Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

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Calavera
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Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Calavera »

I've always been a fan of the Dead Mall Series on youtube by Dan Bell. Just something about a place that used to be jam packed with people now being a ghost town is interesting to me. Well the deadest mall in America is only about 60 miles from me. I've wanted to go for awhile now but never have until a few days ago. Here are some pictures I got while in there.

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It was amazing! When I first walked up I thought, oh idk it may be closed now it doesn't look like you can go in. But as I walked up to the door and pulled it.... it opened! The sound of absolute silence as you walk in is incredible. In alot of dead malls it is so quiet that all you can hear is the sound of the escalators running. None of that here because the escalators don't run! They are still opened to be used as steps but they probably haven't run since around 2014 or so.

There are literally ZERO stores open in the mall. There are 3 anchor stores still open though. Bass Pro Shop, Kohl's and Babies R Us. I found it pretty funny that Babies R Us did have a mall entrance but the gate was pulled down so it was unusable! The only remaining place of business is a place called Legacy Arcade. You can check them out here if you are interested www.arcadelegacyohio.com

I mainly went just to check out the dead mall but having an arcade with all free to play machines was just a bonus! The rate for the arcade is $5 for 1 hour, $8 for 2 hours or $10 for all day. I didn't know how long I'd be in there so I was prepared to just pay $10 for the all day rate to help support them and whatnot. The arcade isn't even one of the store fronts close to the main entrance that people use. I walked around the mall just enjoying the deadness of it for quite awhile before I even found the arcade!

So anyways, I walk into the arcade and stand where the front counters are because I know you are supposed to pay before you go in. I see a man walking towards the front that clearly works there and he walks right past me. Umm, ok. There were actually quite a few people in the arcade. I stood at the front for a good minute or two and nobody acknowledged me, so I just walked right in! The first machine I play is Time Crisis, as I used to have it for Playstation and really enjoyed it. I shoot about two people, then the third guy pops up and no matter what I can not shoot him! Even pressing the gun right to the screen doesn't work. Hmmm. ok this machine is clearly broken. Oh well onto the next. Next I play San Francisco Rush 2049, and it played damn good. The force feedback wheel worked fine, I picked manual transmission and the shifter worked great!

So far the arcade was not what I expected it to be but I still pressed on. Next I see a Scud Race GT machine. Alright! I used to play this at a local theater back in the day. I first sit down into the left seat and notice the speakers in the seat is giving off an annoying high pitched buzz. No problem, I'll just use the right seat. The right seat was in bad condition with all of the padding tore up, oh well no a huge problem. Then once I sit down I realize the seat is moved all the way forward and the bar to move the seat forward or backwards is missing. So I cram myself into it and do one race with my knee pressed hard against the dashboard the entire time. I didn't use the brake or really let off the gas much the entire time since I was so crammed into the machine! It was ok playing it, but would have been much better had the seat worked or the left side speaker not been buzzing the entire time!

Next I see a wall of around 5-7 pinball machines. I love me some pinball so I go over to play. The coolest looking machine with was called Firehouse or something like that was powered off. So the first machine I pick I press the start button and nothing happens. I press it again and realize the start button is working as it resets the score but the ball never comes out. So I move on to another machine, this one the ball comes out no problem but the left flipper only works maybe 1 out of ever 10 times you push it. So next I move onto a machine called Laser Cue, it worked great no problems and I played a few games on it. I didn't do great at it and even though it worked fine, I could see what looked like scotch tape on places of the playfield which couldn't have been effecting the ball in a positive way.

At this point I'm pretty dissapointed in the arcade. They did list an OutRun machine on the website and I want to play that before I leave. Oh there is the OutRun machine.....but it is a stand-up model and the gas pedal is missing and it just a metal bar sticking out. Whatever, I might as well play it! I start it up and the CRT is in bad condition, all the clouds have a weird pink shadow on them, I make it to the first left/right choice and just abandon the game. Then I played some Circus lightgun game, which functioned fine but was just a shitty game. It is time to leave but before I do a see another sit down driving game. I can't remember the name, it was some Tokyo Extreme Racer type game. I play it and select manual transmission, at some point in the race I realize either 5th or 6th gear doesn't work on the shifter. I think it was 5th as I did still win the race, but going between 5th and 6th gear gave no change to my RPMs.

I left the arcade pretty dissapointed even though I had gotten in for free. Had I paid the $10 to get in I would have been really dissapointed. They do have a big projection screen and another station where you can play just about any console on it, but I had no interest in that. If I want to play something like that I can do that at home! I wanted the feeling of the original arcade cabinet!

Another thing worth mentioning is that most of the mall was a little warm, which I don't blame them for not running the AC in the whole building. But even the arcade was a little warm, next door to the arcade is a closed storefront full of arcade machines which I guess the arcade is planning on fixing or whatever. I walked up to the metal gate to take a look inside at the machine and man it was ice cold in there! The only other place I noticed the A/C running was close to an entrance that had a little playground type of thing. I also peeked in a random closed storefront with a curtain blocking it. I moved the curtain aside and saw that it was also full of arcade machines.

