Jolt Country

Hey ICJ, if you haven't heard of this place, check out the 1984 Arcade. It was on my route today so I swung by again (it was my 3rd time there). $5 to get in and all the games are set on free play. I don't have a full list of all the games but off the top of my head there was: Gyruss, Karate Champ, Moon Patrol, Robotron, Smash TV, Pole Position I and II, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, Star Castle, Sinistar, Donkey Kong, TRON, Space Invaders, Gyruss, Gauntlet ... just a ton of stuff.

If you're ever in central Missouri you NEED to check out this place. It's 300 miles from my house and I feel like I should go more often.

In what Bizarro World is Springfield Central Missouri?

That's Southwest Missouri.

It's also nearly 300 miles from my house.

And I should go sometime.

Bruce

What is the address of this place? It should be mandatory that people give out their actual addresses, in a world where everyone has Google Ma-- oh dear I am nerd-raging.

sorry!

I am not sure how many miles it is from my place: if it's 300 from the two of you, I'd guess... 9 hours from me?

Oh! And yes, the lineup he has there is awesome. The really cool place out here, in Lyons, CO, has a good selection of arcade games, but the owner really prefers pinball. That's totally cool, but yeah, I guess I slightly prefer arcade games to pinball ones.

1984's lineup changes fairly regularly. Certain games go into rotation and others come out. The first time I went, all the games had a "new" feel about them and the place felt more like a museum than an arcade. This time, some of the monitors were a little faded and a couple of the buttons were sticky ... and it actually felt a lot more authentic!! And they do have pinball machines there but they aren't free (they're only a quarter and the money covers the maintenance).

The only bummer about my recent visit is that the arcade is divided up into thirds, and one third was reserved by a birthday party so I wasn't able to play 1/3 of the games. They are open Wed-Sat and the last two times I went were on Wednesdays and I or my group were the only people there. This last time I went was on a Friday and it was a lot more crowded -- again, more like how I remember the old arcades.

It has always bugged me that they don't like the address to the place on their website. You can use 417 S Jefferson Ave, Springfield if you want -- that's the address of the YMCA which is directly across the street.

Any time you guys want to meet up there, let me know. :)

Flack wrote:Any time you guys want to meet up there, let me know. :)

Once Jonsey's wallet is recharged after Scotland, I'm in. Actually maybe we could have our "fuck-Las-Vegas" party here like we were taking about and one day drive to Springfield, play until 11 PM, and then get back here at like 3.

Or rent a hotel room near Ft. Leonard Wood on the way back because skanky military base whores.

Bruce

Sounds good to me. Like I said, if you want the "arcade experience" (which means, a lot of other people there) you'll want to go Friday or Saturday night. If you essentially want the place to yourself, you'll want Wednesday or Thursday. If you want to just go and drool through the window and wish they were open, you'll want Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

Yeah, I gotta recharge vacation time, but I'd love to go to this with y'all at some point.

Ah crap, it's east of y'all, not west! So 12 hours from me. Well, no matter, I'll think of something. ^______^

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Ah crap, it's east of y'all, not west! So 12 hours from me. Well, no matter, I'll think of something. ^______^

I vote for Wed. or Thur., and I have plenty of room at my house, if not plenty of beds. If you don't mind a sleeping bag and some floor, or sharing a bed with some other dude, we're cool.

Bruce

Seriously, let's do this.

Bruce

May is pretty open for me.

In April I've got the Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo (OEGE) one weekend and Notacon/Blockparty in Cleveland the next.

My buddy Rupert asked for May 8-10 off.

How does that weekend work for everyone?

Bruce

bruce wrote:My buddy Rupert asked for May 8-10 off.

How does that weekend work for everyone?

Bruce

Seriously, can we do this? There's crash space in St. Louis; we could combine it with my MAME cabinet, trips to a couple of decent retro-game stores in the STL area, and some D&D for a proper nerd-out.

Bruce

OK, I am out of vacation (got some back, but my mother informed me she was visiting a while back, so I had to queue it for that... and yes, this essentially makes me the guy unable to commit to D&D because of his MOM)... but lemme check on flights. If I can fly out Friday and be back Sunday night I can do this.

I will have an answer for you before the end of Sunday the 19th! And this is an actual commitment, not a "I'm gonna finish Braid" commitment.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I will have an answer for you before the end of Sunday the 19th!

?

My friend Tracy is perhaps coming up from Texas for it too.

Bruce

My apologies, One of the Bruces-san! I was mostly unconscious with a cold yesterday and today.

Unfortunately, I cannot make a trip at that date! I should have more vacation accumulated and more ca$h for such an outing later in the summer.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:My apologies, One of the Bruces-san! I was mostly unconscious with a cold yesterday and today.

Unfortunately, I cannot make a trip at that date! I should have more vacation accumulated and more ca$h for such an outing later in the summer.

Dude, you suck. The wheels are rolling. A trip SHALL BE MADE. I already have Tracy coming in from out of town. Roody? You still around? You wanna come down for this? Flack, you're gonna meet us there, right? I guess Saturday the 9th...we'll aim to be there at 4PM.

Bruce

I'm still around. I don't think this'll be the one I'll come down for, but I hope to come down at some point.

Roody_Yogurt wrote:I'm still around. I don't think this'll be the one I'll come down for, but I hope to come down at some point.

Aw, dude, you suck too.

:-(

Bruce