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49-505: It was built by Marcus Loew , completed in 1927, at a cost of $ 4 million and was the largest historic theater within 250 miles of the city. The Midland was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb of New York and the Boller Brothers of Kansas City, and Boaz-Kiel Construction of St. Louis erected the structure. The theatre, built in French and Italian Baroque, was representative of Lamb's work in

98-423: A bar and restaurant with a video arcade. The ROUND1 entertainment chain combines a large arcade with a full-service bowling alley, along with billiards and karaoke . Arcades typically have change machines to dispense tokens or quarters when bills are inserted, although larger chain arcades, such as Dave and Busters and Chuck E. Cheese are deviating towards a refillable card system. Retro Arcades are going towards

147-615: A celebration of the fifth anniversary of the theater's re-launch in September 2008. The venue's name officially became the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland on September 13, 2013. Marcus Loew Marcus Loew ( / l oʊ / ; May 7, 1870 – September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loew's Theatres and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio (MGM). Loew

196-634: A controlling interest in the financially troubled Goldwyn Picture Corporation which at that point was controlled by theater impresario Lee Shubert . Goldwyn Pictures owned the " Leo the Lion " trademark and studio property in Culver City, California . But without its founder Samuel Goldwyn , the Goldwyn studio lacked strong management. With Loew's vice president Nicholas Schenck needed in New York City to help manage

245-534: A counter or in a glass showcase, and an arcade employee gives the items to players after counting their tickets. Merchandiser games reward winners with prizes such as stuffed toys, CDs, DVDs, or candy which are dispensed directly from the machine. In some countries, some types of video arcades are legally allowed to provide gambling machines such as slot machines and pachinko machines . Large arcades may also have small coin-operated ride-on toys for small children. Some businesses, such as Dave & Buster's , combine

294-723: A flat, clear glass or acrylic glass top; the player sits at the machine playing it, looking down. This style of arcade game is known as a cocktail-style arcade game table or tabletop arcade machine , since they were first popularized in bars and pubs. For two player games on this type of machine, the players sit on opposite sides with the screen flipped upside down for each player. A few cocktail-style games had players sitting next to rather than across from one another. Both Joust and Gun Fight had these type of tables. Some arcade games, such as racing games , are designed to be sat in or on. These types of games are sometimes referred to as sit-down games. Sega and Namco are two of

343-686: A large number of theaters in New York City including the American Music Hall , Avenue A Theatre, Avenue B Theatre, Broadway Theatre (41st St.), Circle Theatre, and the Columbia Theatre in Brooklyn. Other Loew-operated theaters were the Delancey St. Theatre, Greeley Sq. Theatre, Herald Square Theatre , Liberty Theatre, Brooklyn, Lincoln Sq. Theatre, National Theatre (149th St.), Plaza Theatre, 7th Ave. Theatre (124th St.), Shubert Theatre, Brooklyn, and

392-570: A major theater operator, to a lesser degree, and race track owner, is often assumed to be related to Marcus Loew. They weren't even distantly related. Among other things, E. M. Loew was, with Lou Walters (father of Barbara Walters ), co-owner of the Latin Quarter night clubs in Boston, New York, and Miami Beach . Penny arcade An amusement arcade , also known as a video arcade , amusements , arcade , or penny arcade (an older term),

441-440: A number of enterprises: Borough Theatre Co., Empress Amusement Corp., Fort George Amusement Co., Glendive Amusement Corp., Greeley Square Amusement Co., Loew's Consolidated Enterprise, Loew's Theatrical Enterprises, Mascot Amusement Co., Natonia Amusement Co., People's Vaudeville Co. In 1919, Loew reorganized the company under the name Loew's, Inc. In 1920, Loew purchased Metro Pictures Corporation . A few years later, he acquired

490-410: A pay by admission system with the games themselves set to free play. Arcades may also have vending machines which sell soft drinks, candy, and chips. Arcades may play recorded music or a radio station over a public address system . Video arcades typically have subdued lighting to inhibit glare on the screen and enhance the viewing of the games' video displays , as well as of any decorative lighting on

539-721: A per-picture basis, Loew wasn't after Mayer's brick and mortar business; he wanted Mayer and his Chief of Production, the former Universal Pictures executive, Irving Thalberg . Nicholas Schenck was dispatched to finalize the deal that ultimately resulted in the formation of Metro-Goldwyn Pictures in April 1924 with Mayer as the studio head and Thalberg chief of production. Mayer's company folded into Metro Goldwyn with two notable additions: Mayer Pictures' contracts with key directors such as Fred Niblo and John M. Stahl , and up-and-coming actress Norma Shearer , later married to Thalberg. Mayer would eventually be rewarded by having his name added to

