Attract Mode by Scott Jacobi

As you can see, issue 40 is a bit of a milestone for us, so we're celebrating.  But we're not just here to celebrate our own accomplishment.  We're celebrating something that, honestly, we celebrate every month: your continued support and enjoyment of retrogaming.  I had an interesting discussion with a coworker one day.  I described myself to him as not only a gamer, but as a retrogamer.  And his response was, "What does that even mean?"  At first, I thought the answer was pretty obvious, but I thought about it a little bit, and I realized something.

You know those people who can rattle off every baseball stat for every player from a given year?  Or those people who can identify the name of the song, and the band that played it, and which album it appeared on for a certain time period?  Well, I'm like that with video games, and I'm willing to bet many of you are too.  But we don't call those people retro-baseball fans, or retro-musicians.  So it's kind of an interesting phenomenon that we label ourselves “retrogamers.”  What exactly does that mean?

The immediate, off-the-cuff response, is that we are player who enjoy playing games.  But not just any games.  We go out of our way to define ourselves as players who prefer to buck the “modern” trend, and play games that are older.  In a hobby that’s driven by technology, and where the marketing that accompanies it advertises that “newer is better,” and “faster and bigger are the only things worth playing,” we consistently defy those claims and gravitate to games that are considered passé.  Either we prefer the game play offered by these older games, or we enjoy the feeling that we get from playing games that we played during simpler times in our lives.

But look at the connoisseurs of music or movies, people whose opinions of why things were better in the past are considered academic, or the subject of a thesis.  They don’t necessarily suffer from the same stigma of being “stuck in the past” like some retrogamers do.  To the best of my knowledge, no one has written a thesis about how Pac-Man revolutionized the arcade scene (although I’d be very happy to be proven wrong.)  So what makes our experience, appreciating the classics of our medium of choice, so much different than others?

I think from the outside looking in, many people see our hobby as a hobby of technology.  A hobby that grows and improves with each generation, leaving the previous generation behind in the dust.  It’s not as common to come across a fan of music who prefers vinyl to digital, but you can find them, and even most fans of digital can understand the benefits to using record players every once in a while.  But to the average person, playing an Atari 2600 is akin to using a BetaMax to watch movies.  It simply isn’t done.  It will be long time until video games have been around long enough, and the ranks of retrogamers will swell to the point where we’re a lot more common and our medium is better understood.  Until then, always know that you can come here each month for a little bit of nostalgia and fellow appreciation for our “outdated” games.

 Interview with our "Retrogaming Times" Founder  - Tom Zjaba


 by Alan
Hewston

 Happy 10th Anniversary


 by Donald Lee

Inside the Numbers of the Many Faces - Let's Get it Started by Alan Hewston

The Many Faces of... AstroChase by Alan Hewston

AstroChase manual artwork courtesy of Atarimania.

Atari 5200 screenshot courtesy of AtariAge.

C64 screenshots of an intermission and on-screen action – courtesy of Lemon 64.

Atari 800 screenshots of the introduction and on-screen action – courtesy of Atarimania

Gaming in the Magic Kingdom by Tom Zjaba

Tom Zjaba and family at Hallow Weekends at Cedar Point Amusement Park

If you are a parent, the odds are your kids will want to go to Walt Disney World.  It is a magnet for kids, like E3 is for gamers.  While the thought of spending thousands of dollars is enough to send a shiver down your spine, the thought of no gaming for a week is equally scary.  Sure, you can bring a Gameboy or PSP to tide you over, but will it be enough?  If you are reading this newsletter, odds are you are a die hard game fan and a week without games is cruel and unusual punishment.  And you thought multiple ride on "It's a Small World" was scary.  But fear not because there is gaming at the Magic Kingdom.  In fact, almost every park has a good selection of video games to get you through your vacation and help you forget how much you just paid for lunch.  So here is a list of some of the great gaming at the Magic Kingdom. 

