks ass beyond ass. There's a platform in the middle of two floors that has the gun games and such, and, ont eh vry bottom level, it's mostly the racing games with the wheels, and the snowboarding/water jet/blah blah crap stuff, but, hidden int he corner... They had Dr. Mario.. My god, I wasted so many tokens on that sucker getting a high score.

They also now have DDR machines, but, I don't play those, because I'm like.. not good.

But, the top floor was HEAVEN. Not many peo-ple played up there, they preferred the shiny trendy games on the bottom floor, but, the top floor was literally an arcade heaven. They had a room full of classic game,s they had Donkey kong, Galaga, Space Invaders, Centipede, Frogger, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, like, two of each, my god, that was classic gaming paradise. Even better, down on one end of the floor, they had soem pretty kick-ass fighting games, but, my favorite place once again, was the obscure corners, where they ahd the likes of Super Puzzle Fighter II, and Dragon's Lair... I could spend a day there jsut playing, and, I hated leaving

But, back to the casino arcade thing, they had these machines, where a light spun around, and, if you hit a button when the light is in front of it, it'd give you an assload of tickets, but, the light always just happens to stop one little space ahead.. raaaawr. And, they also have the machines where you shoot balls at a clowns teeth, and knock them out, I was afraid of clowns, so, I stayed away from there.. And.. yeah..

*cries about his giant Stuffed Yoshi*

Chestnuts roasted by Teh Bret @ 07/01/2004 06:10 PM EST

I think it's the caterpillar from Labyrinth.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 07/01/2004 06:13 PM EST

Yeah Matt! That's the exact Raz that I'm talking about! I used to live in South Amboy and go to the place before and after goin to that sticky-floored theatre. Oh the memories!

~You know, I rather like this God fellow. Very theatrical, you know. Pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence ... gotta get me some of that.

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 07/01/2004 06:49 PM EST

Sticky floor theater -- HA, it lives on in infamy to this day. Haven't been there in over a decade at least, but we still refer to it as the sticky floor theater.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/01/2004 06:50 PM EST

Ah, the hometown. The memories...

Actually, Frank's used to be 20 times cooler. They closed it down one winter (summer, too, if I remember correctly) and reopened it in its new (in my opinion, crappy) incarnation. The old version had the Skee-Ball machines in the older, wooden ramp version. And if my memory serves me correctly, they were still 10 cents (mind you, this was in the 1990s). Also, besides all the awesome pinball machines, they boasted the holy grail of games: Pac-Man, Jr. w/pinball machine attached.

Also, the PPB boardwalk usually gets hit by fires ocasionally (the last big one being in 1989, which destroyed the arcade in the first picture at the top right). If you wouldn't mind, Matt, I can scan some awesome pics of this huge fire in the late 70s and e-mail them to you (that is, if you're interested).

Since I'm heading up to my parents' house in PPB this weekend, I'll try my hand at winning the elusive Stripe. If there's anything that living at the Jersey Shore can teach you, it's how to be an expert at crane machines!

Chestnuts roasted by Lackadaisical @ 07/01/2004 06:50 PM EST

Only 312,447 more points and that TV is mine!!! Ahahahaha!

Chestnuts roasted by Fraggot @ 07/01/2004 06:59 PM EST

My I got here late this time... I LOVE SKEEBALL, they have it at the amusement park where i work, (any upstate New Yawkers ever heard of Seabreeze?) it was a good article matt, thanks

Chestnuts roasted by ANdrew @ 07/01/2004 07:22 PM EST

ha! you think it's hard to find a place like this in your part of the world (barring jeresy) try washington state. on a side note will we ever get a review of the snes crassic (crap classic) MJ's moonwalker!

Chestnuts roasted by bogey b @ 07/01/2004 07:43 PM EST

Haha, too awesome. I know I've said this before but I love your adventure articles. I did a search for them the other day and found the petting zoo one. How disturbing was that, but somehow you made it pretty funny anyway. It's insane how much money I've blown at arcades like this one. Keep doing these types of articles often, they're great!

