Arcades in Thailand/Bangkok

[Dragoforce]

Me and my girlfriend are going to Thailand for a few weeks this autumn. Therefore i'm wondering if anyone know of any good arcades in Bangkok? I know that there are supposed to be some in the larger shopping malls, but since it's such a big city i'm hoping that there are some out in the open as well?

We are going to travel around the country a bit too, so if anyone knows of any arcades outside Bangkok that would be cool as well

[manatworks]

if you're going to Bangkok,i'm quite sure that you'll got a chance to visit MBK shopping center near Siam area ,that shopping mall has quite ok arcade on the 7th floor, but don't expect to find any shmups there (we used to have Mushi Futari 1.5, Gigawing that was set to 0.2usd/2credits) ,but if you are interested in fighting and music games,we have got latest Guitar Freaks, Drummania, Djmax Technika, SFIV, Tekken6, After burner Climax and several Gun shooting/Driving cabs.

Other malls also got arcade too,but i guess the place @ MBK shopping center is the easiest place for foreigner to get to.

I can make a simple map for you if u're interested to pay a visit .
***if you interested in retro/rare console stuffs,there's a shop on the 6th floor also***
ps. sorry for my bad english

[Dragoforce]

if you're going to Bangkok,i'm quite sure that you'll got a chance to visit MBK shopping center near Siam area ,that shopping mall has quite ok arcade on the 7th floor, but don't expect to find any shmups there (we used to have Mushi Futari 1.5, Gigawing that was set to 0.2usd/2credits) ,but if you are interested in fighting and music games,we have got latest Guitar Freaks, Drummania, Djmax Technika, SFIV, Tekken6, After burner Climax and several Gun shooting/Driving cabs.

Cool! Bummer about Mushi and Gigawing, but I would love to check out After burner Climax and the music games. Do you visit there yourself?

I can make a simple map for you if u're interested to pay a visit .
***if you interested in retro/rare console stuffs,there's a shop on the 6th floor also***

That would be much appreciated! Both me and my g/f can have some trouble finding our way sometimes. We'll defintly visit the shop as well.

ps. sorry for my bad english

A lot better than mine

[manatworks]

ok,here's a map
and yes,i used to go there very often,the place's arcade used to be so rock 3 years ago(hell lot of cabs,including Tenkomori shooting,Twinkle Star Sprites,Viewpoint,Last resort,Metalslug1-2-3,Gigawing,19xx,Varth ----you can imagine it)

7th floor


6th floor

the call n. of that shop is 089-210-4411,be sure to check the price of the stuffs you want to buy first since the price system in Thailand is totally chaotic(he also has sigma raijin supergun and some pcbs too)

you can read how to get to the mall here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBK_Center , http://www.mbk-center.com/en/

btw,enjoy your trip!

[tsuruki]

In fact,unfortunately,arcade game market in thailand is nearly monopoly, dominated by bribery from radical monopolist. That's a reason why the cost for playing is normally rather expensive as well as obsolete cabinets,due to being free from competitive force from the new entry.

For example, you might be surprised when finding HOD2 cabinet in urban department store,but it normally cost 10 bath per each credit and fix difficulty at the hardest level or least amount of life stocks (bullshit scandal).

Apart from a large mass of arcade fellow on weekend,I promptly suggest you should ease yourself,trying the new title without the new challengers in the queue .

[Dragoforce]

I'm sorry to hear that. Over here, arcades have basiclly been outlawed by the state, so i'm not that picky. Thanks for the heads up!


Thanks a for the help manatworks! It looks like a really big place, hopefully we won't have any trouble getting finding it.

btw,enjoy your trip!

We defintly will! It's going to be great leaving cold and dark Sweden for a while. We are going there late october and will stay for a little more than three weeks. Can't wait!

[escadrille]

Over here, arcades have basiclly been outlawed by the state, so i'm not that picky.

This is off-topic, but what's their rationale for that?