Magic Kingdom - The main park at Walt Disney World is home of all the famous rides.  From Pirates of the Caribbean to the Haunted Mansion to Dumbo, it has the most rides.  It also has the most guests as the park is almost always full.  Be prepared to wait in lines for every ride, every meal and to get in and out of the park.  But as the day gets hot and you need a break, hop over to the arcade that is right under Space Mountain.  Not only is it a large arcade with a good selection of games, it is air conditioned.  And there is no lines!  There is a good mix of new and classic games, with most of the classic games being the remakes (the Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga 20th anniversary edition being one).  And of course there is the selection of redemption games to suck quarters out of the kids faster than a Hoover.  But one of the best features is a nice selection of pinball games.  There is a good ten pinball machines to choose from including Roller Coaster Tycoon, Simpsons, Star Wars and more.  A great way to cool off and get your gaming fix.

Epcot - The one park that was made for adults as much as kids, Epcot really does offer something for everyone.  With the World Showcase you can get a taste of eleven different countries.  From the architecture, the dress and the food, Disney does a great job of recreating such places as China, Germany and Mexico.  While there are not alot of rides in Epcot, there are some great ones.  Soarin' and Test Track are both great rides.  And the Living Seas is an awesome aquarium!  But if you want to do some gaming and your wallet is getting thin, this is the park for you!  Head over to Innovations where they always have a selection of consoles set up with games to play for free!  Expect family friendly games and some based on Disney Properties (think Haunted Mansion game) but the games are free and how often do you hear that at Disney?  There are also some simulation type games based on the Mission Space ride at the Mission Space that you can play for free as well.  Some are pretty good but most are decent at best.  But for free, they are not bad.

MGM Studios - Some of the best rides reside in MGM Studios.  If you like the faster, scarier rides then this is the park for you!  Aerosmith Rock n Roller Coaster and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror are the most thrilling rides in all of Disney World.  Star Tours is fun too!  The shows are quite good as well, especially the new Lights, Motors, Action!  Extreme Stunt Show.  You will see some amazing driving stunts and learn a few things about Hollywood tricks.  But for gaming, there is one destination in MGM, Toy Story Pizza Planet!  I do not recommend eating there as the food was mediocre at best (the pizza will make you long for school cafeteria pizza and that is not a good thing) .  But the arcade is great!  A wide selection of arcade and redemption games awaits you!  They even have The Claw from the movie if you want to try and win a stuffed toy.  The place is themed very nicely as well.  But the waits at the redemption desk can be long, so keep that in mind as your kids want to play the redemption games.  If you want a good meal and great atmosphere, you are better off going to the Sci-Fi Drive-In Diner.  There you can sit in booths that look like cars and watch a drive-in screen that shows trailers of 50's monster movies, cartoons and vintage intermission commercials.  The food is delicious and not too expensive. 

Animal Kingdom -  There is a few great rides at Animal Kingdom including Expedition Everest and Dinosaur as well as some incredible shows like The Lion King.  There is a ton of animals to see and there is the Rainforest Cafe for a good meal with great theming.  But if you are a video game fan, you are out of luck.  Did not see any arcades at Animal Kingdom.  But the park does close early (usually around 5:00 PM) so you have time to get some gaming in at the hotel.

Disney Quest - If you are a video game fanatic, this place is a must visit attraction.  Located in Downtown Disney, this three story arcade is as close to nirvana as a game fanatic can get in Orlando.  It cost $30.00 to get in, but it is worth it.  What you have is five levels of video games, all set on free play!  And they have them sectioned off by themes.  Want racing games?  They have a section full of racing games from Mario Kart Arcade Edition to Crazy Taxi.  Want sports games?  They have section with Sega Bass Fishing, NBA Jam and Madden Football.  Want classic arcade games?  They have tons including Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Tron, Moon Patrol, Joust, Galaga, Jungle Hunt, Donkey Kong and more.  Most of the popular arcade games are there.  But be warned that not all are working properly.  You will find some with broken joysticks or buttons.  But with the amount of abuse they get, it is to be expected.  There is also a large selection of light gun games and a small selection of pinball tables.  And they even have a whole wall of Jambo! Safari.  Besides video games, they also have a nice selection of rides including a cool Pirates of the Caribbean simulator ride/game.  Other must see are Cyber Space Mountain where you design a roller coaster and then get to ride it!  Ride the Comix is also alot of fun as it is more of a virtual reality game than a ride.  There is enough to do here to keep you busy all day.  And there is enough for the kids to do as well.  The only games that do cost money is the redemption games.  Sure $30.00 sounds steep, but with all the games you can play, it is not hard to get your money's worth.  Think of it as a video game buffet.

