Holy bringing back a thread from the dead!
If any of you are familiar with the Wayne Hills Mall (or as I call it the wayne hills mausoleum) the arcade in there is gone (as is pretty much every other store).
Sigh.
Holy bringing back a thread from the dead!
If any of you are familiar with the Wayne Hills Mall (or as I call it the wayne hills mausoleum) the arcade in there is gone (as is pretty much every other store).
Sigh.
Wayne Hills has been dead for 10 years. Only thing with anyone going into it is the Burlington Coat Factory. You know it's bad when the McDonalds leaves and has been gone for years.
The arcade closed in 2001/2002, something like that? I spent so much time in that arcade growing up.
Meanwhile, Preakness turned into the defacto Wayneite mall of choice. Funny how in the early 90s, it was the opposite.
Well if you goto the Wayne Hills Mall, you'll see a blue false wall in the middle part of the mall. All the other entrances have been blocked off.
The only things in there now are a Quiznos, GNC, Payless and Burlington Coat Factory.
Last edited by annelid; 01-01-2010 at 11:48 AM.
Originally Posted by annelid
Well if you goto the Wayne Hills Mall, you'll see a blue false wall in the middle part of the mall. All the other entrances have been blocked off.
The only things in there now are a Quiznos, GNC, Payless and Burlington Coat Factory.
So, a new "Dixie Square"? That's sad to see those things close and be abandoned. The only life that there now is food and a clothes store. Truly a shame.
Holy shit, the Waldenbooks finally closed too?!Well if you goto the Wayne Hills Mall, you'll see a blue false wall in the middle part of the mall. All the other entrances have been blocked off.
The only things in there now are a Quiznos, GNC, Payless and Burlington Coat Factory.
A fake wall. Wow. That's impressive. And it's not like Wayne is short on money either. What the hell happened? (Other than everyone abandoning the mall)
malls that are half abandoned just creep me out. when i was young and my family would go to san diego we would sometimes stop for the night in yuma, az. it's about halfway between here and there. there is a decent sized mall there and we would usually stop there if we were in town.
about a year ago, i went through there and decided to stop at the mall. about half of it was sectioned off and all of the big stores (sears, jc penney, etc.) were closed. my wife and i were the only people inside who weren't mexican. the food court was gone, instead there was a filibertos knock off place where a store used to be. there were probably only 10-12 stores open and maybe 50 people tops in the mall. we were in and out of there in about ten minutes.
I used to go there when I was a kid (I grew up in Wayne). That mall was always sketchy. Doesn't surprise me that its half in the bag now.Well if you goto the Wayne Hills Mall, you'll see a blue false wall in the middle part of the mall. All the other entrances have been blocked off.
The only things in there now are a Quiznos, GNC, Payless and Burlington Coat Factory.
I said it earlier in this thread, but I just bought a house in Wayne, pretty much walking (well, moreso biking) distance from Wayne's Hill Mall, actually. I'm near the A&P on Valley.
Regardless, from what I've heard (and who knows if it's true), but the owner of the Wayne's Hill Mall wanted to knock it down and open section 8 housing. Wayne, as you would expect, refuses to let the guy do this since they want to keep the town clean. However, the owner has since decided to be spiteful. Instead of fixing up the Wayne's Hill Mall and actually, you know, making it nice again -- He's decided to indefinitely leave it as a desolate wasteland until the town bends and let's him build his ghetto apartments. It's a stalemate.
I forget where I read it, but supposedly the FnG owner's son wants to re-open an arcade around here. Unfortunately, Willowbrook isn't having it. He also said he wanted to open another one in the Wayne's Hill Mall should it ever be revitalized, but that isn't happened.
I've also heard that FnG was originally supposed to re-open in Willowbrook's sister mall (What is it called? Westbelt mall? It's in the same damn parking lot, and there's a Chipotle there now...) Well, FnG was supposed to re-open there when THAT mall got rebuilt. It's been years now and it's still a demolition site. I don't think that mall is ever coming back either.
I have some money saved up, and I'm actually considering having a talk with the staff at Willowbrook. If I can get them to lease me the place I'll re-open an arcade there. Unfortunately, from the people I've spoken to, this is a no-go. As noted before in this thread, Willowbrook wants a more family friendly mall, and FnG closing down had less to do with it not making money and way more to do with Willowbrook purposely being tough about renewing their lease.