[Dragoforce]

It's a long story and there are people who know it a lot better than I do (Sven666 who used to run an arcade for instance)

Basically the goverment determined sometime in the late 90's that arcade machines should fall under the same kind of rules as as poker - and slot machines and that the operators have to pay the same (sky-high) fees as for the arcades machines. One the major reasons for doing this was (as far as I know) that arcade machines was not deemed suitable in environment that young people had access to. This of course led to a situation where arcade machines all but disappeared in favor of slot- and poker machines , since they have a lot higher revenue.

The absurd part about all this is that all gambling (including slot machines and the likes) are controlled and governed by a state-owned company (svenska spel) that has monopoly on all gambling within Sweden. I'm not much for conspiracies, but it makes you wonder...

[Rosse]

So there are no other arcades besides the one at MBK and the nearby malls? *just making sure*

10 bath is still a lot cheaper than here

[jonny5]

So there are no other arcades besides the one at MBK and the nearby malls? *just making sure*

10 bath is still a lot cheaper than here

thats just over 25cents usd.....thats cheap

its like $1-$2 per play if you can find arcades here.....and around $.50 for older games

[escadrille]

It's a long story and there are people who know it a lot better than I do (Sven666 who used to run an arcade for instance)

Basically the goverment determined sometime in the late 90's that arcade machines should fall under the same kind of rules as as poker - and slot machines and that the operators have to pay the same (sky-high) fees as for the arcades machines. One the major reasons for doing this was (as far as I know) that arcade machines was not deemed suitable in environment that young people had access to. This of course led to a situation where arcade machines all but disappeared in favor of slot- and poker machines , since they have a lot higher revenue.

The absurd part about all this is that all gambling (including slot machines and the likes) are controlled and governed by a state-owned company (svenska spel) that has monopoly on all gambling within Sweden. I'm not much for conspiracies, but it makes you wonder...

I bet it all started with some do-gooders who thought that video games were destroying the minds of the youth (etc) and accidentally ended up encouraging the much more dangerous vice of gambling. No doubt the state-run gambling monopoly jumped on the bandwagon afterwards.

Aside from the infamous Indian casinos, we have state-controlled gambling here as well. They protect their racket as aggressively as the mob used to back in the day.


It sucks considering all you want to do is drop some credits into DDP DOJ.

[manatworks]

So there are no other arcades besides the one at MBK and the nearby malls? *just making sure*

10 bath is still a lot cheaper than here

uh,there're other arcades scattering around Bangkok (and some "tourist" town like Chaing Mai and Pattaya) ,but MBK seems to be the most obvious and easiest to go ,there's very small arcade nearby in another mall called Siam Paragon,but the games list are not really good (except for Let's go Jungle,After Burner Climax,Daytona USA and Winding Heat).
But if u've got time,you can try look around in any Big shopping mall in Bangkok,there will be at least one arcade in those places (but again,the machine they provided is the same as in MBK since they're from the same(bad) operator, if u're lucky enough, you will find some oddities such as Railchase1/2,Ocean Hunter,Prop cycle etc.

(if you got a chance to visit nearby country such as Singapore,it'll be a really different story. They've got so much new stuffs--and that's what i waste my time a lot when i'm working there )

[D]

Cool thread and thanks for the map. Almost visited bangkok myself this year.
In the Netherlands the same thing as in Sweden has happened. More and more stuff is outlawed here. These days before you want to do something you're better off learning which things are still legal to do. Crazy world.

[Dragoforce]

At least you're allowed to smoke pot, we can't buy alcohol in regular stores.

[D]

At least you're allowed to smoke pot, we can't buy alcohol in regular stores.

Oh yeah That's Amsterdam for ya.
smoking pot en drinking alcohol until alcohol poisoning/passing out = ok. Playing Tetris in an arcade is BAD FOR YOU.

[captpain]

Honestly, how does a place notorious for legal pot smoking NOT allow arcade games? Seems like one of the premier places I'd want to get stoned and play bullet hell games.

[Dragoforce]

Me and my girl are off to Thailand tomorrow, hopefully we'll have some cool arcade pics once we get back home

Perhaps some mod should move this thread to off-topic or something btw, sorry.