28 June 2009

Canberra Gaming Arcades?

| JeffBezos
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Since intencity was cut in half at belconnen mall the arcade scene in canberra has been pretty lame.

Anyone know of any other good arcades around canberra?

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Canberra really needs a gaming arcade. Without it, what else can we do in the city centres besides shop and eat? -.- A Timezone, Galaxy World or a revamped Intencity would be awesome.

I wanna make a TTT2 scene happen here!

Holden Caulfield10:21 am 09 Aug 10

…oh, and Sega Rally Championship, of course.

Holden Caulfield10:21 am 09 Aug 10

Mad Dog McCree at Happy Days in Civic was, erm, I think the term these days is, fully sik!

colourful sydney racing identity8:32 am 09 Aug 10

Bring back Phillip Amusement Cetre, tha place rocked on a Friday night – very strict dress code though. No flannel, no heavy metal t-shirt, no skin tight blue jeans, no entry.

dvaey said :

grunge_hippy said :

why go out and pay $1 or more for 30 seconds of a game when you can get a better experience at home with xbox’s playstations and wii’s etc…

Or for those who dont want to spend a weeks food budget on a computer game disc, MAME will let you play all your favourite old arcade games for free, and you dont even need a super expensive console either.

Paying money for a games console isnt a much better investment than paying money for a go on an arcade game. You still cant do anything but game with it.

BerraBoy68 said :

I can’t understand why anybody would want to visit an arcade any more.

Must be like those same people who’ll go spend $7 to hire a new release DVD or spend $30 on the new Britney Spears CD or Hollywood movie, when there are cheaper (sometimes free) alternatives.

..and by free you mean ‘pirated’. Sure there are a few that have been released for free.. but 99.9% of the MAME roms out there are commercial… you can’t really price compare it to paying for something legitimately.

Metro was the arcade in Woden interchange, spent some money there.. especially when Mortal Kombat 2 and Daytona were released. The arcades were awesome in Canberra before they got commercialised like Intencity in Belconnen. Still remember when Mortal Kombat 2 was released, the crowd around it lasted for weeks, Daytona and cruising USA were the same, you’d just go and watch it for the awesome graphics 🙂

JVAL said :

Pretty sure there was a Time Zone in Woden in the mid 90’s too. Good Times

Yeh, that place was isane. Good old times from when I was a wee kid.

Combat Zone was the one next to Coles back in the 90’s, and there was Metro at the woden bus interchange that held up until 2000 then closed, the short lived Matrix.net at the Hyperdome where St. George Bank is now. It’s sad about Intensity, probably won’t be long before that vanishes completely either. Pretty sure there was a Time Zone in Woden in the mid 90’s too. Good Times

Hells_Bells74 said :

When I worked in a Mawson, twenty years ago I used to hang out sometimes at a downstairs arcade at Mawson shops, is that long gone now?

I still miss Pot Black!

Probably died about 20 years ago.. lol

Hells_Bells745:08 pm 20 Jan 10

When I worked in a Mawson, twenty years ago I used to hang out sometimes at a downstairs arcade at Mawson shops, is that long gone now?

I still miss Pot Black!

Capital Funland in Garema Place. Haven’t been there for a few years but they are still around. They have pool tables as well.

Any one know of any arcades in canberra with DDR machine/s?. I know the tugerannong bowling alley has one.

You can still play Galaga at Theo’s Take Away in Kambah for 20c.

Only difference if that my knees now won’t fit under the machine.

Disposable said :

Pot Black was upstairs in Belco to the right of where Rubey’s is now. Top Gun I think was the name of the arcade in the Woden interchange.

There used to be one is Belco in the same plaza that Centrelink is in. I can’t remember the name of that one though. All the bombers used to hang out there.

There also used to be a pinny arcade in the Fadco centre at Charny and there was also a very short lived one at the Macgregor shops.

there was time out downstairs in belco, and an arcade in the hyperdome, next to coles. consoles are ok for some games, but pinball is best played on a proper table. hoyts tuggernanong had some, last i was there. pot black was similar to the jackpot bar for pool, the arcade element was really a 2nd thought. with the demise of pendo’s, there really aren’t many pool halls, either. must be a dying breed now, both arcades and pool halls.

