Max_Chatsworth

Well Fujinet started out life as an 8 bit printer adapter for true 8 bit font printing...so maybe with that?

What?!?! Where?!?!

This is always an interesting topic for me as it is for many of you our age I suspect. One reason is I always explain how my first arcade game experiences weren't in an actual arcade, but rather bowling alleys and pool halls that eventually *became* arcades. Case in point, we had a big entertainment place here in the KC metro area called King Louis West. It had a big bowling alley, a big pool hall, and a big ice rink for free skate, but also figure skating lessons/events and hockey practices/games. So in the mid 70's 76 or so when my very first memory of that place was when I was 5, the place was pretty much all pool tables with a row or pinball machines. Then you saw a few more pool tables taken out...it seemed like they had over 30 to start...and more pinball. Up until about 77 or 78 then you saw the first "video" games. Atari Stunt Cycle, Seawolf, Breakout..things like this. But the pinball machines still had their place. Then when Space Invaders came out and that was where I first saw it. That was the real beginning of the major change. Once that happened, you had Lunar Lander, Asteroids, and on and on. And it seemed like each week you'd see more and more video games until they filled the video game wall and then you started to see the pinball machines disappear in lieu of more video games. Then you started to see the pool tables disappear in lieu of more video games. It eventually settled into what was more like a dedicated arcade game room that also pinball and pool tables. It still had a dedicated pool area with dozen or more tables, but 1/3 or what it once was. And there was still pinball, but it was maybe one row. If you recall there were still new pinball hits that came out during the late 70's /early 80's arcade craze that were hits across society, not just with pinball players...things like Gorgar, Xenon, etc....so you DID still see new pinball machines show up. So I'd have to go with King Louis West entertainment center as my first arcade I grew up in. Now as for the first *dedicated* or purpose built arcade that I visited, I'd have to say it was Nickelodeon at the nearby Oak Park Mall which was pretty new at the time and just few miles away from King Louis West. But the one I probably actually spent the MOST time in was the Fun Factory at the same mall that did in Nickelodeon eventually. I also spent quite bit of time at Showbiz Pizza. We were lucky, it started in KC and the 2nd location in the country was 3 mile bike ride from my house, but it was definitely more short lived than Fun Factory. I also spent time at the Malibu Grand Prix..but much less as it was more expensive. Fun factory opened when I was in 6th grade or something and was there when I left home after high school. I do realize Fun Factory started in other parts of the country earlier as more of an indoor carnival with rides/games etc. But we got it in 81-82 or so and by then it was pretty much a dedicated huge arcade. The nice thing was they were big enough to stock 2 or even 3 of the hottest new games for less waiting. Here's an artists rendition of King Louis West before it was built(and pretty much what they actually built): Afterwards they added the "ice chateau". Entrance was where that covered area to the left was with the spire. To the left (top) was all bowling alley. The biggest area with the raised roof and skylights is the ice rink. The area overlooking it and between in and the skate rink was the restaurant/bar/snack bar and pool room/arcade. The pool hall extended into that square piece on the far right at one point. LOL..I forgot they called it the "SportsoRama" when it first opened: Part of the reason I have so many resources on this is that the neat thing is that the building is now the Johnson County KS Historical Museum and Heritage Center for the entire county. The entertainment center was(and building still is) in Overland Park, but it was really just a small suburb city of Kansas City and Johnson County, KS contained a handful of these suburb cities all bordering each other and it really served the whole area. They have cool old signs from actual old businesses on the old drag, photos, memorabilia, for the whole area. (one of the towns is Mission, KS)

Pizza Inn ?!?! Where is this? Do you have a photo of the sign/logo? They used to have Pizza Inn here where I grew up in the 70's/80's. Haven't seen one in decades.

If you are back near the old Peaches, do yourself a favor and eat at Wyandotte BBQ right across 75th (south side) from where Peaches was. They were around and one of our family's regulars when I was a kid back in the 70's/80's, and they are still there. They recently shut down for about a year or so due to a bad kitchen fire, but they were actually able to make it back.

Is he famous for this or something?

You are correct! We got the 400 for xmas '79. Don't know why I said 77...LOL. I am definitely more familiar with KS side too. I grew up in Shawnee/Lenexa and I know the EXACT Peaches record store at 75th and Metcalf you are talking about. I am at the intersection ALL the time now a days now that I am living in OP. My gym is the Matt Ross Community Center which is just south up Metcalf by a half mile or so. I completely agree with about Lawrence. Not only is it more crowded, but it has completely lost that independent Gen-X vibe that it had. Back in the day, Mass street was filled with little independent shops/bars/restaurants with people from ever stripe of life politically, socially, musically, artistically, you name it. I saw my first concert there in 1984 Black Flag with Tom Tricoli's Dog's opening at the old Lawrence Opera House when I was in jr. high. My buddies older brother was a DJ at the independent school radio station KJHK. Now the all that stuff is just one big monolithic group think corporate bullshit thing. Everyone on campus and in town has their signs/banners "We support the current thing!". It's all bullshit and it's sad nowadays. Which sucks because Lawrence was completely awesome in my youth/high school.