Chestnuts roasted by Molly @ 07/01/2004 07:46 PM EST

I dont think Matt gives a fuck about yoru collection of paper planes

Chestnuts roasted by Alex @ 07/01/2004 07:50 PM EST

Speaking of old kiddy places...

NEVER FORGET ABOUT DISCOVERY ZONE. EVER.

One of these days I'm going to rebuild one of these places with the huge play-places (with all the tubes and crap) only triple the size so everyone can get in. None of that "you're too old to be playing in a glorified jungle gym" crap!

Er...that was quite the tangent ....

Chestnuts roasted by Ian, Just Ian @ 07/01/2004 07:52 PM EST

The only thing that sucks about Point Pleasant is you have to PAY to get on the beach....but besides that it's alright for a day trip.

Chestnuts roasted by Pete @ 07/01/2004 08:01 PM EST

Matt, I haven't been there since the Razz closed down it seems. A themed restaurant was erected in its place that lasted about a year - I think it was Red Baron's or something. Nowhere near as cool as the Razz. Damn that theatre's floor and removable arm rests makes me want to revisit sometimes!
Pete, you don't have to pay to get on the beach at Pt. Pleasant all the time, just go on family fun days when it's free!

~Do you know those "Do Not Remove Under the Penalty of Law" labels they put on mattresses? Well, I CUT one off!

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 07/01/2004 08:10 PM EST

awesome article, matt :-)

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 07/01/2004 08:19 PM EST

I remember that my brother worked at one of those places here in Calgary in called Easy Street which was slotted into an old four-plex movie theatre by the food court in the pre-renovation Chinook Mall.

The theme of the place was incomprehensible because it was called Easy Street and appeared to be some kind of deranged Mapletown urbanized forestscape with cartoon animal mascots driving wooden cars and wearing letterman jackets.

The first problem was that the arcade and the games used the same tokens, so us poorer kids who didn't have a ES at home forfeitted prizes in order to play video games.

The second problem was that the bastards didn't even count your tickets, they WEIGHED them. That's right...WEIGHED them on a little electronic drug dealer scale rigged to produce a seemingly arbitrary (SIC, very low) number and then you could only claim with that number. I was tricky, at one of my friend's birthdays I counted my tickets and turned them in. Predictably, the number was incorrect. Unpredictably, I didn't expect to get yelled at by the crone prize maven for being a smart-ass little kid.

Moral? Once you're old enough, play Black Jack and get real money. You only have to deal with the stone faced, bored card dealer living in perpetual fear of being fired by the gaming board if caught with a genuine smile by a 400 lbs. crypto-homo pit boss.

...I'll never be 'well' enough to really have existed...

Chestnuts roasted by Cannibalizer @ 07/01/2004 08:28 PM EST

matt, next time you go to a place like that, you should take somewhere around 300 tickets and clean out the bucket of plastic spider rings. Just to see the look on the guy's face when you say "I'll take (grabs fistful of spider rings) this many."

-quentin "and then cover your fingers" mcalmott

Chestnuts roasted by quentin mcalmott @ 07/01/2004 08:46 PM EST

Now hang on a second. Until you have had to count a bag of those little tickets that a kid has been saving up since the Kennedy administration, don't knock weighing them. You could dang near get carpel tunnel from counting more than a hundred.

The saddest ever Casino arcade moment was when the mall I worked at fired a janitor for going through our trash and pulling out all of the tickets he could find on a nightly basis. We figured something was up when he came in with a trash bag full of them and had never set foot in the place in his life. We made him return the 9 inch television set and the Atlanta Braves pennant that he won....er....stole.

Chestnuts roasted by Ron Beauregard @ 07/01/2004 09:35 PM EST

I love places like this. This is how I spend at least a good 60 percent of my precious time off during the summer, as I live two blocks from the Wildwood boardwalk in New Jersey. Not like I need more stuffed animals and plastic spider rings, but everyone else is whoopin' it up down there, and I figure it doesn't hurt to join the party every now and then. ; 0 )

The best Wildwood arcade by far, of course, is Gateway 26 in North Wildwood. They're twice the size of almost any other arcade on the boards and almost everything is a quarter or less, including the cranes. The majority of the stuff I've won from cranes (yes, you can actually win toys from cranes, it's possible) comes from there.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 07/01/2004 09:37 PM EST

I'm from Jersey, and I have never heard anybody call a boardwalk arcade a cassino arcade.

