Do they need to bring Video Games back into Epcot?

[Raineman]

I'd like it if the pinball machines were back in Space Mountain.

Or honestly if the Penny Arcade returned, that would be the best option.

I'm pretty sure Space Mountain is a pinball machine.

 

[macefamily]

DisneyQuest closure was one of the most depressing days of my Disney life. We would spend an evening there every trip as a family. I played Golden Tee golf until my wrist throbbed. We would play the giant screen four person Pac Man game for hours.

 

[flynnibus]

Yeah, D& B is like a fake arcade. More like a Restaurcade.

Even Chucky Cheese is a shadow of itself and hardly has any video game compared to it's golden age. In fact when it first came out Chucky Cheese was a hang out for young adults at night. Kind of night club slash arcade with beer all over the place.

Maybe in your hood.. CEC was always a family entertainment center concept envisioned to be a counter to the 'seedy' reputation that pure arcades had. https://www.fastcompany.com/40425172/robots-pizza-and-magic-the-chuck-e-cheese-origin-story - even requiring minors be accompanied.

It's been a kids birthday party complex for decades. (after the novelty died off)

D&B was always setup to be an adult entertainment complex... a Bar+food+entertainment concept where the entertainment would be bar sports and then the 'midway' for the gaming.

Neither was an arcade by right... but during the 2000s... they were some of few places you could actually find games in numbers still. D&B differed as it was really born after the boom in redemption.. so it was always dominated by redemption and big environmental-style cabinets and never focused on older games from the 80s. They barely ran pinball, and got rid of that too.

The OG arcade as people knew them... grew out of the pool hall, and moved into the strip malls and malls of the late 70s and early 80s... then into the 'sports complexes' like mini-golf/driving ranges/gocarts/indoor activities/etc during the 80s and 90s.

Arcades are still largely hindered by laws dating from the 60s-80s and earlier eras where they were seen as undesirable and bringing in bad crowds. So they are usually restricted in zoning and licensing laws these days largely have not modernized from back when coin-op itself was very profitable. So license fees and taxes are usually very detrimental to operating games.. and in some regions why you don't see games at all. It's simply too expensive to be legal that it doesn't make sense. It makes finding a location and operating a large number of games very difficult in most places. This is why you see many setups operating as 'museums' or other concepts as ways to circumvent or reduce the impact of the vending laws.

 

[flynnibus]

And yet in the article you post yourself the original Chuck E. Cheese served beer and had beer barrels. Sure to attract adults and the hoodlum elements.

They served beer for the same reason they always did... for the adults there with their kids.

This is not the commercial of a place trying to be a adult hangout...

 

[TwilightZone]

They serve beer for the same reason they always did... for the adults there with their kids.

Fixed it as they still serve beer (I think they brought it back after an absence, but I could be wrong).

 

[yaksplat]

The penny arcade is the only arcade outside the resorts or DTD that WDW needed.

The penny arcade is a real loss..

Now I'm forced to build my own.

It's going to take a while.

 

[yaksplat]

DisneyQuest closure was one of the most depressing days of my Disney life. We would spend an evening there every trip as a family. I played Golden Tee golf until my wrist throbbed. We would play the giant screen four person Pac Man game for hours.

Four person pacman is amazing. You'd think, what could they possibly do with pacman to make it even more fun. Well, it's just about a perfect game.

 

[TwilightZone]

Now I'm forced to build my own.

View attachment 341526
It's going to take a while.

Retropie? Or real deal antiques? Either way, cool!

 

[flynnibus]

When it first came out they weren't exactly sure what they were doing so what would happen is after a certain time it would just become an adult night club type arcade and the adults would take over.

I’m pretty sure you didn’t read the article because you are completely ignoring the entire impetus of the place and their steerage through the early eighties.

You are focusing on beer... which was really immaterial. There was no stigma against beer availability in society at the time... even around kids. Pizza parlors all served beer... shakees, Pizza Hut, etc. pitchers and pizza went hand in hand.

Chuck E. Cheese was the prototype of the term “family entertainment center” which is what the industry still uses to describe these mixed formats that coinop venders target.

For some people/areas I’m sure CEC May have been their best collection of games... but it was still first a business focused on being a family friendly venue. Regular arcade chains like Aladdin’s castle, timeout, Tilt, etc were completely different concepts... as were the pinball and pool parlors that preceded them.

Some anecdotal stuff doesn’t move the needle and business plan that is well documented.

 

[flynnibus]

Now I'm forced to build my own.

View attachment 341526
It's going to take a while.

We have a long running arcade here that still has its 1930s Art Deco diggers


They still have a full wall of 50s era PTC skeeball games too. Alas most else of the arcade is redemption... not the multiple rows of pins and classic arcades it used to be. Wish I could find a good walkthrough video of it in the 80s...

 

[Paper straw fan]

Four person pacman is amazing. You'd think, what could they possibly do with pacman to make it even more fun. Well, it's just about a perfect game.

The ones at D&B? Meh... I mean I love some arcade Ms PAC Man but the D&B one is a bit light on levels and skill requirement. Still, yeah it’s newer and Pac Man related so it’s certainly not bad

I wish Namco would do a cabinet of the Pac Man Championship Edition they have on consoles (guessing they do in Japan)

 

[flynnibus]

I help make this event happen each year. (this view only sees about half the room). 24hr arcade for 3.5 days

 

[Paper straw fan]

Awesome!!^^^ where is this event? (edit never mind i can google- MD)

I used to attend one in Orlando every year, met the guy from King of Kong (Billy Mitchell) and had a great time. Last couple years I’ve missed it but it’s great fun.

 

[yaksplat]

A pool hall near me had a couple pins and now it's become a good part of their core business. They've got an entire wall now and host plenty of pinball themed events and tournaments. Pinball has certainly made a comeback in the last few years.

 

[yaksplat]

Retropie? Or real deal antiques? Either way, cool!

The mechanism is an antique that needed a lot of work on it. I'm building a cabinet around it and trying to restore everything to how it originally was.

 

[RustySpork]

I read it. That's fine and all but like I said they made a policy change to get rid of all the adults who were using the arcade as a night club at night.

I'm not sure where you live, but I'm going to bet that was a problem local to your community.

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

Yeah, D& B is like a fake arcade. More like a Restaurcade.

Even Chucky Cheese is a shadow of itself and hardly has any video game compared to it's golden age. In fact when it first came out Chucky Cheese was a hang out for young adults at night. Kind of night club slash arcade with beer all over the place.

If that was still the same I'd be there next Friday

 

[Disney.Mike]

I liked the arcades in EPCOT when I was a kid. If nothing else they can help take load off other attractions.

 

[RustySpork]

I liked the arcades in EPCOT when I was a kid. If nothing else they can help take load off other attractions.

It'd be really great to be able to spread the load out across the park again. Everyone benefits, at a relatively insignificant operational expense.

 

[Disney.Mike]

It'd be really great to be able to spread the load out across the park again. Everyone benefits, at a relatively insignificant operational expense.

If I remember right (I was a kid), the games were not free.... they cost token and each token cost 1 dollar... so even the cheap games cost a dollar to play. I remember playing Virtua Fighter and Tekkan in the Arcade.

I also remember Virtua Racer arcade where you sat in the car was 4 tokens, so $4 to play.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but thats my childhood memory.

If I'm correct, seems like that would be a pretty good money maker.