Gemini Arcade Palace

The next stop in Las Vegas was the Gemini Arcade Palace!

 The Gemini Arcade Palace is dark, cool, and popping with throbbing beats and flashing lights.
It is a Bemani/rhythm/dance focused arcade. I could tell they care a lot about their arcade, aside from the games, they had all kinds of neat pictures on the walls, lots of nice soaps in the bathroom, and baby powder/paper towels at the machines. They had comfy couches for chilling and some modern console systems to play if you just want to hang out. Gemini has fighting game events on the consoles pretty regularly it seems. It should be obvious, but I'll say that they have a giant selection of rhythm games to play, including some very modern titles.

The manager Juli was super nice and genuinely cares about arcades and the whole scene in general. Overall the arcade had a very nice community feel to it and I would spend a hell of a lot of time there if I had to live in Las Vegas!

Anyways, here's some pictures of the Gemini Arcade Palace!

DjMax Technika 3

Billiards!

Notice the fresh disco ball!

City cabs with some emulation action.

Vending goodness!

They had a big selection of DjMax Platinum Crew cards, I only bought two :)

I love this arcade and (as usual) I wish I could have stayed longer. It's 100% worth checking out if you are in Las Vegas!!!

Long live Gemini! Support your local arcade!

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Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame

Recently, a trip to Las Vegas Nevada was made by your humble narrator, so of course I had to stop by the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Pinball Hall of Fame

This unassuming building houses big fun out in the desert. It was dark, loud, and no one was smoking! Lots of people were there playing pinball on a Thursday afternoon. They had a large amount of games that were all set on FIVE balls per game. Most of the games were 25 cents, some were 50 cents, and a very few were 75 cents (TRON Legacy).

Here's a short description from their website:
"The Pinball Hall of Fame is an attempt by the members of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club to house and display the world's largest pinball collection, open to the public. A not-for-profit corporation was established to further this cause. The games belong to one club member (Tim Arnold), and range from 1950s up to 1990s pinball machines. Since it is a non-profit museum, older games from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are the prevelant, as this was the 'heyday' of pinball. There are no 'ticket spitters' here (aka kiddie casinos or redemption). It's all pure pinball (and a few arcade novelty games) from the past. And since it's a non-profit, excess revenues go to non-denominational charities."

As usual I took lots of pictures, here are some of the better ones and you can view the entire set HERE.

Some modern pins.

Batmans.

Big Buck Hunter Pro. Why can't THIS game be in every venue that has games, instead of the gun version!

Star Trek.

KISS

Gottlieb Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II playfield.

Fight again.

Popeye.

Wizard!

 

Say NO to Drugs. Users are Losers.

 

MIBS.

The Pinball Hall of Fame has lots of well maintained classic arcade games also.

The X Files pinball was super fun!

A Gottlieb Challenger!

The Pinball Hall of Fame is great spot to hang out in Las Vegas, while having actual FUN inexpensively! Recommended!

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Special When Lit

"I would hate to be 95 years old and look back on my life and say, 'You know, what I really wanted to do was play pinball, but gee my mom told me that I should get a career.'" - Rick Stetta

In getting myself hyped for my upcoming trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, I picked up this little documentary, Special When Lit.



It's pretty rad and well done, it covers the whole history of pinball up to the modern day. It talks about the Las Vegas Pinball Museum, the Paris Pinball Museum, the tournament scene and PAPA. Lots of interviews with manufacturers and collectors.
I must say, having grown up in the 80's, I didn't fully realize how big pinball was in the 70's. This film gives a good view of that era.
Here's some pics of the DVD that arrived from London a mere four days after I ordered it!

I like the way the DVD looks, it has a commentary track on it also, I'd say it's worth grabbing. Although if you don't feel like shelling out the cash for it, Hulu has the whole thing online!
Enjoy!

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Arcade Perfect Contest #1

This contest is closed! Thanks for playing!
 
It's time for our first contest! We are giving away some cool prizes, all you have to do to enter is follow @Arcade_Perfect on Twitter and tweet:

"@Arcade_Perfect I want to win free stuff from http://www.arcadeperfect.net/"

Or you can follow us and click this tweet button:
Tweet

Once we reach 100 followers, we will chose two winners at random, the first winner will get to pick his/her prize out of the two prizes and the second winner will win the other prize. The contest is open to everyone worldwide.

Prizes:
Prize 1: 
SNK Characters 2 - All About Illustrations - Japanese import art book. Published 2001.
Full color - 125 pages.
This is a fantastic SNK book with art from King Of Fighters, Samurai Spirits, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Metal Slug, Last Blade, SVChaos, etc.

Prize 2:
Capcom Illustrations: GAMEST MooK Vol 17 - Japanese import art book. Published 1995.
Color and B/W - 160 pages.
This is a nice Capcom book with illustrations from a large selection of games including Street Fighter 1 & 2, Street Fighter Alpha, Final Fight, Darkstalkers, Cyberbots, Captain Commando, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Quiz of Dragons, and a whole bunch of other random art. Lots of interesting stuff for a Capcom fan!

Here's a little video showing the books off. It's a little sea-sickness inducing, beware ^.^


Good luck to everyone! If you don't win this time, don't worry, we have more contests coming!

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USA Tekken Net

Namco Bandai has revealed the sites for upcoming Tekken Tag Tournament 2 location tests in the USA.
The locations are as follows:
Funworks in Honolulu, HI
Super Arcade in Walnut, CA
Round 1 in City of Industry, CA
Arcade UFO in Austin, TX
Next Level Arcade in Brooklyn, NY
As of today the USA is also connected to the worldwide TEKKEN NET.
You can register here: http://exam.tekken-net.jp/tag2/

Tekken aside, this is important news for arcade enthusiasts in the US, as Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the first arcade game to be networked worldwide. We almost didn't get it. It was thanks to much complaining and arguing with Namco that we are being included in the worldwide Tekken Net. Arcade games in Japan have been networked for years now and it's a big part of why they are still popular there.

Namco is a huge player in the arcade scene and if they make money off of networking their games here, we, (in the US), might see more networked arcade games in the future. Which, in turn, can only be helpful in the arcade revival (not to mention the future of US Tekken). Wouldn't you like to play arcade games with a worldwide high score table? I would! Even if you don't live close to a location test, or care about Tekken I think it's a good idea to at least sign up!
That's all for now! Support your local arcade!

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