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Messofanego · Feb 13, 2016

Aside from people not knowing "jip" is kind of offensive (could just say "rip off") just like calling someone an "idiot" or "moron" or saying "that's retarded" is which have roots in making fun of the mentally ill or handicapped, I don't know of arcades that charge you when you're winning. It's not like in the London arcades like Trocadero. Or Loading Bar. Could just be that one arcade or how it is with arcades in your area, maybe the establishments are low on money and need to wring every pound coin they can.

Fhtagn · Feb 13, 2016

Rich! said:
Why would anyone mind? Jip is a common term for being ripped off that is widely used. Hell, its even used on bloody EastEnders quite often!

Might as well ban all slang I guess rather than run the very, very, very miniscule risk of possibly irritating someone. Half of the Brit slang around has questionable origins, but language evolves.

Anyway, I agree about the arcades. We only have one around where I live sadly and its a DDR and ripoff hell.

I'll put it this way, once you encounter someone bold enough in their racism use "Jew" in exactly the same way, gyp will likely immediately leave your vocabulary, as it did mine.

It's common as hell, sure, and I used to say it without thinking about what it actually means, but as it's easy enough to just say rip off instead now I do.

akilshohen · Feb 13, 2016

Rurunaki said:
Only Arcade still worth going for me would be at Dave and Busters.

and then only on wednesdays for half off.

jacobeid · Feb 13, 2016

Beer Monkey said:
Find a barcade. Buy $5 drinks of soda, beer of food, play free for hours (our locals do charge 50c for pinball, but standups are free). It's the new model.

Yup, definitely see if your area has one. My city has three now...

Lagamorph · Feb 13, 2016

Messofanego said:
I don't know of arcades that charge you when you're winning. It's not like in the London arcades like Trocadero. Or Loading Bar. Could just be that one arcade or how it is with arcades in your area, maybe the establishments are low on money and need to wring every pound coin they can.

But it's not the arcade charging you that, it's the game itself, so the game must have been programmed to operate that way in the first place.

purg3 · Feb 13, 2016

They opened this place recently by me and it's amazing. It's like $10 for a wristband for unlimited play on most machines. The only ones that cost tokens are like the newer style machines, and a handful of the pinball machines as well. Plus it's BYOB. It's amazing. They have an incredible selection of games, including Wind Jammers. This is how arcades should be.

jax · Feb 13, 2016

I think arcades could make a comeback, maybe a VRcade of some kind with high-end VR for people who don't have enough room in their homes for room-scale VR.. Maybe toss in all of the consoles too each in their dedicated room with all of the exclusives. Rent out the rooms by the hour. The lobby could be a classic style coin op arcade with tokens 10¢=1 token

Pieman0920 · Feb 13, 2016

The arcades in the Ocean City (NJ) area seem to be mostly reasonably priced for older things and pinball, though newer games can be sort of pricey. There's a place in Sea Ilse though that had that new Jurassic Park arcade game though and you could play it for just $.25 a pop, which was a steal. Wildwood seemed to just have fake gambling nonsense all over the place though, which is a shame.

bigdaddygamebot · Feb 13, 2016

chronic_archaic said:
News to me - thanks for the tip, however I find it strange it's genuinely offensive. Aren't the only people referred to gypsys the ones who do scummy stuff? Unless I'm missing something.

This is hilarious.

Messofanego · Feb 13, 2016

Lagamorph said:
But it's not the arcade charging you that, it's the game itself, so the game must have been programmed to operate that way in the first place.

So it's just one machine?

Could bring it up with the people behind the machine. Find their company on social media and ask why do they have such a weird setup.

omgwtfbentime · Feb 13, 2016

It might have something to do with the fact a star wars battle pod cabinet costs nearly $25,000 compared to an old stand up arcade cab that was closer to $5000. I dunno just a guess.

I go to my local Dave and busters weekly to play pump it up (korean DDR-esque game) and like it's kind of a bummer but at the same time like as long as people are playing actual games vs the gambling crap I don't mind. Honestly don't get why people are so drawn to redemption games you pay about as much for a 5 second redemption game as I do for a 8+ minute round of pump (machine is set to 4 songs per round) and the prizes are absolute trash. Like that bums me out way more than the real video games costing more the fact half these places are redemption game hell holes.

deadman69 · Feb 13, 2016

Lagamorph said:
I've never heard of anything like that in the UK, definitely not around where I live.

