Indy 800 At the Contemporary Arcade

Having discovered WDW Radio probably over a year ago, I'm STILL in the process of catching up on all of the weekly podcast episodes - and that's how I just today happened to be listening to Show # 142, October 25, 2009, where Lou and Tim Foster talked about favorite lost attractions.

Mentioned in the list were various aspects of the Contemporary, including the Fiesta Fun Center - the arcade game room. That's when I knew I had to write in, as that was a favorite of mine especially during my first trip to WDW when my parents took me there at the age of 14 in 1976.

However, my memory of that arcade is even more specific than Lou's or Tim's, because at the time, arcades were arcades, and pinball machines were pinball machines, and the only thing that set Fiesta Fun Center apart was that there were so many MORE of them in once place than I'd ever seen. That, and one attraction in particular. I too, would cajole all the quarters I could out of my parents - and then board the monorail from the Polynesian, where we stayed, to the Contemporary, head for the arcade room, and then spend the entire load of quarters on....INDY 800.

Wonder how many of you out there remember that particular game? It was designed for multiple players - up to 8 could (and usually did) play at a time. Hence the name, "Indy 800." Players would stand around a square table-like console, with control sets for two separate players at each of the four sides of the table. The screen was a virtual race course. Each player deposited a quarter, and would be assigned an animated car of a particular color (I seem to remember favoring the dark purple car) - and then would use a steering wheel to guide their car around the race track. I particularly loved this game for two reasons - being too young to drive, I enjoyed the vicarious "driving" experience, and also, at 14 being older than most of the other kids playing this game, I had developed much better coordination and was usually the winner of this eight-player game! Oh, and I guess a third reason too - since it allowed up to 8 players, it was usually pretty easy to get onto with little or no waiting. So Indy 800 was by far my favorite game of the arcade - and, in fact, the only one I really remember.

Though I wonder in retrospect why they called it the "Fiesta Fun Center" - that wasn't really a very "Contemporary-ish" name - it sounds like something that would have been more appropriate for the Mexico pavilion in Epcot, had there been an Epcot back then. If I had been in charge of naming an arcade at the CONTEMPORARY, I would have given it a more appropriate name - perhaps "The ElectroSpace."

I remember Indy 800 but I remember this game even more:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...rcadeflyer.png

Now that's one I don't remember at all! I was never really much into monsters/horror, so I don't think that one would have gotten my attention.

It was a driving game where you ran over zombies. They turned into crosses after you hit them thus becoming obstacles which made driving more difficult. Awesome!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elvistelth

It was a driving game where you ran over zombies. They turned into crosses after you hit them thus becoming obstacles which made driving more difficult. Awesome!

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Hm, now that does sound like something I might have enjoyed. I had envisioned slaying the monsters by ax murder or something. Running them over would have been more my style! :D

I remember they had a huge corner of the room with a "Frontierland Shooting Arcade" style diorama with a wizard and dragon. It was so much cooler than Frontierland's because it had all of the wizard's magic stuff in a castle. I miss that the most.

This was my favorite pinball game. I know I played it on Disney property but I don't remember which arcade. Did Ft. Wilderness have an arcade?
http://www.pinball.it/flyers/gottlie...e_1982_f_2.jpg