Galloping Ghost Arcade

[Flack]

While in Chicago this week I was referred to the Galloping Ghost Arcade. It's about 18 miles south of O'Hare airport, and according to their website they are "the LARGEST video arcade in the USA". They are going by the number of games and a lot of their games are dual/switchable games in one single cabinet, plus there are a lot of 4 and 6 slot NeoGeo machines. When it comes to square footage Funspot kills it, but for the sheer number of games (they claim around 400), the Galloping Ghost is now #1.

Admission is $15 and all games are on free play. Both the Arkadia Retrocade and the 1984 Arcade charge $5, but those are in Missouri and Arkansas and the Ghost is in Chicago so I'm just going to write that off by saying rent is probably higher in Chicago.

As for arcade games, with ~400 machines, all of the classics are there as you can imagine. All the pac-cabs, all the Kongs, all the Galagas, those were all there. That being said there were some heavy hitters that were broken the time I visited. Tempest, Frenzy, Time Traveler, and several others were broke. It seemed like a lot of games were broke but based on the number of machines they have I don't think it was a disproportionate amount. When I owned 30 games, 10 of them were broke at any given time.

One way the Galloping Ghost crammed so many games into a smaller space is by making multi-cabs. I first noticed that with Rastan and Natsar (the sequel). They made a custom marquee with both games on it and apparently there is a switch that allowed you to switch between the two games. I did not see the switch and I just assumed that they swapped out PCBs from time to time. Every time we go to 1984 and Arkadia someone at the front explains the entire thing to us. At Galloping Ghost nobody explained anything to us.

The game collection at GG is unbelieveable. The SHMUP room is kind of a who's who of SHMUP games (Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, etc). I saw a Splatterhouse cabinet for the first time ever. Lots of the machines were conversions (including a Dragon's Lair with a PS3 inside?) so it wasn't a collector's mecca but it was definitely a gamer's paradise.

The website lists about a dozen pinball machines but I didn't see any of them. I think there is a more private area that isn't open all the time. I have found pictures of a room on their Facebook page that I never saw while I was there. Actually two rooms, because they have an Xbox/PS3 room that is by reservation only.

It's $15 for a day pass, but they also have week ($40), month (2 passes for $90), and year (6 passes for $375).

I'm working up a podcast about the place but if you want to see a few pictures or see the game list, check out their website.

http://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The Splatterhouse picture I saw was pretty sweet. I feel that it is probably one of those games where the rarity is why it is so expensive and not the gameplay. Is it anything more than your typical side-scroller?

Your kid will soon appreciate being in all these classic game photos. I will ensure it.

[Flack]

Yes, you are correct. As far as games go it's a typical side-scrolling beat 'em up game. It's only noteworthy because of its extreme violence, which kept the game pretty rare. All of the home ports were watered down and the look of the hockey mask was changed to prevent a lawsuit from Friday the 13th. At one point you fight an upside-down cross surrounded by evil skulls and the entire game's a bloody mess so... yeah. It's like those albums that sold only because they had a parental warning sticker on them, IMHO.

As for those others, there's a Radiant Silvergun PCB on eBay right now for $369, and no Ikaruga ones.