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Video Games Can’t Kill The Theme Park Star

Sometimes it rained. Sometimes it poured. Sometimes you were just too exhausted to go anywhere and you ended up in an arcade somewhere within the Walt Disney World Resort.

And sometimes you feel guilty because of that. You feel guilty because those games were also in your hometown – at the mall or at your local pizza place. So, why would you be playing these games when you could just be taking in the ambience of the Great Ceremonial House.

Hey, these things happen. I’m not quite sure what happens nowadays. Are arcades cool when you have a Wii, a PS3, a Game Cube, an AppleTV, and a robot butler? I don’t know but, here within, were my favorite arcade games when I was a kid at The Diz.

1) Punch-Out: Before Mike Tyson got involved there was you (apparently I was Little Mac – who knew?) against…

GLASS JOE!

PISTON HURRICANE!

BALD BULL!

Just good to get some childhood aggression out on that Glass Joe. This was a staple of mid-80’s aracde fun at Moana Mickey’s Fun Hut.

2) WWF Superstars: Oh, the days when it was the World Wrestling Federation and not the new century’s WWE. I was actually pretty addicted to this game at my local pizzeria, as suits my thirty year fandom with – ahem – sports entertainment. A Lafferty Place special in the opening years of the Beach Club Resort. The best tag team to work with was the late ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and – the late – Big Bossman.

Awkward.

3) Skee Ball: the sound of the wooden balls releasing is one of those great childhood trigger points. I will tell you that I became a better player as a young adult and not usuing my actual hand. I have also bared witness to Buzz Lightyear accidentally knocking Woody over a skee ball machine in Pizza Planet.

Now, that’s awkward.

4) Air Hockey: I mean, who doesn’t love air hockey? Another great childhood sound – that puck ricocheting off of the sides. I have also seen Buzz and Woody square off in Pizza Planet over this table. Competition is fierce.

5) Pop a Shot: The most competitive of all the family games, because anyone can win, at anytime, in any arcade. Feel the power of tossing those mini-basketballs!

Honorable mention to anything that was at the Magic Kingdom’s now defunct Penny Arcade.

Brother Dillo

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