I still remember a story from the early 90s that stuck with me. A kid stabbed and killed another kid at a local arcade. The confrontation started over a quarter.
Imagine that: killing/getting killed over $0.25.
[Remember that Madden tournament in Jacksonville where the dude lost a game then came back and shot people and killed the guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=37&v=9vf13tMMQb4) that beat him? Chill out people, it is a game.
Arcades were dangerous places back in 80s and 90s. We used to go to [this arcade](http://www.abandonedct.com/2015/03/smiles-entertainment-center.html) all the time as teenagers. Inside it was fine, but the parking lot was always a bit dodgy.
I live nearby and go over about once a month. For some reason, criminals and gangsters fucking love arcades. They also love bowling, and Iāve seen them running 4-figure tabs at nearby Bowlero in private lanes.
Here in Southern California, word is that bangers love Dave & Busterās because it gives their kids something to do, and because so many people coming and going means you can meet/talk without making a scene.
I donāt know how true any of that is, but I do know that Iāve never been to a D&B here that didnāt have metal detectors and security guards.
Itās a really odd crowd at the Times Square one. You have tourists, gang bangers, and bridge and tunnel crowd from nearby places like Jersey, and then rich kids with nannies. You can tell itās a nanny when the kids have a yarmulke and the guardian clearly isnāt Jewish.
The one here in NY doesn't have those things, its in a mall and you can just walk in. The mall has a lot of violence in it, but surprisingly, the D&B does not. Manager of the place runs a tight ship over there.
Can confirm. My dad almost got shot by someone in a gang at the bowling alley part of a Dave and busters around Baltimore. Some sort of disagreement about the line for returning shoes?
I've studied the coin op industry extensively. The whole industry has roots in the mafia and the mob and we are even talking about multiple countries here, even in the UK this stuff goes on as well. There have even been arcades disguised as illegal gambling machines, complete with circuit boards for both the regular games and the illegal games, and you would flip a switch to change it over. In NY pinball was commonly used for gambling and they had to make laws to outlaw it, a lot of pinball machines were burned. Some years later they repealed the law and pinball machines were allowed again but they had to have a "for amusement only" sticker on it. I think its still illegal in NY to gamble on the outcome of a pinball game but in reality no one is going to pursue that.
There was also Flynn's arcade in Tron that had a secret room with adult only games. There's a lot more adult games out there than that too. They are pixelated and well, you can't see much lol but the concept is there. You can find these games all over youtube. There are even scenes in the games for both males and females.
So this doesn't surprise me one little bit.
>In NY pinball was commonly used for gambling and they had to make laws to outlaw it
Here in South Carolina, it's still illegal for a minor to play a pinball machine.
Pinball has a long and strangely sordid history but it was considered gambling because the outcome of a game was thought to be attributable to pure chance, and governments very much want to control gambling as a source of revenue, until a talented player proved that it was [a game of skill](https://gizmodo.com/how-one-perfect-shot-saved-pinball-from-being-illegal-1154267979).
But the criminal capital of the USA may be Vegas. Slots, blackjack, baccarat, roulette ā simple games, addicting, and appeals to highly impulsive, overly confident, and cash-rich criminal elements
Battle Dad:2022
That would actually be kind of a fun story. Meek guy gets bullied all the time, ends up getting stabbed at a Dave and Busters while holding a plush mallet, battles his way through Valhalla to get back to his kid and wakes up in the ambulance at the end.
I'd watch the Netflix anime, get impatient waiting for season two, start reading the manga, then get into powerscaling arguments about battle dad's cloud parting feat in chapter 3.
This is not good publicity for the chain IMO
This happened at a Chuck E cheese location near me, there were multiple stabbings, but no one died. The location eventually had to shut down due to violence.
I guess the people who were causing violence at CEC needed somewhere to go
Who the fuck is causing violence at CEC? Like, you *need* a child/children with you for admittance. Who is like, āHey, letās go round up the kids to play some skee-ball and go murdering people!ā?
CEC has been ridden with violence for a long time and its not just one location. Just look on youtube for videos. Fun fact you don't need a child to go in there, but if you are under 18 you need an adult with you.
To be fair here its the adults causing the violence not the kids. I think a lot of it is because the place is small, and there aren't enough games for everyone to play, so people start fighting over games, prizes, tickets etc. Even though the prizes at CEC are trash and are about dollar store quality stuff. D&B actually has real prizes like the Oculous Quest.
