Have you played this before?

[jinxer]

*edited* Sorry for the ambiguous title.  :)

Ok, you guys are going to shoot me, but I'm making my very own topic, because I'm just too excited about this.  And if you don't like it, then by all means - flame on, but I didn't see this being discussed anywhere else and it's old, so it probably hasn't been in like forever.

Last year, while traveling back home in Texas, (where I'm orinigally from), I took my son to a local Chuck E. Cheese's in Dallas.  Now being the gamer I am and all, it's very easy for me to entertain myself with even the most childish games one can find in these short-people overrun money pits.  So as I'm wandering around, what does my eye fall on?  This hulking pod-looking thing on hydraulics.....a cockpit....with two joysticks, one for each hand.  Anyone know what I'm talking about yet?

Ok, so I make a bee-line for this monstrous looking thing (well, compared to all the other kiddie games).  Sure enough, it's a cockpit.  I get in and the screen is on some rollercoaster ride.  I put in my tokens and sit back waiting for the show.  It's not interactive, dammit.  It's like a rollercoaster ride, I can't do anything but sit and stare at the screen while the pod thing I'm in rises and falls, shakes and tumbles.  Man this is a jip.  I can't even use the controllers.

After the ride, I realize there's a main screen where you can cycle through 8 different demos (like the one i wasted my money on) and games (like, interactive).  Lo and behold, I'm confronted with MechWarrior 4 and Crimson Skies.   I immediately dropped about $5 worth of tokens into this infernal machine and began playing MW4.  Omg, it was awesome.

Needless to say, there was a line of kids waiting to jump in after hearing all the explosions and watching me rock back and forth in this thing, trying not to let curse words slip through my teeth when I got hit particularly hard.    Ha!  I made them wait for quite some time.

Anyways, that's not really what this post is about.  Yesterday, I found out my friend had the Steel Battalions package for the Xbox with the ridiculously huge controller/pedals (http://www.gamequestdirect.com/game-questdirect/013388290024.html) and it was just sitting there, covered in dust!  I immediately started drooling and asked him to hook it up for me.  I played through the first two missions and told him "I'm sorry, but you're neglecting this fine set of equipment.  It's being confiscated for questioning in the case of video game abuse, the xbox vs you."

So I loaded it up and took it home.  Now my kid is trying to overtake it, of course, and my cat thinks we're both crazy.  My neighbors are probably getting tired of my yelling, but I'm a happy camper.  At least for the next few days.  :)

[Yegolev]

Awesome.  I thought Chuck E. Cheese had really slipped last time I was in there, but there may be hope.  And hooray on scoring Steel Batallion, sounds like she's in a better home now.

[Mesozoic]

If you have XBL, look for a copy of Line of Contact and....well, see if anyone plays it at all online anymore.

And if you are looking for 70 tons of nostalgia on legs, theres this.

[jinxer]

Thanks for the info Mesozoic, I'll check them out.  :)

[Nija]

You know what's even better? You can buy one of those xbox -> pc joystick porter things then you can use that controller for games like Freespace 2. Or Mechwarrior, or whatever.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=83&products_id=2701&

[jinxer]

You know what's even better? You can buy one of those xbox -> pc joystick porter things then you can use that controller for games like Freespace 2. Or Mechwarrior, or whatever.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=83&products_id=2701&

That's fantastic.  I have to admit it's been so long since I've played these types of games, I really don't know what's out there.  I've been stuck on mostly RPGs for awhile now.

[Daydreamer]

Did the sequel to Steel Battalion come out yet or no?

[Mesozoic]

The only "sequel" to SB that I'm aware of was LOC, and that was really just SB + multiplayer, with some new missions and a new ride or two.

[Sky]

Has anyone made a decent driver for that lik-sang thing? Does any other (reliable, safe, honest) dealer carry such a thing?

I thought about it a couple years back when my gamepad died, but after looking into it, it seemed too rife with issues.

Well, that....and the fact that my cordless rumblepad (2!) is way better than any xbox controller I've seen.

[Nija]

Shit, lik-sang is awesome. I orderd Katamari Damacy 2 from there and it was here within 10 days. 

[Strazos]

Jinxer, if it was a clear pod-thing with yellow parts, I just played with one in FL.

Not exactly the MW4 I was looking for (Stuff died in 1 hit), but cool nonetheless.