So when you finally make the trip to Disney World, keep this list and know that there is gaming at almost all the Disney parks.  And add a trip to Disney Quest to the list and you will have a vacation that is as memorable for you as it was for the kids. 

Taking The Pole Position by David Lundin, Jr.

Ever since I first dropped a quarter in one, I've always wanted an arcade cabinet.  Then again I think that's a common statement among those of us that were able to spend time during the glorious golden age of the arcade.  Even though I only caught the tail end of that era, growing up in California's Silicon Valley gave me an avenue to stay on the cutting edge of coin-op gaming.  I spent my summers at the large arcades, weekends at Bullwinkle's (imagine Chuck E. Cheese except much broader age appeal), and of course countless nights at those small out of the way arcade dives that I miss very dearly.  Although the older days of arcades were beginning to fizz out, I was still able to find refuge in special classic areas of large family arcades, as well as the smaller single location operations that had been tucked away in the corners of strip malls for years.  Eventually those too would fade away and my classic coin-op fix would be relegated to occasionally seeing a machine in passing and the increasingly more seldom trips to the Santa Cruz boardwalk's classic games area.  It seemed now, more than ever, I wanted a home arcade or at least a few games so that I could peer back in to a fraction of that long lost nostalgia.  For our 10 Year Anniversary issue I thought I'd do something a little special in place of the NES'cade column and instead bring you, our readers, a look at my recently restored and converted arcade cabinet.

I think many of us retrogamers, in the back of our heads, have a list of the arcade games they'd like to own if given the chance.  Money, space, rarity, all those things aside I think we all have an idea of games we'd simply love to have in our homes.  While browsing Craigslist on a whim one night I stumbled upon a vague listing for a $100 Pole Position upright local to me.  I don't know exactly where Pole Position fits on that arcade list in my head but it has always been in the top ten, so I sent an e-mail to the seller and called it a night.  It turned out that the seller was quite local to me, four blocks away in fact.  I was heading out for the San Jose Grand Prix that night so I quickly arranged to come take a look at the cabinet that morning.  Once arriving, an earlier suspicion was confirmed as the seller was another retrogamer that I run into at the local flea market every now and then.  Story was the machine was bought in non-working condition with the intent to repair it, however once seeing what's actually inside one of these cabinets he realized he was in over his head and wanted it gone.  I poked around inside, gave it a good look over and offered $50 given the state of the internals.  This was agreed upon and I left with my first arcade cabinet - it was my problem now.

Pole Position machines are notorious for being unstable, the boards have a history of frying themselves and that was the case with my cabinet as well.  A list was made of what was good, what was bad, and what was salvageable.  At the end of this exercise the cosmetic stuff was all good, the electronics were pretty much all bad, and the salvageable list was dissolved into the other two.  The game boards were shot and the audio regulator boards didn't look healthy either.  The wiring loom, molex connectors, and edge connectors would all need to be replaced as well as the game PCB cage which had a healthy coating of rust on one end.  The power supply was a mess and had been bypassed in multiple locations - requiring either replacement or at the very least a complete rebuild.  The monitor also appeared to require a heavy rebuild as even though it did turn on, the overall condition was very poor and it had some extreme burn-in.  The cabinet itself, control panel, accelerator pedal, and coin doors and mechs were all very nice and functional however.  As for the marquee and the glass bezel, they were beautiful and perfect.  That's when the decision came to convert this dead however quite salvageable arcade cabinet into a MAME machine.  MAME is a computer program that emulates the hardware environment of thousands of different arcade games in conjunction with copies of the original program code that ran on them.  In other words, it allows near perfect reproduction of arcade hardware via software that can run on a multitude of devices, namely personal computers.  A computer would be used to replace the inner workings of the machine, replacing the original problematic hardware with modern, easy to repair computer components.

