Is any member on here rich enough for a shmup center?

[neorichieb1971]

If this site had an official shmup center that would be great.. Wether it be part of someones mansion/home/entended garage or a full blown extension to a hotel or something. Even in a warehouse district.

What I am getting at is recreating a Japanese style arcade in the West with all the great shmups on play on authentic Japanese cabinets and a memorabilia collection of posters, artwork, facts and figures, history on devcos and such. Could even branch out into fighters, neo-geo and the like.

Hell if it existed in a nice tourist spot in Florida or California i'd definately pop in as part of the excursion. Could even have a gift shop with Japanese superguns, cabinets, buttons, joysticks, consoles, hats, tshirts...

The way arcades are going it could even be part of a museum. I think it should be done, but I don't have any capital to put behind it but If I made it big time I would definately hook up with some experts from this site to make it happen

[GaijinPunch]

I'm sure we could all pitch in a bit for the cabs/PCBs. They're not that expensive. It's the rent and paying someone to work there that makes it pricey.

[DEL]

Did I read that there were once 2,200 Arcades in America? Or was it 22,000?
Now there seems to be the odd arcade every 1,000 miles with a Retro section of pre-1984 games that don't interest us (on the whole).

I'm lucky in London, Dave_K's got it sorted in California, RFK's got it going in Austria and sven's got it covered in Scandinavia. Cowboy-RJJ has an arcade I think??

Ord has an impressive collection of cabs and titles is Scotland too

Problem is; the current generation haven't been raised on arcades and probably wouldn't visit one if it opened. Its a non-social 'Stay at Home' Culture. The Rot has set in and probably will continue in that vein.


Regs,

DEL

[Blade]

If by this you are suggesting the equivalent of Playboy's Mansion in Shmups...I highly doubt anyone is THAT rich...

I could be wrong though.

[GunSpike]

Aah, what a dream. And I think there's a chance something like that would work. Surprisingly, a lot of people out there, including mainstream folks, still think shooters are fun to play (they're just not into them or even think they still exist ).

I think the occasional tournament would be awesome as well, provided you could get a good following. Heh, I like this idea. Anybody got more?

[antron]

friends who have not played a shmup in 10 years come into my garage and become glued to my egret 29.

[Dave_K.]

I've been thinking we could hold a yearly shmup conference. On the east or west coast of the US (where ever there are a majoritity of cab owners that are willing lug their cabs to). Rent out a bunch of conference rooms at a hotel for the weekend, and have talks/education sessions to go over strategy, with competitions, and free play times. People could bring stuff to swap/sell. Parties at night. Similar to what California Extreme does, but on a much smaller scale of course.

[mirkvid]

well, when i graduate college and get a house, i'm definately going to have a game room with shmups! 1st on my list is galaga, then i'm going to make a custom DDP cocktail cab! someday can't come soon enough!
everyone's invited!

[GaijinPunch]

We should grab a few hookers as well, for good measure.

Actually does sound like a lot of fun.

[Vexorg]

I could picture something like this working something like this place:

http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

I'll definitely have to visit there the next time I end up in Vegas. I do think that in order for something like this based on niche type arcade games like shmups to be successful, it would have to be somewhere with a significant Asian population. I also think you'd be hard pressed to succeed with something like this on shmups alone. At a minimum you'd need some DDR/rhythm type games, and fighters wouldn't hurt either.

[Limbrooke]

I could picture something like this working something like this place:

http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

I'll definitely have to visit there the next time I end up in Vegas. I do think that in order for something like this based on niche type arcade games like shmups to be successful, it would have to be somewhere with a significant Asian population. I also think you'd be hard pressed to succeed with something like this on shmups alone. At a minimum you'd need some DDR/rhythm type games, and fighters wouldn't hurt either.

Shit no.
Beatmania I can tolerate. Not DDR. Last thing you'd need around is constant stomping.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For DEL,

It was me who first mentioned that back in 1982, there were over 22,000 arcades in the USA and now in 2006, only 2,000 arcades exist. Sad but true, the current American arcade that exists today is not what it used to be in the during the Golden Age (the early 1980's before the "Great Video Crash of '83-'84"). The 1990's saw the birth of the fighting genre that revitalized the slump that the USA arcade industry was in with one single game -- Street Fighter II from Capcom Co Ltd. Of course, there were a few fighting games released in the 1980's but never sparked the USA arcade industry with likes of SFII.

