The Arcade Fomerly Known as Superfun: UPDATE

Discussion of arcades and other gaming locations with music/rhythm games

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The Arcade Fomerly Known as Superfun: UPDATE

Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:40 am

For those of you who don't recall "Superfun," it was the arcade in Washington Square Mall circa 2000-2001. It was the host site for the first ever DAT1 (see Photo Gallery, I'm in there as a porky 12-year old). The last time I ever recall going there was on Sept. 12, 2001. I recall that date because the mall was decked out in American flags, etc.

Superfun was...well...Super Fun. It had two DDR machines (Max2 and USA, keep in mind this was great for 2001.) There was usually always someone on a machine, and the community was very nice and responsive. It was a really cool place. Then they destroyed it.

Anyways, a long, solemn five years have passed, and all the booth was during that time was just a crane machine and some candy dispensers. I was walking through the mall on Friday, and I saw a sign:

"Coming Soon: Fun Time Arcade"

Now, keep in mind it might not have been named "Fun Time," but it was definitely an Arcade to be. The size of the booth wasn't too big...about the size of a hotel room. However, I think they could easily put a DDR/ITG/PIU machine in there.

So, I plan on calling the mall today to find out who's in charge, and if they have any plans of a music/rhythm game. If so, it looks like there may be an Indy Groove field trip planned...about 1/8 mile away.
Last edited by Jeff Jeff Revolution on Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: SUPERFUN: THE SECOND COMING!

Post by blackcat » Sun Jul 22, 2007 12:47 pm

Jeff Jeff Revolution wrote:The last time I ever recall going there was on Sept. 12, 2007.
Wow, you are very futuristic Jeff Jeff!

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Re: SUPERFUN: THE SECOND COMING!

Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:42 pm

blackcat wrote:
Jeff Jeff Revolution wrote:The last time I ever recall going there was on Sept. 12, 2007.
Wow, you are very futuristic Jeff Jeff!
2001...oops.

Odds are I will be there on Sept 11, 2007 now, to have my future self tell my previous self about my dark future.

"It's a trap!"

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Post by Cbav » Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:30 pm

dude this is pretty exciting. Yeah man give them a shout and tell us their plans on rhythm games.

please god somehow get ahold of an ITG2.

playing in a mall arcade would be ballin. :]
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Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Sun Jul 22, 2007 3:40 pm

Cbav wrote:playing in a mall arcade would be ballin. :]
Yeah, it neighbors the most ballerinest' Luca Pizza ever made. (Even better than the one I ate at duing DAT5.) It's in somewhat of a less-traveled section of the mall (not like Washington Square ever has a crowd), so there shouldn't be a lot of onlookers.

But then again, you and I differ on that. You hate them watching you play, I love gathering a crowd because it gives me a sense of accomplishment or something like that.

The stores that are nearby are a Sears (so you can sleep in the armchairs after Vertex^2), a Chammps (to replace the squares on your Nike Free's), and a Spencer's Gifts (for radio-controlled fart machines and how Katy laughs at them every time).

Edit: I tried to find any YouTube videos labeled "Superfun," to bring back old memories. All I could find were Japanese game show videos containing "Super Fun Happy Time Adventure" titles.

Still a good find: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pVIZnC7saA

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Post by lgolem » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:06 pm

Cbav wrote:playing in a mall arcade would be ballin. :]
Yeah that would be....oh wait, I always play in a mall arcade ;)

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Post by WhiteDragon » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:31 pm

Jeff Jeff Revolution wrote:Still a good find: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pVIZnC7saA
Why can't we have shows like this in America?
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Post by blackcat » Sun Jul 22, 2007 7:13 pm

Jeff Jeff Revolution wrote:The stores that are nearby are a Sears (so you can sleep in the armchairs after Vertex^2), a Chammps (to replace the squares on your Nike Free's), and a Spencer's Gifts (for radio-controlled fart machines and how Katy laughs at them every time).
HAHAHA, that one fart machine that I found in Spencer's gifts was freakin awesome! It had like different categories of farts...such as wet, ripper, nervous....and OMG I just thought it was tooooo funny!

Jeff Jeff was about to kill me cuz I played with it too much! He was like OMG GO AWAY! hahahahaha good times good times...
Jeff Jeff Revolution wrote:http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pVIZnC7saA
You think that the players would learn after the first few times not to pass out on the treadmill device...I mean maybe they didn't have any other choice...but if they didn't want to get wet or anything....I would suggest rolling over before it starts again.

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Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:42 pm

I just got off the phone with the Mall Manager. Apparently, they already have half of their machines in this morning.

Judging from what he told me, this arcade is going to be similar to the "phase" where it was just a candy crane machine and such. Apparently, now it has games and such, but it will continue to be an unmanned booth.

I asked if he knew if there would be a "DDR" machine, and I had to kinda re-explain it to him, but he kinda knew. As of now, there are none, and for the other half (which will come in next Monday) he is going to call the manager, and they should call my cell phone back with some final words.

