Lake Winnipesaukee's 80s video game Mecca
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:44 amYou 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. [:o)]
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313256_kDvc8-L.jpg">
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?
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313394_trqQp-L.jpg">
Nevertheless, if you're ever in the northeast and get sucked into one of those Chevy Chase [i]Vacation[/i]-esque "vacations", I'd highly recommend sticking your head in here if you had an affinity for any of these and more...
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313377_avbqe-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313387_3Qhyq-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313331_vLPra-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313409_q9m87-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313420_MuQNx-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313418_bFuFX-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313307_cJhS2-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313234_gC3LD-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312928_gFuZK-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312873_9E4aM-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313033_BbtdY-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313053_992hJ-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313139_zxfrW-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313135_qEBr4-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313261_TTwra-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312940_goJmr-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313369_VbHnk-L.jpg">
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. [:o)]
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313256_kDvc8-L.jpg">
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?
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313394_trqQp-L.jpg">
Nevertheless, if you're ever in the northeast and get sucked into one of those Chevy Chase [i]Vacation[/i]-esque "vacations", I'd highly recommend sticking your head in here if you had an affinity for any of these and more...
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313377_avbqe-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313387_3Qhyq-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313331_vLPra-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313409_q9m87-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313420_MuQNx-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313418_bFuFX-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313307_cJhS2-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313234_gC3LD-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312928_gFuZK-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312873_9E4aM-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313033_BbtdY-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313053_992hJ-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313139_zxfrW-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313135_qEBr4-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313261_TTwra-L.jpg">
<img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618312940_goJmr-L.jpg"> <img src="http://blir.smugmug.com/photos/618313369_VbHnk-L.jpg">