As for pinball, it's had it's share of ups & downs...the Pinball 2000 series from Williams was the last nail in the coffin when it seemed like that it was going to be the determining factor in turning the pinball tide around. Up until the release of Pinball 2000, Williams held 60% of the USA pinball market. The only USA pinball mamufacturer left is Stern that absolutely refuses to release such a 'Pinball 2000' type of pinball game and has traditionally released two or three new pinball tables each year. Will pinball turn back to it's former glory days in the early 1990's? Nowdays, Williams sees more profit in manufacturing gambling machines such as slots and the like -- they want to please their stock shareholders. It's business as usual. Greg Maltic has his upcoming Pinball 2000 documentary to be shown at the 2006 PAPA show at this year's pinball expo in Las Vegas. Interesting stuff about the beginnings and what led to the demise of Pinball 2000. Former William pinball employees have their say on the Pinball 2000 fiasco. Mr. Maltic plans to release his Pinball 2000 DVD sometime in September 2006 for a reasonable price, of course. I wonder if he would like to make a shmup documentary?

For Dave K.,

Having a yearly shmup conference sounds like a great idea -- seeing how the California Extreme has started from it's humble beginnings in 1997 to what it is today in 2006, it's come a long ways in becoming a successful retro-1980's arcade & pinball show to attend & buy or sell related merchandise there.

There could be a dealer's room or section that would sell arcade shmup PCBs and console shmup game titles as well. ^_~

For Gaijin Punch,

I like the idea of some hired hookers/professional models to spice up the atmosphere of a shmup convention meet...sex sells. ^_~

Would gain international recognition if Japanese shmup developers were to attend and show some their latest arcade shmup offerings -- kinda like what Japan's twice-a-year arcade trade show has except have one here in the USA and invite the Japanese & USA press for coverage. ^_~

A true Japanese arcade enviroment setup for a USA based shmup conference meet would be ace in my book. It's just the logistics of locating the scattered shmup members who have such a good size collection who are willing to bring some their Japanese arcade cabinets to this proposed shmup conference meet. ^_~

This idea of having a shmup conference seriously could work out for the best... ^_~

Shmups, how BAD have you got it?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[RoninBuddha]

i guess it's safe t say that CAVE could ahve their own "NEOGEOLAND" type of place...

[Acid King]

I've been toying with the idea of opening an arcade in one of the more urban areas near me, some shooters, some fighters. Keep it open real late so the drunk college kids can come after the bars are closed, maybe do BYO or something and run monthly tournaments and change games regularly. Also, I'd ditch the coin play, leave all the games on freeplay and run it more like an internet cafe or pool hall, x amount for x amount of time. There's problems with the idea, but a man can dream can't he?

[Randorama]

So it's set: we're all going to invade Dave K.'s garage

(Apologies to Dave, who has an awesome garage with an awesome series of cabs )

[Shatterhand]

I think JP is rich enough, ask him

[system11]

Need to set something like this up:

http://www.retrokade.com/framepage.asp?browz=moz

Friend of mine runs/ran it - it's still on hold since they lost the building, those photos were taken around the time of the first opening party. The high up photos are taken from a half-floor upstairs used as a lounge area.

Something important to note, is with sit-down machines, they wouldn't have managed to get nearly as many games inside. Never underestimate the required space for arcade equipment

Sadly no hookers were present.

[chtimi-CLA]

Former William pinball employees have their say on the Pinball 2000 fiasco.

pcefx do you know if former WMS employees work at stern? i thought so playing stern's Lord of the rings, the layout looks a lot like the late WMS Attack from mars and Medieval madness.

[system11]

Former William pinball employees have their say on the Pinball 2000 fiasco.

pcefx do you know if former WMS employees work at stern? i thought so playing stern's Lord of the rings, the layout looks a lot like the late WMS Attack from mars and Medieval madness.

There are a handful of ex Williams staff who work for Stern, three of their programmers (I just asked one of them). In addition, most of the recent games have been designed by people who did the design for some Williams games although they're not full time employees. George Gomez designed LOTR, Playboy, Sopranos, but Attack From Mars was one of his too. Pat Lawlor did Nascar (Grand Prix), Monopoly, and Ripleys - same guy who among other games did Addams Family and Whirlwind. Elvis was done by Steve Ritchie of course, responsible for quite a few Williams games.

[Belmont]

Closest thing i have ever seen to that would be http://www.groundkontrol.com/arcade/ I dont know if the website mentions it but after 7:00 it becomes a bar and serves beer and other stuff. Nothing better then playing Battle Gerega on an arcade while drinking a cold beer.