Sounds pretty doubtful...I don't know why I got my hopes up... :(
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Post by TaQa » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:26 pm

P.S. Superfun only had one DDR Machine, I think they borrowed one from another arcade for DDRAT1.
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Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:06 pm

TaQa wrote:P.S. Superfun only had one DDR Machine, I think they borrowed one from another arcade for DDRAT1.
Are you sure? I swear at one given point, they had two machines, maybe for a month. Just talking out of my butt like Ho, here, I guess.
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Post by Ho » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:54 pm

I only remember them ever having only one machine also...and never DDR USA. Even during the DDR-A-Thon it was two MAX2 machines. The second machine came from the Anderson Superfun location in Mounds Mall. The only DDR USA I've ever known to be in town was/is the one at GameWorks Studio at Circle Centre. And that's not me talking out of my butt.

But if you want some anal conversation (read: pure speculation), I suppose it's possible that both machines might have been at Washington Square for a period of time before or after the DDR-A-Thon either in preparation of or until they had a chance to get the other machine back up to Anderson.

Or, perhaps if the Anderson store closed before the Washington Square store, both machines might have been there together again. I don't remember the order or length of time between the two stores closing, but I don't think it happened that way either.

Or, it is also possible that what you remember did occur and I just didn't see it or ever hear about it. But I was pretty tuned into the community back then, so it seems rather unlikely that I would have missed such an occurrence.
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Post by lgolem » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:03 pm

A little bit of info I found out today, apparently Simon Malls used to quite literally force arcades out there malls, by raising rent or just saying "hey we are putting something else there when your lease is up". According to my simon mall employee buddy who works for the corperate office, Simon Malls are like trying to pull arcades back into the mall and offering them deals on there spaces, or a profit share, they are apparently trying to bring them back in, which is kind of cool for many reasons, for one other mall arcades my start to spring up and also maybe we at the GXS will get better deals on our space. :D

In other words maybe super fun coming back may become the start of a trend of arcades in malls

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Post by danc1005 » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:45 pm

lol
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Post by Jeff Jeff Revolution » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:39 pm

So, I went back into the ghetto known as Washington Square Mall today. Not only was I needing to walk off the Taco Bell I had just eaten, but I wanted to check up on the "Superfun Rebirth" I had preached about.

Well, as the previous posts/conversations implied, it was an unmanned arcade. That sounds like bad news, eh? Not exactly.

The first time I called, the "mall manager" said that only half of the games were there. Now, I went in today, and I can confirm that all the games are there, and there is surprisingly, a dance game.

There's a DDR Extreme there that I can't necessarily make my mind up on.

The machine itself appears to look decently sharp. The front display of "Extreme" is faded, but we're not playing the game for bright asthetics. The cabinet is still kinda shiny, the screen is somewhat clean, and the buttons (oh, the shiny buttons) on the screen are very responsive, telling me the game might have had some good care before arriving here. The television screen inside is actually very, very sharp, much in contrast to Rascal's Extreme machine. Rascal's is all fuzzy, but this is very clear.

And then I got on the pads.

Now, you see, I'm not the best DDR player, but I got on them, and they felt a little different. All of the panels responded well enough, but it just wasn't the same "metal" we're used to. Normally I'd be playing and creating some loud "slamming" noises. However, the pads have some sort of fabric under them, so when you stomp, it's almost muted. You can still hear the sound, and yes it does register teh step, but it's just...different. That's the only way to put it right now.

I really can't say if the machine is on-sync or not because I suck (and I don't speak Asian =]), but there are all these tell-tale signs (besides the pad) that indicates the game may be somewhat unused. All of the bonus 10-footers and such weren't unlocked yet, and the high score for the game was only 57,000 or so.

Here's where the real "bonuses" come in, if anything. I went over to the quarter machine (quarters, not tokens), and got $1 worth of change. It turns out, each play on the machine is only 25 cents. If you do some math, that's slightly cheaper than playing at Rascal's.

Another real "bummer" was the volume of the machine, but the arcade itself had very few other noises (besides a dumb claw machine siren), and that section of the mall is usually uninhabited. Maybe we can get the volume up. No idea. It's just the concept of an "unmanned arcade" that might drag that down. The owner is only reachable via email, really.

So, here's a quick rundown of the machine and my experience.

PROS:
-25 cents per play
-No one else in arcade; very little background noise; somewhat private?
-Sharp display screen
-"Fresh" cabinet buttons
-Located right next to a Pizza place
-In a freakin' mall, with Spencer's; GameStop; Fast Food; soon-to-be a Buffalo Wild Wings for Indy Groove Night Dinner

CONS:
-Low volume (what?)
-Pad that just feels different
-In the middle of ghetto-ass nowhere; yet also private?
-No ITG, but Rascal's is just 30 seconds away.

Also, the arcade was unnamed for now, and the "coming soon" sign was removed, so I think it's time we named the arcade. Since I, in theory, "discovered" it, I get first rights, but you can submit ideas.

My ideas:
-Superfun Rebirth
-"Extreme" Arcade
-Ghettocab Arcade
-Washington Square Arcade (that's creative...)

Your thoughts?
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