Burger King -- Making it MY way!

[Flack]

The Burger King next to my house did away with their indoor playground a while back and has since replaced it with an mini arcade. There are only 3 machines, 2 pinball tables and 2 skeeball machines in there. Not much for an arcade, but a lot for your average Burger King.

The machines are: Off-Road Challenge, Blasteroids, and Golden Tee.
The pinball machines are: Jurassic Park and The Addams Family.

http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/burger_king_1.jpg

http://www.robohara.com/pix/blog/burger_king_2.jpg

[Lerxstnj]

Nice!
If that was near my house I'd be all over that Addams Family pinball!

[Pantechnicon]

Very cool. The BK's in our area used to have these kiosks that were 3/4-size of a standard JAMMA cab and more or less the same shape. Inside they were running Philips CD-I's attached to large touchpads for the crumb-crunchers to play little games or drawing programs. When one of the BK's folded I bought four of these cabinets and made MAME cabs out of them. So it's kind of neat to see BK coming full circle here and putting in real arcade-type diversions.

I'm curious about the Skee-balls. Do you just play for points or is your BK getting into the whole redemption racket? 500 tickets gets you a 2nd Kids Meal toy LOL.

[MrSparkle]

Hey not bad! Wish more places would do that. Though in my experience places which are not arcades that have arcade machines tend to keep them up rather poorly.

[SpaceHarrier]

oh hell yes! Jurassic Park pinball is the best..

[shawnbo42]

I remember my local BK used to have (maybe 14 years or so ago) 2 machines...A Neo Geo (big Red monster) with a Samurai Showdown, and a Puzzle Bobble? I can't remember the second title for sure, but I think it was along that line. They also had another machine next to it, no idea what that one was though...it's been too long. That is kinda cool though, to have an "arcade" at BK. Now what they really need is a Pac-Man or Frogger. I mean, it's kinda hard to play pinball with a Whopper in hand, lol.

[Kyle15]

WHOA! @_@
I haven't seen one of those Jurassic Park Pinball machines in a long time.
It would be even cooler if they got a hold of the original arcade game.

[Steve W]

I've never seen a Burger King with an arcade machine in it of any kind, so I'm thoroughly impressed. I just wish that kind of thing would happen around here, and that the locals wouldn't have Mexican gang grafitti spray-painted all over them within a week.

[Cambot]

I used to live near a McDonlads which had N64 games in specially designed kiosks / cabinets. There was Mario Party games, I think Mario Brothers, ExciteBike 64 and Mario Kart. They tauted them as "Latest Nintendo Hits and where there through 2003 or something.

[Superman]

I have been to many fast food places in many parts of the country and I don't remember even one place having game machines. Of course, one of my local Denny's has arcade games and I don't remember seeing them at any other Denny's, so maybe things balance themselves out.

I hope this is new and it comes to my area. Burger King could pick up some business from me, from the gaming portion, if nothing else.

[c0ldb33r]

That's great. If more fast food joints had arcade machines I'd be there all the time. It's a damn shame :(

Any word on why they switched? Was some kid hurt in the inside playground?

[cityside75]

I have been to many fast food places in many parts of the country and I don't remember even one place having game machines.

Same here aside from the Gamecube kiosks in McDonalds for a while. Flack, it seems as if your gaming influence is being felt all over the area.

[Brian Deuel]

The Burger King in Greenville, Michigan did the same thing back in 2003 or so. There was a Sega Harley Davidson, a few redemption games, a Missile Command/Centipede/something else machine, a basketball shooter, and I think that's it. I moved from Greenville some time ago, so I couldn't tell you if it's still there.

Funny thing is, I owned an arcade in Greenville, and it was a total failure. But I guess if you've got burger and fries, maybe it'll make you some money. *shrug*

[Pantechnicon]

I have been to many fast food places in many parts of the country and I don't remember even one place having game machines.

That's interesting when one thinks about it. Even in the 1980's arcade heyday I cannot recall any of the big fast food places like McD's, BK, KFC etc that had arcade machines therein. It seemed to be more the purview of local restaurants than anything else. My guess is that videogames weren't regarded as consistent with business model of fast food. You went somewhere like Pizza Hut, for instance, and there was this expectation that you'd be sitting there for a while so naturally there were cabs. But at the Golden Arches, I guess the mentality was "eat and gtfo". This was also before children's areas became so common too.

In the case of Flack's BK, I'm betting this is the decision of the franchisee, and not a corporate-level thing. Good call. You've got all that floorspace. Given the choice between a multi-story plasticene liability trap filthy inside with the bodily fluids of random children, or some kick-ass money-making amusements, the choice seems obvious.

[Sudo]

Can't say I've ever seen any arcade machines in a fast food restaurant, myself.

[DigitalSpace]

That's pretty cool! When the Burger King near my house got rid of their indoor playground, it was replaced with a covered drive thru exit. I remember when McDonald's had Neo-Geo cabs for a while around the early to mid-90s, and that's the closest thing I've ever seen to that around here.

[otoko]

You went somewhere like Pizza Hut, for instance, and there was this expectation that you'd be sitting there for a while so naturally there were cabs.

Oh Darn it all! My Pizza hut only included a broken juke box. Far as I got over here was that my Mcdonald's decided it wanted a play area. Of course it being as small as it was it consisted of a game system and a bunch of small baby's toys... The game system was never turned on nor the controllers anywhere visible.. So no idea what it could've been anyway.

Although.. I have been to a Mcdonald's with a bunch of DDR machines.

[MrSparkle]

The pizza hut nearest my house has a raiden cab which is pretty sick. I find that diners love to throw a few beat up unpopular and hardly ever working arcade cabs into the little entrance area.

[jb143]

McDonald's Orlando.

I havn't been there myself but it's the worlds largest McDonalds and aparently has over 100 arcade games.

http://www.primetimeamusements.com/locations/mcdonalds2.jpg

[SegaAges]

How did I know they would have Golden Tee?

Hahaha, it is the Wii of Arcade games. Getting the masses to play arcade games that normally do not play them.

Crazy Taxi in there, and I would get super fat!

[BHvrd]

Imagine all the greasy kid fingers and snot you will be touching when you play one of these.

[Tommy]

Damn I miss me some BK! The games are a nice added touch.

[Cryomancer]

The Godfather's pizza in east peoria, IL had Super Pacman and NFL Blitz last time I was there, some others too I think. Actually the Pekin, IL location has always had a nice little arcade with it too...Arkanoid! Maybe Godfathers understands that eternal and mysterious bond between pizza and videogames. The local Shakeys Pizza (which closed recentely, sadness), also had a cocktail Ms pacman and a good roomfull of more modern stuff, although they did have a Lucky and Wild.

[Superman]

The local Shakeys Pizza (which closed recentely, sadness), also had a cocktail Ms pacman and a good roomfull of more modern stuff, although they did have a Lucky and Wild.

Shakeys Pizza. You're lucky to have had one all this time, because the Shakeys in my area has been gone for nearly 20 years now.