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Frau_Blucher
Room at the Top
10900 Posts |
 Posted - 08/12/2009 : 17:44:19
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You can only do so much hiking and birdwatching on summer vacation before the kids completely revolt. To calm the savage beasts, we trekked down from the wilds of Squam Lake and Rattlesnake Mountain to Lake Winnipesaukee's icon of bad vacation cheesedom called Weir's Beach. We innocently strolled into a huge arcade called The Funspot. 1st floor - the usual no-imagination modern video games plus skee ball. 2nd floor - more games plus a bowling alley.
3rd floor - I could swear I heard choirs of angels go "Waaaaaaahhhhh!" as I entered. Literally hundreds of retro games from the golden age. This place was more like a museum than an arcade. It was living museum though with row after row of fully working classics. Is this common? Do other places like this exist? I haven't seen anything like it in 25 years. I was floored.
I wasn't much of a gamer, not because of any ego about being nerdy but because I mostly sucked at them. ALL of them...except one...Tempest. It was like I had a neural link to that game. I could play for hours thru all the blue levels then yellow then light blue then pulsing invisible ones, etc. My buddy and I alternately held the high scores at Bellflower CA's Fosters Freeze for probably a whole year. So of course that's the first game I went looking for. At first I thought it might be a tragic omission, but there it was in the back by the pinball games. I popped that first token in, and man it all came back in an instant. I sat there for about 20 tokens worth, tapping my feet to the sounds of "My Sharona" and "Take On Me" blaring over the speakers. 
I scoped out Tron after that, thinking it'd be neat to see those cool light-cycle graphics ala the new previews for Tron2. Um, they weren't so cool. How did it not occur to me back then that the console for Tron was actually way cooler than any of its graphics?
Nevertheless, if you're ever in the northeast and get sucked into one of those Chevy Chase Vacation-esque "vacations", I'd highly recommend sticking your head in here if you had an affinity for any of these and more...
  
  
  
  
  