Everything inside was stripped out, looked over, and then thrown out if useless to me or anyone else.  All screws, nuts and bolts were packaged away in plastic bags, labeled with where they were taken from.  I progressed in small steps with the project, moving forward as each possible hurdle was passed, the largest one being the control panel.  I took the board out of an old PS/2 mouse, setting it up so that the horizontal optic would interface with the steering wheel optical wheel.  In other words the steering wheel would move the mouse back and forth horizontally, something that is easily configured in MAME.  To minimize over all cost and complexity I decided to use the mouse board as the interface for all controls.  The Pole Position shifter is a single switch, the original Pole Position program code defaults to the car always being in low gear unless the button is held down, when that happens the car is in high gear.  The switch for the shifter was wired to the contact points for mouse button 01.  The original Pole Position accelerator pedal is analog, controlled with a potentiometer, something that a digital mouse button won't work with.  I disconnected the analog connections in the pedal but left all the parts there in case I wanted to go back and return it to analog at another time.  I affixed a standard arcade microswitch with an extension bar to the underside of the pedal assembly, at about 75% pedal press the microswitch is depressed.  This was then connected to the contact points for mouse button 02, with a molex connector in between so that either the pedal or control panel can be serviced independently outside of the machine.  The coin switches were connected to a simple keyboard hack which involves tracing connecting points of a keyboard key to their integrated circuit connections inside the keyboard.

As for the computer itself, it was all built out of extra components I had lying around collecting dust.  The display was replaced with an old CRT computer monitor with the swivel base removed and the screen bezel painted black.  I assembled the entire computer on a sheet of fiberboard that would be installed in the cabinet as a new shelf.  The system itself is a Pentium II at 350MHz with 128MB of RAM.  An old floppy, CD drive, and small hard disk along with an extra video card rounded out the internals.  All my computer operations were set up and configured outside of the cabinet, including basic setup with the Pole Position controls.  An inexpensive pair of computer speakers were disassembled and installed inside the cabinet in the same location as the original speakers.  A couple small pushbutton switches are used for computer power and reset, mounted within easy reach through the coin door.  Everything is connected to a power bar which is mounted inside the cabinet near the coin door, the power bar then runs to a heavy duty extension cord that mirrors the original power cord route through the back.  A small fluorescent shop utility light is used to light the marquee, wired to plug into the power bar with everything else.  The machine was then scrubbed down completely, removing years of use and abuse.  Along the bottom the side art was shredded and peeling badly so I made a level slice just above the peeling area to prevent it from continuing.  The top and back panels needed to be completely sanded and repainted as they had some water damage.  The inside was sanded and scrubbed down, and the outside was scrubbed one more time for good measure.

Once the cabinet was cleaned the monitor was fitted and secured, then the cleaned and repainted accelerator pedal was installed along with the coin door.  The speakers and marquee lighting were set in place and their wiring run.  This was followed by the control panel and the computer shelf.  Careful cord management was paramount from the beginning, keeping everything out of the way of everything else.  I sealed up the back, plugged the cord in, reached into the coin door, and flipped the main power switch...  The marquee sprang to life and the sounds of the monitor powering up could be heard.  I reached in and pressed the computer power button...  I was greeted by the MAME startup screen, a replacement for the Windows 98 boot screen, and then dumped into DOS.  My game operations are controlled via batch files and an on screen menu in DOS.  Simply reach inside, type in the number corresponding to the game you want to play and it loads.  This allows the machine to appear completely stock from the outside - no additional MAME buttons or special controls - yet allows more games to be played.  It's basically like doing a board swap except it's faster since it's done in software and through the coin door.  So for the average person, the machine appears as a 100% original Pole Position upright.  After a little fine tuning of the controls the only thing left to do was to replace the shroud around the monitor, of which a replacement was made from poster board.