Chestnuts roasted by Bright Noah @ 07/01/2004 09:57 PM EST

Ah, The Simpsons arcade game- one of my all-time favorites!! Too bad that one looks like rats have been chewing on the joystick panel. I found a site where you can buy completely refurbished arcade machines, and last time I checked The Simpsons will set you back about $1800.

And I totally suck at those crane games, so I stay away from those cursed machines wherever I find them. My brother is pretty good at them though. We were at a Dave and Buster's last year and he got five knockoff plushies in a row. Maybe it was all the beer he had that day......

Chestnuts roasted by 4thDown @ 07/01/2004 10:02 PM EST

Well, Bright Noah - you must not be that bright, eh Noah?

~C'mon, let's go drink 'til we can't feel feelings anymore.

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 07/01/2004 10:26 PM EST

I recently went to a casino arcade,here in Michigan at a Indian casino. They had the usual stuff like claw games and DDR,but they also had Star Wars Trilogy Arcade,one of coolest arcade games in recent memory. I also played a Jurassic Park 3 gun-shooting game,which I beat. Costed me $4.50 to do it.

I've seen giant stuffed dice like in that picture at Spencer Gifts. You're probably better off getting one there.

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 07/01/2004 10:29 PM EST

Hey,

When can we expect the Care Bear II review? If don't want to do that you can always do Care Bears in Wonderland or Care Bears & The Nutcracker.

P.S.

At Paramount's Kings Island, they had a lot of Sonic and Knuckles plushes for prizes (sorry no Tails).

Chestnuts roasted by Patrick @ 07/01/2004 10:37 PM EST

This place reminds me of the casino arcade on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Pretty sweet place with a shitload of kickass arcades, including some nice retro stuff.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 07/01/2004 10:40 PM EST

Spider rings. That Aerosmith game. That Simpsons game. That stupid quarter thing. Dino bonk.

Best article ever.

Fond memories of the arcade on the boardwalk at Hampton Beach... this article makes me want to go back there. But its probably changed in the holy shit, almost a decade since I last went.

There's absolutely NOTHING better than the light-gun rifle game, with the little red targets that set off clocks and talking moose, and rocking old ladies...

Chestnuts roasted by Piscez @ 07/01/2004 10:57 PM EST

It's to damn bad about the whole Gremlins Crane Game. Everyone knows that the evil gremlin is way cooler than Gizmo. And atleast you had enough sense to know Wario is wwaaayyy cooler than Donkey Kong.

Chestnuts roasted by Lawn Gnome From Hell @ 07/01/2004 11:04 PM EST

On the skee-roll: don't bother actually trying to play. Just wait and look around until you see that no employees are looking (namely management as they are probably the only ones who will actually care), climb up the ramp with the ball in hand, and place it in the highest scoring hole.

I recall one time at Discovery Zone, a crazy jungle gym/playground/obstacle course/ball-pit place with a few casino arcade games, in which my friend and I figured out a way to keep the ball from ever being subtracted from the balls remaining. We simply stuck our hand in this one place through which we saw the ball travel just before being counted, thus stopping the our remaining balls from ever going down and leaving us free to score as much as we wanted (no innuendos intended at all in this post). But these particular machines were different from the ones that you usually see. These were a lot smaller. But it worked. Heck, there was even some girl who saw us and said that if we did it for her too, she wouldn't tell on us. I'm pretty sure she was kidding about the whole tattling thing, but we obliged her anyway.

Y'know, the fondest memories of my childhood are the ones in which we pulled smart-assed shit like this or got into trouble.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 07/01/2004 11:34 PM EST

I know an arcade like this at a local mall. I won enough tickets for some plastic vampire fangs and a handfull of Jolly Ranchers by playing Austin Powers pinball. It was awesome.

