Gameland - Lake Geneva, WI

[cityside75]

Anybody been to this place? We visited Lake Geneva for the first time over the weekend, and while walking through the downtown area, we came upon this place. At first I assumed it was a children-targeted ticket redemption type-place, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that it was a fully stocked classic arcade. Among the 50-60 games in the place were:

A small form Robotron (I've never seen one before, it had about a 13" screen)
Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-man and a number of bootlegs of each game
Asteroids (Vector screen was shot)
Phoenix
Tetris
MK1, 2, 3
Tekken 3
A nice row of old Pinball games
Centipede
Defender
TMNT
Simpsons
Monaco
Pole Position (sit down)
and many more

The only drawback was that many of the games were in marginal condition. MK2 had issues on both sides, and a few other games that I tried had spotty buttons or sticks. Also, for some reason they seemed to have the difficulty turned way up on most of the games, which is sure to turn off many casual gamers.

A question for everyone here, there was a kid playing an old baseball game that had small metal sticks on each side of the control panel that he would pull back and release to swing and pitch. I forgot to check the name on it. Anyone know what it was?

Anyway, if you are going to that area, make sure you check it out!

[goatdan]

I actually just went there for the first time today. Surprisingly awesome! It was like an old school arcade all over again.

I had heard bad, bad stories about their pins, but of the ones that were on, they played rather well with the exception of Black Knight. I'll be heading back there again sometime soon with friends to play for a while.

Seeing Jr. Pac-Man was way too cool.

[Borman]

Was it like, a really old baseball game? I know my Naomi has swingable bat things on the control panel heh

[Arcade Antics]

A question for everyone here, there was a kid playing an old baseball game that had small metal sticks on each side of the control panel that he would pull back and release to swing and pitch. I forgot to check the name on it. Anyone know what it was?
I'd bet that it was one of the old Cinematronics World Series baseball games, there were several. The best one was the Double Play machine that had Super Baseball and Home Run Derby. The baseball game was decent, but the Home Run Derby portion kicked major ass. :D

The metal sticks were well implemented - pull back to hold the bat back, let it go to swing. aim it up and down according to the pitch. Awesome, intuitive mechanic.

[Flack]

I swear I posted this once already -- did you ask about this in another forum somewhere, or am I just experiencing major deja vu this evening?

http://www.robohara.com/pix/arcade/Baseball.jpg

That's my old Baseball game, sounds like the one you were describing (although I'm sure the one you saw wasn't in a Robotron cabinet).

[DogP]

Yeah, I had a World Series The Season for a couple years... it's actually a pretty fun game. I definately like how you don't have to field, since that's where the computer always has the huge advantage in video games.

And yeah, those mini sticks are perfect for the game, and surprizingly seem to hold up really well... I dunno about anyone else, but I haven't seen a broken one yet! Only thing wrong w/ them that I ever see is missing the black cap on the stick.

DogP