The Mad Dog Zone: Favorite F:AT Video Game System

FUCKING PINBOT?!?! WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?!?


Oh wait...someone did tell me a long time ago and I promptly deleted it from my mind's hard drive. Not this time...I am gonna find that shit. I had the cartridge version for NES...awesome game...but the damn game quit working a few years ago.

HAS F:AT IMPLODED???

I love that this has become our new meme.

Not Sure wrote:

I saw the console listing thing as being more about "here's where I'm coming from" than "look at all the fukkin places I've been!"

I've been to mad "fuckkin places" if you know what I mean. But you don't, cause you're all a bunch of basement dwelling nerds. Hence, I am the awesomest video gamer of all time.

Also, kiss my dick.

MattLoter wrote:

Not Sure wrote:

I saw the console listing thing as being more about "here's where I'm coming from" than "look at all the fukkin places I've been!"

I've been to mad "fuckkin places" if you know what I mean. But you don't, cause you're all a bunch of basement dwelling nerds. Hence, I am the awesomest video gamer of all time.

Also, kiss my dick.

Watch it Loter...I can still beat you about the head and neck with a GIANT FUKKIN' BAN STICK. I think. Maybe.

Also, I've played like 37 different consoles and own 1,932 games, most of which are still in shrinkwrap. My personal prize: BEYONCE'S DIRT FARMER 3-D ADVENTURE GAME for the still kickin' GAME.COM handheld.

Ken B. wrote:

FUCKING PINBOT?!?! WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?!?


Oh wait...someone did tell me a long time ago and I promptly deleted it from my mind's hard drive. Not this time...I am gonna find that shit. I had the cartridge version for NES...awesome game...but the damn game quit working a few years ago.

Mind you, "walking" around the arcade is such a pain in the ass in this game. But it's so worth it when you get on a table. The Wii controls really are perfect here--you have triggers in each hand, at your hips--AND you can shake from either side to get the bumps you need, while risking a TILT. Man, this is fun, I need to get that one going again. I set some amazing score at the Space Shuttle table and had to bask in the glory for a while.

You will leave Pin*bot behind for Fun House. Everyone does.

jeb wrote:

Ken B. wrote:

FUCKING PINBOT?!?! WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?!?


Oh wait...someone did tell me a long time ago and I promptly deleted it from my mind's hard drive. Not this time...I am gonna find that shit. I had the cartridge version for NES...awesome game...but the damn game quit working a few years ago.

Mind you, "walking" around the arcade is such a pain in the ass in this game. But it's so worth it when you get on a table. The Wii controls really are perfect here--you have triggers in each hand, at your hips--AND you can shake from either side to get the bumps you need, while risking a TILT. Man, this is fun, I need to get that one going again. I set some amazing score at the Space Shuttle table and had to bask in the glory for a while.

You will leave Pin*bot behind for Fun House. Everyone does.

FUN HOUSE TOO?!!?! HOLY SHIT!!!


"It's Lunchtime! Get yourself a hot dog!"

"THE PARK IS CLOSED!!!"


I put MANY quarters in Fun House. OMGWTFBBQ

Michael Barnes wrote:

There used to be a social aspect to videogaming as well.

Yes, back when arcades were poorly lit, rather seedy, and had ashtrays built into the cabinets. Man, I miss those days.

Differences in growing up somewhere where gambling is legal. The place you describe are called "stripmall casinos" here, and still do a booming business. Some people even come *out* with quarters. Rarely, but sometimes.

Yeah, there was a lot of bad about arcades, but there was some good too. At least you didn't have to listen to someone shit-talk you over a headset from a thousand miles away, he had to do it to your face. New games came in every week, there was always someone to play against, and you could usually buy weed around the back somewhere.

XBox Live is still working that, I think.

Plus, every single console implementation of pinball is just a poor substitute, even those crazy multi-level Neo-Geo pinballs that are practically adventure games.

Have you tried the Williams Pinball collection on Wii? I think it's just now coming out for 360/PS3. It's _awesome_. OF course, it is a substitute for the real thing, but they're really well done, and they're real Williams tables. There's a nice selection of classic machines, and it's the only place I know of that I can play the incredible FIREPOWER. BLACK KNIGHT, PINBOT, GORGAR, SORCEROR...top tables. Great physics, and the Wii control setup is perfect for a little silver ball action.

Actual table replicas, you say? I'll have to give it a try. Black Knight, for all it's rarity and multi-level gadgetry wasn't ever a huge favorite of mine. Addams Family, the ~1990 Star Wars table, and Twilight Zone (go plastic powerball!) are the kings of my nostalgia world.

Ken B. wrote:

I put MANY quarters in Fun House. OMGWTFBBQ

Me too. Looking at it, it's got "Taxi" as well. I put even more quarters in that, just because it sat in the closest place to my house for years. This must be acquired.