All this "RazzMaTazz" talk reminds me of "Roo's", a local Chuck-E-Cheese knock-off, that was much better (and cleaner) than Chuck-E-Cheeses. It had a Kangaroo mascott and a big screen TV that they played children's movies on. I had a birthday party there. It was fun. But, they're out of business now.

Chestnuts roasted by Tetsu Deinonychus @ 07/01/2004 11:36 PM EST

I should probably add that at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, they actually had the Baby-Pac-Man arcade/pinball machine, in which you would earn power pellets by playing the the pinball portion. How you got into the pinball mode was by having Baby Pac-Man exit the maze. Want more into, click the link.

Baby Pac-Man

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 07/01/2004 11:40 PM EST

Has anyone here seen the movie Joysticks before? Its a really bad comedy from the 80's that revolved a bunch of horny teenagers(gee, thats a stretch) and the arcade. This movie basically served as an advertisement for Super Pac-Man which was new in arcades at the time. The final sequence of the movie features a Super Pac-Man face off ala the Wizard with huge screens and the joysticks coming out of the ground and were huge. Alright enough of me talkin about huge joysticks. I only saw this movie once when i was in 5th grade and i caught it on USA Up All Night. I was just wondering if anyone else saw this garbage?

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 07/02/2004 12:17 AM EST

"If you're standing in front of a prize window they want to peep into, the kids have no qualms about pushing you aside with their vile little hands."

This was the funniest part of the article IMO. I was rolling!

I always enjoy watching others play the games instead of partaking in them. It makes me feel good knowing that there are bigger suckers then myself.

I have a ton of other crap I'd like to say, but lets be honest. Nobody reads a lenghty reply.

Matt

Thanks for answering my request of more XE adventure articles.

Chestnuts roasted by Novaximus @ 07/02/2004 12:31 AM EST

Definitely one of the best articles ever. I love crane games too. I played one once at casino where their "arcade" consisted solely of crane games, and I walked out with an armful of cheap, ugly stuffed animals. If I remember right, that particular machine was so easy to win at, my win-lose ratio was 5:1. Boy did I feel proud.

Good stuff, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Mandie J @ 07/02/2004 12:32 AM EST

That's the best article yet Matt. Looks like you got better prizes then what I won in the UGO contest a week ago.

Chestnuts roasted by Bizzar @ 07/02/2004 12:41 AM EST

"Where's the love for poor ol' regular Pac? Sure, he had a sucky Atari game, but jeez...time should've healed that wound six years ago."

You were standing right in front of him. Put the adequate amount of credits in the Ms. Pac/Galaga Anniversary machine, now press Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left... you'll hear a victory chime! Now (this is important) press the Ms. Pacman start button. Voila, regular ole Mr. Pacman.

I've yet to find out if the old patterns work on the game, as everyone seems to have theirs on "speed hack" mode.

Chestnuts roasted by hiroshi @ 07/02/2004 01:11 AM EST

Dang! Where did I put my TV?

Chestnuts roasted by fgfgshhs @ 07/02/2004 01:36 AM EST

My chuck e cheeses 7 people died. I never like those places after I heard that.
They were all shot by a disgruntled fired employee.

Chestnuts roasted by mike in denver @ 07/02/2004 01:46 AM EST

Good article too bad nothing like that ever gets out here in Washington only occasional traveling amusement rides which usually set up in the parking lot of a mall and they generally suck. The Simpsons arcade rules!!

Chestnuts roasted by Caylor @ 07/02/2004 01:58 AM EST

Great article, my favorite part has to be the shot of the "cheapy section" with the "don't blow whistles in the arcade" sticker over the whistle bin. I work in a mall right next to an arcade like this and have seriously considered trying to just buy all the damn whistles on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I know they'd just get more, but I still dream of doing it then crushing them all in the hallway outside the place.

Chestnuts roasted by jalansk @ 07/02/2004 03:05 AM EST

Hiroshi: Why would Namco use the Konami code (well, almost, anyway)? Wierd....