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588-453: A rising difficulty curve, making them increasingly inaccessible to casual players and more expensive for the skilled players. The rise of the fighting game genre with games such as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat , combined with the release of popular sports titles such as NBA Jam and NFL Blitz , led to a brief resurgence in the popularity of video arcades, with new locations opening in shopping malls and strip malls throughout

637-641: A steady flow of films for his theaters. In 1904, he founded the People's Vaudeville Company, a theater chain showcasing one-reel films and live variety shows. In 1910, the company had considerably expanded and was renamed Loew's Consolidated Enterprises . His associates included Adolph Zukor , Joseph Schenck , and Nicholas Schenck . In addition to theaters, Loew and the Schencks expanded the Fort George Amusement Park in upper Manhattan. By 1913, Loew operated

686-463: A video arcade and a full bar, with a strict focus on classic machines from the 1970s and 1980s, known as the golden age of arcade video games . The idea proved popular and Barcade received recognition as a good place to play classic video game cabinets, because it is "one of the few places where classic arcade games can still be found in public, and in good working order." Barcade's success influenced other similarly themed businesses which opened across

735-481: Is a venue where people play arcade games , including arcade video games , pinball machines, electro-mechanical games , redemption games , merchandisers (such as claw cranes ), or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables. In some countries, some types of arcades are also legally permitted to provide gambling machines such as slot machines or pachinko machines . Games are usually housed in cabinets. Video games were introduced in amusement arcades in

784-551: Is recognised as the largest collection in Europe. In May 2019 Arcade Club opened a second venue in Leeds with a third announced for Blackpool opening in 2020. The video games are typically in arcade cabinets . The most common kind are uprights , tall boxes with a monitor and controls in front. Customers insert coins or tokens into the machines (or, in newer models, use credit cards or mobile devices ) and stand in front of them to play

833-506: The Initial D series of games allowing the customer to save game data on a card vended from the game; Namco copied the idea with the Maximum Tune series. Arcade games continued to use a variety of games with enhanced features to attract clients, such as motorized seating areas, interconnected games, and surround sound systems. Redemption and merchandiser games are also a staple of arcades in

882-528: The AEG Presents (formerly AEG Live) company. Among the major changes made in the redevelopment, the main-level seating rows were removed and replaced with a tiered open floor plan that allows for cabaret-style tables and chairs, or standing room for general admission events. The Midland's exterior marquee was restored to its original 1927 appearance. The five level office portion of the theatre that faces Main Street

931-410: The game . These traditionally were the most popular arcade format, although presently American arcades make much more money from deluxe driving games and ticket redemption games. However, Japanese arcades, while also heavily featuring deluxe games, continue to do well with traditional JAMMA arcade video games. Some machines, such as Ms. Pac-Man and Joust , are occasionally in smaller boxes with

980-623: The 1960s included shooters such as Sega 's Periscope (1965) and Rifleman (1967), and racing games such as Kasco's Indy 500 (1968) and Chicago Coin 's Speedway (1969). Penny arcades later led to the creation of video arcades in the 1970s. Video game arcades began to gain momentum in the late 1970s with games such as Space Invaders ( 1978 ) and Galaxian ( 1979 ) and became widespread in 1980 with Pac-Man , Centipede and others. The central processing unit in these games allowed for more complexity than earlier discrete-circuitry games such as Atari's Pong ( 1972 ). During

1029-457: The 2000s. One of the most popular redemption games, Deal or No Deal by ICE, simulates the popular television game show . Merchandiser games such as Stacker by LAI Games gives the player the chance to win high end prizes like iPods and video game consoles. At the same time as these innovations, a small resurgence in the interest of classic video games and arcades grew with the opening of Barcade in Brooklyn, New York in 2004. Barcade combined

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1078-628: The Kansas City home of the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular over more recent years. The theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. In 2007, AEG Live and the Cordish Company formed a partnership to undertake a multimillion-dollar renovation of the historic venue. Since reopening in late 2008, the theater was called the Midland by AMC and hosted events promoted by

1127-651: The Midland in December of the same year. AMC Theatres (then a small Kansas City-area regional chain) purchased the Midland in 1966, and the theatre continued to operate as a movie house until 1981. In conjunction with the AMC Empire Theater, located two blocks south, the complex was known as the AMC Midland-Empire. Since then, it has become a performance hall, still used today for concerts , Broadway and stage shows, ballet and other events. It has also served as

1176-656: The UK, classic arcades such as Casino and Trocadero, both located in London, closed, with some of the games from Trocadero finding their way to a new arcade, Heart of Gaming in North Acton. The newer Loading Soho Gaming Cafe features arcade machines manufactured by Bespoke Arcades for its customers to use. The UK is also home to the largest arcade in Europe, Arcade Club, located in Bury, Greater Manchester. Home to over 400 original arcade machines, it