Theres one in peckham.

Jackshun · Feb 13, 2016

Yeah that is a racist term. You can use it if you want but you can't argue that it is not racist and offensive. It is used frequently in England and also racism and bias against gypsy people is very high in England as well. It sort of follows.

Just because you don't know something is racist doesn't make it not racist. Japanese people commonly don't consider the n-word racist but it still is.

Realistically, the mods should change the thread title and probably lock this thread, as they would if someone was using the n-word, but gypsy people's problems are not as popular or socially accepted as other groups' unfortunately.

Regarding arcades, they are doomed. They have to try to go big or go home.

NekoFever · Feb 13, 2016

It's weird how defensive people get when you call them out on the use of jip/gyp. Even people who wouldn't dream of using another slur as slang.

Would you say "jewed" instead of "gypped"? I mean, that's recognised slang for swindling. And it was commonly used enough to get into a Michael Jackson song. Those are the criteria you use to justify gypped/jipped, after all.

And yet I used to work as a copy editor on a magazine, where part of my job was to remove offensive language, and I would routinely get into arguments with people when I took it out and told them not to use it.

Messofanego · Feb 13, 2016

purg3 said:
They opened this place recently by me and it's amazing. It's like $10 for a wristband for unlimited play on most machines. The only ones that cost tokens are like the newer style machines, and a handful of the pinball machines as well. Plus it's BYOB. It's amazing. They have an incredible selection of games, including Wind Jammers. This is how arcades should be.

Windjammers?!

Does anyone know if Windjammers is in London? I'd head over just for that game.

Diprosalic · Feb 13, 2016

Lagamorph said:
for the first time in probably 10 years I decided to have a look at the arcade .

well that's why.

LostDonkey · Feb 13, 2016

Arcades in my local cinema/bowling complex are 20 year old tokyo highway battle or those bike ones with the tilting bikes. Maybe a 3d jurassic park in the corner that someone's been sick in.

And an air hockey table with only one paddle...

purg3 · Feb 13, 2016

Messofanego said:
Windjammers?!

Does anyone know if Windjammers is in London? I'd head over just for that game.

Yes. Windjammers. I'm fairly certain the two owners are big Giant Bomb fans. They also have TGM 2+

There's also an upstairs area where they have just about every game console and an insane library of classic games you can play. They also do board game nights and some type of mini figure thing. Might be Warhammer or something, I'm not sure.

It's called Victory Pointe

Th3BranMan92 · Feb 13, 2016

In Brookfield, IL there is the Galloping Ghost arcade. It's $15 to enter, and all games are set to free play. Tons of old cabinets and lots of new inclusions every so often. They are open until 2AM or something crazy.

davidwhangchoi · Feb 13, 2016

Oni Link 666 said:
When they started charging 50 cents per play.

yes

Rhys Wilde · Feb 13, 2016

poodaddy said:
You know of any places like this in the Tacoma or Lakewood WA area or what I'd need to search to find them? Sounds like my idea of heaven to be honest.

Check out Dorky's, I go there all the time. Fantastic place. Always fairly busy too. Or, alternatively, in Seattle there are quite a few other places to choose from. GameWorks being the biggest.

Zoidberg Jesus · Feb 13, 2016

Thanks for the info on Victory Pointe, purg3. I live in north east Ohio, but I have some relatives in Pittsburgh, so this will give me a good reason to go see them! You know, besides loving my family, and what not. <_< >_>

Heero5 · Feb 13, 2016

The arcades at the shore basically went strong until hurricane sandy, now my Turtles IV rests in the ocean T_T

omgwtfbentime · Feb 13, 2016

Th3BranMan92 said:
In Brookfield, IL there is the Galloping Ghost arcade. It's $15 to enter, and all games are set to free play. Tons of old cabinets and lots of new inclusions every so often. They are open until 2AM or something crazy.

Galloping ghosts is a great place to play games but they do a lot of weird stuff as far as modifying hardware and not using original hardware and cabs for games. It's a cool place because they have tons of games but they definitely go for quantity over quality in terms of their cabinets and use of switch boards and such.

purg3 · Feb 13, 2016

Zoidberg Jesus said:
Thanks for the info on Victory Pointe, purg3. I live in north east Ohio, but I have some relatives in Pittsburgh, so this will give me a good reason to go see them! You know, besides loving my family, and what not. <_< >_>

Yeah no problem, there's also a really cool pinball cafe in Lawrenceville that's relatively new as well.

gblues · Feb 13, 2016

Ah yes, the NBA Jam model.

