Saturday, December 17, 2011: No Limit Arcade opens in Algonquin, IL. Its one of the first arcades in the area to be opened independently from a mall in years. You won’t see tokens at this arcade though because their following the tradition of other arcades around the country that are using the “Pay For Unlimited Play” deal. At 20 bucks for unlimited play, a few people I talked to said that they thought that the price was very expensive to play, but I think these people may have forget how quickly one could rack up 20 bucks in tokens at an arcade.

The No Limit Arcade in Algonquin, IL

I had the distinct honor of being the arcade’s first paying customer on opening day and upon walking in you could see that they had a variety of machines to play from. Vintage machines like Pac-Man, Bump ‘N’ Jump, Discs of Tron, pinball machines and a variety of large scale machines like Sega Strike Fighter. Pinball junkies could get their flippers on three different games: Road Kinds, Theatre of Magic and Johnny Mnemonic. All 3 machines played without any issues, but I was shocked that the arcade only had 3 pinballs in the building as space really isn’t an issue. To me, one of the major draws of this place would be if they had a wall of pins to play.

Pinball Junkies can play, but they’ll instantly wish there were more pins.

They have some oldies, but they need some Donkey Kong/DK JR. cabinets!

I mentioned that I was their first customer right? With that being said, I shouldn’t of had too many issues with the machines; but I did. Street Fighter Alpha 2 had to be in one of the shortest cabinets I ever played a fighting game on and my back hurt while playing it. The sticks were having issues with diagonal right jumps and the low kick button would not respond quickly to a fury of low crouch kicks. SNK VS Capcom faired much worse, with the diagonal jumps hardly responding at all and a poorly spaced out 4 button Neo Geo setup. Tekken 4’s buttons would stick after pressing them in, making for a very poor play experience and Killer Instinct had some button issues as well as random resets. I’d hate to say it, but if you’re looking for a fighting game experience, you may want to look elsewhere. Plus, where is Street Fighter II?!

Paging Arcade Tech to the fighting game section please!

Machines issues didn’t stop there sadly. Some machines were on the floor but off completely. Others like Revolution X had major graphical issues that made the game unplayable, Virtua Cop 2 had issues registering shots and other games were making notifications that the voltage was low on them. One large cockpit game also had a Windows OS error on it. I can see these games having issues if this was a few days after the opening, but having issues like these right off the bat reflects poorly on the operators. Of course, opening a business is hectic, there’s only so much that can be done before opening day and maybe that was the case.

Pump Up the jam!

No Limit Arcade also has a separate building where they actually sell the cabinets. I didn’t get a close look at the machines myself, but it looked like there were a decent amount of them. I’m not looking for any machines at the moment, but I’d be somewhat cautious buying a machine from them based off how their machines performed in the actual arcade.

Take your wife for a ride on Artic Thunder, you can thank me later.

So what would I change in my opinion to make this arcade a success? For starters, I’d get more pinball machines in the building. Skip the EM’s, get one new Stern and then line up the wall with some pinball machines from the 80’s and 90’s. The plants are a nice look in between the pins, but you know what would look better? More pinball machines! Secondly: Lose all the large scale machines like Pump It Up, Sega Strike Fighter and a few of the racing games on the floor and replace them with smaller cabinets. X-Men, Final Fight, Street Fighter 2, Bad Dudes, Captain America and the Avenges, Soul Calibur. These are just a few games you could put in to replace the large scale games. Let’s face it, the large scales machines look like crap compared to anything in the home console market now and it’s the old school games people are going to get nostalgic about; not the ones that made the arcade industry start to tank. Leave the large machines to Gameworks. I’d really think a Barcade would be the route to go too…

All in all, No Limits is a decent arcade that needs to work out a few kinks before it really shines. If you need a new place to check out with some friends, its it least worth a try. Game on!

We had some good times together, but it is time you seek a new master.

I never thought I’d say this, but my first born (bought) pinball machine has finally lost its appeal to me and thus, its on its way out. What will it be replaced with? Hopefully another fun Solid State machine. Nothing against EM machines, but there’s just something more appealing about the plasma displays of a SS machine compared to the reels of this old machine. SS pinball machines also have many more goals to them. What I’m saying is that I don’t ever plan on owning another EM machine again, its just not my style.

This machine certainly got its plays from me though and it looks a 100 times better then it did when I first got it. Let’s hope it finds a nice new home.

One of the things I’ve been meaning to do for awhile was move my collection of boxed system from out of the master bed room and into the main game room. I was able to get it done and snap a few pictures of my boxed systems in the process. There’s just something about a system box that smells of nostalgia. My favorite? The original NES box just brings back tons of good memories.

November has been a bad month for my health wise. I got hit with a case of bronchitis at the beginning of the month and was just getting over it when the stomach flu hit me this weekend. I won’t be going to Dunkin Donuts anytime soon, let’s just say that a one day trip is the only way I’d prefer to have my donuts…ugh.

Being sick unfortunately screwed up some weekend plans and I never did get a chance to play Spec Ops with my little brother on the latest Call of Duty. I’ve got some time in with Skyrim here and there, but not as much as I’d like. 3 great games are out this week, so I’m sad that Skyrim may have to sit on the back burner for a few weeks while I finish the latest Assassins’ Creed, Saint’s Row and get all nostalgic with Halo: Anniversary. Since Skyrim is more of a snowy landscape anyway, it will fit right in with the Midwest winter.

I did manage to take last Friday off to get some stuff done around the house and I’m glad I did. I managed to put up a I Remember video covering the Metal Gear Solid Series. Check it out above!

It blows my mind how much bigger the special editions of video games are getting. I stopped in Best Buy today to grab a Prima Guide for Skyrim and instead had to climb and vault over a wall of Skyrim Special editions. The box was roughly the same size as the Halo 3, Reach and Gears of War specials editions; which is about the size of a ottoman footrest.

Now I’m pretty guilty of picking up special editions of games myself, but they really start to cut into your gaming storage space. The big three I mentioned above sit on my basement storage shelves because there is no way they’d fit in the game room. This year though, I’ve cut down on a good amount of special edition games, just because the extras find themselves back in the box rather then being displayed. So why do I pick them up in the first place? Is it the ow/ah factor? The fact that they might become quite collectable? I’m not even sure, but I do know the next Call of Duty game better come with a bunker, because I’m going to need a place to store all this stuff!