[DEL]

PC Engine Fan X! - Thanks for clearing that up! As regards Pinball, was the Pinball 2000 a series of pinball tables that incorporated video screens inside? I played one of these in the Luxor in Las Vegas - the Jedi one. Bloodflowers was telling me about them in Casino arcade. I liked that system, but I also still enjoy a game of Sopranos in between Batrider Adv sessions
-
HOOKERS - Yes, good idea. New uses for the sit down cabs

[sven666]

great idea... in fact, screw the blackjack and arcades!!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

PC Engine Fan X! - Thanks for clearing that up! As regards Pinball, was the Pinball 2000 a series of pinball tables that incorporated video screens inside? I played one of these in the Luxor in Las Vegas - the Jedi one. Bloodflowers was telling me about them in Casino arcade. I liked that system, but I also still enjoy a game of Sopranos in between Batrider Adv sessions
-
HOOKERS - Yes, good idea. New uses for the sit down cabs

For DEL,

You're correct that Williams was planning to produce a series of pinball tables with incorporated video screens. For Williams, they deemed the Pinball 2000 series as too expensive although it was truly a breathtaking revolutionary evolution of pinball. It cost twice as much to produce the intial pinball mechanics for a fully working pinball table + a seperate video game team to do the graphics for the PC monitor. Yes, those Pinball 2000 tables each have a PC monitor installed (I did not know that until watching a special sneek preview of Greg Maltic's upcoming Pinball 2000 documentary). He is based out of San Francisco and has said that making the Pinball 2000 documentary was his first attempt of making one...very professionally well done IMO. Some questions during the Q&A session after this special sneek peek of his Pinball 2000 DVD, Greg was asked about if he would make such a Stern pinball documentary but he isn't sure if he wants to do that for the present time being. ^_~

I do recall that Williams offered a special prototype version of it's Pinball 2000 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for $4,200 USD at the 1999 California Extreme show in San Jose. I was one of the lucky ones to try out that special proto Pinball 2000 table at that show. ^_~

As for the sit-down arcade cabinets, there really isn't much room for a twosome with a beautiful hooker but some physical compromises could be made -- perhaps doing "it" standing up? ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Battlesmurf]

well, as far as the money, yes, I pretty much have it. THe knowledge? No..no i don't. If I could find the space and present my people with a resonable business plan, I could get something started. Starting is easy, maintaining is not. I would love to do something like this if I knew it would prosper, but what are the chances of that?

[Pirate1019]

Great Idea, but chances of it coming to fruition? Not as great. Make it in Washington so I can give it a visit . The closest thing to an arcade in my city is a street fighter 2 cab at the Domino's down the street from our school. Not even sure if that's still there.

[thenoble1]

Great Idea, but chances of it coming to fruition? Not as great. Make it in Washington so I can give it a visit . The closest thing to an arcade in my city is a street fighter 2 cab at the Domino's down the street from our school. Not even sure if that's still there.

Haha, Washington sucks when it comes to the arcade, except the Seattle area. I have a few friends/parents that want to organize a bunch of cabs. Not necessarily all shmups, but they would be in there. My dad's first goal in arcade life is to eventually scrounge up enough to buy a Zaxxon cab. I have friends that have a few cabs, although none of them are shmups. A few fighters and a DK Junior iirc. When I get a job I am gonna buy a few cabs, hopefully. Time will tell.

[Pirate1019]

Haha, Washington sucks when it comes to the arcade, except the Seattle area. I have a few friends/parents that want to organize a bunch of cabs. Not necessarily all shmups, but they would be in there. My dad's first goal in arcade life is to eventually scrounge up enough to buy a Zaxxon cab. I have friends that have a few cabs, although none of them are shmups. A few fighters and a DK Junior iirc. When I get a job I am gonna buy a few cabs, hopefully. Time will tell.

Yeah, it was a DK jr. cab. He has a bowling cab too. Too bad the screen on his street Fighter 2 cab is busted. Didn't he have a lightgun cab and a motercycle cab too, both broken?

I need to get an empty cab and fill it up with a comp with MAME on it.

[thenoble1]

He had, DK Jr., Mortal Kombat II with a broken screen (which, after playing it and seeing the damage, it may not be hard to fix), some lightgun game, and HangOn, the motorcycle game. Plus he has a cocktail game of some sort, but I didn't see what it was. I know a place around here that sells cabinets, too. I may look into that this weekend.

[Pirate1019]

Be sure to email me the location of this place. I need a cab.

[NTSC-J]

The problem with a shooter-centric arcade in the West is it'll still be inaccessible to most people on this board anyways. Japan has that area covered already, might as well just go to Tokyo for a few weeks if you're really itching for the arcade experience you aren't getting at home.

I used to scout bowling alleys and pizza parlors in the hopes of seeing a neo geo or something, but here I'm genuinely spoiled.




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