Oh, and a note about ski-ball...I used to play ski-ball all the time. I used to be very good at it...I could consistently get the "100" corner shots...Just needed the right velocity and angle..

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 07/02/2004 03:26 AM EST

phunqsauce, I know "Joysticks" well. It has one of my favorite character actors in it, Jon Gries, as King Vidiot. He was also the pre-Wolfman from "The Monster Squad" and a comedic drug addict in a horror/comedy that I may not write the name of due to its awesomeness. Don't, as if you would, confuse him with Mike Judge: http://missandreaparker.free.fr/images/cameleon_john.jpg
www.awn.com/mag/issue1.10/images/BennKaplan01.gif

He is back in limited and soon to be nationwide theatrical release in the the quirky comedy "Napoleon Dynamite" as Uncle Rico: http://scifisuzi.com/ellendubin/ilene.jpg
The film can be best described as Wes Anderson meets Todd Solondz in rural Idaho with the grown up child actress from "Waterworld" and "Corrina, Corrina" taking glamour shots. Here are some clips: http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/522/522230p1.html

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 07/02/2004 03:49 AM EST

Yeah, I agree with Bizar...It's one of the best articles yet, Matt. Summer vibe indeed.

Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 07/02/2004 09:04 AM EST

You know, Oriental Trading Company(not sure if they have a website or not) has catalouges full of the stuff they give away at these places. When you see how mind-numbingly cheap some of the stuff is it's amazing.

Like around Halloween you can get a GROSS of plastic vampire fangs for around 7 dollars. A gross! 144! Individually packaged, sadly, which means you'd make a mess opening them all, but still...

Chestnuts roasted by CaseyJones @ 07/02/2004 09:24 AM EST

Matt,
Well that's a hell of a tease!!! That's okay I went to a local carnival last year where I desperately had my eye on a giant Fozzie Bear doll and of course the scam of the game was you had to keep playing and playing and if you got a certain amount of points you could only choose from the small sized stuffed dolls...I ended up with an Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh instead of Fozzie.

Chestnuts roasted by Melissa Y. @ 07/02/2004 09:44 AM EST

CaseyJones, yeah, Oriental Trading has a website. FYI, should you ever order from them, I have a code for free shipping on orders over $59. You have to buy a lot of crap to total $59, but then you'll own a lot of crap. They have tons of stuff (most of it comes by the dozen) for less than $1 per unit.

http://www.orientaltrading.com/otcweb/application?namespace=main

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 07/02/2004 10:43 AM EST

Now you've got me shopping.
Check this out: mini glo-stick refills, $1.97/dz here
Monster Treat Bag Puppets, $0.90/dz here
Ceramic Monster hands Candle Holders $3.95/pair here
Wooden Dinosaur Bookends Craft $2.45/pair here

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 07/02/2004 10:50 AM EST

Love Skee-Ball! That's the only game I can play and have a remote chance of winning anything.

We've been to Kitchener, Ontario, there is one of them huge plastic domes called SportsWorld, complete with mini-golf, go-karts, water slides, rock climbing, midway rides, batting cages and a prize arcade. It's the Xanada of cheapo (but expensive) entertainment, and full of kids and bored teenagers. And yes, they have these spider rings. I thought of getting one bronzed as my wedding ring.

For cheapo arcade/amusement parks, try Old Orchard, Maine.

A completetely weird experience was at a local fair in Mexico, in a really small village, with the same shoot-the-balloon games. Alas, no skee-ball. But yes, they did have spider rings.

That was almost worth the cost of the trip to bring back a scale mexican wrestling mat, complete with masked wrestlers.

Chestnuts roasted by Yzziefrog @ 07/02/2004 10:52 AM EST

'Burger King Spider-Man 2 Promo a Big Success' www.superherohype.com/spider-man/index.php?id=1668

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 07/02/2004 12:51 PM EST

'Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!'
www.superherohype.com/spider-man/index.php?id=1667

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 07/02/2004 12:53 PM EST

hey matt, if i sent you some money would you go an get a gizmo for me?