A long post I know, but in closing if you live close by (Melancholy) and you have any interest in dead malls I would definitely visit the Cincinnati Mall while you still can. One more experience I had while in the mall. There was a young girl by the candy machines (which the candy is probably a decade old) asking for a quarter, probably 15 years old or so. I didn't have one. Upon getting closer to the girl I realized she must have been in her 20s. I was there with my girlfriend, we walk past her and she proceeds to following us! Saying that ohhh this mall is creepy! How long has this mall been like this? Does anybody even work here? I try to be nice and say I don't know to all of her questions. You know those things at Malls that look like a black hole or whatever and you are supposed to drop a coin down them? This random girl then gets into that thing and sits in it! It was then that I reached the playground type thing where the AC was running. She stopped there and I continued down this wide huge empty corridor. I get to the end and realize oh shit, there are no escalators down here! I will be forced to pass this girl again! So I turn around and walk back towards the playground thing, as I get back there sure enough there she is! But she just says you guys have a nice day, I say you too. Then she says aww are you guys on a date? Thats sweet. That was the last I saw of weird dead mall girl. She must have been on some sort of drugs :olol:
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ian
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by ian »

Thats pretty cool.
Abandoned places are awesome to go to, but from your pictures, It's a little different over there to here.

By different I mean, everything in sight hasn't been smashed/tagged/stolen. or stolen to be smashed through other places and then tagged.

down here (at least in Victoria and the few abandoned places I've been in NSW) you have to get in as soon as it's abandoned or it's fucked or fenced off, or torn down for something else.

Around me there WERE lots of places like that. but now nothing is left (2 mental institutions, a hospital, a shopping strip, an old mansion all gone)

The absolute best was Mont park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Park_Asylum It closed in the late 90s, me and friends hung out in all the buildings in 2000, then it all got fenced off, then turned into student housing. Was amazing how good everything was the first time we went there. but the best example of morons trashing shit is Larundel: http://www.thebohemianblog.com/2013/02/ ... sylum.html

I am just happy that not a single teeny bopper has discovered a world war 2 Bomb shelter near me. It's amazing in there and it's hidden by other abandoned buildings that are all being torn down.
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Code-Red
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Code-Red »

Yea, pretty much all of our malls died off during the mid-late 90's. Only two of the biggest are still standing, and one of those has a Sears and Hudsons Bay so it wont be open much longer.

The last arcade we had closed around 2005, and even by that standard most of the games were crusty and old by that point (you can only play MvC, NBA Jam, etc so many times).

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Dr. Zoidberg »

That dead mall looks nice and clean.

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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Hawq »

must be haunted by a cleaner

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ian
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by ian »

Hawq wrote:must be haunted by a cleaner
I can picture that :olol:
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Big Boss Man »

Looks cool Cal and surprisingly clean for a disused mall. You could imagine some movie production company buying it up to film a move there or something. The "ghost girl" sound weird has there been any sightings or reports of a ghost there. Could be just coincidence though and they were visiting too.

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Calavera
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Calavera »

Big Boss Man wrote:Looks cool Cal and surprisingly clean for a disused mall. You could imagine some movie production company buying it up to film a move there or something. The "ghost girl" sound weird has there been any sightings or reports of a ghost there. Could be just coincidence though and they were visiting too.
Well it is for sale right now for the low price of $55 million. Let's all chip in a couple million and buy it! :olol:
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

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That's a bargain! Just need the Aussie dollar to go up a tiny, little bit. It's not worth much ATM.
1 AUD is like 78 cents.. Just need a little increase so 1 AUD is about 500 USD Then I'm good to chip in. :olol:
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Big Boss Man
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Big Boss Man »

Calavera wrote:
Big Boss Man wrote:Looks cool Cal and surprisingly clean for a disused mall. You could imagine some movie production company buying it up to film a move there or something. The "ghost girl" sound weird has there been any sightings or reports of a ghost there. Could be just coincidence though and they were visiting too.
Well it is for sale right now for the low price of $55 million. Let's all chip in a couple million and buy it! :olol:
:olol: We could all buy it with BG dollars and market them as the new Bitcoin and up the value of the currency, then we could all chip in and buy it!!! Next buy a sports team, I suggest (covers mouth with a beer glass) the Las Vegas Raiders and have them have seasonal residences in the US, Australia and the U.K. Have them play Aussie rules and in the Premier League as well as the NFL!!!

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melancholy
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by melancholy »

That seems a little weird. When you say a dead mall, you would think that they would have closed off the mall part. What's to stop people from vandalizing stuff or doing whatever they want in it? If I was there, I would be going into every part I could get into. Like that cafeteria, I'd be jumping the counters and exploring the back rooms.

How many people did you see in the mall when you were there?

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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Iced Coffee Man »

reminds me of Willamette mall

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Calavera
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by Calavera »

melancholy wrote:That seems a little weird. When you say a dead mall, you would think that they would have closed off the mall part. What's to stop people from vandalizing stuff or doing whatever they want in it? If I was there, I would be going into every part I could get into. Like that cafeteria, I'd be jumping the counters and exploring the back rooms.

How many people did you see in the mall when you were there?
That surprised me too. One thing about jumping the counters though is the food court is right across from the arcade so somebody might see you. Supposedly there is a security guard there, at least back in April 2016 when Dan Bell did his video on the mall there was. There was a mall security office down a little hallway but I didn't go down there to see if anyone was in it. I saw no sign of security when I was there.

I probably saw about 5-7 people walking around the mall not counting the arcade. The arcade was actually pretty packed. So there seems to be nothing stopping people from doing whatever they want. Luckily nobody has gone crazy vandalizing the place.
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

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Iced Coffee Man wrote:reminds me of Willamette mall
Not enough zombies.

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ian
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Re: Calavera's Dead Mall/ 80s 90s Arcade Adventure!

Post by ian »

He meant the Wii version.
You could Imagine Cal as Frank West taking the photos, but weren't the photos taken out as well as the zombies? :olol:
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