Bally Le Mans Arcade -- Closed

[Flack]

Last week I discovered that Bally's Le Mans, one of the oldest arcades in the Oklahoma City area, has closed its doors. (Technically it didn't have doors since it was located at Crossoads Mall (http://www.shopcrossroadsmall.com), but you get the idea. They're gone.)

Bally's Le Mans was originally Le Mans Speedway, an indoor go-cart race track that was installed sometime during the late 70s. Eventually the race track was removed to make room for arcade games and the word "Speedway" was dropped from the name, leaving us with simply Le Mans. At some point during its lifetime Le Mans was purchased by Bally's. I believe Namco has a stake in the arcade too, as all the tokens say Namco and have Pac-Man on them.

As I waxed about in Invading Spaces (http://www.robohara.com/InvadingSpaces), Le Mans was the first place I ever saw Dragon's Lair, the big dual-monitor version with a second monitor bolted to the top of the cabinet that allowed the gathering masses to see the action. There was definitely a crowd gathered around the machine, I remember. In seventh grade (1985/1986) one of my friends had his birthday party at Le Mans. It was at that party that we discovered Gauntlet. Due to low party attendance we ended up with around twenty bucks worth of tokens each, most of which were pumped into Gauntlet that day. Le Mans was the first place I ever saw the sit down version of S.T.U.N. Runner, too. Lots of good memories there.

The southside of Oklahoma City, specifically the area around Crossroads Mall, "ain't what it used to be." According to several websites, the mall has been taken over by gangs. Car break-ins are a daily occurance and in 2006, one gang member shot another one directly in front of the arcade in May of 2006 (the shooter was shot and killed in the mall by an off-duty sherrif's deputy. Many businesses and mall patrons have not forgot about the incident. Last year JCPenneys left and this year Macy's pulled out of the mall. Also in 2008, the Extreme indoor putt-putt course (where Mason had his birthday in 2006 (http://www.robohara.com/albums/Mason_Birthday_2006)), Subway, and Sbarro's have all left, too. Most of the web entries I found regarding Crossroads Mall describe it as a "dangerous ghost town".

I didn't take the following picture. I found it on Photobucket posted by a fellow named Rifter and used it simply because with Le Mans closed I have no reason to ever visit Crossroads Mall ever again, but here it is. Rest in peace, Le Mans.

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

(Reposted from robohara.com (http://www.robohara.com))

[namzep]

Man, that sucks. I remember when the Bally Aladdin's Castle closed in Stillwater and how bummed I was that we no longer had an arcade in town. Is Cactus Jack's about the only arcade left in the OKC area?

[Flack]

Without arguing semantics about the word "arcade" ... I'd say yeah. You've still got Chuck E. Cheese, Incredible Pizza, Celebration Station and Carnival Pizza -- all of those have games, but none of them have a lot of good ones. (I spent a couple of hellacious hours in CEC over the weekend; thank goodness for Metal Slug 5.) There are still quite a few arcade games around town in bowling alleys, skating rinks and such, none of which have as many games as I have in my backyard.

I haven't been to Perfect Swing in Norman in a while but the guy who handles the arcade games there is an acquaintance of mine and the last time I was there he had probably a dozen classic machines in the arcade, still like Q*Bert, Galaga, TRON, Time Pilot, etc.

[namzep]

I may have to check out Perfect Swing next time I'm in Norman (my sister lives there so I travel there somewhat regularly). I had forgotten about Incredible Pizza but that's got more redemption machines/putt putt/go-karts than a real arcade would. And, I agree, the game selection's not the greatest.

[Clownzilla]

Well, our Aladdin's Castle closed in our town of Springfield, MO in the late 90's. It was the only real arcade we ever had. We have a decent 80's arcade in town but they won't fill my need for a good 90's or 2000's era game (and pinball).

[DreamTR]

Flack: Bally's does not own any arcade anymore, and has not for awhile. They only do slot gaming, and Namco bought all the Bally themed arcades across the country, which is why you see some Aladdin's Castles still existing, but everything is run/owned by Namco which explains the tokens.

Namco is trying to sell/get out of areas where it is not profitable, and has been closing down arcades left and right, and trying to have "unmanned" locations with the Time Out name still intact, as profits are very low these days...

[ANONPLOX]

Up in the Morristown Mall up in Morristown, NJ there used to be a decent Namco Arcade when i was there last there wasnt much in the way of decent games mostly the only good ones where Xmen Vs. Street Fighter type games and one Virtua Fighter 2 or 3 machine. Now back in the day in the late 80's early 90's down in Wildwood, NJ ever last aracde on that boardwalk was filled with some of the best in classic and new cabs everything from Root Beer Tapper and Pacman to Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition and Aliens Vs. Predator. Now with places like University Pinball in West Philly and Chinatown Fair up on Mott Street in Chinatown New York we are getting the best and latest from the japanese arcade market like Arcana Heart 2, The Rumble Fish 2, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, and yes Street Fighter 4(hopefully once its released they can grab a few boards and maybe the cabs to go with them of Tetsunoko Vs. Capcom).

[SpaceHarrier]

A moment of silence for another of the fallen

This makes me want to go make sure my fave 2 arcades are still there D:

[Steve W]

It's always depressing when a faithful old arcade closes. The mall will probably deteriorate even further until it closes and gets demolished.

On the upside, a little indie fried chicken place near where I work have installed a smallish Ms. Pac-Man cab and a Galaxian 3 (Gaplus) cab in the corner. It's always a great feeling when a business brings in arcade games instead of getting rid of them. I was on lunch break from work and didn't have time to play Galaxian 3. I've got to go there on my own time soon and try that one out, I've never played it before.

[Rifter01]

I'm still deeply saddened and torn up by this. Thanks for giving me photo cred. I have been meaning to write a blog post about this ever since that day.

I guess I'm still so torn up by it since as long as I can remember my dad (whom passed away a couple of years ago) would give me $1 allowance to go and play. I really need to stop there otherwise I will be tearing up too much. :(

Thank you for doing a good write up on this Flack.

Rifter

[DeputyMoniker]

Well...that's life in da hood. For those of you who missed the story, some scumbag got busted with a gun at Crossroads the other day. He was waving his gun down the highway, I guess, and someone followed him to the mall. The follower called the cops, the cops show up and don't tell anybody what's going on. Store managers started picking up on the foul mood and closing their doors. They eventually ended up catching the guy. Yeah, Crossroads has gone to hell. I hate that because I have a lot of good 1980's memories of the place...it was the nicest mall back then. Of course, Shepard's Mall went to hell before it shut down. I dug that place in the 80's too. Both malls hold a lot of childhood Christmas memories. It was at Crossroads (and the Galleria in TX) where I used to drool over the boring Neo Geo box and wonder why they didn't have a demo station...I still wonder that. I also wonder how much longer Crossroads will be in business. Moore is a great town with a lot of money these days...maybe we'll see a new mall up there, with better security maybe?