Ok, the blogs that I normally do involve anything from my old school arcade days. But after leaving the Old School Pinball and Arcade in Grimes, Iowa, I had this burning in my head and figured it would be cool to let this out in this special blog. You pay one low price and get unlimited plays on all of the machines. And there is a special room as well with the newest games. This arcade is great! So great that Jason Shiffer, the owner, recently opened another one in Iowa as well. In fact, this arcade was, what I believe to be one of the many inspirations of our fearless leader Ryan Burger to startup the magazine.
There area so many classic games to choose from here. And one of the best parts about the arcade is the whole wall of pinball machines. But here is the part where he is NOT old school. He has this habit of getting the latest and greatest pinball machines. He has had the latest KISS, Star Trek, Walking Dead, Metallica and even the Ghostbusters. And the machines that he gets, are slick and clean with all the bells and whistles. Don’t worry this isn’t a bad thing. But here is where I am getting to the point of the blog.
I asked him if he had the newest Aerosmith machine. And he said come on in and try it out. WHO am I to turn down to play a game. So I walked towards the newest pinball machine in the arcade. I didn’t even pay attention to the fact that he finally got a Tron machine. GIGGITY!!!!!!! But I looked at the bright glass and lights and video monitor and observed all of the extra goodies on the game. From the Toybox that you pop the pinballs into to get a multi ball to the Love in an Elevator that takes you to an upper deck. (Which I was informed that it was an option when you buy a machine but not a requirement). But I only had a few minutes and just had to hit the start button. But the game didn’t start yet.
I had to make a choice. Like the latest KISS and AC/DC machine, you get to choose what song you want to rock to while you are playing. You get a choice of nine different songs. “Toys in the Attic”, “Love in an Elevator”, “Rats in the Cellar”, “Dude Looks Like a Lady”, “Back in the Saddle”, “Sweet Emotion”, “Walk This Way”, “Same Old Song & Dance” and “Last Child” are all there for your audio enjoyment. And the music is clean and loud enough that the sound effects of hitting targets and bumpers are not muffled out. When you hit a certain bonus or special.
But here was the dilemma. While I am playing this, I am observing all of the artwork on the table and the back-glass. Not only that but there is a video monitor above the playing field very similar to the latest Batman and Star Wars machine. Anyway, the video monitor plays different updated information as well as showing the cartoonish features of the band and something was clicking in my head.
Why does it look like I am playing Guitar Hero the pinball machine?!?!?! Everything that this game has to offer is incredible. I would almost say that it is better than Ghostbusters. But everything that you look at just makes me think that I am playing something else. Between the graphical image of the band and the text/fonts that they use, I actually got a little distracted. I was actually expecting real footage of the band. However, if they did that, it would have probably ruined the whole premise of the game. Again, don’t get me wrong, I would love this to be in my basement, but I couldn’t afford it even if I tried.
Folks, these blogs are memories of my video game experiences of the past. And, well, as much as three hours ago constitutes as the past, it doesn’t make it retro. But with Aerosmith, Old School Pinball and Arcade and the mention of Tron, I don’t think that I will lose my job over this. My “Old” school memories are still building up as we speak. Heck, I haven’t even talked about Star Wars yet. That deserves a blog of its’ own. I just felt that I wanted to share this because it was a really sweet pinball machine featuring one of the greatest band of the 80’s and 90’s. But if I do lose my job over my opinions, I’ll just have to remember to…
Keep Calm and Insert Coin
Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter. He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few. Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison. His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.
