Kevin Bunch ·
December 30, 2009 at 11:39 am
· Filed under Places and Events
I live in the Metro Detroit area. It isn’t particularly well known as being a mecca of gaming, but we do have one of the finest, and weirdest, homages to gaming’s past within our lands.
The following is an interview I did with the business’s proprietor back in 2007. I wrote an article about it, but wasn’t writing for anything covering the beat. Having just found the article, however, I’ve touched it up a bit and provide to you the story of this odd little place tucked away in the suburbs of Farmington Hills.
Marvin Yagoda is a busy man.
Dressed in an off-white shirt and suspenders, Yagoda is moving all over the place as children and adults both crowd his workplace, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum.
“I’ve got three birthday parties today,” he tells me. He is working on a small television displaying the tale of the world’s tallest man.
Now you can virtually stroll through Julien’s arcade exhibit, as photographed in April. Take your time with it, too—it’s absolutely heavenly. I don’t know what this says about me, but it’s very much the place I dreamt of as a kid. I wish there were photos of the arcade as it stood at Neverland, before the ranch was all but vacated.
I’m in a rush—why am I up! Why am I on my laptop, even?—so I’ll let Chris Person, who has been tearing up NYC to find the perfect T-shirt, do the talking. He writes,
Aside from hitting up UNIQLO Friday for Phoenix Wright shirt goodness, I actually went to check out the newly opened storefront for the fitted-hat and stylish streetwear aficionados at Mishka. Lo and behold, what did they have there? Oh nothing, just some cool clothes and the most awesome-ist custom-painted Street Fighter II cabinet ever, set to free play.
Jenn Frank ·
April 28, 2009 at 1:54 pm
· Filed under Places and Events
Beacon, New York’s Retro Arcade Museum opened its doors late last month. There, and for just $10 an hour, visitors can play curator Fred Bobrow’s collection of vintage pinball and arcade cabinets from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
I suspect the handheld collection isn’t playable—as it’s behind glass—but, uh, it never hurts to ask?
What the…! "Our database represents the world’s largest archive of coin-op amusement machine advertisement flyers. It is our on-going mission to digitally archive each and every flyer and preserve this aspect of coin-op history. There are three different archives that you can browse freely for video games, pinball machines and amusement & arcade games. You can also download Mame™ Flyerpacks for use with most Mame™ front end applications."
It’s yesterday’s bacon, but it’s Fooooorbes! "Then, last December, UGO Networks, which owned 1UP Show, cancelled the series because it could not figure out how to attract meaningful advertising revenues from such a small pool of viewers. Fans were so distraught that they donated $17,000 to Chandronait’s new production company, but ‘1UP Show’ was not revived. ¶ Today, thanks to a new distribution deal with Web video pioneer Revision3, the beloved videogame series is reborn. The series, renamed ‘Co-Op,’ will post every Tuesday to www.revision3.com/coop and will be syndicated via BitTorrent and iTunes. The launch of ‘Co-Op’ marks a strategic shift for Revision3 to more narrowly targeted, niche-focused programming."
Jenn Frank ·
February 23, 2009 at 12:44 am
· Filed under Music, Television
“And dere’s one special lady who’s found her way through my vinyl-treated denim shirt and into my heart—and that’s this lady behind me. Meez Pac-Man.”
In an Angle Dance -caliber performance, The State’s Michael Ian Black—surrounded by dancers clad in Blade Runner raincoats—sings a love song to a Ms. Pac-Man upright arcade cabinet.
Jenn Frank ·
February 22, 2009 at 11:45 pm
· Filed under Music
They told him, “Don’t you ever come around here,
“Unless you’re really good at Soul Calibeer”
There’s Frogger in their eyes
And Crystal Castles in their leers
So beat it, just beat it
This April, Michael Jackson will auction his arcade collection, including Frogger, Soul Calibeeer, and an old Zoltar machine. Zoltar, you guys.
Check out the Julien’s catalogue—either MJ doesn’t own a Moonwalker, or he ain’t sellin’ it.
Jenn Frank ·
February 21, 2009 at 5:11 pm
· Filed under Ephemera
The “Pac-Man Dossier” was posted to MetaFilter on Thursday (I’m usually two days behind the curve), and it is about to be everywhere else. Because, friends, it is astonishing. I am going to spend the next several hours reading it more carefully.