The cabinet is set up to play games that use a single pedal and two gear shifter: American Speedway, Badlands, Championship Sprint, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat, Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road, Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road Track Pak, Konami GT, Pole Position (all versions), Pole Position II (all versions), Stocker, Super Sprint, and Turbo.  Championship Sprint is one of my all time favorite games so being able to play it as well is a big bonus.  The Sprint games originally had a start button, this is remapped to the accelerator pedal.  The selection / nitro button in Indy Heat and Super Off-Road is mapped to the shifter, same with the fire button in Badlands.  Being an emulation glutton, Turbo runs slow but all other games perform perfectly to their original counterparts.  I should note that MAME required a recompile to emulate proper shifting in Pole Position, I'm using DOS MAME v0.56.  Although it plays a lot more, the machine was purchased as a Pole Position cabinet and most of the time that's what is being played on it.  Since it features both Pole Position games as well as the Japanese and bootleg versions, I've christened the cabinet Pole Position Deluxe.  Even now, over two weeks after the project was completed, I can be found spending at least a few hours every night turning laps around Fuji Speedway.

So far things have been running smoothly with the machine, only minor adjustments have been required.  It's been a big hit with everyone that's played it and it's nice to see that the across the board appeal of these classic games is still alive and well.  Currently the cabinet is living outside, waiting for space to be made indoors which should be taken care of in a few weeks.  It's almost surreal to stand outside in the night air, drop in a quarter and prepare to qualify, it truly does bring back the fondest of memories.  Total cost of the entire project, including the original cost of the cabinet, was under $150.  Twenty of that was made back by selling the non-working game boards for parts on eBay.  If there's one bad thing about this project it's that now I want even more games, when I don't even really have space for this one.  Oh well, I'll make room, a Frogger cocktail table serving double duty as a desk perhaps?

NES'cade will be back next month with a continuing look at arcade classics that don't require two people and a truck to move.  I do want to take a moment to say that it has been and continues to be an absolute privilege to contribute to Retrogaming Times Monthly.  Here's to another ten years!
 

 Retrogaming: Blast From The Past & A Vision of the Future


 by Donald Lee







As I was thinking about to write for the 10th Annverisary of Retrogaming Times Monthly/Retrogaming Times, I came across an interesting thought. Is Retrogaming simply a form of Nostalgia or is there something more? I think I came up with an interesting answer. 

The hobby of Retrogaming is usually thought of as nostalgia for many of us who grew up during the 80's. Whether you were a fan of Pac Man, the Atari 2600, or the various other games/systems from those days, you can now easily play just about any of these games today on modern hardware. For a old time gamer like me, that is one of the benefits of growing up in the 80's. I can enjoy the nostalgia of the older generation of games while still enjoying the newer generation of games. Many kids of today might look at Pac Man (or the Atari 2600) and think "What's the big deal?"

Indeed, I think there is more to "Retrogaming" than mere nostalgia for old timers. The old games or systems that we think of as "Retro" today were "Visions of the Future" when they were released. 

For example, many gamers today enjoy the "Madden" football series from EA Sports. How many of those game players know that the "Madden" series originated from "John Madden Football" that was originally released on the Apple II series of computers? 

John Madden Football is primative compared to the Madden games released on the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. But considering that John Madden Football was written for a computer with limited graphics/sound capability and only 64K of RAM, you will be impressed at what the game was able to accomplish. The developers of the game had a vision and did as well as they could at the time. 

However, just as George Lucas took advantage of the new technology that exists today to do editing of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, developers today took the original John Madden Football and re-made into the game that is today. 

The same could be said of any of the games that exist in the market today. One of the better examples would be the now defunct Ultima series. Ultima is one of the series where you can see the lineage of the older generation to the newer generation of games. The earlier Ultima's (I-V) had simplistic graphics and sound due to the limits of the technology that existed at the time. Creator Richard Garriot probably had grand visions of what he wanted to do but given the limitations he faced, he and his developer team did the best they could. As the years progressed and the technlogy improved, the later releases of Ultima evolved with drastically improved graphics and sound. The advanced techlogy allowed the developers to get closer to what their vision was with the original Ultima's. 

So as we look as today's systems and games, don't look at simply what they offer today. Look at the possibilites that exist for the future. In another 20 years or so, future "Retrogamers" will look back fondly on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii as we have with the Atari 2600, Apple II or other systems.

 Nintendo Amusement Park


 by Tom Zjaba

I am still surprised that there has not been an amusement park based on the Nintendo characters.  If there ever was a large collection of material to work with that is universally known to both kids and adults, it is the Nintendo characters.  Find someone who has never heard of Mario.  That is like finding someone who has never heard of Ronald McDonald or Santa Claus.  He is that big.  Throw in other known characters like Donkey Kong, Luigi, Link, Pikachu and others and you have the makings of a great amusement park.

I know what you are thinking, it would cost a ton of money to make a Nintendo Amusement Park.  Land cost alot of money as does rides.  And where could you put it that it would attract people?  I have an answer to that.  There is an amusement park in Ohio that has a ton of land, not far from a major attraction and is in need of something to save it.  That park is Geauga Lake.  The park sits on 690 acres of land, which is immense in size.  It also has a ton of rides already there that can be easily converted to Nintendo rides with some theming.  And most importantly, it is only an hour away from Cedar Point, one of the premier amusement parks in the world.  Cedar Point alone brings in 3 million guests a year and could easily send some of them to the Nintendo Amusement Park.

You may be asking, why don't they do this in Japan?  I always wondered that as well.  It sounds like a sure fire hit.  But with the cost of land in Japan, it probably would be too expensive to do it.  And there are already some great amusement parks in Japan.  But here is a chance to take a park with the room, the rides and create a park that complements Cedar Point instead of compete with it.  And Cedar Point and Geauga Lake are both owned by the same company, Cedar Fairs.

I know you think it would cost a ton of money to convert the park from Geauga Lake to the Nintendo Amusement Park.  Not really as most of it would be painting rides, adding new signs and some theming.  It would cost less than a hyper coaster.  But the return on the investment would be great.  Right now, few people outside of the area know of Geauga Lake.  But add the Nintendo name and you would bring in alot more visitors, especially if you did a package deal with Cedar Point.

Another question you may have is why would Nintendo want to do this.  First off, they would get money for allowing the use of their characters.  Second, it gives them another presence in the very lucrative US market.  Third, it is a great way to brand Nintendo as more than video games.  It puts them in the same league with Disney and they could use this as a way to spring board into other areas like full feature films, cable channel and other avenues.  And they could sell a ton of licensed Nintendo merchandise like t-shirts, dvds, toys, trading cards and more.  They could also use it to promote their latest video games.

So with that taken care of, here is some of my suggestions for rides to be rethemed.  I also have some plans for new rides that would give the park some unique experiences not found either at Geauga Lake or Cedar Point.

Rethemed Rides

Link's Boomerang Coaster - It is now known as Head Spin and is one of the many Vekoma Boomerang coasters in the country.  But with green track, cars with logos of Link from Legend of Zelda and a new sign and you have a whole new ride.

Star Fox Flight Academy - It is now known as Thunderhawk and is an Vekoma SLC Inverted Coaster.  But with Star Fox on it and a new black track and some theming that gives it a space look, you could have a better ride.  The theming could be simple stuff like some meteors and ships that would be placed around the track.  Also, make the loading deck look more space like with some cool lighting and some monitors with Star Fox and his friends.

