I hesitate to post a viral marketing link (mods, nuke if ya must, but I think the contest is actually a pretty cool idea, as it gets exposure to four arcades that might have otherwise never been known to any people other than locals), but I'm calling an audible here:

Four arcades were picked by the sponsoring company for a Save the Arcades contest.  It's been going on for about a month, and involves a basic Flash game that feels like any 8-bit side-scroller of the 80s.  After each game you play, you can donate the points you've scored to the arcade of your choice.  At the end of the contest, the arcade whose players have donated the most points gets a $25,000 check from the sponsor.  As of this writing, it's pretty much down to Starbase Arcade of San Rafael, CA (166M points), and Arcade UFO (182M points) of Austin, TX.

IMPORTANT: No email address verification is required, you can punch in whatever ya like, but there's a bug - at the end of each game, don't press (P)lay again, or the points are wasted - you must hit (D)onate points after each game, and restart.

I've been putting in an hour or two a day on behalf of Starbase Arcade, but 15M points is still a lotta gamer time.  While I mean no disrespect to Texas, I'm calling upon any NorCal 00zers to put a few hours in on behalf of a local icon and a hidden gem.  Help save the Arcade at which I've been a semi-regular since I moved to the area some ~mumble~ years ago.

I'll be happy to help.

I only wish I had enough play money to  build an awesome arcade here in Pittsburgh.

So far, I've donated:

4,000 points  (first game)
27,850 points (second game)
to your arcade.  :)

I'll be happy to help.

I only wish I had enough play money to  build an awesome arcade here in Pittsburgh.


Thanks for the help!  Meantime, this place looks like it's in your neck of the woods...

Games N' At, an arcade in Pittsburgh, PA.

...and looks like the kind of place I used to remember - the image gallery shows a few rows of games, and even a small concession stand with a few tables.  Classic independent operator "hole-in-the-wall" ambience, with do-it-yourself artwork everywhere.  Sweet.

Thanks for the help!  Meantime, this place looks like it's in your neck of the woods...

Games N' At, an arcade in Pittsburgh, PA.

...and looks like the kind of place I used to remember - the image gallery shows a few rows of games, and even a small concession stand with a few tables.  Classic independent operator "hole-in-the-wall" ambience, with do-it-yourself artwork everywhere.  Sweet.


Yes indeed.  Been there a few times.  Not as many games as I'd like, and alot of pinball machines are broken.  But they do try to fix them on a regular basis.  It's a nice place.  Only open on Fridays and Saturdays (and I think Sundays).  They have a ten pin bowling alley on the top floor, and a few pool tables amongst the other games.  They do stay open until really late though (2 a.m. on Saturdays) so that is nice.

Yes indeed.  Been there a few times.  Not as many games as I'd like, and alot of pinball machines are broken.  But they do try to fix them on a regular basis.  It's a nice place.  Only open on Fridays and Saturdays (and I think Sundays).  They have a ten pin bowling alley on the top floor, and a few pool tables amongst the other games.  They do stay open until really late though (2 a.m. on Saturdays) so that is nice.


Sweet.  It's awesome that they've kept it alive as a nightspot.  (And if I were local, I'd volunteer to fix the pins...) 

This is on the other end of the state from you, but some New York / New Jersey 00zers might get a kick out of Gamecorecon, this weekend (Sept 12, 2009) in Reading, PA.  Looks like a neat mix of everything from tabletop, to console, to coin-op, with some nerdcore to mix it up a bit.

While we're on the subject, next weekend (September 20, 2009), anyone in Oregon should be thinking about making it to Portland, OR for Retro Gaming Expo.

Sept 20, 2009:  With two weeks to go, StarBase Arcade has closed the 15-million gap by a third - we're within 9 million points of the prize.

Arcade UFO (Austin, TX): 284,139,175
StarBase Arcade (San Rafael, CA): 275,390,075

This is going to be a surprisingly close finish.  Play until your fingers bleed!

Update: Sept 26th, it's been neck-in-neck since 8 o'clock this morning, but it's now basically a dead heat, with Starbase having finally edged ahead by a nose, at least for the moment.