1225-565: The Video Game Capital of the World included: High game-turnover in Japanese arcades required quick game-design, leading to the adoption of standardized systems like JAMMA , Neo-Geo and CPS-2 . These systems essentially provided arcade-only consoles where the video game ROM could be swapped easily to replace a game. This allowed easier development and replacement of games, but it also discouraged

1274-639: The Yorkville Theatre. Outside of New York, he managed the Columbia Theatres of both Washington, D.C. , and Boston and Philadelphia’s Metropolitan Opera House . Loew found himself faced with a serious dilemma: his merged companies lacked a central managerial command structure. Loew preferred to remain in New York overseeing the growing chain of Loew's Theatres. Film production had been gravitating toward southern California since 1913. By 1917 he oversaw

1323-567: The company. Loews Inc. would act as MGM's financier and retain controlling interest for decades. Loew died in 1927 of a heart attack at the age of 57 at his country home in Glen Cove, New York . Reporting his death, Variety called him "the most beloved man of all show business of all time". He was interred in the Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn . For his very significant contribution to

1372-542: The country in the early 90s. The arcade industry entered a major slump in mid-1994. Arcade attendance and per-visit spending, though not as poor as during the 1983 crash , declined to the point where several of the largest arcade chains either were put up for sale or declared bankruptcy, while many large arcade machine manufacturers likewise moved to get out of the business. In the second quarter of 1996, video game factories reported 90,000 arcade cabinets sold, as compared to 150,000 cabinets sold in 1990. The main reason for

1421-570: The country. Other arcades, like Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon, began including full bars in their arcades. Even regular bars added classic arcade games to their venues. As the trend grew, the industry and press looked for ways to classify these arcade bar hybrids, with the DNA Association branding them "social-tainment" and also referring to them as "game bars". Many of these newer game bars proved to be popular and expansion continued. In

1470-509: The development of the motion picture industry, Marcus Loew has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1617 Vine Street. He and his wife, Carrie Loew, had twin sons, David L. Loew (1897–1973) and Arthur Marcus Loew Sr (1897–1977). Arthur married Mildred Zukor, daughter of Adolph Zukor and became president of MGM. Their son, Arthur Loew Jr. (1925–1995), was an actor, producer and writer. E. M. (Elias Moses) Loew (1897–1984), also

1519-594: The hardware innovation necessary to stay ahead of the technology curve. Most US arcades didn't see the intended benefit of this practice since many games weren't exported to the US, and if they were, distributors generally refused to release them as simply a ROM, preferring to sell the entire ROM, console, and sometimes the cabinet as a package. In fact, several arcade systems such as Sega's NAOMI board are arcade versions of home systems. Other problems were that many arcades focused on quantity more than quality, and that games showed

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1568-442: The large East Coast movie theater operations, Loew had to find a qualified executive to take charge of this new Los Angeles entity. Loew recalled meeting a film producer named Louis B. Mayer who had been operating a successful, modest studio in east Los Angeles. Mayer had been making low budget melodramas for a number of years, marketing them primarily to women. Since he rented most of his equipment and hired most of his stars on

1617-447: The largest manufacturers of these types of arcade games. Other games include pinball machines, redemption games and merchandiser games. Pinball machines have a tilted, glass-covered play area in which the player uses mechanical flippers to direct a heavy metal ball towards lighted targets. Redemption games reward winners with tickets that can be redeemed for prizes such as toys or novelty items. The prizes are usually displayed behind

1666-550: The late 1920s. The exterior of the theatre was constructed in a Renaissance Revival style in cream glazed terra cotta brick, adorned with engaged pilasters, winged figures, leaves, flowers, swags, volutes, urns, and arches. A four-story arched window rose above a copper and gold marquee that contained 3,600 light bulbs. The theater is well known for its over 500,000 feet of gold leaf, five giant Czechoslovakian hand-cut crystal chandeliers , irreplaceable art objects and precious antiques, and spectacular wood and plaster work. At

1715-482: The late 1970s and were most popular during the golden age of arcade video games , the early 1980s. A penny arcade can be any type of venue for coin-operated devices, usually for entertainment. The term came into use about 1905–1910. The name derives from the penny , once a staple coin for the machines. The machines used included: Between the 1940s and 1960s, mechanical arcade games evolved into electro-mechanical games (EM games). Popular examples of EM games in

1764-423: The late 1970s video-arcade game technology had become sophisticated enough to offer good-quality graphics and sounds, but it remained fairly basic (realistic images and full motion video were not yet available, and only a few games used spoken voice) and so the success of a game had to rely on simple and fun gameplay. This emphasis on the gameplay explains why many of these games continue to be enjoyed today, despite

