Happy weekend everyone! It’s not quite St. Patrick’s Day yet but have a joyful holiday if its a day of your choice. Also a big thanks to those of you who bought my book! I’ll try not to shamelessly plug it all the time but I will right now so you have something to read over the weekend. That aside, here’s some other arcade stuff to start the weekend off with.
Kotaku has a piece where they collect some sources with pictures on some abandoned arcade centers in Japan. They are called “haikyo” there and of course like every niche thing you can think of, there are websites dedicated to exploring them. One has to wonder if anyone has discovered some hidden treasure like the rare and valued Sundance cabinet that was found through abandoned site photos once (I highly recommend reading that story in case you missed it). I’ve been in a place like that once when I was looking into another arcade facility project, I probably shouldn’t have walked around as non-chalantly as I did but it was something else to behold (especially the old gym with warped, bloated wood so bad it was a few feet tall). From one of the links on the Kotaku story, I noticed this pic from Forbidden Kyushu and the Sidaka hotel where a Namco Starblade rots away, along with a few other games.
Arcade Otaku had a link to this on Twitter of “Arcadeans” by Think Geek. It’s plush sort of shaped like an arcade cabinet but it includes a “shake sensor [to] activate retro arcade sound effects”. Could make for some fun plush to have in a crane as well. Now someone will have to tell me if I’m crazy or not but it’s like V.I.N.CENT from Disney’s The Black Hole had an arcade plush baby. Amiright?
The director of Wreck-It Ralph has created a parody of The King of Kong which you can see here. The scoring hero in this story is Garlan Hulse, who as you will see, loves his mother very much. And arcade games like Fix It Felix Jr. It’s over-the-top as good parody is, but I won’t spoil it for you. 🙂
Love the abandoned arcade pics, creepy and a bit sad but encouraging that those “finds” are still out there for us collectors! One of the centers featured, from the original page, looks a lot like my game room, right down to the Virtual On twin and the Godzilla redemption.