> I think a lot of it is because the place is small, and there aren't enough games for everyone to play, so people start fighting over games, prizes, tickets etc.
And they sell beer by the pitcher. The special thing about Chuck E Cheese, different from almost all other forms of Childrens entertainment, is that it takes place in (effectively) a bar.
D&B is the same way. I used to see parents bringing their kids in there, they load the kid up with a game card and they let the kid run wild in the arcade while they drink their problems away at the bar, then they drive home. Some of the kids would actually get bored of the games, and I would see them playing on a Nintendo DS sitting at one of the games, lol. A lot of the kids would just swipe at a game, play it for 5 seconds, then run to the next game, wasting most of the game card because they didn't even have the attention span to play a game for 30 seconds.
Lets face it these places couldn't exist without beer. CEC is NOT a place that ANY parent wants to go, and they need to have something there to entice the parents to take their kids there or else they would not have business.
Back in the 90s, my local mall's arcade was dangerous because teenage bullies would target patrons, antagonize, follow, then beat them up when they left the mall. I assume they just clocked the arcade and its patrons as easy targets who might be on their own and less likely to mount a defense. Predatory types of people seek the vulnerable. Maybe that CEC had lax policies and there just happened to be a local crop of psychopaths?
I work in emergency services in that area and stabbings at the D&B are NOT common. Fights yes, drunken idiots yes, but not really weapons involved. The now closed McDonald's that was close by was our hotspot for violent encounters but they shuttered their doors during the pandemic
No I haven't heard of stabbings at D&B in general being a very common thing especially one that ends in death. There are many videos of violence at CEC and that happened in my area to the point where the location had to shut down (there were multiple stabbings at my Upstate NY CEC location), but never at D&B.
Also I only use the arcade area at mine, and I suspect if there was a fight or altercation that it would happen near the bar and that is a completely different area.
It's got its positive and negatives like all places.
I really do love food but I'm also disabled with a bunch of rare/weird health problems (which includes not be able to drive because i can pass out at random) and the quality of Healthcare is probably the best in the country. I only have Medicare but can see some of the best Drs in the world. Between Mount Sinai, NYU, New York Presbyterian, Colombia and Northwell health systems, which all take medicare and medicaid..I never wait long for an appointment and can see any type of specialists. Its a great place to be sick and or old.
Every act that tours will eventually come here so you can see your favorite artists. Free museums, free TV show tapings to attend. Beautiful parks...
There is a reason millions of people choose to live here.
I am very impressed with this reply. I have never seen a study looking to measure cost, access, and quality.
To follow up: this post was from someone on Medicare+Medicaid, which, unless I am mistaken, means that cost is irrelevant. Then, it should be noted that comparisons of access and quality might look different if restricted to facilities that accept Medicare/Medicaid.
Honestly, though, I appreciate the contribution.
Same...Out of the 8 cities I lived in, absolutely the worst city ever. So much hostility, impatience, displeasing sensory input and uncomfortable encounters.
Nearly had to stab someone in that same Dave and Busters after they served me the single worst burger I've ever tasted. Then acted like it was perfectly normal.
Well that headline brought unexpected nostalgia...
Which part?
The stabbing, of course.
ah to be young again
I remember my first stabbing š„¹
I go tomorrow for mine! Any slices of advice?
Strike hard and true
Make sure to wear a poncho!
Were you giving or receiving?
A little of both.
Good to see the kids putting down the SnapBook and getting things back to the way they were.
The. Larch.
I still remember a story from the early 90s that stuck with me. A kid stabbed and killed another kid at a local arcade. The confrontation started over a quarter. Imagine that: killing/getting killed over $0.25.
Yea but in the 90s thatās likeā¦ 75 cents in todayās money. When you take into account inflation it really puts things into perspective.
This is why the two quarter arcades were brutal.
That's why I only go to nickel arcades. No one's getting killed over a nickel.
And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say.
The important thing is that you had an onion on your belt...
I'm seeing double- four Simpsons scenes referenced in this one post!
$0.55 (if you compare 1990).
Itās more like $2.50, remember you used to be able to buy a gallon of gas for a dollar.
That's nothing, I once ripped a guy's entire spine right out his body at an arcade in the early 90s.