It was bullshit in the 90's, and it's bullshit today.

Kyari · Feb 13, 2016

Lagamorph said:
Teesside area in the North East.

Was it the metro centre? Their arcade is rubbish

border · Feb 13, 2016

Lagamorph said:
What? I thought arcade games only asked you for more money when you died, not when you win and are just wanting to continue to the next level.

Nope, there have always been games that operated on a timer or playing a limited number of predetermined areas or levels.

Gauntlet drains your life constantly even when enemies aren't hurting you. Most sports titles will only let you play a few minutes before asking for more money.

muteki · Feb 13, 2016

Oni Link 666 said:
When they started charging 50 cents per play.

This, also when arcades started to be flooded by gimmicky stuff that asked for 1.00, which drove up the prices on everything else.

Also, convoluted token/point card exchange rates.

120v · Feb 13, 2016

unless you're big on the fighting circuit side attraction arcades have been a ripoff for 20 years now. but i guess there's no other way for them to be profitable

daveo42 · Feb 13, 2016

The problem is that you went to an "arcade" inside a movie theater. Those are always a rip-off and are never worth it. Like others have said, find a barcade in your area. Most of the time there's no cover charge or it's a very small fee for unlimited play. We have a few in our area and while packed, there are enough machines to get some games in. Plus it's always fun to get tipsy while playing some old arcade machines and shooting some pinball.

lawnchair · Feb 13, 2016

animlboogy said:
Some people don't seem to know Gypped is a slur at all, so consider this a "The More You Know!" moment.

thanks

Northeastmonk · Feb 13, 2016

In my town we had a pretty decent arcade scene at one point in time. We had an arcade at every mall. One was an Aladdin's Castle, the other one was giant arcade in the basement, and the third was a smaller corner store next to the food court. We also had a large arcade at an intersection that had 2 GameStops and a mom and pop game store.

What we had:

This use to be the place that had 4 cabinets of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, 2 cabinets of MvC2, and just about every single fighting game that came out that was semi-popular. Three floors of games and even a bottom level with large music games and shooters. They even had a large array of KOF games. Towards the later half of 2011 or 2012 they had machines hooked up to Xbox 360's. You'd pay for 5 or 6 minutes of game time.

They ended up moving and tearing that place down.

What they are today:

They're much smaller. They only have around 5 or 6 fighting game cabinets. One is MvC2, a SF3rdS machine, and a few that play roms of KOF. They're mainly for school and family gatherings. You see buses with kids getting off and on when you arrive. It's nothing like it use to be. A group of people might feel out of their comfort zone with how skimpy everything is.

One of our largest arcades Tilt got turned into a Forever 21.

They had everything from JoJo's to Ehrgeiz to D&D. They aren't around anymore.

All the mall arcades shut down and nothing is there besides The Amazing Pizza machine and Dave & Busters. I went with TAPM with my family, but I wouldn't go there to play games.

If anything I'll go somewhere else. I wanted to go to Twin Galaxies in Iowa, but I think they closed their physical location.

Arcades were the best in the late 90's early 2000's. That's at least in my town. I went to Vegas and I played Tekken 6 for a $1. The arcade they had was neat and I got to play HOTD4 and one of Capcom's versus titles.

Lagamorph · Feb 13, 2016

Kyari said:
Was it the metro centre? Their arcade is rubbish

Nah Teesside Park.
I haven't tried the Namco thing at the Metro Centre, but I think that's basically just a big arcade rather than a pay once for unlimited play thing. I preferred Metroland when I was a kid.

super-famicom · Feb 13, 2016

shortsFortallPeople said:
Jip is a misspelling of gyp, which come from gypsy. It's an offensive term

Just thought OP should know.

I read the thread title and came in to post this.

atomic moth · Feb 13, 2016

Arcade operators have the option to charge what they want. Usually a new game will be as expensive as the arcade board will allow, then they will keep lowering it to find that always decreasing happy medium.

Sort of like when a game is $60 + DLC. Some will buy, others will wait for a price drop. I suggest you just wait for a price drop. No need to slander all of the remaining arcade businesses. And, uh, the Romani people also I guess.

