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Greetings Indy DDR community,

My name is Craig, originally from Wyoming however currently in Colorado (for the next week only though). Long story short, I have spent most of my child and adult life to this point working in the arcade industry, and recently received a promotion with my company, NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT (sorry about the all caps but proper company trademark rules dictate that I make it all caps... lol). Mainly put they are moving me out east so that I can help build new arcades across the country involving a new game card debit system that my current location was the prototype for, and I am a walking encyclopedia about the darn thing. Enough about my career...

I love DDR and ITG the most and greatly appreciate other BEMANI titles (though I have never been really good at them). I also love all other arcade games as I consider arcade games my favorite platform. In my area, my friends and I worked to provide a Facebook Community called Colorado Dance Gamers, and we even provided a Stepmania machine at local anime conventions.

My goals to be involved in your community are...
1. Have fun.
2. Actually be a player again (and not a organizer of events)
3. Make new friends.

Simple enough right? Well I'd love to hear about the best places to hang out and play DDR (because I shall not expect the arcades I work at to be the most desirable BEMANI hot spots).

http://www.facebook.com/WyomingMyst (If you leave a friend invite, please also leave a message saying you found this topic on indyddr.com, otherwise it might be declined.)

hey guys this one might actually stay longer than a week

Okay... that worries me. lol

Welcome!

I'm not aware of any NAMCO (hey, just following suit ) arcades here in Indy. I mean, there really aren't that many arcades left in the area. I'm referring to "pure" arcades of yesteryear...the typical mall or strip mall arcade that is just games. This is as opposed to GameWorks or Dave & Busters style entertainment venue that pairs games with a restaurant and bar or FEC-style places that have video games with stuff like laser tag or mini golf.

I'm familiar with NAMCO-owned traditional mall arcade properties like Aladdin's Castle. Do they also operate any other types of locations? I ask because I can't think of any malls left in the Indianapolis area that still have an arcade. I guess NAMCO does revenue share stuff at places like movie theaters or whatever. I guess my question is if there is a specific place you will be working at here in Indy.

I don't really know of any regular music game meetups in the area anymore. We used to have them weekly or even more frequently back in the first half of the last decade. However, there are a number of us still around and it's possible to arrange a meetup. Hopefully we can get something going to meet you.

NAMCO these days is primarily focused on partnerships with several major companies and individual businesses. In total there are over 1,000 FEC's, Theaters, Bowling Centers, and so much more that NAMCO operates today. However due to the evolution of the arcade industry, we have a very limited number of "mall stores" though I should note that part of the business is making a come back as we are actually opening new mall locations... slowly. I originally was hired into NAMCO in one of those stores in Cheyenne, WY (now closed down) as your run of the mill arcade attendant, which eventually evolved into my new position.

My role will be played out all across the country, however right now, Indiana will be the most centralized place NAMCO wants me to be within driving distance of most of the locations that use the Game Card system that I am experienced with. However a short description of my job is I get to go to setup new arcades across the U.S. and play in them... a lot.

One thing I like to note, NAMCO makes great arcades and they are the most awesome people to work for, however we don't have the flair for a cult BEMANI arcade... so that is why I want to find where the good cult arcades are at.

Hey!
You seem cool!
Can't wait to meet you in several years!

Welcome to Indy (soon). There are quite a few arcade enthusiasts here, so you should be in good company. Where about town will you be living?

The most frequented arcade is probably Dave & Busters, but you have a few options. The ZIV database is pretty accurate for Indy.
http://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/arcad ... ionid=1392

Since DDR isn't quite as cool as it used to be, we get a lot of people active for about two weeks before vanishing into the internet. You can be the one to change everything. You can be the hero this town needs. You can be... WyomingMyst.

Will you be bringing any arcade games with you?

Fluffyumpkins wrote:Welcome to Indy (soon). There are quite a few arcade enthusiasts here, so you should be in good company. Where about town will you be living?

The most frequented arcade is probably Dave & Busters, but you have a few options. The ZIV database is pretty accurate for Indy.
http://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/arcad ... ionid=1392

Since DDR isn't quite as cool as it used to be, we get a lot of people active for about two weeks before vanishing into the internet. You can be the one to change everything. You can be the hero this town needs. You can be... WyomingMyst.

Will you be bringing any arcade games with you?

I wish... one sad part about me moving is that worked like crazy to get a In The Groove 2 dedicab back into Colorado at my location. It is the best machine in the state (I made sure of that). However I do not think they will let me take it with me. Lol. We will be setting up multiple new locations in the mid-west, so that means there is a chance for some awesome pieces to float into the area.

It occurred to me that this post should be in Meet & Greet, so I moved it there.

West side arcade pls :3

If you feel the need to work on arcade cabs in your spare time, I could really use some help.

Well I made it. It is rainy here... lol. I wish Colorado would get this much rain... everyone would stop complaining. Lol.

So far all I have had time to do is just unpack and work at home (or to be more specific, Starbucks, because I have no internet yet)...

Well hopefully I can get out of the house for a little bit this week. Lol.

We're actually all meeting up at Dave and Buster's tomorrow after work if you care to join. I'll send you a Facebook invite. It isn't usually this rainy either.

You know where it isn't raining?
Washington!
People said it would rain like mad here and it's only drizzled a little at night! Not a single drop on me so far and I spend about an hour each day outside anyways!

WyomingMyst wrote:Well I made it. It is rainy here... lol. I wish Colorado would get this much rain... everyone would stop complaining. Lol.

It was completely different over the summer. We literally got no rain.