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