So I had a weird experience the other day. A friend sent me a Car Battler Joe cart for the GBA, because they weren’t using it and were kind enough to save me $80 (I shit you not).
Anyway, I start playing it, then I try to save. No joy, thing won’t save, get an error.
So I take it to the video game shop across the street, since they said they could replace batteries in GBA carts.
Welp? This one has no battery. It saves to a chip on the board, apparently.
Ah well, I’ll play it until I get tired of it I think. So I get to where you can finally save and think, “What the hell?” I try to save…and it saves perfectly.
It’s as if taking the cart apart and putting it back together fixed it.
Today, the Sega Ages version of the arcade Virtua Racing got out for the switch. It features online play, 8 players local play, replay saves…
We had so much fun playing the Megadrive version back when, I can’t wait to fire that one up with my old buddy. For such a limited game in scope, it had those magical, intangible “perfect” controls that made multiplayer sessions a blast, despite the game looking quite ugly back then already.
Any split-screen is actually better these days because you typically have so much more TV to put it on. The actual resolution of the original Virtua Racing isn’t much higher than what they’re putting out for eight screens.
I grabbed Virtua Racing, and it’s just an incredible work of love, as every single of the newer Sega Ages have proven to be.
To speak of split screens, I don’t have a large TV nor 7 friends, but in portable mode, I was very pleasantly surprised by the options: you get side by side, top on top and a sort of cocktail mode with each player watching his own half face to face.
Online leaderboards, amazing driving feel true to the original game, what a joy.
Those are both worth owning. The changes to Phantasy Star make it the definitive version and Lightening Force is one of the best shooters ever made. Certainly it’s top 5 for 16-bit.
So my wife and I were driving around Daytona Beach today, and came across this Arcade Museum. The boast over 100 games from the 70’s and 80’s as well as pinball. We decided to spend a few hours. The first few shots are from the display cases at the front. I thought they’d be interesting to some of you.
While this was an awesome time (except for my wife kicking my ass in pinball constantly) there were a lot of games and pinball machines not present. I realize space was limited there, but for a museum, I would have liked to see some of these classics:
Pinball:
Taxi
PinBot (and Bride of)
Black Knight 2000
Earthshaker
Gone Fishin
Video Games:
Cyberball
Tron
Dragon’s Layer
Tempest
Plus many others that didn’t immediately come to mind. Pretty fun time. $20 for an all day pass. No coins needed.
Whoa, Spect, Thanks! I wonder what the maintenance costs for all those games are? They do eventually break down, so I’d imagine they must keep some poor shmuck on staff to take care of it all. I’ll bet he keeps busy, and I want his job!
What a find, thanks for sharing. The building looked more like a dungeon than a museum but I suppose that’s due to the need to have it dimly lit for the arcade games.
Yeah it was pretty dark in there and very loud. They also had original 80’s music videos from MTV playing on a big screen. That was fun to watch too. I had forgotten about some of those.
@nogwart I can only imagine the maintenance costs. I will say though that proper pinball maintenance is an art form, and the folks at this particular museum are lacking. Either that or it’s impossible to find parts for them now. Several of the machines did not play well. The High Speed machine was the most disappointing since the plunger shot couldn’t even make the ramp. The Addam’s Family machine cut off while we were playing, and some of the other machines had weak or badly aligned flippers. However, most of the video game cabinets were in great shape, and we didn’t notice and sticky buttons, or broken control sticks. Playing the original Space Invaders and Pac Man cabs were just like back in the day.
Nice photos. That’s a nice collection they have there. I own an Odyssey 300 like the one in the first photo.
As for maintenance, it’s always dependent on the location, profitability, the number of players of the machines, and their willingness to maintain. You can easily replace parts on pinball machines these days. Some places make a very nice living doing it like TNT Amusements down in Philly.
While they call it the Arcade Museum, it’s definitely a for profit business, which means they’re always juggling the bills to be able to keep things maintained. That looks like a large space they’re renting too, so rent probably isn’t cheap. Maybe their pinball guy just quit (or died) and they need a new one? It’s as simple as that sometimes.
I frequent these types of places often. We have a number of retro arcades around the area. I think the $20-$25 flat fee is probably the best option for them. Realistically, you’d never spend close to that if they went with quarters.
For anyone near Malvern with a love of pinball, I highly recommend The Pinball Gallery.
Their stuff is in excellent condition for the most part and it is absolutely packed with great tables. I could easily spend an entire day there. They allow you to come and go as you like, too.
None of them brought up the best game series, which is hands down Quest for Glory (although Betrayal of Krondor is a definitely a close second and got me to read the series).