Hey, glad to make your acquaintance and thanks for posting all that. I love hearing about peoples old school memories with the machines that we all loved. I can help you with that! I spent every spare dime from my paper route or fast food job I had that didn't go to going to movies or playing video games with my friends. As I said before, I was in the KC-ACE who was sort of unofficially headquartered out of that place and the owner, Larry Copenhaver was the president or some other leader of the club. It was located just south of 75th and Wornall on the east side of Wornall. This was the exact location: here There is a tattoo parlor there now. This is where KC-ACE club met one Wendesday every month: here at this Jewish community center/temple of some kind. I want to say it was actually a church back in the day, I know we sat on pews at our meetings, but it might have been a Jewish place of worship back then as well. Funny you mention that. I was just like that. There was a Video Concepts at Oak Park Mall that we used to frequent. We bought our VCR there and my dad actually bought our first computer, our Atari 400 and 410 tape drive there for Christmas '77. Don't sell yourself short. I'm VERY noob level when it comes to 8 bit hardware. I basically like to find it/use it. I can program it somewhat, but I know next to nothing to the hardware involved or repairing it/modding it, so you are not alone at all. Are you still living in Lawrence?

Ahh that makes sense. I think what I remember is in 93/94 when the first pentium PC's were coming out and a lot of my buddies were swapping out their consoles for PC gaming. That's probably what they were playing. Again, only because no one had a 3DO that I shared the dorms with.

Oh, damn..I completely forgot about the 3DO. I never had one or played it. I only knew one person who had it that was on my sub in the Navy. He was married and so had an actual house instead of just a dorm/barracks room like us single guys and he collected every...and I mean EVERY console you could get your hands on back in the day. Hell, he even had one of those ludicrously priced NEO GEO consoles with the jet pack sized cartridges. He had 3DO and I saw it once. One question I had, is that game Star Control or perhaps it was Star Controll II. I *DO* remember those games a ton, as it seemed liver everyone in the dorm/barracks was playing it *except* me. But I know it wasn't for the 3DO as no on really had it. Most people had Sega Genesis or Super NES. (This was about 1992-93 when I was living in the dorms. ). Do you happen to know what platform made it huge?

Hah! I've been to both those places. I was in the US Navy, on a nuclear sub, from 90-96. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor, HI. Every time we deployed to the Pacific we stopped in Guam, so I've been there *MANY* times(probably 20 or so stops) and have explored much of the island. Heck, my wife even flew out from Hawaii when we were first married and I had extra leave to burn, and spent a week with me.

TNG first aired in 1987. Dates check out for VCR usage! LOL....

Specifically I'm talking things from the 70's/80's that were 8 bit. 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, etc...etc.... If so, how did you get your hands on it so early?

Are you Canadian?

If you don't mind me asking, even back as far as the 2600, were you old enough to buy it yourself or did your parents buy any for you? I replied earlier that I got the ColecoVision specifically for Venture, but it was really my parents who bought it for me.

Not gonna lie "KinHank emulation box" sounds like something completely different...

You know now that I think of it, I completely forgot I had another console that I got just for 1 game. And that was the Playstation 1/NHL 98. Keep in mind, I was working at Square USA on the Final Fantasy film in the late 90's/early 2000's in Honolulu, HI at the same time they were developing FF8 a couple floors below us. So I constantly had free/cheap access to all sorts of stuff I didn't really want. For instance I got several copies of FF8 at various company parties/events and I hated those FF games with a passion. Thought they were boring as hell...but I'm not turning down free gaming swag, so I just went to a local game store and sold them for essentially retail early on in the release and made some decent money. So, I was and am a huge hockey fan and I was sort of drooling over the newer PC based and console based NHL games. I used to play NHL 93/94 on Genesis that a buddy of mine on my sub had in his dorm room a floor below me. So I never really wanted the Playstation, but I wanted to play NHL 98 in the worst way. My pc was a dog at that point(I was working part time/interning at SquareUSA and attending college full time at the University of Hawaii after my Navy term was up) and I didn't have the cash to spend on a new gaming setup. BUT, I did have access to a PlayStation 1 at next to nothing because of work, so I did that and the ONLY game I ever bought for it was NHL 98. I did end up renting a few games(remember that at Blockbuster, etc?) like Silent Hill, another horrible game called Cyberia(get it..it's like Siberia..but like everything else in those late 90's years....everything had to be CYBER this and cyber that). But the only game I ever purchased and owned for it was NHL 98 and I think I paid more for the game than I did for the PS1. I shelved that thing in about 2001 or so, and finally just gave it to a friends nephew or something. Even though I was square in the PS camp , so to speak, I was always more impressed with XBOX.

Holy shit dude. That's old school...getting the 2600 just for Adventure. I mean that game was pretty mind blowing to my 9 year old D&D loving self. I never had the 2600, hence I never had the chance to get that game. But a quality game.

Hmm..I never knew that. We placed the PC version for a long time and we really never noticed anything wrong with it. I just always thought the 2 stick console thing for FPS was ludicrous.

Ahh...I never knew that.