The 'You can't do that at home' Video Game Table

[cowbells]

Hey guys!

 

[For those of you in the art department here, I promise I'll be back helping you guys when my life gets less busy. At the moment, I'm working a full time job and trying to open a business here in Indianapolis. It's a really exciting time for me, but sadly, some things in my life had to give. Hyperspin being one of them. It's cool, we've got wheel making machines like JayC and Damned just to name a couple being monsters on content at the moment. Keep up the amazing work guys! It's dudes like you that makes this all possible!]

 

Anyway, I'm opening an arcade bar here in Indianapolis called Tappers and I thought I'd ask the Hyperspin experts out there for some help on a project for my bar! Arcade dudes hardly ever know much about video gaming as a whole. I figured this would be a much better place to ask.

 

Here's the setup: We're going to have a projection system beaming video above our bar. I've come up with an idea to build a pedestal / table that can house consoles, a PC and controls for people to play. I'd also like to make this table fairly mobile so I can put an arcade game in it's place instead. The control panels will be modular so we can swap in whatever we want, including just running console controllers straight out of the top.

 

Here's an event we ran at a local brewery last year. We had MK2 on that projector and people loved it! For many people, it's more fun to watch 2 players that know all the moves play each other rather than play themselves. People were cheering, it was awesome!

 

 

At another event, we managed to put together a 10 player Bomberman on Sega Saturn. Very very cool:

 

 

My buddy Aaron is a regular haunt over at Racketboy and one of his friends over there did him a huge solid and donated like 8 controllers or some shit so we could do this. So awesome! Also, we just nabbed the japanese version of the game and worked the menus for people to save money.

 

The console thing seems to work great, but I've convinced myself that it needs to be special. I see console gaming at other video game places and conventions, but whenever it's just Mario or something, I always think, "meh, I can do that at home." I'd like to avoid that feeling and really make each game selection feel hand picked.

 

Obviously, a dedicated, original arcade game is by default something that most people can't do at home, so that always works, but the addition of a removable table could make the space much more versatile. I also know some people who can speed run different games, so I'll get them in to show their skills every now and then.

 

I've already got the build design figured out. I've been thinking of just modifying the design for Golden Tee pedestals. I know of some people locally with CNC machines that already make pedestals exactly like that so I'm sure they could just make it wider to suit up to 4-10 players. We'll cut in 4 rectangles to change around the controls and just make different panels for the different game controller requirements. We want to keep the players standing so it naturally encourages people rotating and not hogging games. For now, I'd like to come up with a list of games that would fit this concept.

 

I'm going with the idea of having games that most people wouldn't feasibly have set up in their house, so I've dubbed it, the "You can't do that at home" Table. (the name doesn't matter haha) Ok, so here's where I'd like input:

 

Besides arcade games, what are some games that most people wouldn't have set up at home?

Here's are some of my ideas:

 

Mario Kart 64 with 4 steering wheels (who has 4 n64 steering wheels amiright?)

 

Mario Kart 8 with steering wheels would also be cool

 

10 Player Saturn Bomberman

 

6 Player Guardian Heroes for Saturn

 

Rock Band with all the instruments (honestly, my least favorite idea so far 'cause most people also suck at singing. including myself haha. I saw this being done in Portland and one girl sang for like an hour but was just awful haha)

 

8 Player Smash Bros. for Wii U with gamecube controllers - people have this, but I'd think it's fair to say that MOST people don't

 

Just about any fighting game 'cause arcade controllers

 

Just about any Light Gun game 'cause projector

 

Steel Battalion

 

I should also note that we're already planning on making a 2 player Sega Genesis arcade for a number of reasons:

A) We have a spare Zaxxon cabinet which is a Sega title.

That system has so many quality arcade titles

C) Streets of Rage 2

D) Streets of Rage 3

E) Gunstar Heroes

F) Genesis Model 1 to Jamma is a really easy mod and I just so happen to have one lying around

 

so no Genny titles for this list

 

What are some other console games that would fit this list? Quick games, multiplayer, unique controllers, insanely crazy peripherals. Whatcha got?