by Jeff Putz
posted 3/6/2001

There are a million things that make up an amusement park experience. The roller coasters are of course a huge part of that, but the experience wouldn’t be the same without themes, the fabulous food and smells, the sounds, the sights and the games. Sadly, it seems that the classic games are starting to disappear into obscurity.

I recently purchased a Jurassic Park pinball machine. My wife and I wanted this machine in 1994 when we started dating, as the mall arcade we frequently visited was going to sell theirs after we dumped a few Hamilton’s into the thing. We were poor college students at the time, so we promised ourselves we’d buy one later in life if we ever found one.

As I started to look more and more around the Internet for information on these games, it became clear to me that pinball was disappearing. Only one manufacturer even makes new machines these days. The shop owner that we bought the machine from said that no one wants to deal with the maintenance anymore, and it’s getting harder to acquire a return on investment at fifty cents a play. Video games aren’t much better, as many new machines cost as much as $10,000 new.

Then came the announcement this week that Cedar Point would close its famous Fascination. That explanation was that parts were hard to come by. That surprised me, because Cedar Point has easily the best collection of working classic arcade games that I’ve ever seen. I’m sure they’re expensive to maintain, but they help define the park’s character and history. I’m all for progress, but killing fascination is a shame.

I should have seen this trend at the IAAPA trade show. Pinball and video games were sparse. In fact, the only player with a large booth was Namco, the attention falling on the relatively inexpensive Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga machine ($2,500, if you’re interested). The good news is that non-video and pinball was well represented by the likes of Skee-Ball and several manufacturers of “claw” prize games.

Outside of the traditional Skee-Ball and ring toss games, I’m a little worried about the future of the classics. Pinball and video games are as much a part of the amusement park experience as the food and the rides. Just think about how boring those rainy days would be without them.