Stallion Dan · Feb 13, 2016

Nobody uses gyp as a slur anymore. It's now just common language, its on TV often and used by celebs here all the time. Nobody gets called out for it because nobody uses it from where it originated. There are lots of common everyday words or phrases people use that have racist history or origins that have long been forgotten and the use moved on from. Most people aren't even aware of the origins it has so long been disconnected.

Hooligan has a racist origin, yet it is commonly used also (all over this forum even, right now). Especially amusing as the word is often used in descriptions such as "Racist hooligans" while condeming the target for the racism.

GavinUK86 · Feb 13, 2016

Yeah, gyp, jip, however you wanna spell it isn't considered racist to many in the UK. Hell, people I know, and me, use it when you get pain too like "Ow, me legs giving me jip today". Language evolves. People still use the word retarded when describing something that's stupid or dumb.

Back on topic, I was the same as you OP, I haven't been to an arcade in years but I also remember it being a pay till you die thing. I guess time changes that too. I don't even think there are any arcades near me anymore.

Silent Chief · Feb 13, 2016

5taquitos said:
A quick Google search says Dorky's Arcade.

Is it like Porky's?

SifuSeafood · Feb 13, 2016

poodaddy said:
You know of any places like this in the Tacoma or Lakewood WA area or what I'd need to search to find them? Sounds like my idea of heaven to be honest.

If you don't mind going to Round 1 at Southcenter but, they seem to carry newer games. They also have a decent loyalty program, IMO.

FTF · Feb 13, 2016

purg3 said:
They opened this place recently by me and it's amazing. It's like $10 for a wristband for unlimited play on most machines. The only ones that cost tokens are like the newer style machines, and a handful of the pinball machines as well. Plus it's BYOB. It's amazing. They have an incredible selection of games, including Wind Jammers. This is how arcades should be.

Soooo jealous. There hasn't been a decent arcade by me in 10 years. Sigh...

Rich! · Feb 13, 2016

Are there any decent arcades south of London? Any notable ones? I'm on a east to west (all the way to lands end) roadtrip soon and I could easily visit a few.

CrispyBoar · Feb 13, 2016

Oni Link 666 said:
When they started charging 75 cents to $1.00 per play.

Fix'd. 50 cents per play were always normal.

Rich! · Feb 13, 2016

CrispyBoar said:
Fix'd. 50 cents was always normal.

same here in the UK - 50p was the standard back in the day. I remember a few quid would get me plenty of time on final fight, simpsons and terminator 2.

...and those three games weren't even at an arcade. They were at my town's local leisure centre (swimming pool/gym/tennis courts). I bet they eventually threw them out into a dumpster too.

jimboton · Feb 13, 2016

What you describe isn't so much an arcade game (can you even die or fail in it?) as a ride, like say a rollercoaster in an amusement park. It makes sense that they charge for each 'ride' you take in it.

linid0t · Feb 13, 2016

So sad there aren't any proper arcades in DC, I miss them so much.

CrispyBoar · Feb 13, 2016

Rich! said:
same here in the UK - 50p was the standard back in the day. I remember a few quid would get me plenty of time on final fight, simpsons and terminator 2.

...and those three games weren't even at an arcade. They were at my town's local leisure centre (swimming pool/gym/tennis courts). I bet they eventually threw them out into a dumpster too.

I agree. The only genres of games that remained at 25 cents per play were something like Beat-'Em-Ups (even some of them like Double Dragon started out with $.50).

TSM · Feb 13, 2016

It's not exactly new:

I very rarely played these games because it felt like such a ripoff.

Hello? This is Hailun! · Feb 13, 2016

OP its spelled gyp and please don't use that word. It's racist.

Stallion Dan · Feb 13, 2016

Rich! said:
same here in the UK - 50p was the standard back in the day. I remember a few quid would get me plenty of time on final fight, simpsons and terminator 2.

...and those three games weren't even at an arcade. They were at my town's local leisure centre (swimming pool/gym/tennis courts). I bet they eventually threw them out into a dumpster too.

I like posts like these, it shows the rough timeframe of when people went to arcades.

50p was not the standard 'back in the day' for me, which was late 80s/early 90s, it was 20p in my time, with some older stuff being 10p, then over the years towards the late 90s newer games started creeping up towards 50p.

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