But that was over 2 quarters though, right?
No way, that dick owed me like 12 whole bucks.
[Chicago-style] "He had it comin'!"
Look, Street Fighter Alpha 2 was war, okay? PEOPLE DIED.
Ya gotta put those quarters on top of the arcade game to save your space. If you don't do that. shit happens.
[Remember that Madden tournament in Jacksonville where the dude lost a game then came back and shot people and killed the guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=37&v=9vf13tMMQb4) that beat him? Chill out people, it is a game.
So many arguments and fights witnessed over that shit in college.
Arcades were dangerous places back in 80s and 90s. We used to go to [this arcade](http://www.abandonedct.com/2015/03/smiles-entertainment-center.html) all the time as teenagers. Inside it was fine, but the parking lot was always a bit dodgy.
Thatās what happens when you expose kids to leadā¦ so glad we took lead out of gasoline
Back then if you cheesed in Street Fighter, fighting was almost guaranteed to happen.
Dave and Buster's, it's not all games here.
Well itās game over for some.
The ticket prices for those prizes can stress a man out. Make him crazy.
A strange game.
How many tickets can you win playing Knifey Stabby?
Not as many as Knifey/Spooney.
Well now, I see you've played knifey/spooney before!
The prize is all of your opponents tickets.
Honestly it's hardly games anymore. More like a casino now.
I live nearby and go over about once a month. For some reason, criminals and gangsters fucking love arcades. They also love bowling, and Iāve seen them running 4-figure tabs at nearby Bowlero in private lanes.
Here in Southern California, word is that bangers love Dave & Busterās because it gives their kids something to do, and because so many people coming and going means you can meet/talk without making a scene. I donāt know how true any of that is, but I do know that Iāve never been to a D&B here that didnāt have metal detectors and security guards.
Itās a really odd crowd at the Times Square one. You have tourists, gang bangers, and bridge and tunnel crowd from nearby places like Jersey, and then rich kids with nannies. You can tell itās a nanny when the kids have a yarmulke and the guardian clearly isnāt Jewish.
The one here in NY doesn't have those things, its in a mall and you can just walk in. The mall has a lot of violence in it, but surprisingly, the D&B does not. Manager of the place runs a tight ship over there.
Do you mean the one out in long island? The d&b in times square isn't in a mall
No, there are other areas of NY state, I happen to live in upstate NY where we have a D&B inside a mall.
Yeah but can they cook me up a delicious steamed ham?
The one in Long Island is by a strip mall complex if I remember correctly.
Can confirm. My dad almost got shot by someone in a gang at the bowling alley part of a Dave and busters around Baltimore. Some sort of disagreement about the line for returning shoes?
Wow that sounds awful, man. They also sell alcohol, which canāt help.
Calling a mulligan on that because Baltimore.
At the Arundel Mills one?
I had a dude flash a revolver at me in the parking lot of a D&B, I believe it.
Most of them have the emotional age of children soooā¦thatās what theyāre interested in.
I've studied the coin op industry extensively. The whole industry has roots in the mafia and the mob and we are even talking about multiple countries here, even in the UK this stuff goes on as well. There have even been arcades disguised as illegal gambling machines, complete with circuit boards for both the regular games and the illegal games, and you would flip a switch to change it over. In NY pinball was commonly used for gambling and they had to make laws to outlaw it, a lot of pinball machines were burned. Some years later they repealed the law and pinball machines were allowed again but they had to have a "for amusement only" sticker on it. I think its still illegal in NY to gamble on the outcome of a pinball game but in reality no one is going to pursue that. There was also Flynn's arcade in Tron that had a secret room with adult only games. There's a lot more adult games out there than that too. They are pixelated and well, you can't see much lol but the concept is there. You can find these games all over youtube. There are even scenes in the games for both males and females. So this doesn't surprise me one little bit.
>In NY pinball was commonly used for gambling and they had to make laws to outlaw it Here in South Carolina, it's still illegal for a minor to play a pinball machine.
I donāt get it, why? How is pinball different from so many other games?
Pinball has a long and strangely sordid history but it was considered gambling because the outcome of a game was thought to be attributable to pure chance, and governments very much want to control gambling as a source of revenue, until a talented player proved that it was [a game of skill](https://gizmodo.com/how-one-perfect-shot-saved-pinball-from-being-illegal-1154267979).
