| 2009-10-08 | Dan | Went bowling there recently. I must say that all the machines looked very clean and well maintained. It also looked like there were many more arcade games there than the last time I went. The classic Ultracade with Joust and Qix, etc. was working well in front of the lanes, No one was rude, although it appears to be a cash-only establishment, which isn't rude, just inconvenient. Since again it was a non-crowded Saturday night, I must assume that someone who takes care of the machines won the lottery or received an arcade endowment. Maybe they just now have a very conscientious arcade repair specialist. Again, was very impressed with the quality of the machines. Now all they need is to drum up a bigger crowd. Oh, and although I do like the retro smell of tobacco smoke, it was rather sad to see a young mother and father smoking and bowling with their toddlers so close by them. |
| 2009-03-24 | Jacobo Aluicious. | 90% of the game are broken one way or the other. Games are very old and not in a classy kind of way. They havent gotten anything new in years!!! If a game is broken they wont give you a refund. They have games that are continuesly "on" yet the screen is completly shot. They have broken games operating for months at a time. The person that is supposed to fix the games doesent do anything to fix them. Even when you tell him something is wrong with the game his attitude is of one whom doesent care. I believe his name is Mark. |
| 2006-01-18 | Shane | An interesting collection of games. The multiarcade cabinets are now in the pinball area, and seem to have been repaired. I tried one two days ago, and it functioned perfectly. Although not classic, a few uncommon ones such as Carnevil (although it looks to be dying) in the room to the left. The Grid, and Lethal Enforcers in the room on the right. |
| 2006-01-18 | Dan | Tampa Lanes was listed as "Gameroom of the Month" last month (December 2005) by Gameroom Magazine, which just changed owners from Florida to Ohio, home of Namco's Wonderpark. |
| 2005-08-07 | Dan | Both multiarcade cabinets are out of service by the pinball machines. Sad. |
| 2005-04-04 | Dan | The Ms Pac-man sprites are finally looking good. Had fun beating the high score yesterday. The Ms Pac-man/Galaga machine I play at The Hub Bar next to Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa always has the same ridiculously high score. I also had fun at Tampa Lanes playing an Austin Powers pinball machine. They have a nice little selection of pinball machines too. Anyway, I can't believe Tampa doesn't have one retro gameroom where 80's people can go to relive their youth. Why isn't there one eccentric millionaire who builds an old fashioned well-maintained arcade where we can go to just for the fun of it? Thank goodness for Disney Quest in Orlando. Please, somebody build a classic arcade open to the public in Tampa! |
| 2005-01-05 | Dan | The Ms. Pacman sprites are still messed up. Enjoy Joust on the multiarcade. The Astroids cabinet game (faded as it may be) is working again. There is an Astroids game in the same multiarcade cabinet as the Joust if you want a more original feel.
On an unrealated subject (yet still classic arcade): Don't buy the new handheld Frogger joystick. It has bad music and sound effects that are nothing like the original. I mean, why buy (why build and sell?) a "classic" frogger games if the music and sound effects are wrong? The sound was 70% of the game, right? |
| 2004-09-26 | Dan | The Astroids game is all wacked out; the horizontal scan has the game on the half right side of the screen, but looks like an original cabinet. The Ms Pac-Man game monitor and cabinet are good, but the colors are going bad and it has a malformed Ms Pac-man sprite; it also has a fast chip. Tampa Lanes has a multi-arcade game (may be UltraArcade or Arcade Legends) with a lot of oldies like Defender, Joust and I think Astroids. The Joust played very well, but the monitor is getting old. I didn't check out the WWF Wrestlefest game. |