Lake Winnipesaukee's 80s video game Mecca

[Frau_Blucher]

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. [: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">

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<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">

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[Otters Walk Among Us]

I did not know of this place. I am going soon. You are my hero.

[TragicMagic]

Freaking awsome! nothing like this that I know of in Australia [:(]

Thanks for the pics. Dragons Lair.. hehehe

[Retro_NRG]

((([:0]!!Bocce Balls!![:0]))

Man.. What A Find!

If they have Time Pilot, I'm sooo THERE!

<MARQUEE><h5>Moving @The Speed of Life</h5></MARQUEE>

[Panorama]

Nice collection of games. Love the Gravitar.

<HR width="185" align="left">
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Retro_NRG[/i]
<br>If they have Time Pilot, I'm sooo THERE!
[/quote]
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

[British]

Some day I would love to take a trip to FunSpot. I heard good things about that arcade.

[Terim]

Had a very similar experience at the <a href="http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/videotopia.html">Videotopia</a> 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.

[zill]

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"

[troywellbuilt]

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.

[NuWaveRx]

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)

[plagiarism]

I've found my own personal Wally World that I've got to get to. [:p] 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.

[Spit]

Now that looks like the place to be. Any NWO get togethers on the horizon ? [:D]
Nice find Blir.

[NuWaveRx]

[quote][i]Originally posted by plagiarism[/i]
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.
[/quote]

Choplifter?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choplifter

[plagiarism]

[quote][i]Originally posted by NuWaveRx[/i]

Choplifter?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choplifter

[/quote]

Yes, that's it! Thanks, it was driving me nuts. Here's a picture of the arcade version.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7333