Chestnuts roasted by EyeLikeP00 @ 07/02/2004 01:23 PM EST

Yeah, I hate those scales they use on the redemption tickets. At the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribal casino where my Dad works, there is a "drill machine" that works like the pick-up the bin thing Matt was talking about. For something that can't allow kids, this machine has Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards eight ways til Sunday. Really tough to line it up juuuust right to push the doohickey out that contains the prize.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 07/02/2004 02:24 PM EST

Hey Matt you should take a swing down to the 'cades down in Seaside. One arcade (I believe it's called the Carousel Arcade) has a room dedicate to the the games of the 80's. It's dark, smokey and down right awsome. Nothing beat playing a little Nintendo's 'Vs Excitebike" or Hercules the World's Largest Pinball game while "99 Luft Baloons" is thumping in the background. Now if only I could find an open Chees King store in a mall. . . . :-)

Chestnuts roasted by Also Named Matt @ 07/02/2004 05:12 PM EST

*Yes.* *Do* review the second Care Bears movie. The eleven thousand viewings of that movie my sisters subjected me to have left deep, deep scars on my psyche...

Did anyone else ever see a weird religious commercial that stole the Chuck E. Cheese's jingle? ("Chuck E. Cheese's/Where a kid can be a kid" - that jingle.) I don't know if it was a joke/an extremely poorly-conceived promotion for a church event/whether there was a real copycat restaurant involved (I think there actually might have been, though I could just be thinking of Billy Bob's Pizza Wonderland), but there were all these little kids rushing around a guy dressed as Jesus - I think there were balloons involved - and they sang "I love Jesus" instead of "Chuck E. Cheese's."

Chestnuts roasted by Goz @ 07/02/2004 05:24 PM EST

And I swear that it was not a hallucination. One of my sisters remembers it, too.

Chestnuts roasted by Goz @ 07/02/2004 05:26 PM EST

Great to finally see you again Matt! Your pics were all over the misadventures back in 2000-2002, even if you were kicking it with Charmeleon!

Chestnuts roasted by Bowz @ 07/02/2004 05:39 PM EST

Mother of sweating Christ!!! Matt! I live in Point Pleasant! I work at Jenkinsons Bar im a bouncer there! Holy shit!....ok I'm good.

Chestnuts roasted by Josh @ 07/02/2004 07:20 PM EST

Mother of sweating Christ!!! Matt! I live in Point Pleasant! I work at Jenkinsons Bar im a bouncer there! Holy shit!....ok I'm good.

Chestnuts roasted by Josh @ 07/02/2004 07:20 PM EST

Thanks for the mention of "Wings". Possibly next time you'll review '3000 Miles To Graceland' featuring sweet, cute dumb ass mechanic Lowell Mather AKA Thomas Haden Church as a US Marshal with a big assed cowboy hat and a big assed belt buckle.
On second thought, just review the episode of "Wings" where Lowell and Bunny have sex in Brian and Joe's house.

Anywho, I agree that those prizes usually suck ass. You'll be lucky if you'll pick up a paper Chinese fan.
I usually don't hit the cranes, but you make me wanna. I need to play a crane game!!!

Chestnuts roasted by AngeFaitore @ 07/02/2004 07:20 PM EST

You work at that bar? Duuude. We go there all the time. Lovin the Tiki.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/02/2004 07:33 PM EST

Hey Matt, you know what we have in Washington State?

Peanuts.

That's right, we have the Bamboo Peanut Mark3.

Are you interested?

Chestnuts roasted by Mathew Olson @ 07/02/2004 08:25 PM EST

Vwhaaa? E-mail me.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/02/2004 08:30 PM EST

Skee ball trick

Hey If anyone cares there is a trick to hit the 100 circle in skee ball. Ive hit the 100 spot 7 of 10 times with it consistantly.

Instead of rolling it up the middle of theramp directly. Bank the ball off the right or left bumper at an angle. If you hit the right spot it will jump into the 100 spot almost all the time. The right spot is near the top of the bumper before it ramps upwards.

