We were there from about 3ish until 9pm. I keep almost getting together with you, Crater. :-)
I hate you all. I lived in Exeter, NH during my high school years and would spend many a night either up there when it was open all night, or at Hampton Beach (where I worked for one summer making taffy and fried dough) at one of their half dozen arcades playing pinball. Winters were depressing because all of the big arcades shut down on the beach and there was only one small place there besides the malls which paled in comparison.
Someone give me a cushy IT job up there, please?
(PS, my wife works from home so she’s set)
I LOVED THAT GAME, just because it was unusual and had such groovy music.
Here’s the list:
http://www.funspotnh.com/gms-classic.htm
After Burner (moving cockpit version of course!)
Hang-On (love the music, I hope it’s the full bike one)
H-E-A-V-Y B-A-R-R-E-L!!!
Rolling Thunder (come on you gotta save her. The bastards are electrocuting her!)
I moved to Massachusetts recently.
After reading this thread 2 years ago in envy, I’ve finally made my way to FunSpot. It was a bit crazy in Weirs Beach due to Bike Week, but FunSpot was relatively empty, even though the parking lot was crammed with people.
FunSpot struck the same chord of nostalgia in my psyche as an old dying Mall does. In a day and age with Wii, Xbox360 and PS3 with dozens of accessories, a place like funspot is an anachronism. The entire time I was there I wondered how long a place like this can survive.
The 11th Annual Classic Video Game Tournament took place the weekend before, and even though it would have been nice to see the arcade full of people, I’m glad I had the run of the place. I intend on going to the 12th annual tournament, though.
Played for several hours, with $20 in tokens, and still had a handful of tokens left to waste on ticket games.
I got the high score(25,200) in Donkey Kong for the day, so my trip was a success.
I love the place, but I know what you mean. It really helps to view it as a museum. You can play nearly all of these games through emulation but you lose a huge part of the experience. You can’t just tap the “credit” button 50 times, you have to spend your tokens and make the most of your 3 lives.
I find that when younger players, who never experienced this stuff the first time around, play via emulation, they just give themselves a ton of credits and power through the game (providing the game offers continues). Then they proclaim the game to be boring. They’re completely missing the point. A trip to Funspot puts it all in perspective.
UPDATE: On my last trip a couple of months ago they had quite a few games that I hadn’t seen there before including:
Astron Belt - dreadful laserdisc game.
MACH 3 - another dreadful laserdisc game.
A couple of really strange old racing games.
A couple of really old space shooters
A lot of the Pinball games were out of order, which was sad.
At the bar we ran into the guy who holds the world’s record on Dragon Spirit. God I hate that game.
Good times. Another trip scheduled for the fall.
Hilarious, is that the guy with the white stripes in his hair? I sat next to him and a few other folks waxing nostalgic at the bar.
I will be making my annual pilgrimage there on either August 8, or 15, whichever my wife decides is my “birthday” Saturday. Every year she asks, “What do you want to do for your birthday?”
“Funspot!!!”
Then she rolls her eyes and starts planning to bring someone to keep her company. I made it all the way through the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game last year. I still have tokens left.
I’ve always wanted to go to Funspot. I’ve been past it numerous times, but have never had time to stop. The rest of Weir’s Beach I have no use for, though, especially during bike week.
I’m going to be up that way next week, may have to stop in.
Yeah, that’s the guy. He appears to spend a lot of time in that bar.