From: ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3)
Subject: REVIEW:  Arcades in the Mall of America (Minnesota)
To: rec.games.pinball, rec.games.video.arcade
Posted-Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 21: 45:10 cdt
Organization: Honeywell Systems & Research Center
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 02:45:10 GMT
Received-Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 21: 44:42 CDT


Well, I spent 8 hours in the new Mall of America in Bloomington, MN
yesterday, the last half in the various arcades.  For anyone
planning to be in Minnesota in the future, I'd heartily endorse it.

First, the main arcade:  America Live Arcade, 4th floor.  

I looked around the whole place and didn't see a single decent video game.
Luckily, it had a few pins (all relatively new) to make up for it:

The Addams Family, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Really good
condition.

Gilligan's Island, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Also in perfect
condition.  I played seven games on this, but failed to win a 
game by replay, special, or match (in my defense, I had never
played (or seen) a GI pin before).

High Speed II, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Looked in good
condition, but I didn't inspect it too closely, since it looked
like a draining copy of the draining original.


Sencond, the mini arcade in Knott's Camp Snoopy (the indoor 
amusement park in the center of the mall):  Peanut's Gallery,
1st floor.  This arcade boasted 100+ games, but none of the
video games looked worth playing...sigh... what is the world of
arcade games coming to?  I used to be able to find arcades
all over the place with at least a dozen great vids in each!

Again, luckily, there were pins to play.  In this case nine
of them (in addition to a "soccer" pinball that looked like
two pins back-to-back where you can play against a second
person or the computer.  50 cents for one player/75 cents
for two player mode.  America Live Arcade also had one of 
these machines--same price).

Hurricane, 50 cents/three games for $1.  The replay on
this was set really low (or had sunk to something really low
(like 16M) from a lot of bad players) so I put in $1 for
three games and ended up playing 8 or 9 for my $1.  Beware:
it will tilt if you BREATHE on it and there is a lot of 
traffic in the narrow aisle behind you.  You WILL get bumped
hard and often by passers-by.  I generally held the ball
on a flipper if I saw someone out of the corner of my eye.
This was the only thing keeping me from putting in a second 
dollar.

Elvira, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Didn't play this one,
but it suffered from the same traffic problem as Hurricane.
The backglass had full cleavage, so they opted not to add the
decal.  :-)

The third pin (I forgot what was there now) I didn't play for
the same traffic problem as Hurricane and Elvira.  It was
another 50 center/three games for $1.

The Addams Family, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Played one
game on this.  I think the replay was rather low, but I 
was having a bad day for TAF.

Party Zone, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Didn't play.

High Speed II, 50 cents/three games for $1.  Didn't play.

Lethal Weapon 3, 50 cents/three games for $1.  I put in a
buck and ended up playing four games (only cuz I was
lucky enough to match (nice match graphic, BTW) not
through any skill whatsoever).  I get the strange feeling
that it might have helped to have known what the hell I was
doing.  There seemed like times when I was supposed to 
grab the gun or something.  I *do* like the fact that
when you're supposed to go up a ramp for multiball or 
jackpot or something that it puts up a big arrow on the dot-
matrix portion telling you where the ramp is.

I forgot what the eighth machine was, but it was Yet Another 50
cent/three games for $1 pin.

Lastly, they had the obligatory T2 pin.  I ended up dumping
either three or four bucks in this machine and played for 
about three hours.  The replay was at 20M when I got there,
and they had the machine set to something easier than any other
T2 I have ever seen (about a dozen machines).  They had the
database light when you first hit the skull (a feature I've
only seen one person disable on their T2).  They had the
initial five targets going at the slowest possible speed
(which about half of the T2s I've played are set to).
They had the "don't move" autofire set to light not only
when you start each ball, but every time you shot the ball
into the skull, went up ramps, etc!  This I have NEVER
seen (but took advantage 2 or 3 times yesterday :-)  The
tilt is set to go off if you even BREATHE on it--this is
the only drawback--otherwise it is set up to dream specs!

These last six pins are all out of traffic so there is no
problem with people running into you while you're playing.

All in all--it is the most NEW pins I've seen in one place
ever, but the sellection of video games was pretty piss-poor.

If you enjoy pins--definitle worth the trip, otherwise I 
wouldn't bother.

		--Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer