You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Gaming arcade memories: Showbiz Pizza
I had my 11th birthday party at a Showbiz.
The one nice thing about Chuck E Cheese is that they still have Skee-ball. At least the one near me does. They also have a few video games among all the ticket redemption games. it's just that most new arcade games are crap. They are very few and all seem to be made by a company called Raw Thrills.
Hey, someone that has a shared memory of how awesome Showbiz was! The animatronic performances were pretty great at the time but there are some pretty funny videos out there of people that have gotten their hands on some of them, stripped them down, and the robots that are inside are creepy looking as hell.
The arcades disappearing in a general sense was tragic but it was an eventuality with the home consoles getting better and better. Back in the 80's and early 90's the arcade versions of the games were always better than the home versions, but I don't see how that would even be possible these days since the PS5 and even PS4 games look like movies.
PS: Skee-ball will never die :)
I always thought the animatronics were pretty creepy even not stripped down. That was just part of the entertainment value :). I'm pretty sure I have a couple of photos from that birthday party around somewhere...
The death of arcades was sad. I'm afraid the death of movie theaters might be next. I remember for a time there were two arcades in the mall near me. Aladdin's Castle and Pocket Change. The fighting craze, starting with Street Fighter II, was really the last big hurrah for arcades. I keep hoping they'll make a come back one day but it seems unlikely. I still want to build or otherwise acquire a MAME cabinet one of these days...