North Jersey definitely needs an arcade, though. I'm not going to happy until I see another one in the Wayne area. So we'll see, I suppose. I'm tired of having to make a trip to 8 on the Break or Chinatown Fair every time I want to play Blazblue, or some other game.
Klisk, that's basically what I heard about Willowbrook. That closing FnG was a "get the kids hanging out here at midnight the fuck away" move.
The Wayne Hills Mall thing is a shocker though. Section 8 housing? Hell will freeze over before that happens. All the Wayne-ites will go berserk if that happens.
I'd love a new FnG. Seriously love it.
It was one of the only arcades in the area that actually had decent upkeep. Places like Sports World, while it had a nice selection, had far too many machines with broken sticks or unresponsive buttons.
There's Barcade in Brooklyn. Roughly three dozen classic arcade cabinets from the early and mid 1980s, and they're all 25 cents. Greg and I went a couple months ago and it was fun, but crowded with Williamsburg hipsters.
Sportsworld sucked for that reason and imo, the poor selection of games because it was trying to do too many things at once. Kinda glad it closed.
The problem with that is you have to go into the city. If they open one of these in northern NJ, I would be there constantly.
Sportsworld's laser tag was fun, otherwise it was a waste. If I was the FnG's guy I would never go back to Willowbrook. Should look into one of the many small strip malls around. One problem is that many towns actually prohibit arcades.
The Paunch Stevenson Show free Internet podcast - www.paunchstevenson.com - DP FEEDBACK
Yeah.... There's so many nasty things I could say about Willowbrook, and that's even BEFORE they pressured out Fun'n'games. Now I'm pretty venemous about the place. If you're actually a regular inside the mall it's definitely noticeable that they're changing things inside as well. But the changes seem backwards. I'm kind of confused as to what kind of shopping community they are trying to attract.
It's funny, though. Wayne is the first type of town to go and complain that kids having nothing to do but get in trouble. Then when the arcade closes - Which is pretty much a haven for a lot of kids, hell - I grew up in FnG when I was as young as 6 years old - Well, then they'll go and claim that this has nothing to do with it.This is a whole other rant I could go into, though.
Anyhow. When I was a little kid it was always my dream to work in an arcade. Small dreamer, right? Now I'm starting to realize that I want to own one. It's a tempting proposition and a risk I wouldn't be against taking.
I'd really prefer seeing a new FnG, though. But the owners are so impossibly tough to track down, and I can't think of anyone more experienced. People still see Saif around, though..
You mean Walktag? They even messed that up. I never understood the point of laser tag where you can only walk.
There's plenty of strip malls in Wayne with vacant shops, though. There's plenty of space for an arcade here alone. The issue at hand is the fact that the willowbrook spot was pretty tough to beat. It was the perfect location since kids are always hanging out at the mall, yet it's not in the mall which means you can stay open late, and you even get random passerby's who otherwise were just going to go shopping at Sears/Macy's/whatever. A strip mall would be a lot lower traffic. Which lowers the likelihood of success. Asides from your really dedicated hardcore/classic gaming crowds not many people are going to go out of their way for an arcade. Location is immensely important now. It's all about high volume.
Anyone else remember the arcade that was in the strip mall near the Best Buy / Barnes and Noble? I think there's a Gamestop there now...
I also think it's important to really select the right games, though. There's certain games we all know everyone wants to play, but then there's less obvious choices. A lot of arcades make the mistake of filling up with racers and ticket games. It's more important to get the newest fighters and keep the hardware well maintained, I think. I've spoken to quite a few west coast arcade owners over the past 6 months, and they all point their success at the competitive fighting game crowd, saying that fighting games like SFIV bring in the biggest cash and most loyal customers. They also hold regular tournaments which keeps those people coming. They have their classic games as well, but supposedly that isn't their bread and butter anymore keeping them afloat.
If I was to set up an arcade my idea would be to have about 4 pinball machines, a solid group of classic staples that you can't NOT have - Since, y'know, who doesn't love them? Maybe one setup of Maximum Tune, and then likely dedicate the rest of the space to Viewlix-based fighters / 3S, MvC2, etc. I think it's also obligatory to have at least 2 DDR machines and a Pop'n Music of some type, but otherwise avoid the stuff no one will ever play like the gimmicky motion-sensor games and what have you. There is something to be said about having good light gun games, but then I just think of the monstrosity that is Dave and Busters. (Which is, like, 90% lightgun games.)