Wario's Wild Wide - Now known as the Villain, it could be rethemed to highlight one of Nintendo's greatest villains.  It is a great wooden coaster that would need little theming.

Super Smash Bros Bumper Cars - It is now the Dodgem ride but with cool stickers of Nintendo's most known characters, it goes from a simple Dodgem to being a Super Smash Time!  Each car would have a different character including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Wario, Bowser and others.

Mario's Merry Oldies - Join Mario as you ride through the mushroom kingdom on these classic cars.  Was the Merry Oldies Cars ride.  Just a repaint of the cars and some theming to make it look like the Mushroom Kingdom (pipes, mushrooms, koopas, etc...) and you have a fun new ride.

Donkey Kong Country Rapids - It is now the Grizzly Run, which has been turned into a dull ride.  Speed it back up, add in the falls and water spray they used to have and add some jungle theming (palm trees, vines and other foilage) as well as a big Donkey Kong and you have a fun ride that is now a waste of time.

Yoshi Express - It once was the Roadrunner Express before the changed to name to one of the worst names for a roller coaster, Beaverland Express.  It is a kiddie coaster that features a train.  A quick paint job and a Yoshi sign is all you need.

Pokemon Village - What is now Kidworks Playzone would be rethemed to have Pokemon named rides.  With popular characters like Pikachu, Squirtle and Jigglypuff, there is no shortage of ideas.  This would also be the place to meet and greet the Nintendo characters.

Metroid Space Flight - It is now Dominator, the best coaster in the park.  It already is futuristically themed (was once the Batman Night Flight), so it would take a little theming to get it right. 

There are other rides, but I only did a handful right now.  Next is my idea for some new additions to make the park truly unique to the area.  This would make it a true family place to be and also give it a couple good dark rides.

Animal Crossing Town - If you enter Geauga Lake through the main gates, you will see a big chunk of unused land on the left side.  It once had a large playground.  I think it should be turned into a playground again.  This time we theme it to the Animal Crossing game with small houses for kids to explore and statues of some of the animals that make up the game.  Also there would a very large climbing play area for kids to climb, explore and slide through.  Low cost to build, low cost to maintain and it is already shaded.  Add benches for parents to sit in and put a concession stand there and you have a great place to get out of the sun and have fun.

Luigi's Mansion - Mario's brother had a game about him going into a haunted mansion.  Now we can recreate it for the whole family to enjoy.  With state of the art special effects it would be a spooky mansion that is not too scary and something the whole family can enjoy.

Gotta Catch Em All Pokemon Ride - Think of a shooting ride like Buzz Lightyear in Disney or Scooby Doo at King's Island.  You would have your camera gun and it is your job to catch pics of all the Pokemon.  They would pop out all over the place and at the end you would see a list of all the Pokemon you were able to catch.  A fun game for the whole family.

Besides rides, there would also be an elaborate arcade with lots of Nintendo games, a Nintendo museum with classic consoles set up to try as well as history of the company, programmers, systems, games and characters.  I would also redo the theatre to make it a continous running theatre that showed episodes of Super Mario, Link and others.  It would also have classic Nintendo commercials and more.  And of course, there would be a ton of Nintendo themed merchandise to buy at the many gift shops.

While it is a good idea and has a ton of potential, it is doubtful that it ever happens.  But it is great to dream and who knows, maybe if the idea gets out there, someone will run with it.

Tom Zjaba (The eternal dreamer who is ready to buy five season passes to this park.)

 Nintendo Realm: Before the Famicom


 by
Scott Jacobi

In honor of this month’s special anniversary issue, I thought it was only fitting to go even more retro than usual.  When looking at Nintendo’s past prior to the release of the Famicom, you only have a couple of options.  They released Hanafuda cards for years, but I know nothing about Hanafuda.  They did make a number of successful arcade games before the Famicom, but they’ve gotten tremendous coverage on these web pages.  And let’s not forget their pre-Famicom dedicated “Color TV” consoles.  I would dearly love to cover them, but I have never been able to get my hands on one.  So what am I left with?  Why, the Game & Watch series of course.

