It’s 1999 and the gaming world is looking at the Dreamcast as the harbinger of the next generation of console gaming. In the waning days of the arcade, quarters are being thrown into a game called Crazy Taxi with wild abandon. Soon, Crazy Taxi is ported to the home consoles and the job of getting passengers to their destinations as fast as possible is happening in living rooms all across the nation. Sega is ascendant and all, for the moment, looks well.

On a hot summer day, a young college graduate seeks digital amusement while on a family vacation in Florida. The young man, enjoying his last days of unemployment before being slaved to the Man, walks into an arcade that has always delivered the goods and holds the potential of what the future may hold. The young man walks toward the row of Crazy Taxi machines which spew out a terrible cacophony of terrible late-nineties pop.

Before the young man can drop a quarter into the machine, however, his eyes spot a curious cabinet over in the corner. Looking visually similar to the cabinet which is in front of him, the game is strikingly different. Clothed in a zebra skin and broadcasting the MIDI-created sounds of the African Safari, he looks at the title and smiles. Thus begins a two year love affair with the game called Jambo Safari. A game where capturing animals replaces passenger delivery and the wild abandon of swerving around the Savannah takes over from downtown Pseudo-San Fran. All was not perfect, however, as the young man searched his home city in vain for a Jambo Safari machine of his own to play. It was not to be. He pined for the ability to play Jambo Safari in his living room, as he had done with the very similar Crazy Taxi.

“The graphics seem to be similar.” he thought curiously.

“It has to be using the same engine!”, he uttered in frustrated hope.

Time passed and the young man grew older. He waited and waited for the news of a release date for his cherished Savannah simulator, but no news came.

The days grew long, as did the years. The Dreamcast sank into a too early oblivion and the next generation of consoles swallowed what was left of the arcade scene in it’s HD jaws. The young man was married, had a child and thought of his lost love only in silent and wistful passing.

On a normal day, a day like any other, the not-so-young man witnesses a news post. His heart leaps with joy.

Jambo Safari, at last, is coming home.

It’s time for another one of those “Anybody Remember?” posts. This time we’re talking about Time Traveler, a psuedo-hologram arcade game by Sega.

A lot of my video game memories involve my Dad. He wasn’t a gamer at all, but he lived in Minneapolis while I lived in Central Wisconsin. Somehow, every time I would come over to visit him I would have an awesome video game experience. Whether it was the incredible Sega Master System exhibit at the Rosedale Mall, the giant convention center hall filled with arcade games that we just happened to stumble upon, or the time he bought me my TurboGrafx-16, my trips to Minnesota seemed to always include something video game related.

I can’t remember exactly where we saw Time Traveler, but I seem to recall that it was at some sort of museum where they were showing off new technology. We saw a special effects exhibit from the movie Aliens, some models used in the Star Wars trilogy, and a room full of “cutting edge” video game tech. The unit that grabbed everybody’s attention was Sega’s Time Traveler. The game projected images on mirrors creating a hologram-like effect. You played as a cowboy named Marshall Gram who must travel through time and, of course, save a princess from a mad scientist, or some such ridiculous bullshit. The game ran on Laserdisc technology and as such played a lot like Dragon’s Lair. In other words: Quick Time Events; press the correct button at the right time and proceed.

So while the gameplay was certainly nothing to write home about, the game was an instant draw due to the stunning visual effects. Your character walked around on a desolate black landscape, but strewn throughout were bushes, signposts, and other bits of scenery. The screen lay flat and the “holograms” walked on top of it, making the player feel like s/he could reach out and grab anything they saw. And for 1991, that shit was amazing!

Again, while the gameplay was lackluster, and the game cost a dollar to play, it makes me wonder why this technology wasn’t implemented in other games. Nearly twenty years later, I’m guessing game developers could come up with some bad ass ideas. Of course, they would need an arcade to house these games, and those aren’t exactly plentiful these days.

If you’d like to learn more about Time Traveler, check it out at Klov where these images came from.

We all spend hours lamenting the death of proper arcades in the United States. The dark, quarter-munching game halls have mostly been boarded up and forgotten or replaced by giant bowling alley/redemption machine/food and drink establishments like Dave & Busters, GameWorks, and now Brunswick Zone. Brunswick Zones have been around for a while, operating mainly as large, fancy bowling alleys. Occassionally they’d throw in a bar and maybe a few arcade machines and pool tables. But that was before Brunswick Zone…XL!

So Brunswick Zone XL takes the old model and turns it into a ginormous family fun center, which sounds like hell on earth to me. Complete with restaurants, bowling, video games, laser tag, private rooms, and party rooms, XL is the place to go if you want to fight through hoards of screaming children so you can earn some tickets on a neon-lit redemption machine. There’s a new one that just opened down the road from my place, so while driving past I decided to pop in and check it out.
(more…)

Alright, I know the title seems like one of those DS or Wii games we make fun of on Drunken Gamers Radio every week, but you’d be wrong. While looking around the arcade and discovering certain long lost joys, I stumbled on this crazy game.

Brought out by Innovation Concepts in Entertainment, or ICE for short, this is a simple redemption game with a look and feel that really draws in retro sci-fi junkies like myself. Which seems to be this companies thing. Simple redemption games with a little more style than the average. While I’m not a big player of these redemption sytle games, I can get behind a company that wants to up the ante in terms of style. You can check out the ICE website here and peruse their line of products. I’m sure you’ll recognize their money maker, the Deal or No Deal machine. Be warned, the website has a loud advertisement on the front end, so hit hit the mute button before you venture over there.