 
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Otters Walk Among Us
Room at the Top
USA
1011 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2009 : 19:43:07
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| I did not know of this place. I am going soon. You are my hero. |
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TragicMagic
Room at the Top
Australia
1232 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2009 : 20:31:01
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Freaking awsome! nothing like this that I know of in Australia 
Thanks for the pics. Dragons Lair.. hehehe |
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Retro_NRG
Room at the Top
907 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2009 : 23:29:18
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((( !!Bocce Balls!!))
Man.. What A Find!
If they have Time Pilot, I'm sooo THERE!
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Panorama
Room at the Top
USA
2760 Posts |
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Frau_Blucher
Room at the Top
10900 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 05:35:28
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quote:
Originally posted by Retro_NRG
If they have Time Pilot, I'm sooo THERE!
It's apparently there, accordingly to the master list in their Wikipedia entry. Jesus, what isn't on Wikipedia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funspot |
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British
Room at the Top
USA
1513 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 06:44:41
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| Some day I would love to take a trip to FunSpot. I heard good things about that arcade. |
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Terim
The Jet Set
Canada
483 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 07:58:22
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Had a very similar experience at the Videotopia exhibit at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY this summer. Great museum for the kids.
Scary how much of my brain still contains useless bits about how to play (badly) so many of those games. Including Tempest which came right back. |
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zill
Room at the Top
Canada
2103 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 08:16:03
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Ooohhh! They have Berzerk! I could have bought the bike I always wanted with the coins I pumped into that thing.
"Got the humanoid...got the intruder" |
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troywellbuilt
Running Up That Hill
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 09:11:06
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| Great report! I'll be up that way in a couple weeks and will try to get there. Missile Command! You should check out the movie "King of Kong". Some of it was filmed there. |
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NuWaveRx
Der Kommissar
1171 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 09:44:40
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Very cool, Blir. I've been lucky to find several "classic" arcades like that over the years--including the Twin Galaxies place in Ottumwa, Iowa (the so called "official video game capital of the world") that was featured on King of Kong. Some of my favorites from back in the day:
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator ("Welcome aboard, Captain")
Red Baron (Cirle or blimp--oh hell just shoot it)
Defender
Joust (Flying ostraches with lances? Works for me.)
Time Solders
Time Pilot
Karnov (Bald guy who vomits fireballs? Works for me.)
Atomic Punk (how'd these guys not get sued by Van Halen?)
Rolling Thunder
and, later the original Street Fighter II
I always was terrible at the popular games (Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, 'Steroids, etc)
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plagiarism
Room at the Top
2813 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 10:10:03
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I've found my own personal Wally World that I've got to get to.  Absolutely loved, loved, loved Tempest.
Hey, does anyone know which arcade video game had an attack helicopter that went on sorties to rescue little men and bring them back to base? The little men said "thank you" when they boarded the helicopter. I think you could carry a maximum of 7 little men, and you could crush them with your helicopter if you were careless. It was a rather primitive game. |
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Spit
Room at the Top
USA
1539 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 12:57:02
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Now that looks like the place to be. Any NWO get togethers on the horizon ? 
Nice find Blir. |
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NuWaveRx
Der Kommissar
1171 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 16:10:26
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quote:
Originally posted by plagiarism
Hey, does anyone know which arcade video game had an attack helicopter that went on sorties to rescue little men and bring them back to base? The little men said "thank you" when they boarded the helicopter. I think you could carry a maximum of 7 little men, and you could crush them with your helicopter if you were careless. It was a rather primitive game.
Choplifter?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choplifter
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plagiarism
Room at the Top
2813 Posts |
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Retro_NRG
Room at the Top
907 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 21:33:03
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Wow Blir..
Giving thought to this thread has really jogged my 33 year memory of arcade video games.
My earliest video game experience was 'Tankers' & 'Sea Wolf' dating back to 1976. I remember playing them during summer camp visits to this little beachside arcade in Bayville NY.
My next arcade video game milestone was 'Mole Hunter' which I played while drinking underage at a Centerport area HoJo's lounge back in late '79 early 1980. Fond memories of downing Kamikazi's and dropping countless quarters into the cocktail table version of that game.
BTW, I was another Tempest freak with other favorites being Defender, Galaxian, Gyruss, Millipede, Phoenix, Pleids and Zaxxon.
Then came Time Pilot which I played endlessly @SUNY Farmingdale and at the Adventureland Arcade where my letters RIP occupied the top 5 ranking scores for over 2 years. Another one I played there which I cannot name featured a VOX chip that said "Help Me!" whenever one of your spacemen was snatched by these marauding saucers that relentlessly descended from a mothership.
Great times they were indeed..
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wherewereuin82
Room at the Top
Canada
3487 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 21:57:58
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Boys will be boys it seems 
**sounds like the perfect place for a NWO get together**
(for the guys at least) |
Edited by - wherewereuin82 on 08/13/2009 22:23:55 |
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Frank_Chickens
Room at the Top
United Kingdom
2073 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 11:41:05
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Thanks for the pics it's great to see a place that's keeping it Retro.
I would love to go and spend my holiday there, it would be an absolute dream for me but funds for things like that are out of the question right now.
My favourite games from the time were Pac-Man, Scramble, Phoenix, Amidar and New Rally X, a meet up there would be cool!
--
"A cynic is what a optimist calls a realist"
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randy
Room at the Top
2546 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 13:38:48
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| Finding it funny that this place is new to everyone!!! You gotta head North more often!! |
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Spectre General
Room at the Top
709 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 15:55:34
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According to that wikipedia article, it's the largest arcade in the world. Which I find hard to believe because I know Japan has like 5 story arcades.
Regardless, I'd easily believe that's the most amount of old games concentrated in one place. I am too young to have been playing arcade games back when they were that old, but I had a TON of those games on my 1987 IBM laptop, lol. And I still have Zaxxon on the Colecovision.
The first arcade game I ever played was Rolling Thunder a game from 1985. I was 5 years old. I still to this day have tokens from that particular Aladdin's Castle where I played it in Harrisonburg VA.
I think there should be a get together there and someone should challenge Dan to a game of Gravitar  .
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What is love after all
but occasional steps
of a dance.........
.......In a trance? |
Edited by - Spectre General on 08/14/2009 15:56:33 |
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Slicing Up Eyeballs
Personal Jesus
USA
221 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 17:38:16
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Oh man, I used to love that "Star Wars" game.
Slicing Up Eyeballs
The Legacy of '80s College Rock
slicingupeyeballs.com |
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Panorama
Room at the Top
USA
2760 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 18:04:01
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quote:
Originally posted by Spectre General
According to that wikipedia article, it's the largest arcade in the world. Which I find hard to believe because I know Japan has like 5 story arcades.
Regardless, I'd easily believe that's the most amount of old games concentrated in one place. I am too young to have been playing arcade games back when they were that old, but I had a TON of those games on my 1987 IBM laptop, lol. And I still have Zaxxon on the Colecovision.
The first arcade game I ever played was Rolling Thunder a game from 1985. I was 5 years old. I still to this day have tokens from that particular Aladdin's Castle where I played it in Harrisonburg VA.
I think there should be a get together there and someone should challenge Dan to a game of Gravitar .
-------------------------------------------------
What is love after all
but occasional steps
of a dance.........
.......In a trance?
I'll spot anyone here a million points on Gravitar :-)
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com |
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Magnum-Truth
Personal Jesus
171 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2012 : 21:50:14
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This topic seems a little odd for me. Not ever sure how to write reply. As soon as I seen its title "Lake Winnipesaukee", it stuck out like a sore thumb, and said to myself, what could this be about.
It's practically in my back yard during the summer months when I stay at my family's summer home. Even with out the summer place it's only about a 1 hour drive away.
As kids, if and when we had any extra money in our pockets. That's one of the places where we would go and spend it. There is probably a good chance I played some of those games in the pictures you posted.
I Never thought I would see a mention of this place here. And yes it is a cool place to take the kids. Just the mention that you will take them there usually freaks them out with anticipation. It was not that long ago I was taking my son there.
However your description! It's spot on.
quote:
Lake Winnipesaukee's icon of bad vacation cheesedom called Weir's Beach
A nice place to visit but you would not want to live there.
Space invaders was my favorite back in the day, and that cheesy game called sub hunt or sea hunt ..(i forget the name).. where that annoying PT boat scrolls across the screen and sucks you into wasting your ammunition.
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Edited by - Magnum-Truth on 05/17/2012 22:50:08 |
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randy
Room at the Top
2546 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2012 : 07:50:11
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| weird. missed this topic years ago. Being a New Englander--you just take it for granted everyone in NE is aware of it. (and Blirwins a transplant anyways so we give him some slack ) |
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Lake Winnipesaukee's 80s video game Mecca