[jinxer]

Nice, sounds like it.  As for things dying with one hit.......it's chuck e cheese, dude!   It's for kids....    ;)

[Strazos]

But I played it at Universal Islands of Adventure (BIGGEST WASTE OF $70 EVAR). I want my challenge, dammit.

[Merusk]

I haven't played that, but the Dave & Buster's here in Cincy has similar pods that play something called MechAssult or somesuch.  It's sweet because the pods close you entirely and they each have their own soundsystem, buttons and switches to reconfig your weapons and the matches are shown on a display screen for the rest of the building.  Most folks don't know you can reconfigure the weapons, so they all wind-up on 'alpha strike' mode and have to dissapate all that heat before they fire again.  Since they're also novices to the piloting you can wtfpwn them easy by just cycling lasers.   Great fun and if you're truly geeky enough there was a league that was running, too.

[jinxer]

But I played it at Universal Islands of Adventure (BIGGEST WASTE OF $70 EVAR). I want my challenge, dammit.

Woah, maybe these are different machines.....$70!!  damn!

[Strazos]

No, the $70 was for park admission.

The game was $1 or so.

[Yegolev]

But I played it at Universal Islands of Adventure (BIGGEST WASTE OF $70 EVAR).

If you rode Spider-Man, you came out OK.  Most of that park is crappy, though it is much better than the old park.  Universal has nice hotels, however.

[Strazos]

Oh ho, I have not retold this story here yet...

We get there at ~11am.

We ride Hulk. Hulk was good.

We putz around in the arcade a bit. The arcade was mediocre.

We have lunch. Lunch was ok. The server was a cutie.

We go to the log flume ride. The line said 90 minutes. We sit in line for 2 hours and walk out, because the ride becomes suspended due to "inclemet weather in the immediate area." That means dark clouds.

Go on one half of "Dueling Dragons" (Fire). It was good.

We leave, because we are frustrated and tired. It proceeds to rain, monsoon-style.

Fuck you Universal. You stole 2 hours of my life in my early 20's, and I'll never get it back. Also, $70.

[Yegolev]

Angry story.

Should have ridden Spider-Man.  Best ride in Orlando and the primary reason to even visit Islands. Too late now, though; I don't mean to rub salt all up in there.

[Furiously]

The Mummy is a darn fun coaster.

And don't forget Fear Factor Live! (Not that I have any family members who are hosts).

[Bunk]

Mummy was fun but too short, I prefered Spiderman. I always get a kick out of vitualy induced vertigo.

I played the sit in game Jinz is talking about down in Orlando as well, was in the arcade at the Gaylord Palms Convention center.

[Yegolev]

The Mummy is a darn fun coaster.

Where is that?  Managed to miss it somehow.  Dinosaurs ate my hat.

[Furiously]

Coaster based on the "the mummy" franchise. Lots of flames, dark, and some animatronics. Basically - it's a coaster version of "Indy" fron Disneyland.

Posideon's Adventure? Was also pretty good - except for the gods dueling. Very cool sets. Nothing like going "OMG!!! I'm blind in a small room!" to "Holy hell - this room is huge and there is water everywhere." When I have 1 biziliion dollars I will make my house have a water tunnel as well.

[Yegolev]

Coaster based on the "the mummy" franchise. Lots of flames, dark, and some animatronics. Basically - it's a coaster version of "Indy" fron Disneyland.

So The Mummy is at Islands?  I guess I could look it up instead of pestering you.  It's just that I don't remember seeing it last December.

Posideon's Adventure? Was also pretty good

I liked it.  Skipped last time I was at Islands due to tight schedule.

Edited to answer my own question.  Looks like they ripped out the unmaintained E.T. ride at U. Studios.  Last time I was at Studios, which was possibly 2002, it was like I was in one of those cheap apocalyptic movies where they only had budget to keep live people off of the streets.  The wife and I got in the E.T. line and waited in a dust-choked forest for way too long before the ride broke and we were flushed out the exit.  Good riddance.

[Fargull]

Good friend of mine lives in Chi-Town.

We spent a good afternoon blowing each other to hell at the battletech center.

Now they have grown a bit... Much'o Fun.

[Furiously]

We spent a good afternoon blowing each other to hell at the battletech center.

WOOOW - a little too much info.

edit: OHHHH - not blowing each other.

[Fargull]

Damn that is funny.