Few pix from Celebration Station

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:26 am

Celebration Station is a Chuck E. Cheese-style entertainment center. Morgan attended a birthday party there over the weekend, and since there are arcade games there I volunteered to tag along.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:24 pm

Swear to god there are more video games per square foot in Oklahoma than anywhere else in the country. WTF!

(grumbles) can't even find a decent Bosconian in upstate NY

THE
HAVE QUARTERS
WILL TRAVEL
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:19 pm

Outstanding.

I have a question for everyone! I wonder if people are gonna get the same collector's nostalgia for a giant thing like Terminator: Salvation like we have for Bosconian and so forth. Part of me thinks that will never happen. Part of me could have never predicted dubstep.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:12 pm

It's possible, but unlikely. Not because of the game per se but like ... I guess when I think about my old favorite games, they weren't machines that I only played once or twice. I used to play Shinobi once a week at the bowling alley where my mom bowled on a league. I played Track and Field at the convenient store near my house every day during summer break.

I checked here and you can get the 32" "mini-model" for $6,575, the 42" for $7,275, or the deluxe 42" for $8,575. (There's also a super deluxe with a 100" screen for $18k.) Obviously, that machine's not going to end up at a convenient store or bowling alley anytime soon. I've seen that Terminator machine a few places: Dave and Busters, Gameworks, and Celebration Station. If that flat screen, light gun compatible screen ever goes out ... hoo boy.

Places like Celebration are for birthday parties and stuff. I'd like to say we go there once a year but Morgan's 7 and said she had never been (I think she has, but she was really young). I don't think it's the game as much as it is that kids aren't as exposed to arcade games as much as we were. Cactus Jack's notwithstanding (which I think we all agree is an anomaly), do kids even "hang out" and play arcade games anymore? I mean, Mason and I have gone to Dave and Buster's before but we dropped $40 or so in 90 minutes or so. It's definitely not something we can do every day or even every week.

What I find more disturbing is so many of the things Mason plays are online and ... I mean, I still have an Atari 2600, and an NES, and a Commodore 64, and I can still play those games today. I would be very, very surprised if, in 20 years, Mason will be able to play Minecraft.