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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 1, 2008 20:45:40 GMT -5
It's a wonderful day at the mall. It's just another Saturday, and you're just hanging out. After grabbing an Orange Julius and a giant pretzel, you walk around, stopping at various small shops, making fun of the emo kids at Hot Topic, harrassing the GameStop managers, staring at the posters in Victoria's Secret , and finally swing by the bookstore, you notice something interesting at one of the kiosks. You know the type, it's the ones selling cellphone cases, cheap jewelry, blinky pictures of the World Trade Center, and personalized music for small children. But it's not. It has a display of Mario running around on the screen. This was an experience of mine at two malls: one in Austin, one in Florida, both in 2004. I can't recall the names of both, but I know at least one was entitled "Retrogames". There were stacks of the plug-and-play NES-on-a-chip controllers, the ones that looked like N64 controllers. I also remember seeing a listing of all the games on it. There were hundreds, many of which I had not heard of before. Pirate games in America, that's what. Unfortunately, Nintendo cracked down on them all and because they were fly-by-night short-term kiosks, it's impossible to find information on them. Worse, I did not think of taking pictures back then...I now almost always take pictures of malls...for documentative purposes ( this beauty is demolished now, for example) Have you ever seen these kiosks, specifically in American shopping malls?
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Post by Spud on Jan 1, 2008 21:52:47 GMT -5
Yes A Kiosk like that showed up in the Greater Houston Area back around 2004-2005. The kiosk stayed for around 3 months before being replaced by a hat embroidery kiosk.
The controllers contained 1200 games a peace if I recall correctly including official Nintendo titles like Ice Climber as well as knock off pirates like Afro Mario Bros.
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Post by TV Eye on Jan 1, 2008 21:57:43 GMT -5
Yeah, they're all over the place. A Spanish guy was arrested for created those N64 controller things, but they're still around. (I even bought one, shh...)
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Post by missingno.is back? on Jan 1, 2008 22:10:15 GMT -5
The emulation is horrible on them, I hear. I saw them a lot long ago, nowadays, the kiosks are like hats and cellphone cases and rc helicopters and stupid stuff I don't want.
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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 2, 2008 12:34:15 GMT -5
Spud: I know it's a bit nitpickety but which mall was it, the Memorial City Mall or the Galleria? TVEye: Where do you live? I haven't seen one for quite a real (in person, you can probably get one in a shady online deal) Missingno: Yeah, if you search back to the beginning of the forum you can see another conversation of the same topic and it talks about the misspelling of Pac-Man stuff. In fact, I believe you posted in it, long ago.
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Post by wanderingshadow on Jan 2, 2008 12:39:42 GMT -5
I remember seeing those at Rivertown Mall in Grand Rapids a few years back. I tried it out and it really played horrible.
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Post by Spud on Jan 2, 2008 13:02:05 GMT -5
Spud: I know it's a bit nitpickety but which mall was it, the Memorial City Mall or the Galleria? The Woodlands Mall. Greater Houston is bigger than you think. It's the one everyone from East Texas North of Houston Proper seems to shop at. And you forgot Greenspoint.
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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 2, 2008 13:05:28 GMT -5
That's not Greater Houston! Wikipedia categorizes it as "Northern Suburbs/Montgomery County". Sheesh.
BTW, the two malls I saw the kiosk was in was Barton Creek Square and Panama City Mall.
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Post by Spud on Jan 2, 2008 13:07:19 GMT -5
That's not Greater Houston! Wikipedia categorizes it as "Northern Suburbs/Montgomery County". Sheesh. BTW, the two malls I saw the kiosk was in was Barton Creek Square and Panama City Mall. It's in Montgomery County!
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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 2, 2008 13:10:59 GMT -5
It's the one everyone from East Texas North of Houston Proper seems to shop at. And all the rich kids even up here in College Station/Bryan area. The local mall's just not good enough, apparently... Anyways, has anyone seen them in person recently, not a few years ago?
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Post by missingno.is back? on Jan 2, 2008 15:08:30 GMT -5
ah, I remember that old thread. and I have not seen any of the plug and play pirated games lately.
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Post by Game Guru on Jan 2, 2008 16:02:30 GMT -5
I used to have a Super Joy Play Action 3 or as I called it, "The Chinese Pirate Console." I lost it when I used the wrong voltage and it sparked!
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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 2, 2008 16:20:42 GMT -5
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Post by TV Eye on Jan 2, 2008 16:49:00 GMT -5
Yes! That's exactly what I have! They say there's over 7500 games though, but every game is repeated at least ten times.
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Post by mrmolecule on Jan 2, 2008 17:02:03 GMT -5
I do vaguely recall that some of the games are simply palette swaps. Also, the ubiquitous Wikipedia has more information. It explains how they were, all linked together by a guy in his late '20s that lived in Miami (probably the "spanish guy" mentioned). He was arrested and sentenced five years in prison. It's 2008. He must be on parole by now.
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