A few months back, I started to document the location of publicly available Pengo machines around the place and came up with the following offerings:
• Powerhouse Museum - Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales (last spotted - May 2014)
• Milkbar Café - Newtown, New South Wales (last spotted - yesterday)
• River Inn Resort - Thredbo, New South Wales (last spotted - August 2014)
• Funspot - Laconia, New Hampshire, USA (seen via website)
As it happens, I’m in the early stages of planning a trip to the USA in March 2016 (primarily to run the New York Half Marathon, around Manhattan) and thought I’d try again to check the state of public transport options to Laconia. I’ve mentioned previously that the absence of any realistic alternatives to driving there put the kybosh on a proposed visit late in 2013 when I was in nearby Boston for a time.
Anyway, as part of that planning, I came across a place called the “Galloping Ghost Arcade” located in a western suburb of Chicago and evidently adjacent to the local Congress Park train station. With over 440 machines, the Galloping Ghost bills itself as the largest video game venue in the United States. And - lo and behold - one of their games is Pengo! Their very informative website even lists the high score for each of their games. For Pengo, that score is 132,790 (yes, 132,790) which was set on 3 April 2015 by a gentleman named James White. Mr White, who must be a local, features a few times on that part of the site. So a few days visit to the Galloping Ghost is now in the diary.
I’ve been to Chicago only once before (in 2006, to run the Chicago marathon) and have very fond memories of the place - despite the unusually chilly October weather that year. So it will be good to get back there again for a few days on the way home from the Big Apple.
I haven’t finally booked anything yet, so if you have an arcade over there you think I should know about, would love to hear about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment