“What’s that thingmibob the kids are all playing these days. Yeah that thing. The pinballs. Why don’t we get some of the pinballs into Westfield? The pinballs will get them in. That’ll loosen the purse strings.”
This is how I imagine the decision by Westfield, to install pinball machines designed to improve ‘engagement with shoppers’, was made.
According to Mumbrella, the big wigs over at Westfield are currently in the process of updating malls in time for 2015 and part of the plan is the afore mentioned interactive pinball machines and augmented reality. The plan is to roll these new features into ‘youth precincts’ such as Westfield Miranda and Garden City.
I live right next to Westfield Parramatta. When are we going to get some of these exciting pinball machines? I like pinball. I think. It went out of fashion before I was born but what the hell, I’ll give it a bash.
Westfield plots digital developments to improve its ‘engagement with shoppers’ [Mumbrella]
Comments
46 responses to “Westfield Is Bringing Pinball And ‘Youth Games’ To Its Malls In 2015”
YOUTH GAMES? IM NOT A YOUTH. WHY THE FUCK IS WESTFIELD NOT CATERING TO ME.
I’m so excited I just popped a stone cold stunner on my girlfriend
Which westfield is that a photo of?
London, it seems.
Shepperds Bush London, I remember being there (incidentaly) when One Direction did a show there and the sound of five billion screaming teenage girls will haunt me forever.
Apparently that is a photo of the Westfield in Central London…
AWESOME!
I love pinball.
I would love to see a resurgence of video game arcades. Time Crisis 3D with massive gaming power behind it, Retro Zones and big local multiplayers. Maybe the is a good start.
Japan has the best ive ever seen, EVER!!!!
What’s wrong with pinballs? Why does pinballs = out of touch fogeys? Seems a bit harsh.
Nothings wrong with pinball at all. We had a Doctor Who table and a Terminator 2 table in an old work of mine. I played THE SHIT out of them regularly.
Original Dr Who tables are so pricey your first born won’t even cut it any more.
Yeah so I hear! The company rented them, cycled them every three months or so. The Doctor who one was a regular there though, the manager loved it.
Oh AND we got a Star Trek The Next Gen table in there, but only for one week, apparently that sucker is worth a MINT. They took it out really quickly, we weren’t meant to get it it turns out.
Saw one of those in a pub in Newtown recently haha. It was in bad shape, but still playable
Nothing wrong with out-of-touch fogeys, either.
Love Pinball
They used to have the best Intencity there. Upstairs, the back of the food court, where JB is now. Pretty big too, the food court didn’t go so far back back then, they extended it after the place got shut down and gutted. Totally don’t remember if they even had any pinball machines, but you used to walk in that front area there and get to watch a pair of people trying to come to grips with a virtual reality system. Man that was a good birthday party.
I remember that Intencity. Did they have a Zone 3 out the back as well? I had a birthday party at the Bankstown one back in the day and a 1/2 hr of lazer-tag followed by 2 hrs on the machines made for a very happy ten year old.
Haha yes, Bankstown Timezone! Had another friend’s party there, and we did laser tag. Apparently he ran into a wall in the dark and chipped his tooth with the gun, somehow I missed it. The only other thing I remember of that is playing through the entirety of the Simpsons arcade game with the guys.
“Youth Games”, I believe the proper title is
“Youth Entrainment-Electro-machine-amatron machines”
Our local shopping centre has an arcade and pretty sure it has Pinball machines however it looks like trash and most of the games are claw machines. Still good for a date night with the missus every now and then.
This is my problem with modern arcades. They’re largely full of ticket based games, and the only real games cost you big cash to play. I thought retro was in man??? Where’s that annoying Wonderboy cab in the corner driving you mad with the incessant droning music? Where’s the 720 machine with the gunked up rotating joystick?? I DEMAND ANSWERS!! *hyperventilates*
The music to Wonderboy is so permanently embedded into my brain that the mere mention of it makes me mentally picture the level/lives left screen with the floating heart, followed by several minutes of that theme song.
And the boss music! Oh man… that game had great music. I’m going to go see if anyone has ported it onto a system in the last ten years.
Can’t say i’ve seen the original for a while. WB in Monster Land, World, and the Dragons Trap yes, but no love for the original. I’m hoping someone can correct me though.
I got that for my birthday on Master System. Played it do death.
Wonderboy 3 for Master System is still one of the best games ever. Still holds up as a really fun platformer.
install a wow station that will handle my sanitary waste management and feed me Doritos and Mountain Dew and you have me sold!!!!
(joking, no need to go on a down vote rampage)
I love interacting with youth games on my leisure computer.
Haha westfield has clearly forgotten they had Intencity’s in almost every shopping centre and they had all the pinball machines you could ask for. Some even had dodgy VR headsets in the mid 90s. Oh they certainly are having a case of the fogeys :B
Did anyone else ever think arcades were appalling value here in Oz? You hear Americans go on about quarters, ours required 4 to 8 times that amount for the same thing! You might get one run of daytona USA for $2, the playstation and dreamcast were a god send for that reason, finally unlimited point blank and Sega rally 2! *sigh* I am old now
Since most of the games on next gen are terrible, any would-be arcades should offer a system to trade in all your games and console in exchange for a crap ton of play-credits. Using one of them new fangled tap cards of course for that modern touch.
Did you actually read the article? It doesn’t sound like they are getting real pinball machines, sounds like some sort of digital advertising game to drive the youths to General pants or wherever they shop now.
Well a decent selection of pinball machines would increase my eagerness to visit the local Westfields. Mind you I don’t think I meet their “youth” dynamic as I am in the 40+ gamer demographic.
@Mark Serrels If you know Parra Westfield as well as I do you know a pinball machine will last 24 hours before it is button-less with a crack glass top. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Bullet proof glass and child proof buttons! I think the child proof buttons might be more successful…
Miranda orginally had an arcade called tilt – many a dollar spent there, great place. at least until it was deemed a waste of space and was replaced by an aldi and rejectshop
Ahh man, that place was my go to when skipping wednesday sport.
Remember Tilt birthday parties???
I finished Turtles in Time at one of those. Took me all afternoon.
I regret nothing.
Get an Addams Family pinball. Make all the moneys. Give 50% to The National Stroke Foundation in memory of Raul Julia. PR Win.
There’s a free-to-play AC/DC pinball machine at the “Central” mall across the road from UTS. Unfortunately it’s AC/DC.
My pinball machine died 6 months ago. So I resort to that because I’m too lazy to go to the Courthouse Hotel in Newtown.
I haven’t been there in years but Garden City had arcade games near the Kmart car park and an arcade up the other end near the library.
They also don’t need to do anything to attract youths there. It’s a very short walk from MacGregor High and the easiest way to catch kids wagging is just to wait on the pathway between the school hall and the busway.
Hope they do bring back arcades. However not arcades with 90% bloody skilltesters and 10% games… arcades where everything is games games games and the skilltesters are barely there at all!
It’s funny some time after they made Arcades 90% ticket Machines Arcades stopped being viable. I think you need more than 30 Ticket Games, a fighting game, a gun game, a DDR game and a couple of car games. Oops nearly forgot the air hockey table, got to have an air hockey table.
Also since these Driving games get software updates all the time, stay current.
westfield eastgardens had a timezone for years.
arcades are gone – its all barely-staffed ticketed ‘games-of-skill’ now days….unless thats their plan? pinball *IS* a game of skill…
I used to play Point Blank at that Timezone! And the one at Maroubra. Thems were the days.
hahaha point blank! i remember one of the guns sites was so off you had to hold it at an wierd angle to hit anything 😀
I would love to see a retro arcade in westfield with following games only. Streetfighter 2 and the champion edition. Double dragon, spacegun, moonwalker, the simpsons, terminator 2, killer instinct, mortal kombat 2 and last but not least, the Aerosmith cd gun game! 🙂
My local Westfield has security guards dressed in suite and tie that chase any groups of kids.
just had a thought – the vast majority of kids these days dont know pinball, so they dont know the ‘franchises’ or names that pinball makers use – eg the Addams Family pinball machine.
this could be a good opportunity to foster some home grown talent and get some IP free pinball machines in there – either through aussie pinball manufacturers, or a maker-type group ala ben heck.
as long as there are sounds and flashing lights, kids probably wouldnt care what it says on the backbox 🙂
Pinballs are definitely back, the Pinball HQ Club has 116 members now, we meet every Wednesday at Coogee Diggers, there are 11 pinballs to play, ranging from the very latest like Mustang, Star Trek, Metallica to some classics of 90’s like Addams Family, Dirty Harry, Fun House…. Join the fun, come and check it out http://www.pinballhq.com.au/
Come to think of it my son’s martial arts class had 4 old arcade machines (including a Stargate movie pinball machine) up until about a few months ago. Used to love pretending to watch my boy kick butt while i hammered the pinball machine.
Souds great. The next best thing here in Oz is the australianarcade.com forum as its the only place where collectors can gather with mini meets etc
Cheers Gav