http://www.thestar.com/article/453843



To have witnessed the crowds in it's hayday and now this.

This is really where the passion for pinball started for me.




Not sure on this pic. It used to be much wider at the front. I was there awhile ago with TOPL and it was a complete disappointment when I witnessed the state it was in.



Wish I could find some older pics.

That's so crazy, a real Younge Street staple.  I was planning on dropping in when I head to Toronto in August but it looks like I'll be a week too late.

A real loss.

It would have been a crying shame had they kept it up. To be honest I would have preferred not to see it in it's current state.


Now here is a place that harkens back to the glory days.

http://www.classicarcademuseum.org/museumphotos.htm

use to work right across the street from it.   always took off from work saying i would right back after a quick game...  sometimes i wouldn't come back till near closing.

I have hunted for pics on the internet from the glory days. Couldn't find any. I am sure lots exist in print format but not digital.

What you see now is quite lackluster from back in the day. First Defender I ever laid eyes on sat near the front there..... with a lineup out the door!

The thing that gets me is why is everyone so suprised this is closing?  I mean seriously that place is a HOLE!  It most likely hasn't changed in the 42 years it has existed, what buisness in it's right mind thinks it can keep doing the same thing for 42 years without updating itself with the changing times and not end of having to close it's doors is beyond me.  

Quoted from Vengeance

It most likely hasn't changed in the 42 years it has existed, what buisness in it's right mind thinks it can keep doing the same thing for 42 years without updating itself with the changing times and not end of having to close it's doors is beyond me.  

Oh it's changed alright. Even with me being a glossy eyed little kid going into this place, I never got the impression it was the hole it is now.

Mind you there were some scary looking clients back then.

Quote :

" Funland's classic arcade and pinball games will be auctioned off at a future date. Read Marc Saltzman's weekly Game Guy column in these pages for details as they come.  "

[ vultures circling...  ]

Let me  know if anyone gets a date for this.

Cheers,
Steph

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Mind you there were some scary looking clients back then.

   don't pick on me.  i use to go from trenton to toronto to visit all the punks back in the 80's.  some of my fav times are playing in the arcades on younge st. back then.  scare old punk rockers....

Quoted from Vengeance

The thing that gets me is why is everyone so suprised this is closing?  I mean seriously that place is a HOLE!  It most likely hasn't changed in the 42 years it has existed, what buisness in it's right mind thinks it can keep doing the same thing for 42 years without updating itself with the changing times and not end of having to close it's doors is beyond me.  

I believe that they said they couldn't update themselves due to the lack of new games, and from what I know, the sheer cost of recent games.

A Ms.Pacman when it came out cost about 2000$ in today's money, and cost nearly nothing to maintain. Today, a recent popular game like DDR costs in excess of 10000$ and is very expensive to maintain. This, combined with very little choice of new titles out there, pretty much kills it for all arcades.

Places like Funspot in New Hampshire survice due to them catering to a different crowd, classic gamers.

Does anyone know when the very last day is?
I was hoping to go just to say good bye to the place.
Is anyone else interested in the final visit?
Tim

Quoted from Steph

Quote :

" Funland's classic arcade and pinball games will be auctioned off at a future date. Read Marc Saltzman's weekly Game Guy column in these pages for details as they come.  "

[ vultures circling...  ]

Let me  know if anyone gets a date for this.

Cheers,
Steph

According to the poster Q B on CGCC, they are already gone.

http://tinyurl.com/5jg8a8

Quoted from Sparky

I believe that they said they couldn't update themselves due to the lack of new games, and from what I know, the sheer cost of recent games.

A Ms.Pacman when it came out cost about 2000$ in today's money, and cost nearly nothing to maintain. Today, a recent popular game like DDR costs in excess of 10000$ and is very expensive to maintain. This, combined with very little choice of new titles out there, pretty much kills it for all arcades.

Places like Funspot in New Hampshire survice due to them catering to a different crowd, classic gamers.

Not talking about the games, the walls still had nicitne (?sp) stains on them from when you were allowed to smoke inside the place.  How bout a fresh coat or paint, mabye reaplce the missing celing tiles, the toothles dude that hands out quarters mabye you should think about replacing him.  Add some redemtion and update the place with the times, hell the place doesn't even have a bathroom, I don't think you would ever want to bring your kids there.  Fun Land's location is a great location for something like this, they just didn't want to update them selves for the changing times they are in, it's easier to blame "consoles and the home market" but if you arn't going to do anything to draw customers in then the only thing you have to blame is yourself.  