1813-503: The late 1990s, a bar opened in the new Crown Casino complex in Melbourne , Australia named Barcode . Barcode was a 'games bar' with the latest arcade games, the classics, pool tables, air hockey and pinball machines which players could play while consuming alcohol. The bar was very popular with other bars later opening in the early 2000s in King Street alongside the strip clubs and at

1862-631: The mid-1980s, in what has been referred to as " the great coin-op video crash of 1983 ". On November 30, 1982, Jerry Parker, the Mayor of Ottumwa, Iowa , declared his city the "Video Game Capital of the World". This initiative resulted in many firsts in video game history. Playing a central role in arcade history, Ottumwa saw the birth of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the U.S. National Video Game Team , two organizations that still exist today. Other firsts that happened in

1911-564: The new generation by creating a "hybrid movie theater with...fog, black light, flashing green lasers, high-definition digital projectors, vibrating seats, game pads and dozens of 17-inch screens attached to individual chairs." At the Yelmo Cineplex in Spain, $ 390,000 was spent refitting a theater into a "high-tech video gaming hall seating about 50 people." In Germany, the CinemaxX movie theater company

1960-497: The progress made by modern computing technology. The golden age of arcade video games in the 1980s became a peak era of video arcade game popularity, innovation, and earnings. Color arcade games became more prevalent and video arcades themselves started appearing outside their traditional bowling-alley and bar locales. Designers experimented with a wide variety of game genres , while developers still had to work within strict limits of available processor-power and memory. The era saw

2009-578: The rapid spread of video arcades across North America , Western Europe and Japan . The number of video-game arcades in North America, for example, more than doubled between 1980 and 1982, reaching a peak of 13,000 video game arcades across the region (compared to 4,000 today ). Beginning with Space Invaders , video arcade games also started to appear in supermarkets , restaurants , liquor stores , filling stations and many other retail establishments looking for extra income. This boom came to an end in

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2058-613: The shopping centre Melbourne Central . A Barcode opened in Times Square , New York in May 2000 and was very popular, with the launch featuring on an episode of TV series Sex and the City . Barcode Times Square closed in March 2003. Barcode Crown Casino closed in 2006, followed later by King Street and Melbourne Central. In the mid-2000s, Madrid businessman Enrique Martínez updated the video arcade for

2107-425: The slump was increasing competition from console ports. During the 1980s it typically took several years for an arcade game to be released on a home console, and the port usually differed greatly from the arcade version; during the mid-1990s it became common for a game publisher to release a highly accurate port of an arcade game that had yet to peak in popularity, thus severely cutting into arcade owners' profits. In

2156-478: The successful but short-lived Automatic Vaudeville Company which established a chain of arcades across several cities. After the company dissolved in 1904 Loew converted his share of the business into nickelodeons and over time he turned Loew's Theatres into a leading chain of vaudeville and movie theaters in the United States. By 1905, Marcus Loew was on his own and his success eventually meant that he needed

2205-467: The time the Loew's Midland opened, it was home to a Robert Morton theatre pipe organ. The organ was used at the theatre until after World War II, when larger screen sound movies eventually resulted in the end for stage shows and in-house organ music. The organ began to deteriorate from lack of use until it was purchased and removed in the 1960s by Robert Fray and placed in his home. After the organ changed hands and

2254-482: Was born in New York City on May 7 1870, into a poor Jewish family, who had emigrated to New York City a few years previously from Austria and Germany. He was forced by circumstances to work at a very young age and had little formal education. Beginning with a small amount of money saved from menial jobs, he invested in the penny arcade business. Shortly after, in partnership with Adolph Zukor and others, he founded

2303-501: Was converted into a mix of bars, lounges, and administrative space. According to the Cordish Company of Baltimore, the developer of the project, all changes meet historic preservation guidelines as required by state and federal governments. On September 4, 2013, AEG Live, the Cordish Company and Arvest Bank announced that the bank had acquired a multi-year naming rights partnership to the Midland Theatre. The announcement coincided with

2352-446: Was in 2007 also considering this approach. It conducted a four-month trial with video games to test the level of demand for video gaming in a theater setting. Manufacturers started adding innovative features to games in the 2000s. Konami used motion and position sensing of the player in Police 911 in 2000 and Mocap Boxing in 2001. Sega started using "Tuning cards" in games such as

2401-581: Was moved across the country several more times, it was eventually purchased by local enthusiasts in 1984 and is now at home in the Kansas City Music Hall . The Midland closed in January 1961, and then after some remodeling, it briefly reopened as an arena that served as the home for Kansas City's professional bowling team, the Kansas City Stars. The Stars were financially unsuccessful, and they left

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