Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

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Flack
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Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

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Episode 139 is Online.

Last week I visited the Galloping Ghost arcade just outside of Chicago, Illinois. You can hear all about the arcade and my time there in episode 139 of You Don’t Know Flack! Also in this episode I compare the Ghost to some of the other retro arcades I’ve visited recently, including Funspot, the Arkadia Retrocade, and 1984. The “Loading Time” section of this episode is a little longer than I had hoped but, eh, sometimes loading a podcast off of a Commodore Datasette takes a while.

Link: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade
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Flack
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Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

Post by Flack »

Here are all the pictures I took while at the arcade.

http://robohara.com/photo/index.php?album=Arcade/Galloping_Ghost_2013
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Trixter

Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

Post by Trixter »

Finally had a chance to listen to this one. I was surprised at how... negative you were about the place. I think you need to go back, maybe? There are some fairly rare machines there (The Outfoxies) including some dual-screen (Punch-Out!) and triple-screen (Ninja Warriors) games in full working order. His Battlezone sticks keep getting broken by unruly gamers, so he orders custom replacements every so often from molds made from the originals. Lots of custom-control games that are working like Vindicators. And his Asteroids has an amazing screen, very bright with no burn-in (for now).

I've spoken to him a few times; he takes cabinets that have been retrofitted with LCD panels and he actually removes the panels when he can find a CRT to replace them.
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Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

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Hm, I will have to re-listen to this one as I definitely did not have a bad time. I would compare it more to buying a new Corvette and then walking around looking at the little scratches and stuff. It's still a freakin' Corvette, and the Galloping Ghost is still an arcade with 400 classic arcade games!

One thing I do is compare these classic arcades against each other. When you walk into the 1984 Arcade there is someone standing there to greet you. That person asks if you have been there before and if you haven't you get a spiel on how the place works. Same goes for Arkadia Retrocade -- there's someone standing behind a podium when you walk in who explains everything to you. When I walked into the Galloping Ghost the guy behind the counter was reading a magazine and the only words he said to me was "$30 bucks." Also I thought it was fair to point out that admission at the Ghost is 3x than those other two places, and I did note that I'm sure the rent is higher in Chicago than it is in Missouri or Arkansas.

Again when compared to some of the other retro arcades out there, I thought the Ghost had a high rate of games with issues. And unfortunately a lot of them were games I was looking forward to playing. I remember specifically the joysticks on Dig Dug and Berzerk and Commando were messed up because I love those games. Of the three games you mentioned in your post, two weren't working when I was there -- Punch-Out had a bum punch button, and Ninja Warriors was turned off. From owning old cabinets I know upkeep and maintenance can be a nightmare and I'm sure that goes double for ones that are being played by the public. So while I understand how hard it must be to keep all their games up and running, it does suck when all of your favorite classics are the broken ones.

Like I said in the episode, if I lived anywhere near that place I would have the year pass and would probably volunteer there part time just to work on games. I think it's an awesome place and anyone who lives within driving distance should consider themselves lucky.
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Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

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I went back and listened to this episode again and I don't hear what you are hearing. I counted at least a dozen times where I said the place was awesome and that I recommend everyone visit it.
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Trixter

Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

Post by Trixter »

Flack wrote:I would compare it more to buying a new Corvette and then walking around looking at the little scratches and stuff.


My impression listening to the episode was that you were describing the scratches before finally getting around to mentioning it was a Corvette. By leading with the negative, I felt you were unhappy with the experience.

GG's deadrate is somewhere around 5% which I would imagine is par for the course for a shop that only has 1 or 2 guys to repair things. Unfortunately, with ~200 physical cabinets out on the floor, that's ~10 cabinets that are broken at any given time.

If you revisit GG at some point, introduce yourself to Doc Mack (jet black ponytail, trim, big arms) as a fellow collector. He is incredibly friendly and has some good "horror stories" about running an arcade (like the time someone got mad during Spy Hunter and then just calmly walked around to the back of the machine and started ripping wires out).
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Re: Episode 139: The Galloping Ghost Arcade

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5% is an amazingly low fail rate, especially for machines that customers and kids are banging on. As I've said before I was unable to get my own failure rate down anywhere near that number, and that was with just me playing them. The guys at the 1984 Arcade told me they lose on average one game per day. That could be a simple fix (gummed up button/joystick) or something more serious and/or expensive (power supply, monitor, etc). The older these things get the more fragile they become. I can't imagine what I would do if a customer intentionally damaged one.
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