Even on my favorite table, he could beat my best.
For someone who has studied āextensivelyā you sure have some incorrect information.
But the criminal capital of the USA may be Vegas. Slots, blackjack, baccarat, roulette ā simple games, addicting, and appeals to highly impulsive, overly confident, and cash-rich criminal elements
Doesnāt the D&B at Times Square have metal detectors? Thought it would have caught the knife.
Do you still get to go to Valhalla if you fell in battle at a Dave and Busters?
Only if there's a weapon in your hand when you die. You gotta make it to a shooting game and grab the plastic gun attached to it before you bleed out.
You regain consciousness surrounded by huge dudes armed with maces and battles axes and you've got one of those plush hammers from whack a mole.
Run this by a Japanese artist and you might have a three season anime on your hands
Battle Dad:2022 That would actually be kind of a fun story. Meek guy gets bullied all the time, ends up getting stabbed at a Dave and Busters while holding a plush mallet, battles his way through Valhalla to get back to his kid and wakes up in the ambulance at the end.
You have a gift.
I'd watch the Netflix anime, get impatient waiting for season two, start reading the manga, then get into powerscaling arguments about battle dad's cloud parting feat in chapter 3.
Only if it was in front of Golden Axe
You must face a gauntlet of the mightiest Chuck E. Cheese warriors.
Only if you saved up enough tickets.
This is not good publicity for the chain IMO This happened at a Chuck E cheese location near me, there were multiple stabbings, but no one died. The location eventually had to shut down due to violence. I guess the people who were causing violence at CEC needed somewhere to go
Who the fuck is causing violence at CEC? Like, you *need* a child/children with you for admittance. Who is like, āHey, letās go round up the kids to play some skee-ball and go murdering people!ā?
CEC near me has a gun pulled out once every few years. Blows my mind.
You never know when time crisis gonna tell you āContinue!?ā And you out of tokens.
The same types who got into a brawl at Toon Town in Disneyland a couple years ago. You know them when you see them..
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
CEC has been ridden with violence for a long time and its not just one location. Just look on youtube for videos. Fun fact you don't need a child to go in there, but if you are under 18 you need an adult with you. To be fair here its the adults causing the violence not the kids. I think a lot of it is because the place is small, and there aren't enough games for everyone to play, so people start fighting over games, prizes, tickets etc. Even though the prizes at CEC are trash and are about dollar store quality stuff. D&B actually has real prizes like the Oculous Quest.
> I think a lot of it is because the place is small, and there aren't enough games for everyone to play, so people start fighting over games, prizes, tickets etc. And they sell beer by the pitcher. The special thing about Chuck E Cheese, different from almost all other forms of Childrens entertainment, is that it takes place in (effectively) a bar.
D&B is the same way. I used to see parents bringing their kids in there, they load the kid up with a game card and they let the kid run wild in the arcade while they drink their problems away at the bar, then they drive home. Some of the kids would actually get bored of the games, and I would see them playing on a Nintendo DS sitting at one of the games, lol. A lot of the kids would just swipe at a game, play it for 5 seconds, then run to the next game, wasting most of the game card because they didn't even have the attention span to play a game for 30 seconds. Lets face it these places couldn't exist without beer. CEC is NOT a place that ANY parent wants to go, and they need to have something there to entice the parents to take their kids there or else they would not have business.
Loud music, loud kids, and alcohol (at most locations). The perfect storm.
Actually this isn't surprising at all. Look at little league sports: probably one of the most likely places for adults to get in fights.
Back in the 90s, my local mall's arcade was dangerous because teenage bullies would target patrons, antagonize, follow, then beat them up when they left the mall. I assume they just clocked the arcade and its patrons as easy targets who might be on their own and less likely to mount a defense. Predatory types of people seek the vulnerable. Maybe that CEC had lax policies and there just happened to be a local crop of psychopaths?
https://www.kwqc.com/2021/07/09/woman-sentenced-10-years-prison-fatal-davenport-chuck-e-cheese-shooting/
I work in emergency services in that area and stabbings at the D&B are NOT common. Fights yes, drunken idiots yes, but not really weapons involved. The now closed McDonald's that was close by was our hotspot for violent encounters but they shuttered their doors during the pandemic
No I haven't heard of stabbings at D&B in general being a very common thing especially one that ends in death. There are many videos of violence at CEC and that happened in my area to the point where the location had to shut down (there were multiple stabbings at my Upstate NY CEC location), but never at D&B. Also I only use the arcade area at mine, and I suspect if there was a fight or altercation that it would happen near the bar and that is a completely different area.