Pot Black was upstairs in Belco to the right of where Rubey’s is now. Top Gun I think was the name of the arcade in the Woden interchange.

There used to be one is Belco in the same plaza that Centrelink is in. I can’t remember the name of that one though. All the bombers used to hang out there.

There also used to be a pinny arcade in the Fadco centre at Charny and there was also a very short lived one at the Macgregor shops.

Mame is great, but it can’t do pinball.

Favourite hangouts in my day were Pot Black in Belconnen (or was that the Woden one), the takeaway at the Woden interchange as mentioned, the arcade also at Woden interchange, Happy Days in Civic when it used to be above the Pheonix, at the place in Woden above the Henry Gratten.

stonedwookie12:12 pm 29 Jun 09

some stuff you can only play at the arcade like punchmania or arm wrestling and a few other special games you can only get on arcade.japan has alot of the newer stuff that we dont get here.

Paying money for a games console isnt a much better investment than paying money for a go on an arcade game. You still cant do anything but game with it.

A short list of things you can do with pretty much any modern console that aren’t games:

1. Watch movies or tv shows (dvds, or files on local disk/network share)
2. Internet connectivity (web browse, email, chat, check out movie trailers from apple.com)
3. Listen to music (cds, or files on local disk/network share)
4. View photos/slideshow (does anyone remember their parents having slideshow evenings with the Hanimex projector and endless clicky-whirr noises?)

dvaey said :

Paying money for a games console isnt a much better investment than paying money for a go on an arcade game. You still cant do anything but game with it.

Actually i use my XBOX 360 for Gaming, watching DVD’s and storing music / movies / tv shows on (thanks to the 20gb hard drive inside it). I agree that the consoles are a better investment. That said, you cant get many ‘classic’ arcade games on XBOX or PS.

Woden Interchange greasy cafe was my school haunt for a few years – when a dark back-room behind the counter was the place to be before the school bus.

20 cents per game!

MAME is ok – but the games are never really the same – after playing GTA/Fallout3/Bioshock etc. Even the kids turned their noses up at what we think are all-time classics!

Yeah! Why go out and hang out with friends and have a good time when you can sit on your ass at home all alone and pretend you have friends on the LAN!?!

Can’t play air hockey on a xbox. Intencity was better when it had a bar in it though.

eyeLikeCarrots8:31 am 29 Jun 09

I’m a long time fan of mame, but its hard to forget the days long past when you could stand at a machine with your friends watching someone rock a machine to a new highscore..

Ah youth… where did you go ?

grunge_hippy said :

why go out and pay $1 or more for 30 seconds of a game when you can get a better experience at home with xbox’s playstations and wii’s etc…

Or for those who dont want to spend a weeks food budget on a computer game disc, MAME will let you play all your favourite old arcade games for free, and you dont even need a super expensive console either.

Paying money for a games console isnt a much better investment than paying money for a go on an arcade game. You still cant do anything but game with it.

BerraBoy68 said :

I can’t understand why anybody would want to visit an arcade any more.

Must be like those same people who’ll go spend $7 to hire a new release DVD or spend $30 on the new Britney Spears CD or Hollywood movie, when there are cheaper (sometimes free) alternatives.

grunge_hippy said :

why go out and pay $1 or more for 30 seconds of a game when you can get a better experience at home with xbox’s playstations and wii’s etc…

+1. I can’t understand why anybody would want to visit an arcade any more.

Timezone… various locations around Australia. Except Canberra.

Sign of the times.

One word: MAME

Grunge_hippy’s right. The video game arcade is history.

The arcade scene in Canberra is pretty lame… shouldn’t that just the arcade scene is pretty lame full stop?

grunge_hippy6:28 pm 28 Jun 09

why go out and pay $1 or more for 30 seconds of a game when you can get a better experience at home with xbox’s playstations and wii’s etc…

Bring back the the pinballs!?

Well, I consider Bailey’s Arcade to still be pretty nice.

Zone3 in Weedon Close has a few machines, its not their core business so just some classics. If you like shooting arcade games, then Zone3 itself might be worth a try.

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