As far as Rock n’ Moon Rally goes, the whole thing has this neat 1950′s flying-saucer-movie vibe to it with very stylized aliens, a background out of a comic and sound effects out of War of the Worlds. The premise is very simple: two players control their bike riding alien on the moon. The faster the players spin the roller ball, the faster their alien bikes around the track. The winner gets the glory, a victory lap and some tickets.

I guess ICE also had a much larger, four player version of this game called Spacey Racers, so if you really want to get your retro redemption thing on, you can try and track one of these bad boys down. While not being a game I would normally stick any tokens into, Rock n’ Moon Rally’s ultra retro vibe really caught my eye and I had to try it out. It’s fun, simple and really fun to look at in motion and (if nothing else) a nice artistic addition to an arcade full of crap.

I’m not sure if the name Sea Wolf rings a bell for any of you but this was one of those games I remember playing in the arcades in the 1980′s and loving. Midway put out the original Sea Wolf in 1976 for arcades and it stood out for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason was that the game required that you look into an actual periscope to play it. When you looked into it, you saw an expanse of “ocean” in front of you and enemy ships would move in the background. Your goal, as you can imagine, was to line up the ships and push the red “torpedo” button on your periscope handle and try and sink the enemy fleet.

What was even cooler about the 1976 version was what it was related to. That would be it’s older brother, a 1970′s machine called Sea Devil. It played about the same but rather than being a true “videogame”, as was Sea Wolf, it was one of those old school mechanical games. In Sea Devil, there were actual ship cut outs that traveled on a track inside the cabinet. When you fired your torpedoes, a strip of flashing lights would show the missiles path and when you hit the ship it flipped over. My uncle had one of these games, which I believe was actually another Midway mechanical periscope game called Sea Raider, in his basement and I thought it was one of the coolest games around. It’s really a cool thing, being all mechanical in nature and as such has a very unique quality to the sounds and feel of the game. If you can track one down to play, I highly recommend it.

Well, looks like all things old are new again. Gleefully, on my trip to a local arcade, I stumbled upon the next generation of Sea Wolf. Brought out by a company named Coastal Amusements, this is basically the same game, only a little more “digital.” It has more of a 3D look to it and sadly, the periscope is gone. The idea remains the same, however, in that you line up your torpedoes and try to sink ships. This next gen Sea Wolf also qualifies as one of those “redemption” arcade games. Meaning that, depending on how well you score, you get a number of tickets as a reward. You know, so you can go get that plastic spider ring you’ve been so fond of.

While not being the greatest videogame in the world, I’m actually pretty happy that we’re seeing Sea Wolf in the arcades again. Maybe the next version will bring back the periscope.

While in the midst of a family day at the Mall of America, I took a break from the Farris Wheel and the Kiddie Cars to check out the arcade. Usually I despise this arcade, which is found in the midst of the mall’s amusement park, as it shares more in common with the roller coasters than with Pac-Man and there isn’t a pinball machine in sight.

As I walked in, to my surprise, I discovered that a sequel to one of my favorite late 80′s arcade games had been made. After Burner Climax is a sequel to the 1987 SEGA classic, After Burner. Popular for it’s Top Gun style F-14 Tomcat and simple “shoot down everything from the sky” gameplay, it sucked a lot of quarters out of my pocket as a kid. Climax takes the formula and adds niftier graphics and a new “Climax Mode” to the game.

Sounds dirty.
(more…)

The arcade, my friends, is not dead. A bold statement, considering the condition of arcades in places such as GameWorks or Dave & Busters. While those complexes may appear to be arcades, the corporate stench permeates them and the entertainment provided inside is more akin to a roller coaster ride than the arcades of our youth. The truth is, however, those neon lit rooms that rang with the sound of flipper hitting metal ball still exist. They are havens for those needing to spend a few precious minutes or hours dropping quarters into coin slots and challenging physics. They are rare, they are prized and they are sadly known only to a few.

Hiding away in a strip mall in the Minnesota suburb of Hopkins, SS Billiard is just such a place. It’s a room that is almost frozen in time. I had the privilege of visiting SS Billiards for the first time last week and the moment I stepped through the door, it was as if I were back in the arcades I loved as a kid. Pinball machines lined the walls from various generations. There were old favorites that I loved, such as The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone. New Stern pinball games such as The Dark Knight, Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings stood as the last men standing; champions of a classic genre too long beaten yet still fighting. Even some classic machines such as Eight Ball Deluxe and the rare Capcom machine, Big Bang Bar, were in attendance. Each stood, tempting with classic lights and sounds and the elegant beauty of a wooden surface worn from years of play. While there were a few video games in attendance, they felt strangely out of place in this pinball mecca. It’s as if SS Billiards has one love and video games are simply a token gesture, as if to harken back to the 80′s but not to relive them.
(more…)

Reader Brian Pederson sent us a heads up on an article over at Kotaku that he thought we might enjoy. I think we’ll call that an understatement. Far be it from us to report other people’s shit (that’s what the podcast is for) but we thought this one was worth sharing. We’re suckers for all things retro anyway, so we figured you all might be into it as well. So, if you have yet to check out the article and more importantly, the video that is featured inside, then here you go:

Best Damn Video Game Infomercial! AKA: Cool Ass Retro Shit

Enjoy!

Phil loves his F-Zero. I mean LOVES his F-Zero. This video shows you exactly that. F-Zero love at it’s finest.

Thanks to M.C. for taking this!