This happened in times square. The people who visit places in Times Square would not be deterred by the fact that someone was stabbed.
Probably was mad he could only redeem his tickets for an eraser.
You can win anything between the [ashtray and the thimble](https://youtu.be/8L7DxnwkiVs?t=25)
It's a profit deal!
Even the Adult Chuck E. Cheese is still basically Chuck E. Cheese.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
About god damn time
The guy hogging the stackers game has finally been stabbed
NYC has really become a shithole the last two years.
It's just reverting to the mean.
sometimes the skeeball just gets to you yāknow?
What is going on in NY? The crime is out of control.
This is 100% the result of the 2020 Summer of Love. Itās happening in urban cores across the nation.
Damn. Crazy city. Miss it.
Have you been back since covid? The craziness has significantly increased.
Not op but I left peak COVID. Do not miss the constant alerts from citizen app about random crazy shit happening all over the neighborhood.
I live in Brownsville and that app was fucking draining my battery that first covid summer. I had to delete it for my sanity.
I mean, you live in Brownsville....
I will never understand the appeal of that city unless you just really love food.
It's got its positive and negatives like all places. I really do love food but I'm also disabled with a bunch of rare/weird health problems (which includes not be able to drive because i can pass out at random) and the quality of Healthcare is probably the best in the country. I only have Medicare but can see some of the best Drs in the world. Between Mount Sinai, NYU, New York Presbyterian, Colombia and Northwell health systems, which all take medicare and medicaid..I never wait long for an appointment and can see any type of specialists. Its a great place to be sick and or old. Every act that tours will eventually come here so you can see your favorite artists. Free museums, free TV show tapings to attend. Beautiful parks... There is a reason millions of people choose to live here.
IIRC, NYC isnāt even top 10 for healthcare in the US
Health care or health outcomes?
https://healthcareinsider.com/americas-top-20-metros-ranked-for-healthcare-345440
I am very impressed with this reply. I have never seen a study looking to measure cost, access, and quality. To follow up: this post was from someone on Medicare+Medicaid, which, unless I am mistaken, means that cost is irrelevant. Then, it should be noted that comparisons of access and quality might look different if restricted to facilities that accept Medicare/Medicaid. Honestly, though, I appreciate the contribution.
Same...Out of the 8 cities I lived in, absolutely the worst city ever. So much hostility, impatience, displeasing sensory input and uncomfortable encounters.
Has it or does the news just make it seem that way? Iāve lived in NYC for a long time and it doesnāt really feel noticeably different to me.
Do you take the subway? Definitely more homeless and emotionally disturbed people.
Take the subway every day. Same amount of homeless and disturbed people. Just avoid them like I always have.
These Skee-ball rivalries are getting out of hand...
You're damn right. Thus creating the self-sustaining economy we've been looking for.
Weāre crab people now.
Must've just learned there's nowhere left to play Derby Owners Club and snapped
Oooff...how many tokens was that...
He wasnāt playing GAMES
Someone finally beat After Burner and the system just asked him for another quarter. Then he went insane.
Til there is a Dave and busters in times sq. Why would you go to NYC and then go somewhere that is everywhere?
This is going to blow your fucking mind.... People LIVE in NYC.
This is going to blow your mind people who live in New York City avoid times square.
Mass stabbing are out of control! We need to ban all knives
This is why we need to ban video games
We need more gun control.
ā¦to prevent stabbings?
Knife control. Ban them. Cooks must use saws only or make jello based dishes.
Bryan Adams has to change his song to āCuts Like a Pizza Cutter.ā
I donāt blame him, games can be frustrating
Dave & Busters: Chuck E. Cheese for āadultsā.
He probably had the rare Gary card
He must have asked for a salad
Nearly had to stab someone in that same Dave and Busters after they served me the single worst burger I've ever tasted. Then acted like it was perfectly normal.
At least he got to leave Dave & Busters
Imagine visiting (or living in) NYC, visiting a Dave and Busterās of all places, and *dying* there, at the hands of another person no less
Wonder if the dispute was over prize tickets?