Chestnuts roasted by Vicdotcom @ 07/02/2004 08:56 PM EST

I think that TV's worth trying for. How many people can say they won their TV playing Skeeball?

I loved the Care Bears movies. The Carebears in Wonderland one is the best.

Chestnuts roasted by Starreh @ 07/02/2004 10:55 PM EST

I never thought ME would ever acknowledge me but there's a first time for everything. just to follow up on Joysticks the infamous JOE DON BAKER makes his presence felt. This movie is definitely worth an X-E critique if you can find it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085764/ check it out....if you dare

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 07/02/2004 10:55 PM EST

dude, i love your site

Chestnuts roasted by dingo @ 07/02/2004 11:10 PM EST

Matt

Talking of Pinball machines, down here in New Zealand (look on your map) we have some classic ones like Congo (remember that terrible movie??) and if you're lucky- the GN'R machine from 1993 woohoo!

Chestnuts roasted by Icebreaker @ 07/03/2004 12:23 AM EST

Most of the arcades around here that use the ticket system for prizes have the machines that count them for you so you don't get ripped off. Nice way to go.

Chestnuts roasted by Tikibob @ 07/03/2004 02:15 AM EST

Alex, He does give a f*** about my paper airplanes.. show a little class that is if you actually have class and weren't raised in a barn

Chestnuts roasted by Mike A. @ 07/03/2004 10:27 AM EST

I live near Niagra Falls in Canada and there was a place called Dazzleland! it sucked so much, but still my friends and I went there every weekend, once one of the games was broken and was giving out all the free tickets no matter if you won or lost, I played it until it was out of paper! its now been turned into a huge ass Casino arcade with a boston pizza!

Chestnuts roasted by Loozer @ 07/03/2004 03:48 PM EST

Just stumbled across your site recently and I love it. Brings back so many memories.

Thanks for this post. Now I know that all of these years of traveling to Seaside Heights has been worth it instead of venturing off for uncharted territory. Seaside's casino arcades defintely seem to blow Point Pleasant away!

Chestnuts roasted by Louie @ 07/03/2004 05:16 PM EST

Wow! That was a really great article, and a reminder of why I spend so much time reading X-E.

That article brought back childhood memories, but not of casino arcades I had visited. There were no places like that around when I was a kid, because I lived in shitty backwards hellhole--if there were any in the nearby city, nobody ever took me to one.

No, it reminded me of all the crappy prizes I used to win at the town's Halloween carnival. Every year they'd have a little carnival at the abandoned school gym. I'd play the crummy games and I'd feel elated when I got home because I scored four bags of cheap plastic junk, like plastic spider rings, keychains (even though I was 10 and had no keys), calendars, and all kinds of other junk. You're right: nothing makes a kid feel better than winning a ton of crap. Sad thing? If I weren't afraid of getting beaten up, I'd probably be doing it today.

Chestnuts roasted by Astro Zombie @ 07/03/2004 06:43 PM EST

Movie theaters (especially ones in big cities) are the best place to find arcade games. I first saw Star Wars Trilogy Arcade at one in my area. I also remember seeing a Batman Forever game in the style of the TMNT/Simpsons/X-Men games at this one also. Yesterday,I went to see Dodgeball at the theater,and they had a Star Trek: Voyager light-gun game in a sit-down booth with privacy curtians on the side. It's not every day you see Jeri Ryan on the side of an arcade game.

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 07/03/2004 10:43 PM EST

i would definitly drive from oklahoma to new jersey just to pick up a fucking stripe or gizmo and i would not quit spending until i was broke or at least hyad both...new jersey here i come

Chestnuts roasted by Mr.Fun @ 07/03/2004 11:15 PM EST

I realize that I'm about the 125th comment here, and that no one will ever read this, but I just had to share my story of casino arcades.