I'm telling you, FIREPOWER is the real discovery in there...it's VERY minimal, totally hardcore. It's got this incredible pre-chiptune drone that goes on through the whole game. It's really something special. Billy Motion tried to buy a real FIREPOWER table after playing it.

FUNHOUSE is pretty great on there too, but it wasn't ever really a favorite of mine.

Mine are:

TWILIGHT ZONE (best pinball machine of all time, period)
JUDGE DREDD (awesome theme, voices, layout)
THEATER OF MAGIC (one of the best 90s machines all around)
BLACK KNIGHT (just a classic, I liked BLACK KNIGHT 2000 too)
BRIDE OF PINBOT (just a wee bit better)
WORLD CUP SOCCER '94 (I _adore_ this machine, it was in a pizza joint I used to frequent and we'd play until the wee hours of the night)
ADDAMS FAMILY (had one of the best layouts ever)
BEYONCE'S BIG BALLA DIRT FARM (doesn't really exist)

Most are newer machines...I think that as great as the older tables were, they really hit a great period in the late 80s/early 90s.

Don't think I ever played Judge Dredd. Played a few games of World Cup, and remember it being fun, but it wasn't somewhere I had regular access to. Theater of Magic was a great one too, but like any really complicated 90s machine it really suffered when hard play would wear the piece fits down.

Addams Family wins for me based on the magnet. On a good strong machine, that effect is just surreal.
Twilight Zone is a close second, but the left-hand drop lanes are just frustrating on there. Theme and execution are A+.
Star Wars wasn't a fantastic table, but it was a lot of fun to play on with that big fat Death Star.
I also played the hell out of Jurassic Park.

I agree with you about the period. Adding video game electronics and full sound made a huge difference. Even so, I used to play old-time 50s and 60s tables in San Francisco (either at Musee Mechanique or at Lori's Diner in Union Square), and had plenty of fun with the simple layouts, mechanical scoring, and constant buzzing and clunking of them. Good times.

These days, if I end up at Chuck E Cheese for a kids birthday party, the franchise here has a lonely Pirates of the Caribbean machine that I borrow tokens from my kid for.

(on edit: Hey, I've played Firepower! I wouldn't have remembered it from the name, but one look at the graphics brought it back instantly. Same era as High Speed and the other LED scored machines, before the pixel screens.)

I had a couple of friends that worked at two different Namco arcades and they were pinball nuts...I used to help them clean the machines up. The problem with pinball is that it requires TONS of maintenance to keep them functioning properly. That's why machines in pizza joints wind up covered in grease and with non-working targets.

That JURASSIC PARK machine drove me nuts. I HATE the music.

ATTACK FROM MARS was pretty fun...I liked the wiggly martians, that was fun.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was pretty darn good too...

Man I totally grew up in seedy video arcades....wait...that doesn't paint a very good picture does it...maybe an accurate one. At any rate I loved the social aspect back then. Hell I remember arcades being a pretty cool place to meet girls for a couple of years.

Also standing around the local Sears or other department stores with all the other kids looking to get a turn to play the sample Atari, Itellevision or Collecovision. Those sample booths really worked. My brother and I would piss and moan about all the quarters we were begging for every day to go to the arcade and "Look, we can stay home away from all those bad big kids". Then we only went to the arcade for somewhere warm to smoke in the winter.

The totally awesome arcade I grew up with got shut down by the feds when I was like 12 because it was a mob front for laundering money. I was mega bummed and for the next few years all I had that was close by was Noah's Arcade and it just wasn't the same.

Noah's Arcade?! That's hilarious.

My first regular arcade was Pinball Palace They actually renamed it to Pac-Man Palace. Then there was The Gold Mine, which was in a mall but they had the facade done up like a mine shaft. It was incredibly dark in it. I think there were literally no lights except for the machines. Red Baron was another favorite, it was really kind of the seediest of them. TEENAGERS would hang out there. Then there was 2001, which was a sort of Sci-fi themed Chuck E. Cheese. The entry was like this long spaceship corridor with windows and everything. It was VERY cool. It was a lot like an arcade in the movies- they had different levels, games up on platforms, and neon lights everywhere. Eventuall it turned into Namco, but then they moved out of the really cool space and into a brightly lit "Family" environment.

Now, I don't know where ANY arcades are except for this one at this ramshackle mall near my house.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I had a couple of friends that worked at two different Namco arcades and they were pinball nuts...I used to help them clean the machines up. The problem with pinball is that it requires TONS of maintenance to keep them functioning properly. That's why machines in pizza joints wind up covered in grease and with non-working targets.

That JURASSIC PARK machine drove me nuts. I HATE the music.

ATTACK FROM MARS was pretty fun...I liked the wiggly martians, that was fun.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was pretty darn good too...

Bride of Pinbot
Attack from Mars
Theater of Magic

My top 3 machines by far. Back when I was with EA, we bought these for the studio which made for great lunch breaks - I got insanely good a ToM and AfM for a while.