[PA Comic] Friday, April 17, 2015 - Exchange Rate

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[PA Comic] Friday, April 17, 2015 - Exchange Rate

Exchange Rate

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2015/04/17

Read the full story here

Quid

That's about right for how they used to be too.

Lucascraft

A Penny Arcade about Arcades.

Yay!

joshofalltrades

That's a pretty haunted look in your eyes there, Tycho.

Tofystedeth

Tycho is, like the Parachute Man, broken.

I love the 2nd panel.

joshofalltrades

Baubles really are in short supply nowadays.

Skwigelf

When Gabe says "Smarties", is he talking about Smarties or "Smarties"?

joshofalltrades

Skwigelf wrote: »

When Gabe says "Smarties", is he talking about Smarties or "Smarties"?

firepoet

I'm not that young, I was born in 1986, but I don't think I've ever been in an actual arcade ever now that I think about it.

Linktm

I always joke about the Dave and Busters tickets I've accumulated over the past 10+ years. Pretty soon I'll finally be able to afford a regular Nintendo DS game.

Gosling

One time at Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells we actually managed to jackpot one of the arcade games. It was the one where you roll a coin into a dump truck and if you hit a tiny little stick the truck dumps all the coins and you get tickets for all of them. The truck was... rather full.

Mom and dad ended up commandeering some of the tickets to get a toaster from the Top Shelf Of Halfway Decent Stuff.

ombranox

Jeez, dude. I could get those with two rounds of skee ball. And I suck at skee ball.

lionheart_m

Man, my father must've cried whenever I went near an Arcade. I could've bought at least a Final Fight board by the time I was 12.

Talyn Rahl

Something about the look on Tycho's face in that last panel, combined with the fact I have been BOTH parties in that interaction made this a comic of special amusement for me

gbrooks

Lucascraft wrote: »

A Penny Arcade about Arcades.

A Penny Arcade about Arcades, featuring the alter-ego of an owner of Penny Arcade, who owns a home Arcade.

I heard you like arcades...here's an arcade in your arcade

gbrooks

By deeds, does Tycho mean actions that have been taken and then preserved beneath the glass cabinet for children to purchase and somehow experience, or legal documents that confer ownership of real estate?

PLA

Documents.

I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up

One day I managed to get a jackpot on 2 separate "hit a button to make a ball drop into the holes" games at nickelcade. I made out like a bandit that night... I got one of those things where you pull the ripcord to make a copter fly (which we promptly broke in the parking lot), a small pillow in the form of Spider-mans face, a nickelcade hat with a metal pacman logo, and 5 styrophoam planes (which we promptly broke in the parking lot {'dogfighting' them with each other})

Other than that it was usually just the styrophoam airplanes for, like, 100 a piece and some candy.

Dirk2112

My wife and I are really good at the "Harpoon Lagoon" game. We figured out that it cost us $75-$80 in real money to acquire enough tickets to buy a $50 Wii U game.

jothki

I remember those army man figures being one ticket each, and getting a huge bucket of them.

snahgle

Huh. I wonder which two episodes of Dollhouse Jerry considers to be "watchable"?

Rhesus Positive

Does the U.S. have arcades where you can win actual money?

They're a staple of the British seaside town. My dad grew up on the coast and learnt all kinds of tricks at his local arcade, like which "roulette" machine had a sticky part on the wheel, and how to tell where the slot machines were in their sequence from the clicks the wheels made.

I myself once made out like a bandit on an automatic horse racing machine, then years later a girlfriend and I won big on a game where you try to roll coins into various holes on a rotating disc, and bought a Family Guy DVD box set with 160 10p pieces.

Photosaurus

In a lot of places in the US that would be considered gambling, so I feel like they're not that common. The closest I can think of is those little bar top video games which usually feature "spot the difference" and matching games. but there you typically just win more credits, if anything at all.

Delzhand

What's the background story here? Where are they going, why does Groab have a ninja turtle pillow?

Quid

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

Does the U.S. have arcades where you can win actual money?

They're a staple of the British seaside town. My dad grew up on the coast and learnt all kinds of tricks at his local arcade, like which "roulette" machine had a sticky part on the wheel, and how to tell where the slot machines were in their sequence from the clicks the wheels made.

I myself once made out like a bandit on an automatic horse racing machine, then years later a girlfriend and I won big on a game where you try to roll coins into various holes on a rotating disc, and bought a Family Guy DVD box set with 160 10p pieces.

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

Menasor

Delzhand wrote: »

What's the background story here? Where are they going, why does Groab have a ninja turtle pillow?

Why WOULDN'T he have a Ninja turtle pillow?

L_Mariachi

Since when are noses a different color than the faces they're attached to? What is going on with these noses?! Are all the characters drunks and/or syphilitics? This has been bothering me for a while now.

Bursar

L_Mariachi wrote: »

Since when are noses a different color than the faces they're attached to? What is going on with these noses?! Are all the characters drunks and/or syphilitics? This has been bothering me for a while now.

It's just a part of Mike's art evolution. I'm not particularly a fan of it either, but this is not a battle you're going to win. Just let it go.

forty

It's an STI he caught from the Trenches and gave to PA.

lawragatajar

Either my goals were low, or I had some decent redemption rates, because most of the time I could get at least a small plush toy.

Enlong

Oh man, those Parachute Men. I remember them.

PLA

Quid wrote: »

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

Does the U.S. have arcades where you can win actual money?

They're a staple of the British seaside town. My dad grew up on the coast and learnt all kinds of tricks at his local arcade, like which "roulette" machine had a sticky part on the wheel, and how to tell where the slot machines were in their sequence from the clicks the wheels made.

