My recent trip to the USA allowed me some time to check out a few arcades, specifically one of my favourites in Miami, FL. The last time I reviewed Arcade Odyssey, was a good five years ago. You can check that out here. The upshot I concluded back then, was that this was probably the best medium sized arcade I’d ever visited. Owner Rick Medina had curated a superb arcade with an amazing variety of old, new and rare games.
So I was really looking forward to returning in November this year, to see what ace cards Rick had pulled out from his archive of rare arcade titles, to keep things fresh and maintain the solid footfall he had worked hard to gain. Was Arcade Odyssey still up to scratch? Read on to find out:
Arcade Odyssey’s Window Graphics
Well I’m pleased to report things are pretty much the same in terms of impressiveness! What is different is the variety of cabinets in the arcade. Several changes have been made with plenty of new stuff to play and experience for arcade-goers of all ages and tastes. I’ve tried to capture here some of the best of what I saw:
Let’s start with Pinball. A good mix of 80s, 90s and more up to date pins are available to play. Great to see this Hyperball on the floor alongside several Stern titles including Led Zeppelin, which I hadn’t played before.
The Stern bias continues along the row of 20 or so pins. Some great titles and every one of them was fully working, clean and played well – a rare thing indeed in most arcades today. Props to Arcade Odyssey for keeping on top of repairs as required
I was pleased to see the Blast Cities still on the floor. Rick continues to change out the games based on what people are actually playing. Great to see The Act on the right there – its a very cool and unique title that I would urge you to play if you visit!
On the subject of actual play – one thing that has changed, is the switch to digital credits. Rather than buying tokens to play, visitors to Arcade Odyssey now purchase and load up a prepaid card – simply tap your card on the reader on each machine and you’re good to go.
The new card system in place at Arcade Odyssey, Miami. Load it up at the dedicated machines located around the arcade, then simply tap on each machine’s card reader to play!
The system saves time for the arcade. No longer do they have to cash out physical tokens from each machine a few times a week, but it also provides better data reporting on what games are being played, when, and how often. When the play count drops off on any particular game, the arcade can swap out the PCB and drop in something fresh for players.
Directly opposite the Blast Cities are these Viewlix cabinets – all fresh Japanese imports, these allow for multiple titles to be played in each cabinet. Using original hardware of course, Arcade Odyssey can ensure that games are rotated as required based on the reports they see from the digital credit system in place
Of course in addition to these cabinets that allow new games to regularly rotated, Arcade Odyssey’s real speciality is curating an amazing selection of dedicated games. There are so many highlights and I can’t share them all, but here’s a taster of some of the more interesting stuff I spotted and played:
Classics are always a good place to start: A rare Ataxx, Timber, Star Wars, Tapper, Satan’s Hollow and Galaga
The Satan’s Hollow looked great and took a few plays during my visit. I totally suck at it, but it is such a unique shooter with some interesting features
Sorry for the washed out photo, but the Wacko I showed last time from the storage area is now out on the floor on the right there, and a dedicated Xevious and Dragon’s Lair sit next to it. Xevious in a full upright Atari cabinet is a joy to play
More classics here – Turtles, Double Dragon, Q*Bert, Gyruss, Gorf, Nintendo Playchoice and Pac-Man
Nice to see other Candy cabs dotted about the arcade – A Naomi Universal, and a rare Vs City are pictured here. Cheeky Pole Position cockpit at the back there too!
A rare Neo Geo SC-19 Candy Cabinet. So nice to see these out in the wild. They are surprisingly comfortable to play, despite their small form factor
One of the things that makes Arcade Odyssey so special is owner Rick’s passion for dedicated and unusual arcade cabinets – many of them he’s personally imported direct from Japan.
The huge Darius EX complete with Japanese topper. An amazing shooter that you simply have to play on this dedicated cabinet
Sega’s Rail Chase 2. One of just a few in the USA and completely restored by Rick and his team for people to play. The seat moves in line with the action – this is a fun and unique two player game.
There were a couple of cabinets from the Initial D series on the floor. Initial D 3 here, was fully playable and good fun
Think I shared this last time, but its such a cool game from the 90s. Sega’s Virtual On. Certainly ahead of its time – with the twin stick controls, the gameplay still stacks up today
The weird looking TsuMo Multi-Game Motion System. This is the Deluxe model and has a base that moves around. Certainly a unique experience sitting inside that red bubble
Another new highlight was this imported game, Namco’s Cool Gunman
It’s a two player game with both players facing each other armed with a light gun to fire into the ground of the central play area, which springs up rods littered about the playfield. These rods shoot a tin can which bounces around. The goal is to get the can into your opponents ‘goal’. Super competitive, it was really fun to play. Another Japanese import fully restored by Rick and the team – very few of these made it out of Japan!