StarBase Arcade (San Rafael, CA): 406,521,750
Arcade UFO (Austin, TX): 406,090,950

An armchair, a laptop, and an MP3 player full of music I've been meaning to catch up on (side note: if you liked Ministry back when Al Jourgenson used a keyboard, you have to buy The Last Dubber!), and I've been able to up my 2 hours a day, to basically "all waking hours" on weekends, and 2-3 hours a day on weekdays.  Those folks from Texas are putting up a hell of a fight, and I can't do it alone!

Thanks to all who are risking carpal tunnel syndrome by joining the fight for Starbase, and a respectful salute to those working through equally egregious pain on behalf of Arcade UFO.

Update: Sept 29th.  Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it.  If you're not doing it yet, start doing it!

StarBase Arcade: 496,970,025
Arcade UFO (Austin, TX): 494,498,550

With one week to go, Starbase has pulled into the lead, but a 10M-point lead earlier this evening has been cut to less than 2.5M points.

The bad news is that I'm going to lose a few vital hours this weekend. 

The good news is that it's because I'll be doing some retrogaming of my own at the Pacific Pinball Expo 2009, Oct 2-4th, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael, CA, barely 5 hours from the Starbase itself.  Hey, I love the video games, but even I have to get my pinball fix in!

As of noon today: Starbase: 693M to UFO's 679M.  (14M advantage to Starbase)

As of right now: Back to a dead tie at 711.5M each.  Arcade UFO has racked up around 10M points per hour for the past 3 hours, which is consistent with a large LAN party, or computer lab full of 30 students, grinding away.

Assuming Arcade UFO can get that same group together tomorrow or Tuesday afternoon, or even if they just pull an all-nighter tonight (another 5-6 hours), it's all over.  Congratulations to Arcade UFO on a well-earned victory, and thanks for giving us Starbase players one hell of a fight.

And thank God for the fact that this thing's finally over, and all of us playing can finally get our lives (yeah, I'm using the term loosely!) back.

I just played a couple of games and it looked like Starbase were back in the lead!

Final Score:

Arcade UFO: 991,512,500
Starbase Arcade: 959,776,300

The last day was a wild grindfest.  They were ahead by 30M late Monday afternoon, we came back to within 2M by noon on Tuesday, and they took the lead back in the final hours of the contest.

Congratulations to UFO on the win, and thanks for a great fight!

I looked at UFO's gamelist..... no wonder they won, they have Pop'n Music 17, Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion, and several other imports.

I looked at UFO's gamelist..... no wonder they won, they have Pop'n Music 17, Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion, and several other imports.


They also had some seriously dedicated folks working long and hard.  They earned it.

Round 2 of the contest - in which the game was "Cowbots:2010", a Flash-based clone of Robotron:2084, wasn't even close:

Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade (Portland, OR) - 624,871,000
Arcade Infinity (Rowland Heights, CA) - 371,187,900
Rocky's Replay (Winter Park, FL) - 109,806,000

The problem (?) here was that the scores were kept from the participants during the contest.  There was no accurate way to gauge whether or not it was worth putting in the extra hours.

In passing, a glance at their blog reveals that Ground Kontrol's putting that $25K to good work.  Note to self: Swing by Portland some time early next year...

They also had some seriously dedicated folks working long and hard.  They earned it.

Round 2 of the contest - in which the game was "Cowbots:2010", a Flash-based clone of Robotron:2084, wasn't even close:

Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade (Portland, OR) - 624,871,000
Arcade Infinity (Rowland Heights, CA) - 371,187,900
Rocky's Replay (Winter Park, FL) - 109,806,000

The problem (?) here was that the scores were kept from the participants during the contest.  There was no accurate way to gauge whether or not it was worth putting in the extra hours.

In passing, a glance at their blog reveals that Ground Kontrol's putting that $25K to good work.  Note to self: Swing by Portland some time early next year...


Someday I wanna travel around the states checking out cool stuff. That will be a stop on my travels.