But if you notice, this pretty much sums up what FnG's was doing. They really knew their stuff, and it was always the pleasure to go into the arcade. The staff was always familiar and friendly/remembered you if you were a regular, and it was just solid. Every time I go to the mall I walk past the arcade with some sort hope that maybe I'm just dreaming that it closed.
Last edited by Klisk; 01-30-2010 at 04:50 PM.
Damn Fun N' Games......I spent many evenings there during late middle/early high school playing MVC2 and House of the Dead 3. I was a huge Mallrat at Willowbrook around 2006/2007, my friends and I used to practically live at both the mall and in Fun N' Games on the weekends. It's a fucking shame that they closed, and I heard it wasn't due to poor business either. Mall management shut it down because they felt it was "lowering the status" of the mall, which is total bullshit in my opinion. Around late 2007 (about the time the economy tanked and Fun N'Games shut down) many of the stores that my friends and I used to frequent inside Willowbrook such as the 4 different Gamestops, the two FYE stores and the Suncoast Video shut down and we found ourselves hanging out elsewhere. Willowbrook is now a shadow of its former glory, nothing but a plethora of generic women's clothing stores. Ironically, I work at Willowbrook now and I walk past the empty space where Fun N'Games once was almost every morning. What really annoys me is that other than being used as a haunted house during the month of October, the space has sat vacant for almost 6 years while hoards of mallrat kids crowd the main entrance (which wouldnt be a problem if they had a place to hang out). To be honest I do not believe that closing the arcade helped the problem of, "loitering" at all.....totally counter-productive.
R.I.P. Fun N' Games
Last edited by GCB2KT; 02-21-2013 at 11:32 AM.
I still miss the one in clifton that used to be open on 46 . Used to have a caldors in the same shopping center. Now i think Barnes and noble is in there, kohls and a few others. Pizza46 is in the same mall. sad times how many arcades are still open in northern nj?
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That was Plaza Game Room, technically in West Paterson or whatever they call that town now. I don't know of any standalone arcades up here anymore. Barcade has a location in Jersey City, and Digital Press has several machines, mainly MAME, in Clifton.
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Even though they changed names i still call it West Paterson. DP is the only place i know that still has any sort of arcade stand ups. Shame that the whole era of gaming has pretty much dried up. Dave and busters is the closest for it, but its not the same.
Current Collection Stats As Of 12/10/2013 : Cartridges - 206 ( 182 unique titles 24 label variations ) : Cassettes - 21 :
Currently in the market for :
+ Atari 8 bit game cartridges ( all brands and most titles )
+ Atari 8 Bit Prototype and Demo cartridges
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PM me if you see anything above that you have doubles or interest in getting rid of.
Check out my
Atari 8-Bit Museum Site at http://www.a8museum.com
Atari 8-Bit Museum on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/392317377550512/
And on Ebay under the handle ThePaperVault
God, if one more person recommends "Barcade" to me, I'm going to rip my hair out.
Good concept, abysmal execution. My personal dislike of the loud talking/louder music bar aesthetic aside, the machines are all in WAY too substandard condition for anybody who is serious about arcade games to enjoy.
They need to get an expert arcade repair tech on staff, repair/replace and TEST all of the buttons and joysticks on all of the machines and maintain them on a regular basis.
Also, they should seriously consider setting the games to free play and charging a flat cover for entry.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
Barcade is fine for what it is. It's not a place for video game enthusiasts to quietly and comfortably enjoy classic arcade games. It's loud, crowded, and people sometimes hog the machines. Once in a while a button won't work or a quarter will get eaten. In those cases, tell an employee and they'll refund your quarter. And yeah, dealing with quarters is a pain...BUT all of these "negatives" are authentic to the long lost arcade experience!
If you want a nicely lit, much more quiet, comfortable arcade experience with properly maintained cabinets *and* free play pricing, go to Yestercades in Red Bank, NJ. It is video game heaven (70+ arcades, roughly 20 pinball machines, and almost every home game console connected to TVs with shelves full of games):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodrob...7629917556084/
And the pinball equivalent is Silverball Museum Arcade in Asbury Park, NJ. Very impressive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodrob...7629905598558/
I highly recommend both places!
Last edited by Rob2600; 02-25-2013 at 01:39 PM.
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