Tell me about it. Whenever I pass the furniture store on Rt. 17 where Sportsworld used to be, I get all sad and feel emotions.
Tell me about it. Whenever I pass the furniture store on Rt. 17 where Sportsworld used to be, I get all sad and feel emotions.
Those pictures made me envious. I've never been to an arcade even remotely that nice and well maintained. I grew up in Keansburg, NJ during the 80's, (Self Explanatory for NJ Natives, but for those who are not - It's sort of a white trash shore community, with rides, a boardwalk, and tons of arcades. Not exactly the safest of places.) and dark and scary wasn't the half of it. I can remember an actual knife being pulled on me over an argument with a 20 something year old over who's turn it was at Donkey Kong.
Being a smart 11 year old, I decided that it was in fact HIS turn.
Mangar
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Yeah, we gave up on Keansburg by the end of the 80's too. 10 years later they spent money and fixed it up, and the riff raff rarely hung out there anymore (they have Sleazeside for that!). Speaking of arcades, I remember going to the one in the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City a lot. The game room was next to the bowling alley. In one instance, I was playing WWF Wrestlemania Arcade, and some kid puts in a quarter during the match and demands me tag him in. A) I ignored him and B) I never could figure out how to do that. So he didn't get to play and threatened to beat me up. Then I told him I'd take him to see Michael Jackson and he ran away.
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Greg and I visited the Fun N Games arcade a week before it shut down. We recorded a video tour and just posted it on YouTube for posterity:
Fun N Games arcade, Willowbrook Mall 11/17/07
Last edited by Rob2600; 01-28-2008 at 01:23 PM.
Great video Rob...people should check it out, especially those who fondly remembered the arcade.
On a semi-related note, with the recent closing of the FYE stores, the KB Toys, and the Suncoast Video store at Willowbrook ... I'm finding less and less reasons to stop by there.
Sure, there are like 10 Gamestop/Software Etc./EB/Funcoland's there ... but at this point, I'd rather support Joe's retail efforts with the lion's share of my game purchases ...
Sad, that was once my favorite mall. Not to big, not too small, great arcade, nice food court, and plenty of stores that served the movie/music/game/entertainment loving consumer. Soon it'll consist of just women's clothing stores and Gamestops.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Thanks!Originally Posted by Frankie_Says_Relax
Wow. I remember in 2001, there was already an Electronics Boutique, EB Kids, Funco Land, and two Software Etc. stores, all within one shopping mall. Now, there are even more video game stores?
Last edited by Rob2600; 01-28-2008 at 02:37 PM.
Woah, double post!
Last edited by Frankie_Says_Relax; 01-28-2008 at 04:46 PM.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Actually, there are only 4. One Funco, one EB, one GameStop and one Software Etc. (which I think has been re-branded to Game Stop).
(I was just exaggerating for comedic effect.)
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
It would be more awesome if they weren't four of the same store.
To be fair, Suncoast should have gone out of business years ago considering just about everything in the store had a mandatory $10 markup. And Kay-Bee Toys is just a relic. I went into the one in the strip mall on Rt. 46 by Best Buy not too long ago and I smiled a bit because it just felt so quaint.
FYE was a coin toss. Sometimes you'd find good stuff for good prices but other times (especially with the games) you'd find something for double what it should be.
But if it's true that Fun 'N Games is actually just moving to a new location I'll breathe a sigh of relief. Especially if it's nearby.
It's pretty sad, really. The Great Escape, Sportsworld, another arcade I can't remember the name of in Edgewater, NJ, and a few others. I remember specific things about all of them because I can say "That was the first time I ever played Mortal Kombat 3" or "That was the first time six of us beat X-Men." Welcome to die, NJ arcades. Welcome to die.
Though, has anyone been to Wildwood recently? I don't know if it's still there (it was a couple years ago) but in the Boardwalk Mall in Wildwood there was a GIANT arcade. This place ruled. If you wanted to play it, they had it. There wasn't a whole lot of actual competition so to speak but the sheer volume of machines more than made up for it. How often do you find arcades with every Mortal Kombat, Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, and every Konami beat-em-up?
Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 02-24-2008 at 01:21 AM.
I think Fun 'n Games should move into the laundromat's space next door to my store. Then we'd have a game store, a comics/cards/action figures store, and an arcade all on one block. Then someone could take over the nail salon and the hair stylist and put in a decent bookstore and maybe an indy music store.
C'mon, I can dream.
Oh wait, since I'm dreaming - throw in a really good liquor store that also sells cases of soda. Put that where the pharmacy is now. OK I'm done.
Tony, I spent a week and a half every summer in Wildwood from 1989-1997, and can honestly say I was never really excited about their arcades. More or less the atypical boardwalk arcades (almost all Point-based) found in Wildwood, Seaside (except Flashback), Ocean City, Point Pleasant, etc. On the other hand, I wasn't really into playing vintage games while I was there, so I may have forgotten about those. In addition, just about everything in Wildwood was and likely still is a total rip-off. It cost our family (including airfare) only a few hundred dollars to go to Disneyworld in Orlando one time than Wildwood.
The problem a Fun n Games will have is the rent will be very high in a mall, and while a location within town is much cheaper, there is little parking and many towns have ordinances preventing outright arcades. Perhaps in a strip mall somewhere?
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