Pigeon Forge 2018 (Pick Ups and Arcade Review)

As a last hurrah for summertime, we decided to take a small weekend trip to Pigeon Forge TN to do some sight seeing, swimming, and of course shopping.

On Saturday afternoon we made our way to Control Freak Video Games to peruse some retro games. I actually hadn't planned on buying anything, figuring that prices would be way out of hand being in a tourist town and all but I was pleasantly surprised. They definitely knew what they had and what their product was worth but weren't charging an arm and a leg by any means. The selection was nice, with just about any common game you were looking for readily available and of course the rarer pieces behind the glass to draw your attention. I especially liked their case of rarer import consoles, which were of course for sale but not in my price range for what I had budgeted on this trip.

While they didn't have any games I didn't already have in my collection on the racks, I did find some neat souvenirs to bring home.

Poster Prints: R-Type and Chrono Trigger

Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf. This was a dollar complete and I didn't have it so I couldn't exactly pass it up but my main intention was to confuse my brother. Like "we're having a game night tonight and you're picking golf?" I also wanted to try out a Fantasy Zone related trick I heard about recently.

If you're curious, on the first hole try to take over 100 strokes before reaching the putting green for a surprise. It's a neat easter egg and also the game's way of telling you that maybe Golf isn't exactly your game.


Just click here to save yourself a ton of time.







I also snagged these Sonic and Tails decals. Not exactly sure what I'll stick them on yet. I'm bad about stickers this way. What if I don't like where I put them? They'll probably just end up in my folder with all the other sticker sheets I've found over the years. Anyone else have this problem?

Before grabbing dinner for the evening the kids were itching to get some go kart racing and arcade play in. This brought us to the Rockin' Raceway.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a go kart racing expert by any means. I can say that the karts handled well and I was able to go fast so that got an A plus in my book.\

The arcade on the other hand, well it's not exactly something that would please an enthusiast looking for the classics. Their main focus seemed to be aimed at ticket redemption, so we loaded up the kids with tokens and sent them on their quest for spider rings and candy that could be obtained much cheaper at a gas station.

That's not to say there weren't a few things here and there for the 30 somethings though. They had a nice Sega Super GT setup that felt like it was well maintained. They also had a couple of Sega 18 Wheeler Pro Trucker cabinets, though I never was much of a fan of these.

As we made our rounds looking for something engaging to play, out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the Street Fighter 3 Third Strike character select screen, a personal favorite. The excitement grew fast but crashed and burned when I saw that it was actually one of those multicade machines that 9 times out of 10 look like they're built from leftover particle board. My heart sank even more when I saw the joystick layout.

This has got to be, hands down, the worst button layout I've ever seen.

So unless you have Hulk sized hands, rest assured there's no way to effectively play 90 percent of the games on this cabinet. But I thought, what the heck, let's give it a shot for laughs since it was only a single token to play. That's a token I'll never get back. Not only did my muscle memory have me pushing the blank spaces between buttons, but the controls had been setup backwards-kicks on top and punches on the bottom. 3rd Strike wasn't the only game that suffered; my brother took a shot at Capcom's Alien vs Predator and had similar difficulties.

So the Rockin' Arcade ended up being a bust for the adults but at least the kids had a good time. I obviously can't recommend it for anyone looking for the traditional arcade experience but I suppose it makes for a good enough break between go kart races. One bit of silver lining is that they still use their own unique tokens for the games, so I took one home to add to my token collection.

Overall it was a great weekend and it was refreshing to do one last mini vacation before going back to the day to day of work and school. There's plenty to in Pigeon Forge no matter what you're interested in and I'm sure I'll be back in the future.