In Play in Newmarket here is a good example, they realize that just throwing some games in a place is not enough, they host parties, built in a kitchen, added in some redemtion and from my understanding are holding their own.  Sure the pins arn't in the best shape but they are still there and in better shape then anything I saw at Funland.  

Arcades need to realize that times they are a changing and if you don't want to change with them well then you are going to end up just like Funland.  

Quoted from Vengeance

Not talking about the games, the walls still had nicitne (?sp) stains on them from when you were allowed to smoke inside the place.

removing the nicotine stains would be the equivalent of an art restorer taking the patina off the mona lisa: Sheer heresey!

The way you describe this arcarde brings back fond memories of the '81 when i was old enough to go to the seedy arcade across the montreal forum on st. catherine.. can't remember what it was called but i remember all the krap, the drug deals, the to be pitied decor.. how i miss thee. especially playing gyrus.

I agree totally Adam. I also do not understand why these guys having reaped all the benefits from these older games and still having them today, did not take the time to go over each and every game to restore it's condition. The suppliers for artwork, overlays and whatever have been providing for this industry for a very long time. Labor can be had for a price as well if they weren't up to it.

I think if I had that business and owned an original Ms. Pac or whatever through not rotating my lineup sufficiently (You got to appreciate that these old games probably were generating coin up until recently there. "location, location") and it had paid for itself 100 times over. I would have started restoring them and putting them back in service one by one. Not letting them get to this condition. IMHO there are three roads to go on an arcade today. All new equipment, retro or a mix, but what you have retro has to be a nice and clean. Old and grungy gives that seedy feeling.

It would have been interesting to have the opportunity to give that whole place a face lift and gone over the games to see what the outcome would be.

Quoted from takochef

removing the nicotine stains would be the equivalent of an art restorer taking the patina off the mona lisa: Sheer heresey!

The way you describe this arcarde brings back fond memories of the '81 when i was old enough to go to the seedy arcade across the montreal forum on st. catherine.. can't remember what it was called but i remember all the krap, the drug deals, the to be pitied decor.. how i miss thee. especially playing gyrus.

But here is the thing, how many times are you going to go back to the arcade for that fond memory experiance?  Going to funland once or twice had that "WOW nothing has changed feeling to it"  But once you get over that feelingand you are going reguarly then it has that "WOW this place is a hole" feeling to it.  They needed to do something to get people to leave there homes to come and play, not give them a reason to say home.  Who wants to play in an enviornment like that for more the 10 mins?  I mean sure mabye once every year or so go in to get that nastalgia feeling but they need way more revenue then the casual trip down memory lane person to keep the place afloat.  

I don't like to see arcades closing any more then the next person, it just bugs the hell out of me when every person is like "Oh it's a sign of the times" "The days of the arcade are over", no there not they just need to change with the times.  

I spent a good deal of my Rye High days there and worked Saturdays for years before that at Electronic Playworld (I forget the street sign name now, it was a major authorized Sony dealership) up the street selling the very Atari's, Intellivisions  and Amigas that eventually would signal the end of the arcade era.  I remember it being so busy (along with the other arcades on Yonge) that you had to squeeze buy other players jsut to get to an empty machine.  They all were seedy type places, particularly the underground ones (liek the one near the Evergreen), I had a couple friends ripped off there and everyone knew you could go there to get drugs.  I remember having my heart rate go up a notch every time I passed by one of the arcades, always daring myself to going in to spend a few quarters (though not always taking myself up on the dare).

All I care about is when is the auction, where is the auction and who has my wallet??
From what I can remember they have a nascar, elvis,t3,lotr.mb.wcs94,sp, monopoly, what else??
Paul

This is pretty well what I saw there the last time.

There were a couple on the other side. RBION I remember and one other.

But I don't believe there will be an auction. Rumor has it they were all sold to someone in Scarborough.

I went to FITC Toronto a few months ago and i walked into that arcade.

I remember that row of pins, there was a MB in the lot, wasnt in very good shape if i remember well.

Sad to see another arcade die, i was pretty amazed to find an arcade with more than 2 pinball machines actually.

There was an Elvis and a Grand Prix on the other side I think

From what I remember and the pic.

