Wheat City arcade scene going strong

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This article was published 20/07/2019 (2498 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The very concept of arcades seems retro, maybe even outdated.

Movies from the 1980s such as “Tron” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” show them as popular hangout spots with people competing for high scores, shovelling loads of quarters in to keep play sessions going.

Looking at them with a modern lens, a lot of these arcade machines look positively ancient. Their two-dimensional, sprite-based graphics might have once been cutting-edge, but seem low-tech compared to today’s 4K high-performance home gaming consoles.

Even the idea of spending quarters or tokens to rent a chunk of playtime seems bizarre when so many people own their own game systems. However, the arcade has evolved since the ’80s, and Brandon’s arcade scene is still going strong.

There are three arcades in Brandon: Just4Kidz, T-Birds Food, Fun, Games (formerly Thunderbird Bowl) and Fun N’ Games HQ. All three offer a mixture of classic score-based and competitive game machines, along with games that hand out tickets or points based on performance that are redeemable for prizes.

If you haven’t been to an arcade in some time, you might be surprised at how modern they are.

T-Birds has Brandon’s newest arcade, having opened in June. After extensive renovations at the bowling alley, there are now 30 games with a prize centre in the building. You won’t see any arcade stalwarts such as “Galaga” or “Metal Slug” there, but they do have modern variants of “Skee-Ball” and an arcade version of the popular “Halo” franchise.

“It’s not the typical arcade that I grew up with,” T-Birds event sales and marketing manager Wanda Matskiw said.

Some of their games have physical elements to them reminiscent of amusement park animatronics. One shooting game involves spraying water at zombies in order to freeze them. Only, real water shoots out of the gun controller at the screen.

Some power-ups increase the flow of water, necessitating the addition of some splash guards to the machine. In some circumstances, a mist rises from the space between the player and the screen to give added ambiance. They actually have to refill the machine with distilled water every morning.

“It’s a lot more updated than what people usually think of when it comes to traditional arcades,” said T-Birds assistant bowl manager Renee Paramor. “It’s an HD video-game arcade.”

Fun N’ Games HQ has a couple of similar games, where players have to pop balloons or direct a stream of air to push balls into holes for points. They also have a comparable selection of ticket games to T-Birds, but a different selection of competitive games.

Owner Trent Burdeniuk said he reviews how games are performing regularly, rotating out games people are getting tired of with new machines. Fun N’ Games has a classic no one else in town has: a “Pac-Man” machine.

“I bought it maybe six months ago,” said Burdeniuk. “We had people wanting to get into one old game. I wouldn’t want to get too many.” He added that most people want to play the newer games, but it’s good to have a couple older machines for enthusiasts to enjoy.

They have a high-definition version of the venerable Sega light-gun series “The House of the Dead” as well, along with a 1990s Sega racing game and an arcade version of “Mario Kart.” Burdenick’s personal favourite is the “Metallica” pinball machine. Of the three arcades in town, Fun N’ Games has the most even balance between modern and retro.

Just4Kidz’ primary attraction is their massive indoor play structure and collection of inflatables, but they have an arcade on their second floor. Their machines tend to be a little bit older, but there are some real classics there, such as fighting “Tekken 5” and speedboat racing game “Hydro Thunder.”

Employee Laura Amaya said their two most popular games are the “Ball Drop” skill game and the “King of the Hammer” strength game. “I think the adults prefer to play just for fun whereas kids want to get redemption tokens,” Amaya said.

Their arcade has something unique no one else in town has — a street-racing game entirely in Japanese. Most of the instructions on the cabinet, in-game text and audio is in Japanese. Occasionally, an English word will be yelled out by the in-game announcer, but players are left to figure out how everything works on their own.

In a demonstration, two employees weren’t able to say what the game is called but they had fun nonetheless. Players must do up a seatbelt in order to play, which the game sometimes pulls tight to simulate collisions. Research indicates the game is “Konami’s Thrill Drive 3” from 2004.

Of course, collecting tickets from games is only one part of the equation. All three arcades have a selection of prizes ranging from little toys to current gaming consoles. Machines at Just4Kidz and Fun N’ Games dispense paper tickets while T-Birds sells reloadable cards to customers that keep track of their play tokens as well as how many points they’ve won.

Gaming consoles are a big-ticket item at all of Brandon’s arcades, but T-Birds also has an Apple Watch in their prize cabinet. Burdeniuk said Fun N’ Games goes through a few game consoles a year.

T-Birds management said the biggest prize redeemed since their games room opened is an electric guitar. “You leave with something fun,” said Matskiw.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark