Between the ages of eight and twelve or so, I played a shitload of my single favorite game, no, not a video game [although Mike Tyson's Punch Out was probably a close second], but Dungeons & Dragons. To nitpick a little, I was actually playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; I can't recall what the real difference between the two was/is more than a decade later though. I haven't played since, but I still very much still have all my dice which may still worry Joey Sweeney. From d4 through d100, I got 'em.
And earlier today, I read this NY Times article on how D&D is about to go online. At first I said Nooooooo! But then I thought of all the knock offs that are already online. All those sim games are derivative of D&D. The one that sticks out the most, and the one that has gobbled up dozens of hours of my life, is Final Fantasy. The original Nintendo game which is now on Play Station and is set for it's thirteenth or so iteration. I'm gonna buy it up and not be heard from for many hours when that happens. But then I thought that while all these derivative games were out there already, D&D was different in that it was always a pencil and paper game and never was simply a video incarnation of a role-playing game.
Transforming that analog/organic pencil and paper game online, that's just about impossible. There's some form of the gathering of friends around a table with masses of dice and junk food that cannot be transferred online, call it, say, the organic geek quotient. Something about the clack of the die as it hits the table and rolls around. The eager looks of anticipation on your teammates' faces as the dungeon master reads aloud a scenario. Stephen Colbert knows what I'm talking about. So does Vin Diesel [so does Vin Diesel?!].
The first thing I noticed about Stikes Bowling Lounge is that it's a pretty large space. From the outside, it is pretty imposing. It's a good three stories tall and it extends from 
That's a shot of the bar area. Notice all that blue light, eh? Their lighting system is rigged with blue, green and red flourescent lights which change from one to another sporadically throughout the night. It takes some getting used to and I didn't care for it at all. As for the prices of drinks, they range from $2 PBRs to $8 mixed drinks. They do have specials every single day though, so you can save some monmey that way. And if you wanna use your coupons here, they don't give change so keep that in mind while ordering your drinks. None of us had any food so can't comment on taste nor prices.
That's a shot of one of the guys who works there in the pin pen. I was looking through the window and exclaimed "I've never seen the pin moneys at work before" speaking of the mechanical pin monkeys. He heard me say it and replied "Wanna see a pin monkey at work?" and opened a door and stepped in. I guess he had to go in there to fix something and I was there to watch. It was pretty cool. Crazy to think that that used to be a job, manually resetting the pins.
That's a shot of the inbetween area. This is taken from the front area looking towards the loungey area with the bar to the right and I think five more bowling lanes to the left through that opening. It was all pretty wide open. And no smoking!!!! Woo hoo!
And here's a shot of two of the four or five pool tables. These are in the front room across from the register/shoe check. But enough of the tour, on to the bowling!
Here's a shot of their new-fangled scoring thingie. I remarked that I remembered the days of yore when one had to hand score the game with a pen and pencil. I remember getting the big bowling scorecards from the bowling dude behind the counter and lugging it to our lane and spreading it over the scorer's table and trying not to spill all our crap on it. I remember it progressing to the transparencies that were projected over our lane so that everyone in the alley could see how crappy you were. Then it went to the type-in-your-names method and optional score override. That caused many an argument. And now, these. A 21 or so inch touchscreen LCD panel complete with funny/corny graphics whenever you strike, spare or gutter.