Playboy, Monopoly,T3,

RBION, Elvis and Grand Prix (not Nascar) not in the pic.

NF, WCS94, MB, ??, SP.

Vengeance would probably know for certain what's there.

They had last time I was there:

LOTR
Sopranos
Elvis
GrandPrix
Playboy
Monopoly
No Fear
T3
South Park
Monster Bash
Striker Extreme
Ripleys Belive it or Not

The storefront changed since I was there in 2003...obviously a last-ditch attempt to revitalize, and get people in from the street.  Did they expand into the "cheque cashing" place?





They've obviously done nothing to this collection of vids.  It looks the same as the more recent photo.

They also had a SWE1 at the front but who cares about that game right  

Who, would be able to buy all that stuff?? I heard len from starburst was in there as well. The only person I know in scarborough would be bumper action amusements or cenntennial coin

Huh. Looks like a Flinstones was there in 2003. Well there you go, they did make some changes.

Love the black goo on the green T mould on Galaxian. What a load of work that would require to clean up... it might even take something as challenging as a rag and some spray cleaner to get that off of there. It's always nice to put your hands on a machine and know that they aren't going to get stuck to it.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Love the black goo on the green T mould on Galaxian. What a load of work that would require to clean up... .

I think its paint overspray.  Probably their system of refurbishing games.

Sad the pictures, I remember it being wall to wall bodies that you had to jostle through to get to a game.

I took another read of the article and gleaned this gem for those who haven't read the article (turns out I am only 2 degrees separated from one of the people quoted in the article):

Quoted Text

"We could have stayed in the business because of where our location is, and because we own the building, but there weren't any new games, therefore there's little reason for customers to keep coming."

At its peak, Funland housed 225 arcade games. Today there are 81. "We used to get two games a month � now we're lucky if we get one a year," Budd says.

Interesting, I always thought it was primarily the high cost of playing the games (but maybe my age is beginning to keep me from understanding the current value of a dollar  -hey, I need a raise!), and the high cost of making new games (which is still likely why production is down).

BUT some creative thought could have been put to work at Funland.  A pinball/arcade  museum or turn it into a bar with all the old games that people nostalgically love (would that hold water?)

If you can't afford new, then you might want to consider putting a fraction of that into refurbishing what you have to at least compensate.

I know a few years ago at Downtown Disney they had a place that was all retro games and served food. It was busy when I was there. It had location and so did Funland. What it didn't have is a grungy atmosphere and decrepit games.

I say we rent small space on the strip in Niagara Falls and open seasonally. Who's in?

Is the great Canadian midway still open out there as they had some decent games when I was there a few years ago

Quoted from pinstocker

Is the great Canadian midway still open out there as they had some decent games when I was there a few years ago

Yes. It's open. I was there last month. For pins, they had a Sega HD and a HS2. I played one ball on the HD before the flippers died and it continuously fired a ball onto the playfield, drained and did it again. Over and over. I didn't try the Getaway.

I went across the street to the 'arcade' in the same building as the Rainforest Cafe and asked if they had any pins. They said 'No. They're too expensive and require too much maintenance.'

They were both working the last time I played them:









As far as I could see, there's only 3 pinball machines in Niagara Falls.  The other is a Rollercoaster Tycoon at the KOA.

I want that sign..... for my basement.

That's what an arcade sign should look like, but swap the bowling pin out for a flipper.

I was at Funland today-
It's still open,
The last day is the 24th of July
They are auctioning off all the stuff at a later date.

great to hear that.  will have to take eve to toronto if the wife is up for it.   she would have a blast...

Hey Vengence,

I heard through the grapevine that Charles wants to move all the TOPL league nights to Funland until it closes!

Yea lot's of thank happening, thankfully Jim is in charge of scheduling and hates funland as much as I do.  We haven't been to funland since Jim took over the scheduling.  

Quoted from Pinball-Addict

Hey Vengence,

I heard through the grapevine that Charles wants to move all the TOPL league nights to Funland until it closes!

I was there today,
They have moved up the closing date.
The last day will be tuesday the 22nd.
Closes forever at midnight.
I will be going there for one last time around 9pm (on the 22nd), If anyone wants to join me they are welcome.
Tim

I have started a facebook group to try & find old pictures from all the Toronto Arcades.

Please post anything that you might have either here or on facebook.

Group Name
Toronto Arcades

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27880171905

Thanks
Mike