I liked this paragraph a lot:
The game starts with Pac-Man at 80% of his maximum speed. By the fifth level, Pac-Man is moving at full speed and will continue to do so until the 21st level. At that point, he slows back down to 90% and holds this speed for the remainder of the game. Every time Pac-Man eats a regular dot, he stops moving for one frame (1/60th of a second), slowing his progress by roughly ten percent—just enough for a following ghost to overtake him. Eating an energizer dot causes Pac-Man to stop moving for three frames. The normal speed maintained by the ghosts is a little slower than Pac-Man’s until the 21st level when they start moving faster than he does. If a ghost enters a side tunnel, however, its speed is cut nearly in half.
The Pac-Man Dossier is full of diagrams, tables, and videos. It catalogues strategies, cheats, oral histories, and beyond, with plenty of anchor tags for easy skimming. It is blissfully, unapologetically intricate. I am slack-jawed.
The Pac-Man Dungeons calls itself “interactive fiction,” but it’s a classic MUD, through and through, right down to the fake telnet window (“You may chat with a ghost that is not more than 2 steps away,” the help file dutifully instructs).
Jenn Frank ·
August 15, 2008 at 4:43 pm
· Filed under Art
Thanks to Destructoid’s sister site Tomopop, I finally know what those gorgeous papercraft arcade machines by Scott Campbell (of Double Fine!) were for.
They are, in fact, collectible fliers to promote this year’s i am 8-bit gallery show, which launched last night. I am so jealous! Admittedly, it would be easy enough to pick up a complete set of papercraft fliers, were I currently located in Los Angeles. Maybe I will beg my SoCal friends to hunt down a complete set and carefully pack the stack of fliers in a nice, stiff envelope and mail the whole thing to my apartment (HINT, HINT).
Of course, this isn’t the only way i am 8-bit is promoting the current gallery show. In keeping with the ‘scavenger hunt’ theme, a bunch of artists (including Space Invader and Joe Ledbetter) have hidden miniature canvasses with their art all over LA’s great outdoors. You can still find—and steal!—a bunch of them.
Jenn Frank ·
July 24, 2008 at 7:47 pm
· Filed under Places and Events
So according to Gearfuse.com, the Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade in Portland, Oregon, features this amazing ode to Dig Dug in stained glass along one wall:
And according to the official website, Ground Kontrol just got their liquor license this month! That means that, to my knowledge’s best, Ground Kontrol is the coolest place to grab a beer on the west coast (the east coast trophy goes to Barcade, of course).
Update (from the comments; thanks, Art!):
Hey, I’m Ground Kontrol’s manager and I just wanted to clear up a couple of things!
We’ve had a beer & wine license since 2005, but were able to make some very helpful changes to our license just this past month: extending our serving hours to 5PM (from 7PM), and having more flexibility so we can now serve beer & wine during private events at any time of day, and also allowing minors during private events in which alcohol is served (so now your kid doesn’t have to stay home during your Best Birthday Ever should you want to include alcohol service!)
Also, we’re not yet serving hard alcohol. Beer taps are next on the list, so we can more efficiently serve your favorite beers. Hard alcohol (and the food required by the OLCC to serve it) will be the stage after that!
Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade
511 NW Couch St.
Portland, OR 97209
(503)796-9364
This weekend, we made it out to San Jose—barely—for this year’s California Extreme, the classic arcade expo. Parkside Hall was crammed with video arcade and pinball machines spanning decades, including some contemporary machines (The Act, anybody?).
Set to the music of the New Pornographers, this shaky-hand footage is from Saturday, July 19.
Jenn Frank ·
July 20, 2008 at 4:10 am
· Filed under Art
I think I like papercraft because it reminds me of paper dolls and junior high love letters.
These lovely paper sculptures by Scott Campbell (of Double Fine!) are perfect little odes to arcade gaming. I have a hunch—and remember, this is only a guess—that these sculptures are part of a larger paper landscape, to be exhibited at the fourth annual i am 8-bit gallery show. As always, the show promises to feature exciting new art with retro sensibilities.
i am 8-bit opens August 14 at the World of Wonder in Hollywood, California.
Incidentally, the Virtual Boy launched on August 14, 1995. I know this because my birthday is August 14.
i am 8-bit
August 14 – September 7, 2008
World of Wonder
6650 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
The following is an interview I did with the business’s proprietor back in 2007. I wrote an article about it, but wasn’t writing for anything covering the beat. Having just found the article, however, I’ve touched it up a bit and provide to you the story of this odd little place tucked away in the suburbs of Farmington Hills.
I’ve seen 
