'Time Out' arcade in Christchurch, New Zealand mall

**RetroPom** · 06-11-10, 11:01

Hi there,

Thought you'd like to see this little gem I came across the other week - and grabbed some pics of after work on Fri now I have a decent camera phone - iPhone4 YAY!

Sometimes there ARE advantages to living in a country some claim to be a decade, or even two, behind the times....

TimeOut frontage - check out Pac in the logo LOL

SF Rush single, VirtuaCop2 & odd Namco bowling game

Offroad Challenge, HotD2 & CrisisZone

Random cab, Crazy Taxi & half of SF Rush-The Rock double

BattleGear2 & Gunblade

I grabbed some dollars and played house of the Dead 2 and Crazy Taxi.....this visit anyway....will return to try some others - Crazy Taxi with the wheel was Coooooool

Christchurch is pretty good for machines in the wild - I'll see if I can grab some more photos as there's a cool Fish and Chip shop with a load of retro'ish cabs and four pinball tables - TZ, South Park, Last Action Hero & new CSI.

Andy

**SRG** · 06-11-10, 09:15

Yup odd that you mention being a decade or two behind, because that is what most "arcades" looked like from '90-'95 on here in the USA. They would pop up in the mall for a few months and then gone. Good thing there are no pins, far too bright...

thanks for sharing

**RetroPom** · 07-11-10, 10:45

No worries.

I think this one will vanish also. Seems that when there's an empty unit they fill it with machines rather than board it off, or leave vacant - which makes sense.

I saw a unit that had Pizza signage - but empty but for a few redemption machines and a Big Buck Hunter cab too.

I agree with the comment on pins - I'll be sure to get pics of the ones I play (in Fish and Chip shop and a Coffee place) as these are nice and dark - The coffee place has an Addams Family and a Doctor Who

I seem to have gone off pinball since the Family Guy I played got moved - I'd love it if the later Sterns could be emulated in VP.

Crazy Taxi with a wheel was cool though - A sit-down would have been good - and I up for giving the San Francisco Rush cabs a go as never played before.

**SubaruBrat** · 07-11-10, 03:40

Well let me tell you the future gets worse, if your call that arcade ten years behind then ten years from now you can look forward to a crane machine and 3 ticket redemption games. The best bet is to be 30 years behind.

**SRG** · 08-11-10, 12:50

I don't think I ever saw a sit down Crazy Taxi... Does the big speaker still work on the Crazy Taxi? I remember when that was a new cab, that speaker, maybe it's a sub woofer, was cranked up and you felt the music as you played.

I hate when you go to play a pin and they have a fluorescent light right over the glass and you can't see squat

**Todd1780** · 08-11-10, 02:25

It's certainly a far cry from the arcades I remember from my youth. I can still remember the feeling of excitement of walking into a dimly lit arcade and immediately being assaulted by a symphony of sight and sound. Rows and rows of some of the greatest arcade games ever created. There was just something about the sound of 60 arcade games all running in the same room, coupled with the glowing flashes of light everywhere you turn, 5 guys crowding around the hot new title of the moment and slapping your quarter on the rail to claim the next game......sigh

**RetroPom** · 03-12-10, 06:08

Well here's some pics of that Fish and Chip shop with the Pins (PS. CSI's been replaced by a very clean and tidy Fish Tales

All in a row (Check out the Gumball Machine next to TZ - Nice touch I thought)

TZ

Last Action Hero

South Park

Fish Tales

And some games too

There were others too - But I wanted a pic of Raiden as playing it Retroleague at the moment.

Even managed to walk into town from work today in my lunch break

SWEET

Andy

**RetroPom** · 25-04-12, 08:02

This old post of mine cropped up on a 'Crazy Taxi' search.

Not sure what's happened to my pics - I did a Photobucket clean-up so guess links now wrong.
(Appropriate as all the venues gone after the big quake

- Sad. Though I understand all the Funk Fish N Chip pinballs survived. Operator said it STUNK when they were llowed into the Red Zone months later to retrieve them though!).

Reason I was searching Crazy Taxi - and old PSX/2 drivers in general - was that I've picked up an old MadCatz MC2 wheel (so have Logitech GT one and this now) - Now looking for Crazy Taxi and the HD remake that was bundled a a demo disc with RR4.

Gone all 90's all of a sudden - May even give SF2 a go (Can you believe I never played it - Ever!).
I was so much more Stun Runner, Ridge Racer, Virtua Racing LOL. I got a cheap-ass Fighter Type stick so may try it on MAME.

Gone 90's with beerr lately too - DB Export DRY (it's a Kiwi one - but similar to the Ashai (sp?) Japanese beers that they and Sapporo did back then.

Nowwwwwwww........off to look for a HyperColor T-Shirt on eBay

PS - Oh - and the the lure of SF ans MK was offset by PINBALL! TAF, HS2, etc being faves.
And I've been playing the Excellent 'Pinball Arcade' on my iPhone too! (I gather it's Finally out on other systems as well now).

**alyinsanfran** · 24-05-12, 11:01

RetroPom how long have you/did you live in Chch? I was there from '78 to '01 and there were so many great arcades in the Shirley area, as well as Wizards and the Dog House in town. Wizards even had an indoor go-kart track when it opened.