I myself once made out like a bandit on an automatic horse racing machine, then years later a girlfriend and I won big on a game where you try to roll coins into various holes on a rotating disc, and bought a Family Guy DVD box set with 160 10p pieces.

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

And, purely by coincidence, nearby places willing to buy such items?

Oddfish

I remember the arcade on the boardwalk in Daytona Beach.

That place held a special place in my heart. No clue if it's still there. Probably isn't. I remember playing Mortal Kombat for hours and hours and hours with my older brother.

Commander Zoom

PLA wrote: »

Quid wrote: »

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

Does the U.S. have arcades where you can win actual money?

They're a staple of the British seaside town. My dad grew up on the coast and learnt all kinds of tricks at his local arcade, like which "roulette" machine had a sticky part on the wheel, and how to tell where the slot machines were in their sequence from the clicks the wheels made.

I myself once made out like a bandit on an automatic horse racing machine, then years later a girlfriend and I won big on a game where you try to roll coins into various holes on a rotating disc, and bought a Family Guy DVD box set with 160 10p pieces.

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

And, purely by coincidence, nearby places willing to buy such items?

Nope, because most of them were cheap crap of interest/value only to a kid. Stuff that would be eaten, broken, lost, or exhaust its entertainment value within a day.

Inquisitor

Commander Zoom wrote: »

PLA wrote: »

Quid wrote: »

Rhesus Positive wrote: »

Does the U.S. have arcades where you can win actual money?

They're a staple of the British seaside town. My dad grew up on the coast and learnt all kinds of tricks at his local arcade, like which "roulette" machine had a sticky part on the wheel, and how to tell where the slot machines were in their sequence from the clicks the wheels made.

I myself once made out like a bandit on an automatic horse racing machine, then years later a girlfriend and I won big on a game where you try to roll coins into various holes on a rotating disc, and bought a Family Guy DVD box set with 160 10p pieces.

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

And, purely by coincidence, nearby places willing to buy such items?

Nope, because most of them were cheap crap of interest/value only to a kid. Stuff that would be eaten, broken, lost, or exhaust its entertainment value within a day.

I think he was making a joking reference to pachinko parlors in Japan, and how there is one prize you can redeem your pachinko balls for that another, totally unrelated, we totally swear guys, business down the road will buy off of you for a fixed value, as a work around for the fact that gambling is illegal in Japan.

ziddersroofurry

I was lucky as a kid. Back around '84 a small arcade opened near us called Games People Play. It had about twenty cabinets. Then we had a few Aladdin's Castles-I still miss them. Always loved the funky credits you'd get in exchange for quarters. Finally there was DG's arcade.

This place was located in an old used car lot and was one of the dingiest Mos-Eisley-Cantina-wanna-be's I've ever been into. You had college kids and teens mixing, alcohol being sold to whoever and coke deals in the restroom. It was the only place I'd ever been where you could play N.A.R.C. and find real Narcs.

There was also the Rocky Point amusement park arcade which was my all time favorite because it was the 80's and they constantly played glam metal and hard rock. I'm glad I grew up with arcades. At the same time I'm a little jealous of kids who get to grow up with stuff like online multiplayer arcade games and games like Minecraft.

Then again I was a messed up kid back then and probably would have gotten into a lot more trouble than I did if I'd had access to the internet.

RatherDashing89

ziddersroofurry wrote: »

I was lucky as a kid. Back around '84 a small arcade opened near us called Games People Play. It had about twenty cabinets. Then we had a few Aladdin's Castles-I still miss them. Always loved the funky credits you'd get in exchange for quarters. Finally there was DG's arcade.

This place was located in an old used car lot and was one of the dingiest Mos-Eisley-Cantina-wanna-be's I've ever been into. You had college kids and teens mixing, alcohol being sold to whoever and coke deals in the restroom. It was the only place I'd ever been where you could play N.A.R.C. and find real Narcs.

There was also the Rocky Point amusement park arcade which was my all time favorite because it was the 80's and they constantly played glam metal and hard rock. I'm glad I grew up with arcades. At the same time I'm a little jealous of kids who get to grow up with stuff like online multiplayer arcade games and games like Minecraft.

Then again I was a messed up kid back then and probably would have gotten into a lot more trouble than I did if I'd had access to the internet.

That's a very true, but hilarious line of thought: "My arcades were dark and seedy with booze and drugs and hard rock. But boy am I lucky I didn't have the internet, or I'd be real screwed up."

ziddersroofurry

RatherDashing89 wrote: »

That's a very true, but hilarious line of thought: "My arcades were dark and seedy with booze and drugs and hard rock. But boy am I lucky I didn't have the internet, or I'd be real screwed up."

XD
I love it.

Showsni

Quid wrote: »

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

Wait. Are you telling me US arcades don't have waterfall/coin pusher machines in?

Now I really pity you... Pretty much every UK arcade has them, available for people of any age, with real money in.

Calica

Showsni wrote: »

Quid wrote: »

Nah. Only tickets/points that you can exchange for items. If you got money it'd be considered gambling.

Wait. Are you telling me US arcades don't have waterfall/coin pusher machines in?

Now I really pity you... Pretty much every UK arcade has them, available for people of any age, with real money in.

They do, but only with arcade tokens.

pjarvi

For me it was always jumping frogs, those slide together foam planes, Tootsie Rolls, DoubleBubble gum, and if I had a LOT of tickets then I would get the light-up yo-yo that automatically returned. Occasionally, a Chinese finger trap or a super bouncing ball.