Right before the doors opened. Yes this is happening in 2010
The new arcade facility headed by the group developing a new arcade fighter Dark Presence will be opening it’s doors tomorrow night @ 11:59PM and judging by the video they sent us, they have managed to come a long way in getting a large number of games running to up an expansive location. They will have at least 120 games ready for the launch tomorrow, with more on the way after that and they will join several other notable locations in the US in creating what is more of a traditional “classic” arcade (i.e. little or no redemption). They also have to deal with local laws that make coin-op pretty much illegal in the area by making the location a fee-entry only with all the games on free play inside. The video below shows more and we wish them the best of luck in their endeavors. It will also be the launch location of Dark Presence which will hopefully be ready to go by the end of the year. We’re still waiting to hear about how it’s first showing at the GarasuNoShiCon event went, they are promising to show that off soon.
UPDATE: MKII actors Philip Ahn (Shang Tsung) and Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage) came to the Galloping Ghost Arcade and sat down to play some MKII. Here’s some of that thanks to Aaron Auzins. They also got to take a look at Dark Presence but we are still waiting to find out how showing that went. Aaron states:
“I was told in the first two hours of operation, 120 people paid for day passes to the grand opening. At 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, nearly 320 people had attended the arcade at some point in the day.
The arcade held its first tournament, using a Playstation 3 version of Super Street Fighter IV outfitted in a deluxe arcade setup. The free competition drew 24 competitors.
The arcade received a mix of visitors from the area, including just about every age span. One of the guests was actually Jon Klinkel, who weathered a lengthy trip from Battle Creek, Mich., to visit the arcade. Klinkel earned the number one spot on Twin Galaxies’ score record on the “Class of 1981” fast shot version of Galaga this June.
Galloping Ghost was able to talk to him and capture a little bit of media, but I was able to see him mess around on the Galaga at the arcade, quickly amassing nearly 1 million points to show us how it could be done. Doc is currently reaching out to Twin Galaxies in order to become an official referee, so this exchange brought up a lot
of good conversation about records and competitions at the location.”
[Galloping Ghost Arcade website]
UPDATE: Aaron Auzins has sent us pictures from the opening event along with a video taken just moments after they opened. The place filled up quite fast. Expect mroe to be sent in to us as they also plan on having a special guest there soon, I’ll post updates to this post in the Twitter feed. As for the new stuff, you can see it all below
Arcade wise………..they are doing a good job with the amount of games they have.
The local law and arcades being illegal is pretty wack. Hopefully they can find a way to change that.
The local law actually prohibits there from being more than six coin-op cabinets in one location. The admission with free play model totally circumvents that ordinance, and I’m told the city advised them to do it that way.
I do have to apologize for my camera going crazy. I think my girlfriend changed some settings while we were in Ottumwa. It also has a 10-minute time limit on video.
120 arcade cabinets in a single place? Holy moly. That would be the biggest arcade I’ve ever seen.. if i went there 😛
Awesome looking collection there. I hope they can get all that finished before opening day. Seems like a lot of work left to do.
Jerry it will be closer to 200 when they get them all fixed up!
my name is paul morten and i’m hoping you have the turbo ms pac-man there because my score is one of the top scores in the world and i’d love to break the all time high from twin galaxies at your place of buisness
Paul, yes we have Ms. Pac-man. We’d love for you to come by! 🙂