I also want to point out that Arcade Odyssey has table top cocktail games on the arcade floor – its so rare to see these out in the wild due to the space they take up:
Super duper rare Space Zap in cocktail form. A great game often overlooked. Do check it out if you get a chance
More cocktail tables here – Asteroids, Millipede, Track & Field, Qix (never seen of these before), and Galaga 3
It’s worth highlighting that that everything was fully working. Literally nothing was down or waiting repair during my visit. This is no mean feat, and is a real testament to the hard work and dedication of the Arcade Odyssey team to ensure the best possible experience for players.
But what made my visit really special was an offer from Rick to show me around his storage areas. Often the more interesting stuff is “out back” of arcades, and this was no exception! Here’s a few highlights from the tour I was given:
Wonder what a pile of original PCBs looks like? Look no further! Here’s a small part of the PCB inventory that Arcade Odyssey has in storage, ready to swap out into the cabinets out in the arcade
A rare sight. Every known Neo Geo MVS release, complete with shock boxes and artwork ready to go
One of the back storage rooms – I spy an Environmental Discs of Tron at the back there…
Three classics here – a Centuri Tunnel Hunt, Atari I, Robot and Midway Zwackery. Al waiting their turn out on the arcade floor
Had a quick go on this Sega Space Tactics cockpit. It’s been fully restored and works 100%
The game is really immersive with unique controls
Space Tactics has moving parts inside the cabinet which enhance the 3D effect on screen. A really unique game that’s very hard to find these days. Hopefully this will make it out onto the floor at some point
We then moved across the street to Rick’s storage unit. Where do you begin?! That Sega OutRun was in amazing condition – probably the nicest one I’ve seen. Look closely and you’ll see a full motion Space Harrier behind it
Here’s a few more highlights. Rick was good enough to power up some of these games for us to play:
This was probably the rarest game I saw. A Taito Night Striker in cockpit form. Rick has a lot to do here to get this up and running, but the cabinet is all there awaiting restoration
One of the wheel decals from the cabinet. These actually light up when the game is running. Check out some gameplay of Night Striker in this cabinet style here
Another mad rare game here. A full motion Sega Galaxy Force II
Galaxy Force II was fully working and rotates to enhance the immersion
Sega’s holographic Time Traveller. You don’t come across these very often!
Great to see a Williams Star Rider – fully working too. Check out my write up of this game here
Rick was keen for me to check this mechanical game out and I’m glad he did.
MCI’s Airball is totally unique. Using the two controllers, you have to steer a ball through various holes hanging from the ceiling. You are able to control jets of air that blow vertically upwards allowing you to control the height and placement of the ball. It’s really unusual and very cool to play!
Another rare Sega game imported from Japan. Magical Truck Adventure has the player using a manual hand cart controller to guide the truck through increasingly difficult courses against the clock
Another game you won’t find outside of Japan, Pac-Man Hammer Match pits the hand speed of two players against each other (its along the lines of the button tapping of Hyper Sports). The losing player’s hand is “bashed” by the hammer – first to five wins is victorious!
An ongoing restoration project has been this Sega Brave Firefighters, which should be out on the floor soon. The unit is 100% restored, right down to the warning stickers and is running better than new, using bespoke laser projectors and special projection materials. Arcade Odyssey are using the same tech found in The Rail Chase 2 cabinet, displaying the correct 4:3 aspect ratio. The gameplay looks great – check it out here
Probably the most insane game I played was this Ballistics arcade cabinet. You lie flat and look up at the screen in this full motion cabinet. Very immersive. Gameplay can be seen here
More drivers here up top – another Initial D cabinet setup, and a pair of San Francisco Rush cabs
Another cabinet that had just been completed was this Manic Panic Ghosts cab. This game is very rare as the screens would get so badly burned-in after 1300 plays – leaving them unplayable. Rick is aware of 3 of these units in the USA, but this is the only one believed to be 100% working. It took several months to get this game to work properly. As well as all the laser projection tech from the prior restores added to get the image to look great again, but it also required some custom 2ft x 4ft infrared filters to be put in place in order to correct some screen aberrations that were present. Upgrades were made to the controllers and once everything was completed and working perfectly, the game was converted to English language
Literally just arrived at the storage unit. Williams Sinistar cockpit. I’ve played this a few times at Freeplay Florida expo over the years – can’t wait for this to be fixed up and placed on the Arcade Odyssey floor
Another recent arrival currently being serviced – a rare Sega Hang-On motion cabinet
Thanks again to Rick for the walkthrough of the arcade and the storage area. Always a good time when in Miami – if you are in Florida any time soon, do make sure you make the time to visit his place. Excellent selection of super-rare games and a really good vibe. The arcade has a fully stocked bar and snacks are available.
With Rick Medina of Arcade Odyssey, November 2023
Arcade Odyssey is easily still a 10 out of 10.
I’ll leave you with this interesting interview with Rick from a year ago, where he talks about how the arcade started, and his ethos in running such a unique place:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/s-yetIVd6 ... ransparent
Arcade Odyssey’s opening hours, game list, pricing etc can be found on their website here.
Tell Rick I sent you!
Thanks for reading this week.
Tony
Subscribe
Source: https://arcadeblogger.com/2023/12/27/a- ... e-odyssey/