Allow me to set the stage.  Third grade in 1983, Staten Island New York, lunch time.  All of the students were herded in to the cafeteria that typically smelled of poorly concocted lunch room kitchen food and heavy doses of ammonia and other cleaning chemicals.  Two things were immediately arranged once your spot at the lunch table was chosen: the order in which you were going to eat your lunch (dessert first, sandwich second, fruit last, if at all), and the Game & Watch that you had available for trade with some fellow G&W owner.  Sure, you had Donkey Kong Jr., but you could play that any time.  Lunch time was for new experiences, and the kid on the opposite side of the table owned Donkey Kong II.  The kid two seats down from you had Parachute.  And the kid you didn’t like to talk to had Mario Bros., so you were willing to make an exception in this case for the sake of the lunch time trade.  The poor kid on the end of the table who had some non-Nintendo manufactured LCD game would have a tough time orchestrating a trade with anyone since no one ever heard of Sub Patrol, and for some weird reason, it was solar powered.  Even as 7 and 8 year olds, we were pretty snobby about labels.  So let’s take a look at what was hot in the lunch room at the time.

Donkey Kong
Naturally, if it was hot in the arcades, kids wanted to play it at home, even if it was nothing like the arcade game.  Fortunately, Nintendo’s multi-screen Donkey Kong game was kind of like the arcade, in that many of the features at least resembled the arcade to some extent.  There were barrels to jump over and ladders to climb, and for a kid, that was good enough.  Sometimes you didn’t even care that you were supposed to rescuing some girl, who probably had cooties.  It was all about making that monkey fall.  For a multi-screen game, Donkey Kong packed a lot of action.  The goal of the bottom screen was to jump over any barrels that came your way.  The problem was, the places where this was possible were limited.  Some sections of the two ramps were covered by an overhanging girder that prevented you from jumping.  Along the higher ramp, girders were carried along an overhead conveyor belt that must also be avoided.  When you safely reached the top screen, you still had a shower of barrels to worry about, since DK did a pretty good job keeping a consistent flow of them raining down on you.  You had to flick the switch on the left to activate the crane on the right, and then you must safely reach the ledge before the crane deactivated itself for no reason, and jump when the crane swung your way and yank one of the clamps holding Donkey Kong’s platform in place.  Once all four clamps were yanked, you were the champ for a few seconds until it all started over at a faster pace.

Donkey Kong Jr.
I can’t find the source for this statistic, but I believe this was one of the most popular and common Game & Watches available.  It’s smaller size made it more affordable than the multi-screens, and it’s arcade inspired name made it very recognizable.  Donkey Kong Jr. packs all of the arcade drama on one tiny screen.  But what a screen it was.  There were two levels (essentially three if you count the vines below the top branch) that Jr. had to maneuver through, with Snapjaws patrolling the upper and lower branches, and Nitpicker birds flying along the level between them.  You could avoid the Snapjaws by jumping over them, or by clinging to the vines overhead, but the latter presents a danger because if you’re not careful, a Nitpicker could fly up behind you and kill you.  Once you climbed up the double vine on the right side of the screen, you then had to cross back to the left to papa.  One fruit hangs just prior to the end of the ledge, and if you were lucky, you could manage a triple kill for a whopping 18 points (3 + 6 + 9) before moving on to the final challenge.  Just as in Donkey Kong, a key swung back and forth, and the jump for the key had to be properly timed, or Jr. would fall headlong into the bush below.  If Jr. managed to catch and unlock all four sections of papa’s cage, bonus points were awarded and the action started over at a faster pace.  A rather passive and stoic Mario sat beneath the cage, never grimacing or cheering or changing in any way, other than to ring the bell to signal the alarm that you set for 2:55pm so you could remind the teacher that it was time to go home. 

Donkey Kong II
Donkey Kong II is a multi screen game just like Donkey Kong was.  I can only imagine they went with the roman two monik