I had often visited the local place, I believe it's called "Funtasia," but had never won anything substantial. Until one day, when I was just about too old to be in one of those places without getting odd looks, I sat down to this one electronic game-- in which you try to line up similar coloured pieces until the screen overflows --and played for a while, then, just as I was about to lose, I made the luckies, flukiest, move of all time and set off a massive chain reaction that cleared the entire screen.
I didn't just win hundreds of points, or a thousand points, I won tens of thousands of points. With one token!
I took that and bought a huge, non-bootleg, Porky the Pig plushie.
I still consider that to be one of the greatest days of my life.

Chestnuts roasted by m_woolman @ 07/03/2004 11:15 PM EST

dammit now i gotta go spend some dough down at the arcade,but i save my tickets I brought home a mini Disco ball last time Im going for the 41,000 tickets for a digital Camera

Chestnuts roasted by That80sguy @ 07/04/2004 04:46 AM EST

I'm totally going today!....well...either Point Pleasent or SeaSide....not sure which. But I gotta play some pinball....I miss that ol' ball on bumper action (dirty sounding, yes, but isn't pinball a dirty game to begin with?)

Chestnuts roasted by QuickPaw @ 07/04/2004 02:00 PM EST

Listen to Elton Johns song Pinball Wizzard lyrics are "since I was a young boy I played with silver balls" any questions?

Chestnuts roasted by That80sguy @ 07/05/2004 12:40 AM EST

Holy god i miss point pleasant. I used to live up in ogdensburg nj...went to the point every year. Awesome article bro

Chestnuts roasted by Sean @ 07/05/2004 03:00 AM EST

Jesus, I remember myself with my ex-girlfriend in such casinos...after 2500 points and 50 dollar less money, I got the plastic gremlin, that made my day

Chestnuts roasted by Julian @ 07/05/2004 04:04 PM EST

Great article. ''Walking through a more crowded part of the arcade will get your crotch hit with stray shots no less than a dozen times. After a while, you kinda look forward to it.'' That's classic! haha..

Chestnuts roasted by G4L @ 07/06/2004 02:59 AM EST

I was going to tell you about the Galaga/Ms. Pac Man thing where you can put in a code and play the classic Pac Man, but Hiroshi beat me to it. I found out about this code at the laundromat I frequent. It has one of those machines and some helpful soul has placed a sign atop the machine with the secret code on it.

Chestnuts roasted by Shawn @ 07/06/2004 11:15 AM EST

I don't know if anyone said this Matt, but THAT'S NOT THE BIG ONE!!! I know of a crane, it is big enough that a full grown man can walk inside the machine without crouching...this doth truly be the big one...

Chestnuts roasted by Nemesis @ 07/07/2004 10:55 AM EST

I found the Ms Pac-Man/Galaga 20 Year Reunion code at a site called The First Church of Pac-Man and tried it on the first machine I ran across. I almost wet my pants with joy, changed my mind, and wet someone elses instead. Click me to visit the Church. (Not a real church)

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 07/07/2004 04:22 PM EST

Speaking of RAZZ-MA-TAZZ (This For Mugzy and Matt),

Do you remember the audio-animatronic "band" they had at Razzmatazz (set up on the stage). I remember back in the day, all of us kids would throw balloons up onto the stage at them, and they would get caught inside the innerworkings of the machines and pop.
There was one audioanimatronic character that popped up from a manhole cover....if you got the balloon in there, you achieved god-like status in the eyes of all the kids. I must have had 4 or 5 birthdays there. The pizza was great. Damn, I miss the 80's.

Chestnuts roasted by Danny Martini @ 07/08/2004 02:14 AM EST

"I don't know how the obsession began; perhaps the tongs that lifted me from my mother's womb impressed me at my most impressionable age"

Now I understand why I feel so drawn to the crane machines. They remind me of my very very early childhood. (What, was that the most popular way to birth babies in the 70s?)

Chestnuts roasted by Alison @ 07/09/2004 03:22 PM EST

cool

Chestnuts roasted by cool @ 07/19/2004 09:07 PM EST

Awesome article Matt. I have never been to an Arcade Casino, but you make it sound like a part of my childhood. You are a very talented writer.

Keep up the good work!

Chestnuts roasted by KookieDookie @ 10/11/2004 11:19 AM EST