“Life In The So-Called Space Age”
In neither of these cases was I aware I was being filmed 🙂
Me whacking moles:
Me running hurdles and throwing a hammer:
As a comment on that final video, yes I have gotten that far (and further) before. It’s just that it was > 20 years ago.
Also, look closely and you may witness me busting out the legendary ‘triple flapper’ technique at one point 🙂
Today we visited Funspot. It’s the biggest arcade in the USA, and has over 500 games in total including arcade, pinball and redemption machines.
It’s awesome!
Our visit was almost 7 hours in total, but that only cost us about $60 ($43 in tokens plus golf and snacks). Not bad at all considering how long we stayed.
Of course the biggest activity was playing video games, of which they had about 250 on offer. The collection spanned the late 1970s up until the early 2000s, with a heavy emphasis on the early 1980s. Most of the games are in fantastic condition with original cabinets and controls.
I had heard of/played most of the games before, but there were some real obscure machines as well. Here’s every game I played (about 25% of those they had):
Tutankhamen, Trivial Pursuit, Leprechaun (the smallest video game ever manufactured), Computer Space (the first video game), Nova 2001, Zero Hour, Smash TV, Dragon Spirit, Rastan, Kung-Fu Master, Lifeforce, Forgotten Worlds, Space Harrier, Exerion, Video Pinball, Stargate, The Wiz, Juno First, Gaplus, Tetris, Krull, Gyruss, Track and Field, Lode Runner, 1943, Flower, Black Tiger (my #1 fav arcade game of all time), Mini Golf, Chiller, Pengo, Wonder Boy, Rush’n Attack, Timber, Frenzy, Heavy Barrel, Contra, Zombie Raid, Dark Adventure, Cliff Hanger, Domino Man, Alien Syndrome, Tiger Road, Galaga ’88, R-Type and Star Trek.
I didn’t ignore the more mechanical games though, and while their pinball section was smaller (maybe 30 games) the quality and variety were high. I played these ones:
Hercules (the biggest pinball ever made), Paragon, Xenon (somewhat infamous; google it), Black Knight, Black Knight 2000, Big Guns, Close Encounters of The Third Kind (yes, licensed), Pinbot, Grand Lizard, Time 2000, Middle Earth and Playboy.
The video games and pinballs span three floors, and to play everything would take ages. If I lived closer I certainly would though since it’s a well maintained and very comfortable arcade and it’s really inexpensive! Using a coupon our tokens cost $0.16/each and almost every game was only 1 token per play.
The rest of the tokens – and we bought over 250 – went into ticket machines like this one:
We put loads of tokens into many different types of machine and ended up with about 1100 tickets (which cost about $28!), which we ended up redeeming for two souvenir glasses 🙂
Oh yes, we played mini golf as well:
In which KLS beat me 46 to 47 despite me getting two – TWO!! – holes-in-one! We were competitive; it was fun.
The walls were covered in all sorts of ephemera on the history of video games, as well as displays of related material such as the VFD home game exhibit shown above. For a lifelong fan such as myself Funspot was dreamland and I could easily spend several days playing and reading everything.
Of course I have many other photos, but even better are the two videos KLS captured of me playing Whack-A-Mole and Track and Field. You can look forward to seeing my technique in a few days.
Needless to say I loved Funspot. In fact it’s one of the best attractions I have ever visited, and easily made the trip over here worthwhile 🙂
We drove east today for a short vacation, our destination being Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. The drive was over four hours without stops, and we deliberately took the less-traveled road past the ski mountains in mid Vermont.
The weather was wet, the tops of the mountains very cloudy, and some of the roads took us through decidedly rustic locales. On the way, in a tiny village called Grafton, we spotted a Tardis on the side of the road. And I mean that literally:
We’re not sure exactly what this was, although my theory was a shrine to honor someone who had died on that road. It seemed like the door opened, and KLS was about to, but a car had stopped across the road and a lady was watching us like a creepy. We skedaddled!
After several hours and a few stops we got to Laconia. The rain had picked up and the fog off the icy lake was pervasive!
Our destination was soon found; one of those “I wonder what it’s like to stay there?” lakeside motor inns.
I’m pretty sure we’re the only guests!
Ours is the last cabin on the left, right on the lake. Here’s KLS standing out front:
Here’s the inside:
It also has two bedrooms and a bathroom. And here’s our view:
Not exactly swimming weather is it!
Why did we drive so far to a lakeside tourist resort at this time of year? For the answer… check back tomorrow 🙂